It’s easy to go and buy a printer from a big box store (think office supply stores or tech chains). It’s supposed to be. In fact, that’s the business model. Granted, if you are only going to print 50 pages a month, it’s difficult to argue that you need a better printer than you will find at a big box store.

However, if you'd prefer not to be concerned with technology issues or making sure what you have is efficient, that big box solution might not be for you. If you want, or need, more from your printer, there are some factors you should consider.

Quality that lasts

If you use a printer for a small business or home office, some of the drawbacks of the big box printer will become obvious pretty quickly. With computers and printers, there are two kinds of technology: consumer grade and business class. Business class machines are designed and tested to run most of the day without wearing out or failing. You aren’t replacing business class machines every 12 months. If you push a consumer grade printer too hard, making it print out more pages per month than it is designed for, it can fail you. A business class printer can handle more work more reliably.

There are six classifications of printers available on the market, and each one has a segment definition. For example, a segment one printer is any printer than can, among other things, print 20 pages per minute or fewer. A segment two printer can handle 21-30 pages per minute, and so on. The higher the segment, the higher the quality of the printer and the more you can push it. Big box stores usually only have segment one or segment two machines. They keep it pretty basic.

The problem with these lower segment printers is that if you do push them to do more work than they are designed for, they heat up. But they don't always warn you that things are getting hot and they need time to cool down - they often end up burning out, and you're stuck buying another new machine.

Downtime

If your big box printer fails, what do you do? You box it up, take it to their service department, and they ship it off to be fixed at some undisclosed location. You will get the printer back in an undetermined amount of time.

It’s been our experience at Marco that customers are requiring a higher level of service from their printers and the companies who maintain them. We, for example, have doubled the number of technicians we send out to fix printers in response to the increasing expectations of our clients. Our turnaround time to get your printer back up and running is 4 hours. If you have a small business or home office, being without a printer for two weeks is no longer acceptable.

Getting the Printer You Deserve

At Marco, we have a different business model. We help you get the printer you need, a business class machine that will stay with you long-term. We will service your printer so it is a reliable tool for you and your organization. That’s the kind of relationship you deserve with a printer.