How (not) to sell printers

I want a new printer. The HP 4L is still going strong after 20 years,
but I'm getting a bit sick of inkjets used occasionally for colour, and
when the Canon ip4500 wouldn't stop it's "5 blinks" alert, I decided it
was time to look again at colour lasers.

It would get light but very mixed use - home and very small business -
but I'd like photo quality to be reasonably high, while accepting that
it wouldn't be as good as an inkjet on a good day.

Getting samples of their output, which seemed the best way to assess
whether the quality is up to my needs, isn't proving easy. One supplier
(Printer Experts) simply refused to send any. "You can always send the
printer back for refund if you don't like it". Another took a week and
two reminders to send near-useless samples from an Oki C511dn. Another
did send me samples from the Oki and a Samsung, but didn't know what
settings had been used, and hadn't got anything from Dell. Dell
themselves simply said "no". The Oki leaflet sent with one lot of
samples had been printed on another make of machine.

A Xerox website enquiry resulted in their local dealer contacting me,
and they very helpfully printed off some samples from files I sent them
- but the price they quoted was 834gbp, compared with 142gbp from an
unhelpful seller for the same machine (6600n).

Ho do these people expect to sell printers - Dell especially - if the
buyer can't get hold of examples of their output? I don't suppose any
UK readers have a Dell 1760nw, 1765nw, 2150cn, or 2150cdn and would be
prepared to send me a sample of its print, please? All costs
reimbursed, of course.

--
Kevin

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Kevin wrote:

I want a new printer. The HP 4L is still going strong after 20 years,
but I'm getting a bit sick of inkjets used occasionally for colour, and
when the Canon ip4500 wouldn't stop it's "5 blinks" alert, I decided it
was time to look again at colour lasers.

It would get light but very mixed use - home and very small business -
but I'd like photo quality to be reasonably high, while accepting that
it wouldn't be as good as an inkjet on a good day.

Getting samples of their output, which seemed the best way to assess
whether the quality is up to my needs, isn't proving easy. One supplier
(Printer Experts) simply refused to send any. "You can always send the
printer back for refund if you don't like it". Another took a week and
two reminders to send near-useless samples from an Oki C511dn. Another
did send me samples from the Oki and a Samsung, but didn't know what
settings had been used, and hadn't got anything from Dell. Dell
themselves simply said "no". The Oki leaflet sent with one lot of
samples had been printed on another make of machine.

A Xerox website enquiry resulted in their local dealer contacting me,
and they very helpfully printed off some samples from files I sent them
- but the price they quoted was 834gbp, compared with 142gbp from an
unhelpful seller for the same machine (6600n).

Ho do these people expect to sell printers - Dell especially - if the
buyer can't get hold of examples of their output? I don't suppose any
UK readers have a Dell 1760nw, 1765nw, 2150cn, or 2150cdn and would be
prepared to send me a sample of its print, please? All costs
reimbursed, of course.

Most suppliers are probably just box-shifters. They don't have a
printer they can use to create a sample.

Even if they did, they probably wouldn't know enough about it to choose
appropriate options to ensure the example printed correctly.

All I can tell you is that I tried several colour laser printers before
discovering the gorgeous Xerox (nee Tektronix) solid-ink (wax) Phaser
family of printers. Near-photographic glossy prints on any old ****ty
paper. Brilliant. They are heavy and power-hungry, but for occassional
use when you want stunning results they'd be ideal. Used low-mileage
examples come up on eBay regularly.

I can't imagine anyone not being happy with the results from a Phaser.

Roy

On 20/02/2014 17:06, Roy Hann wrote:
Kevin wrote:

I want a new printer.

snip


How do these people expect to sell printers - Dell especially - if the
buyer can't get hold of examples of their output? I don't suppose any
UK readers have a Dell 1760nw, 1765nw, 2150cn, or 2150cdn and would be
prepared to send me a sample of its print, please? All costs
reimbursed, of course.

Most suppliers are probably just box-shifters. They don't have a
printer they can use to create a sample.

Indeed - but surely the printer makers must be able to? Dell can't or won't.

Even if they did, they probably wouldn't know enough about it to choose
appropriate options to ensure the example printed correctly.

True

All I can tell you is that I tried several colour laser printers before
discovering the gorgeous Xerox (nee Tektronix) solid-ink (wax) Phaser
family of printers. Near-photographic glossy prints on any old ****ty
paper. Brilliant. They are heavy and power-hungry, but for occassional
use when you want stunning results they'd be ideal. Used low-mileage
examples come up on eBay regularly.


My son has an 8650, which can produce good results.

I can't imagine anyone not being happy with the results from a Phaser.


The main criticisms seem to be power consumption, even on standby;
excess use of ink for nozzle cleaning (but not as bad as inkjets), if
you power them down; waxiness of the prints, so you can't use them for
forms to be filled in by hand; and a propensity for multipage documents
to glue themselves together if left in a warm place - like a parked car.

I'd still like to see what a Dell laser or LED printer can do...

--
Kevin

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