Posted by Nomad/OR on 7/13/08 11:28am
Msg #255053

Brother HL-4040CN gives no warning

When the toner is running low. It waits until the signing is in two hours and you have printed only 1/2 of one set of docs. Then it flashes a bright red signal indicating 'End of Toner Life' and stops cold. This thing also somehow knew that I didn't think I had already gone through that much toner, so a replacement was yet to be purchased. Of course, 'town' is half an hour drive from here so I grab the phone and call office depot - nope, they don't have it so I call the OTHER Office Depot - Nope, THEY don't have it. WHAT THE HELL, I BOUGHT THE DAMN THING FROM YOU!!, ....almost in panic mode because I don't want to lose this signing at the last minute because of MY error, So grab the kidling and throw him in the truck and beat feet for town! Gotta find something somewhere.. get to Walmart and they only do the inkjet thing, so back to the rig and keep going, because somewhere this has GOT to work. Finally come across Staples. I find the one and only toner and snatch it up. This was irony in it's truest form because I was going to purchase my laser printer there, but the employees always treated me like I was in their way and would look past me. Now they are the only ones who can pull my butt out of a sling and I am so grateful to them. I make it back home in time to reprint (the HL-4040CN will drop it's memory forcing a restart of the job, and doesn't have the memory capacity to print from page 42 to 78 on this doc) the docs and drive back to town for the signing.

I lost money on this one, but gained some hard won experience in inventory control.
- Now I must e-mail Office Depot a little thank you letter for selling me something that they don't support (Unless I want to pay exorbitant shipping charges on the net)

Reply by MW/VA on 7/13/08 11:41am
Msg #255056

Good story & a classic for this business. I started with an HP 3050 all-in-one, thinking that would do the job. I almost had a breakdown at how slow it printed. It took me a while to get what I needed. Being new, I had heard about dual-tray printers, but didn't have enough tech background to understand it. It was also before I starting frequenting the forums to ask these sort of questions. I stubbornly insisted on HP printers, since I had heard about the drum replacements on Brother. It took a lot of work, but I finally ended up with an HP4050
(cost alone scared me to death at first). Fortunately, I bought it from a local business machines company, who helped with the changes in firmware, extra memory, extra tray, etc.
It has paid for itself in toner cartridge savings. It works for me, but I still have a feeling that the Brother printers are faster. I order "compatible" (remanufactured)
cartridges from 4inkets.com (also LDproducts.com) and always make sure I have a spare on hand. Talk about expensive lessons--it took me 3 printers to come up with the right one.

Reply by Joan_OH on 7/13/08 6:39pm
Msg #255086

Ouch! I went to ebay to find your toner because I just ordered 4 for my HP 4200 for $100 this morning. I always have at least one spare. Currently, I have one in the machine, one on the shelf, and just ordered 4 more. I can't understand why there wouldn't always be a spare or two on the shelf for anyone in this business.

Anyways, when I looked up your printer, I see it is a color laser printer and no cartridges available on Ebay. I can only imagine what you are paying retail! That's where the OUCH comes in. If I had to pay that much for a cartridge, I wouldn't have spares on the shelf either!

In my opinion, I would use your color laser for marketing only and pick up a used dual tray 4100 for around $200. Your toner savings would pay for the printer in no time. In this business, I have found it is rarely how much the machine costs, but how much $$$ it takes to keep it running and the HP 4000, 4100, 4200, 4300 series printers beats all in that department.

This is only my opinion, but I own 7 laser printers between my home office, Cleveland office, car, strategically placed family members, and feel I am somewhat experienced in this category.

Joan

Reply by Nomad/OR on 7/13/08 9:19pm
Msg #255093

Staples toner cost 63.99, Office Depot

had them today as well. I got a high capacity black from them today for $84.99.
The color is good for flyers and other items.

Reply by Joan_OH on 7/13/08 10:17pm
Msg #255094

Re: Staples toner cost 63.99, Office Depot

Your High Capacity toner @ $85 is rated for 5000 pages. My HP 4100 toner is rated for 10000 pages and cost me approximately $25. So in effect it costs me 1/4 of a cent per page to print and costs you 1.7 cents per page to print. Multiply that over a 150 page FHA docs set times 2 and it adds up over time. Your toner costs are almost 7 times what mine are and because of it, you cannot afford to keep a couple of extras on the shelf - who could?

By switching to a used HP 4100, Your toner savings alone would pay for it in no time. In addition, you won't have to replace "developer" - or whatever it's called - and I know those are expensive.

Color lasers are great - I have a huge Dell color laser. But they are a waste of money in this business - money that could stay in your pocket.

Joan-OH

Reply by Rich/PA on 7/13/08 8:17pm
Msg #255090

When it comes to printers or computer equipment ALWAYS do your research, and when you feel you've done enough - look up one more review.

Reply by kkarate on 7/14/08 7:41am
Msg #255098

When you have printer problems and time is too short to fix it you self, us e-mail the documents to staples or one of those places. They will print it out for you. I will cost ,but not as much as losing a job. I did this to get out of a jam.