The problem with the Epson 3880 tractor marks was on my mind all night. I was wondering whether the problem was limited to the manual front feeder, so this morning I ran pieces of Epson brand card stock through the sheet feeder, the rear manual feeder, and the front feeder. What I found is that each piece of card stock showed track marks running from top to bottom in the same locations as I saw track marks on the ImagOn plates.

Since I had observed the problem with Epson media, and the media wasn’t even exotic I decided to call Epson customer support. The Epson customer service agent said that it sounded like a problem with the printer. He said when people call in about marks, the marks are almost perpendicular to the direction the paper travel and can be caused by a wide variety of software and configuration problems. He almost never hears about tractor marks running in the direction the paper travels and says this is almost always a sign of a hardware problem. The fact that I was seeing the marks after loading and then unloading a sheet via the front manual feeder without even printing confirmed his suspicions that my printer is defective. He said the top drive wheels should never leave a mark on the paper and certainly should not be able to mar the surface of a sturdy material like card stock.

I have my doubts, but I’m crossing my fingers that he’s right. They are shipping me a replacement unit which should arrive on Tuesday.

Overall, my experience with Epson customer service was good, but I was a little taken aback that the replacement unit is a refurbished printer. It seems like my almost new, but defective printer should be replaced with a new unit.