Posts Tagged ‘Drum’

Have you ever wondered why copiers need service contracts?  We have news for you: they don’t.

The lie that has upheld the copier industry for decades is about to be revealed due to the lingering advent of continuous new technology.  Does it seem odd to you that both a copier and a laser printer use the same technology to produce a document, yet the copier needs a service contract to cover things like replacement of a drum that a simple laser printer may include in its own customer replaceable toner cartridge?  That means that the technology exists for a copier to be as maintenance free as an office printer.  Many copier companies decide not to utilize those engineering marvels such as simplicity, and ease of maintenance.

What if you purchased a car that you needed to pay someone to fill with fuel?  Would you buy it?  Knowing that your other vehicles were very simple to gas up and move on, this new vehicle had some technicalities associated with it that made it too time consuming or too technical for you to do quickly.  Seems like a terrible idea, doesn’t it?  We couldn’t agree more.

The simple fact is that most copy machine manufacturers make anything beyond toner replacement an unnecessary burden.  Add on top of that the fact that the toner replacement itself can often be a messy affair.  Why would an office machine manufacturer do this?  We can only speculate, but we certainly lean towards the reasoning that you can create a big market with a little bad engineering.

This may be changing soon, at least we hope so.  The copier industry is always attempting to take away market position from the printer industry.  So the printer industry targeting the copier industry with MFPs: Multi-Function Printers.  These are printers that have the capability to copy and often scan, fax and email documents.  With a simple MFP you can do all of the things a copier can do at a fraction of the cost.  Throw in the fact that many copiers need huge amounts of office space while many MFPs take up no more than a simple desktop printer, with a little more height.

Most MFP machines are based on a stand-alone printer, with the easy to change consumables like ink and toner.  These easy to change items are also typically available anywhere you purchase office supplies or toner, or from your local office machine service center.  That especially includes Doc Jams.  (Shameless plugs notwithstanding.)

We would also like to point out that many of these MFP machines can handle the volume that copiers do.  Size in this case, is not everything.  As always we suggest one of two routes: either do your homework, or call Doc Jams and have us do it for you.

So the next time the ill-informed copier sales person knocks on your door, ask them if all of this contract maintenance is necessary for the copier they are trying to sell you, or for the quota they are trying to fill.