The Laser Printer Game

Most people are aware of the game that printer manufacturers play - that they basically give away their printers in the hope of snagging a consumables (ink/ toner, etc.) customer "annuity" for years to come.

The following is a response to a customer whose 1-year-old Dell color laser printer (which was super-cheap) is getting more expensive to supply and maintain.

Customer: (Dell order update attached, stating the fuser part that they need to get their printer back running, is no longer available and the order will be cancelled.) Hey Pete, just an FYI on the printer parts issue. See email below - I guess we’re stuck with a useless printer. I’ll contact “spare parts” but looks like we may need to start looking for a new printer – and not a Dell.

Me: (I found another source for the part, and provided a sub-$200 quote for the fuser assembly.)

Customer: Thanks for contacting them about the part. The printer itself was less than the cost of that part. It’s an okay printer, not all that great, beside the toner is expensive, the drum was expensive, and now this part…I think we may need to look at a new printer. I think we can get a new one for less if not the same as the cost of that part. HP’s are reliable and ink/toner is usually reasonably priced. Do you have any suggestions?

Me: Color laser is still very expensive, pretty much no matter how you slice it – between 10 and 15 cents per page for consumables, versus 2 to 4 cents per page for B/W. We have a moderately-priced color Ricoh in our office and the four color toner drums for it cost around $500.

In fact, you’ll almost always find that printer mfr’s will sell their printers at-cost or even at a loss, then give you a small-capacity (~2,000 pages) “starter toner.” A few months into your use (or sooner, if you print a lot), you’ll find you need to pony up for the ~$500 set of toner carts . . . and that’s when the mfr’s get their profit out of you. They make little (or lose) on the printer, but then they have an annuity stream for a long time on the consumables.

Sometimes the math seems to work out such that you can just buy a new color laser printer rather than buying their toners again. But the mfr’s know that, so that’s why they only give you a small-capacity set of “starter toner.” Take this into account when deciding on what to do here. If you can spend $200 on a new fuser now and get to use the $500 worth of toner that’s sitting in that printer, it could last you another year or so. Or, you could plunk down a few hundred bucks for a new cheap-o color laser, burn through the starter toner in a few months, and spend another $500 for a full supply of toner.

Anyway, I agree that HP is good stuff, though they do clearly play some of the same games with initial pricing, and actually their ongoing toner costs are not that great. For instance, you can buy an HP CP2025X for about $500 plus shipping, which is a pretty decent deal. But it’s only got two 250-sheet trays, not a big 500-sheeter (not sure why they did that), and the toner is still 4 (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) x $120ea . . . about $500 for consumables! And those are only good for 3,500 pages. So, $500 divided by 3,500 impressions = $.14 per page.

Or, we’ve had very good luck with Ricoh. The C311N, for instance, goes for about $700 and the toner cartridges are about $150ea, but they yield 6,000 pages per set. So, $600 divided by 6,000 = $.10 per page.

Or, if you have a copier company, you may be able to get a better deal on a printer like this through them. They might be able to make a better promise than Dell with respect to the repair and maintenance parts as well. I know, lots to absorb . . . let me know what you think.

The customer ordered the replacement part, we installed it and they are working again. They've been hooked by the cheap Dell printer - for now.