Having Fun With The Printer Support TechsWritten by Barry Shultz
Many years ago when I was a copier technician my boss would always tell us to push our companies supplies, paper, toner etc.. Of course they wanted to sell more supplies and make more money but their techniques were very questionable. Just like printers you could go out and purchase generic supplies and some worked better than others naturally. Well supplies that we sold were also mostly generic, however, they were branded with our companies name and logos. Here's where sneakiness comes in. When a customer complained about a repair cost estimate we were told to blame it on their inferior generic supplies and to further that repair would have been much cheaper if they were using our over-priced supplies. I explained this to many customers on many occasions while desperately trying to suppress my rage at being forced to hand this BS to unknowing customers while I knew full well that what I was telling them was absolutely untrue. I knew at time that generic supplies my customers were using had nothing to do with expensive repair costs but you know what? They all bought idea, almost every customer that I explained this to started buying all their supplies from us. BECAUSE, I was an authority figure and a perceived expert in my field. This scenario lends itself fabulously to printer market. Threats from manufacturers, perceived experts, that your printer will suffer an untimely death if you use generic supplies or refill your cartridges. There's no truth to this at all. The printer manufacturers want to sell you their over-priced supplies and they will lie to you to get your business.
| | My Printer Died - An EpitaphWritten by Barry Shultz
My printer just died. My Epson C60 that I've had for almost 2 years was my buddy. I loved that printer. It was there for me through thick and thin. Sure it had it's quirks and idiosyncrasies like not printing when my office temperature dropped to 17 degrees because I forgot to turn thermostat up one bitterly cold morning. I had to open lid and point a ceramic space heater inside to thaw it out. There were times that it drove me crazy. Sometimes when I asked it to print something for me it would sit there and clean itself for what seemed like an eternity. Whirr - click- pop - pop - whirr - click etc, etc, etc. I could pull my hair out sometimes. Why does it always do that when I'm in a hurry? My old Epson and me became pretty good friends though. It always treated me good with sharp, detailed prints. I never had to worry about going broke with ink cartridges because generics I used in her were really cheap and since I bought them from myself I got VIP discount. :-) But that's way it goes with inkjet printers. They are kinda like dogs. You know they have a short life span and you know that once you get one you'll fall in love with it. And when time comes to have to part your ways it's a difficult and emotional experience. Yes, it's painful and I'm sure I'll get through it somehow but I can't stop thinking of all fond memories that I have collected throughout years. It's like loosing a part of me.
|
