Purchasing a Copier, Printer, Scanner "Selling Copiers"

This was a post I picked up on this message that was posted on two different boards, (Copytechnet & Copiertalk) for someone looking for help on making the right choice for a new MFP all in one.


I've been tasked with purchasing a copier/printer/scanner (MFP) machine for our new office. budget is about $7K.

What they need:

fast machine 30-40ppm (even though we have modest volume)
duplex copy/scan with single pass (front and back at the same time)
100 document feeder
scan to searchable PDF (text PDF i.e. OCR)
scan to USB thumb drive
print from USB thumb drive (PDF/Word/Excel/etc)
collate/sort multiple copies of a document without expensive finisher
network scanning (i.e. scan to our desktop machines)


What they think they need:
Canon ImageRunner C3480i
Ricoh MP C3300
Kyocera TASKalfa c400i

They were also asking for suggestions on items they need to know or what to ask.

Note, since I checked this thread and had time to post my response there were many recommendations. One of my peers actually asked one of the most important questions that I was going to ask the end user, DO YOU NEED 11x17 input and output, the response was NO! Please also note that all of the above systems that the client has priced were color machines and A3 devices (will copy, print or scan upto 11x17)

My recommendation would have been for an A4 (Will NOT copy, print or scan 11x17) Color device. You could take your pick with either the Sharp MX-C311, Samsung C8380DN or the HP CM4730. All of these systems would meet your needs and financially wouldn't break the bank. Not sure with the HP CM4730, but with the others you could have probably purchased or lease the systems for under $5,000 while not sacrificing feed, quality or reliability

There were almost ten posts to this thread, and I was surprised that no one focused in on these points.

• Get dealer references for service, supplies and support


• How long has the dealer been in business and how long have they serviced these products


• Be cautious when looking at a BRAND new model, my father once told me never to buy the first model year of a new car, wait a while to see how they perform.


• Are you buying from an Authorized Dealer, check them out on the web


• How long has the sales person been with the company


• Figure out the cost per page (with service) of each device for a Total Cost of Ownership


• Get an end user reference, someone who has already purchased or leased these systems

Finally, the thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service.

As I read through some of the final posts, the end user had stated that they decided to get a Kyocera TASKalpha 400 ci (40ppm) A3 (11x17) device. My only thought is that I remembered what my father told me........TASKalpha devices were launched were just a few weeks ago.

-=Good Selling=-