Greetings, everyone! A very big "Thank You!" to all of you who responded to my quest for multi-function-printer enlightenment! A couple of people requested the compilation of responses, so I've provided them below: We don't have a maintenance agreement on our printers. Our copy machine is leased. I just checked and the information about costs for copies is in our bookkeepers files and they are not onsite. Oh, I will tell you that we asked the companies to bring us a machine to try. We had three different companies each bring in a machine, at different times. My staff used it for a week and then we talked about which one we preferred. I had a form that we used to make notes, so we would remember which one did what. ______________________________ Oh deal with Mari Martin at Hasselbring Clark... 517-388-7539 is her cell. She's amazing. ______________________________ If you're in the market for something new, this link on the TLN website: http://tln.lib.mi.us/discounts/ - includes a list of copier/printer vendor contacts and discounts available and whether they are available statewide. _____________________________ We are a class 1 library Our lease agreement is 89.97 per month, pluse .01 for B&W and .06 for Color which is about 90.00 per month total @ 180.00 per month. Cost covers all maintenance, toners, supplies which does copies, fax, scan We charge .50 for color .20 for b&w, .20 for scanning, 1.00 per page for faxing and it usually works out to the same in income We love the lease and not dealing with separate maintenance contracts and old machine. __________________________ We're facing the same issue. So we canceled our maintenance agreement. While I'm shopping for a new printer/copier and waiting for mine to break, I'm buying toner through other sources...and saving a lot of money! _________________________ I just got the bill yesterday. I pay one to two cents for black and white copies on a printer, and then a printer/copier, and six cents on color. This is with ab dick leasing, which was CBI. ________________________ Dealing with copier companies is its own kind of hell, isn't it? Dante never wrote about it, but he would have if there had been copier companies then. And those copier guys..... they would cut a deal to sell their own mothers. A really great class of people. Try to remember that you'll never see them again, even if you want to. A number of years ago we went to leasing all of our copiers. That way if they don't work right then the company has to come and take them back and give us something else. We were paying a small fortune in maintenance contracts, or if we didn't get the contract then we paid a small fortune in having them drive out from Grand Rapids to fix the darn thing. When they own the machine they take better care of it. And if you happen to get a lemon, they replace it. Leasing copiers is what Kent District Library and Grand Rapids and the big guys do, and they're absolutely right. It's so much less hassle and much better customer service. Every once in a while you can own a copier that lasts forever like yours, but every once in a while you get one that doesn't even go 3 years. You'll find you get the less-than-3-years ones a lot more often. We're paying $365 a month for four copiers and we're charging 0.15 for black and white copies and $0.50 for color copies. And by the way, we've worked with other vendors and some are good and some are not, but Michigan Office Systems (otherwise known as MOS) serves a lot of libraries and is good, honest and reasonable. ________________________________ Sharon, we have our copier through Michigan Office Solutions. We are billed: black and white copies are $0.015070 and color copies are $0.076050. These rates are charged per copies run per quarter. _______________________________ Our b&w cost is .012 and color is .14. We own our copier and may be in the market for a new copier in the next year or two. _____________________________ What you are going through is pretty common as the copier gets older, the maintenance charge increases. We went through the process a few years ago and decided to keep the machine as it was working fine. However, started to have some problems and like you, the maintenance kept going up so we just purchased a RICOH MPC3504 multifunction color copier for $5,375. Lease options were available but we purchased as funds were available. We did a RFP and received 5 quotes. The quarterly copy and maintenance expense is $0.003 for Black and White and $0.030 for Color. The charge includes all supplies except paper. We were paying $0.02472 for B&W and $0.09105 for Color on about a 10 year old paid off machine. These charges did not include toner and were going up about 3% a year. Your current company should be able to tell you how much the yearly rate increases will be. _____________________________ As luck would have it, I have very current information for you about our situation here. I was leasing my current machine through Michigan Office Solutions. My machine is 5 years old this year, and my lease is up next month. I chose to renew my lease (rather than buy a new machine), and upgrade machines to a new model. My pricing is: $234/month for the machine. This includes service fees, 4,500 black and white copies a month, and my toner. Then I pay an additional $.08 per color copy. If I go over my monthly 4,500 b&w, then I pay $.0009 per copy over 4,500. I have been very happy with the arrangement with MOS, and the changeover of machines has gone very smoothly. -- Sharon Crotser-Toy Director *Watervliet District Library* 333 N. Main Street Watervliet, MI 49098 269-463-6382 Connects People, Inspires Ideas, Transforms Lives