After eleven years of faithful service, my old HP All-In-One finally went on to printer heaven last week. It didn’t go gracefully—it somehow choked on an imaginary paper jam, since there was no paper jammed anywhere inside its well-worn carriage. All attempts to free the imaginary paper jam couldn’t get it back working. After a moment of silence, we pulled the plug and disconnected the cord from the USB port on the PC tower. Thus, a trip to Staples was in order.
I had two things to buy at Staples. Since it was the beginning of the year, I needed a new planner. I spent some time in the planner/organizer aisle, and then went in search of a printer. To my surprise, there were at least four aisles of printers…all sizes, shapes, brands, capacities and features. I was looking for one reasonably priced with the capacity to print, scan, and copy. I wanted wireless printing and the ability to do double-sided copying. That narrowed the field a little bit. As I wandered down the aisles, a sign next to a Lexmark all-in-one caught my eye. The sign said that the Lexmark had the lowest cost for printer replacement ink of all the brands. Now, that was a feature I hadn’t thought of, but would certainly be beneficial.
I have an HP Laser Printer that costs me about $60 every time I have to replace the printer cartridge. My recently deceased HP All-In-One came in at about $30 for a black or color cartridge. I looked around for the Lexmark replacement ink so I could do some comparison shopping. When I couldn’t find any, I went looking for a sales person to help me. I went to the front of the store, and one of the guys came back to help me find the ink.
When we came to the aisle with the Lexmark printer, I showed him the sign and said I was very interested in seeing just how much less the replacement ink would be for this model. It had all the features I wanted and had a very good price. He looked at me, frowned, and proceeded to tell me that the ink prices didn’t mean anything because the companies that make printers make their money on ink, and the less you spend on a printer, the more you will spend on ink. He went on and on about how the printers themselves don’t cost hardly anything and the companies just gouge the consumer with the ink prices. When I asked him specifically for the price of the Lexmark ink, he said they didn’t have any. He said that important thing to note is how many pages you get with a cartridge of ink, and the only company that will reveal that seemingly secret information was HP. I supposed Lexmark and the rest of the evil printer companies were in cahoots with each other to fool the public.
I was shocked with this salesperson’s negative and almost paranoid commentary on the printer companies. I even asked him why he was trying so hard not to sell me a printer. He mumbled something again about the cost of the printer vs. the ink, and I finally told him I was no longer interested and left the store. I promptly went to Sam’s Club, picked out an HP printer with all the bells and whistles. Instead of focusing on what the customer needed and giving me the information so I could make up my own mind, the sales person was more interested in his views of the industry. Staples lost a sale, and since there are lots of other places to shop for office supplies, so as not to encounter Mr. Negative again, I will shop elsewhere.
Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a freelance writer, blogger, and workplace consultant. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in "Training" magazine, "Training & Development" magazine, "Supervision," “BiS Magazine” and "The Savannah Morning News." You can read her blogs at www.skirt.com/savannahchick, www.workingsmartworks.blogspot.com/ and on the web at www.mjnhconsulting.com.
I had two things to buy at Staples. Since it was the beginning of the year, I needed a new planner. I spent some time in the planner/organizer aisle, and then went in search of a printer. To my surprise, there were at least four aisles of printers…all sizes, shapes, brands, capacities and features. I was looking for one reasonably priced with the capacity to print, scan, and copy. I wanted wireless printing and the ability to do double-sided copying. That narrowed the field a little bit. As I wandered down the aisles, a sign next to a Lexmark all-in-one caught my eye. The sign said that the Lexmark had the lowest cost for printer replacement ink of all the brands. Now, that was a feature I hadn’t thought of, but would certainly be beneficial.
I have an HP Laser Printer that costs me about $60 every time I have to replace the printer cartridge. My recently deceased HP All-In-One came in at about $30 for a black or color cartridge. I looked around for the Lexmark replacement ink so I could do some comparison shopping. When I couldn’t find any, I went looking for a sales person to help me. I went to the front of the store, and one of the guys came back to help me find the ink.
When we came to the aisle with the Lexmark printer, I showed him the sign and said I was very interested in seeing just how much less the replacement ink would be for this model. It had all the features I wanted and had a very good price. He looked at me, frowned, and proceeded to tell me that the ink prices didn’t mean anything because the companies that make printers make their money on ink, and the less you spend on a printer, the more you will spend on ink. He went on and on about how the printers themselves don’t cost hardly anything and the companies just gouge the consumer with the ink prices. When I asked him specifically for the price of the Lexmark ink, he said they didn’t have any. He said that important thing to note is how many pages you get with a cartridge of ink, and the only company that will reveal that seemingly secret information was HP. I supposed Lexmark and the rest of the evil printer companies were in cahoots with each other to fool the public.
I was shocked with this salesperson’s negative and almost paranoid commentary on the printer companies. I even asked him why he was trying so hard not to sell me a printer. He mumbled something again about the cost of the printer vs. the ink, and I finally told him I was no longer interested and left the store. I promptly went to Sam’s Club, picked out an HP printer with all the bells and whistles. Instead of focusing on what the customer needed and giving me the information so I could make up my own mind, the sales person was more interested in his views of the industry. Staples lost a sale, and since there are lots of other places to shop for office supplies, so as not to encounter Mr. Negative again, I will shop elsewhere.
Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a freelance writer, blogger, and workplace consultant. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in "Training" magazine, "Training & Development" magazine, "Supervision," “BiS Magazine” and "The Savannah Morning News." You can read her blogs at www.skirt.com/savannahchick, www.workingsmartworks.blogspot.com/ and on the web at www.mjnhconsulting.com.
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