Copier/Printer Leasing

[Freelancer87]

Hello,

What are your thoughts on leasing a copier/printer for a small office? We go through about 5 reams of paper a month but ink cost is getting higher and higher. The company I normally use just advised me that thier cost is going up about 20%.

We currently have two printers (one laser, the other is an ink jet all-in-one). What are the pros and cons of leasing versus just using our own. Are there arrangements where they have consumables as part of the contract?

Thanks for any help!

Cheers,

Dave

 

[MarketingEmpire]

Hi Dave.

You can get contracts which include the consumables, and this I found a much better option - cost is higher, but at least you know there is just 1 fixed cost for every sheet you print, and saves you ordering the consumables yourself - just contact the company a few days before and they'll post them out. Cost per copy (with consumables included) will be about the 6-9p. I am of course referring to laser printers here, don't think you can lease a desktop printer with consumables in contract.

Let me know if you need any advice.

 

[KarlAustin]

I've never been a fan of leasing unless you really are doing 200k prints a month - where things are going to run out quicker and need replacing i.e. transfer units, imagers etc.

We bought a reconditioned HP 9550 - it's a big A3 beast, it'd done 65k prints total - It can do 200k/month duty cycle! The consumables it came with were worth nearly as much as we paid for it £450 delivered. Parts are easy to get hold of, very easy to replace by anyone with the tiniest bit of IT knowledge.

Of course you don't have to use genuine toners, a lot of the 3rd party ones give more than acceptable results for general office printing.

Just my 2p.

 

[Moneyman]

copier printers are really cheap and you can afford to change them almost every year. the consumables tend to be the problem. PC pro and other magazines do comparison tests based on cost per print.
However it is often cheaper to have two printers. one for quality and another just for plain B & W prints. Colour machines tend to cost much more to run even if you are just printing monochrome.