Hope Lutheran Church’s older duplicator at their North Campus quit working right before Rally Sunday—one of the busiest times of the year when they copy thousands of bulletins and other materials. The copier at their South Campus (purchased used in 1995) was also getting very old and unreliable, and they needed to look for upgrade options.

At the time Hope Lutheran Church’s duplicator quit working, they were in dire need of getting copies made for Rally Sunday. Marilyn Wahlgren, Business Administrator, felt Kevin Eide, Marco Account Representative, went the extra mile. “The week our duplicator quit working, Kevin took our bulletins to his office and ran them for us (over 5,000 two-sided copies)—bless his heart!”

Since the duplicator was getting too old and costly to repair, Kevin introduced a Sharp AR-800 digital copier to Hope Lutheran Church for their high volume copying needs. The Church uses the Sharp copier to produce at least 5,000 two-sided 8-1/2”x14” and 11”x17” bulletins and announcement pages per week. “It’s a workhorse and has saved us a lot of time,” explained Marilyn. “The added features of collating, stapling, and hole punching have been a godsend! You just tell the machine what to do and the job is ready to go!”

After the unit was installed, the Church was initially experiencing some problems with the duplex unit. Marilyn was pleased with how Marco resolved the issue. She said Kevin made sure the duplex unit was replaced and functioning properly.

Marilyn has been working with Kevin for approximately six years and Marco Service Technician, Les Wilke, for almost 15 years. “Les always goes the extra mile for us,” she said. “Even when we had our old duplicator, when Les came, we knew it would be fixed right. He continued to work on the duplicator to keep it running and that meant a lot!”

Marco also provided the Church with a smaller digital Sharp Digital AR-286 that is networked to several computers at their South Campus to handle the lower volume copying and printing. Marilyn said, “We now have machines at both campuses that are working very well and are able to handle our needs—especially as our volume continues to increase.”

Marco set the Church up on a Managed Account (Cost Per Copy) Program, which allows them to pay just for the copies used. The program includes the equipment, service, and supplies—everything except paper, staples, and network troubleshooting services. And it allows them to upgrade to a different unit as their needs change.

For service and supplies, Hope Lutheran Church uses Marco’s online service and supply ordering system which Marilyn said works well for them. And Marco is still just a phone call away when she has questions. “I’ll call Marco if I have a billing question. They have always been very pleasant. And Kevin stops in once in awhile just to see how things are going for us. It’s a great relationship!”

Marilyn added, “On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate our experience with Marco’s sales, technical support, and customer service staff a 10!”

Hope Lutheran Church is Fargo, North Dakota’s largest Lutheran congregation with approximately 8,000 members, one part-time and four full-time pastors, and 65+ staff members. The congregation serves two locations in Fargo and facilitates after school care, preschool programs, and student ministries.