Man Don't be so cheap!!

We are in a recession, very unfortunate state of affairs.

So today at work the printer attached to the PC in the Stock room jammed up with paper.
This happens frequently, I usually have to take it apart and pull out the pieces of paper and reset the sensor bar. 5 Minute job, once a week maybe.

So it happens today, as normal I take the back off to get the paper out, once clear I notice the guide roller bar looks like it has lifted out of place, thats a pain I thought.
Went to fit it back in, barely touched it and it fell off altogether.
So pulled it out so I could sort the issue. Turns out that for whatever reason several of the brackets that hold the small rollers in place have snapped, broken, busted.
Turned printer on it's side and could here many other small parts falling around inside.
This printer is used a LOT, probably prints 300 pages per day, often with a lot of detailed pictures etc.
It is approximately 7 years old and has worked "hard" from day one.
It's not an industrial printer, more of a heavy duty home printer.

Conclusion = Printer is dead, buy new one.

Question posed to me = Well can we get new parts and fix it?

.....?




.....My Reaction.....



http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm230/Nedlamar/really01.jpg

 

It's amazing how many business owners and decision makers are clueless when it comes to the issue of repair versus replace on technology.

Time equals money. If a company owned a delivery truck that broke down at least once a week (delaying deliveries and p:***sing off customers), it would be a no-brainier for the owner of the company to find the money to replace it. The same logic should apply to a printer.

Some people falsely assume technology lasts forever. I've actually had people come into my PC shop over the past few months wanting to "upgrade" a unit that came with OEM Windows 98. (Although I can't say this out loud, my thought when they ask "How can I make this faster?" is to suggest they drop it off the top of a tall building. :-D)

The all time ID10T executive I had to deal with spent tens of thousands of dollars to have a supplier "upgrade" a 25-year old, totally obsolete Nortel PBX phone system. If he had junked the old system in favor of a newer Cisco one, he would have saved about $15,000. rolleyes

 

They incorrect way those in charge of the check book see it, that printer doesn't generate any direct revenue where the truck does.

I too hear the same dribble every day from customers. I have one that has an old 17" CRT monitor that is so blurry that you can hardly read the text in the browser and the entire screen has a deep purple tint to it. His solution was to increase the text size in the browser and sit closer to the screen even after I offered him a working equivalent monitor for $10.

 

I remember I got a printer on sale for 80 bucks (USD) on sale at a local retailer years ago. I don't print alot, so it was at least a year before I needed ink. Come to find out the ink was $74.99, plus tax. :mad

SO, I bought a Kodak on sale for $89.99, plus tax of course. :cool Thirty bucks for ink. :-D

What's that you say? OUT OF INK!?!?!?

Well, just pitch the printer in the e-waste bin...

:***:crap

 

lol I went through a spell a good few years ago, there was a Lexmark printer that was 30GBP, it did the job and was very cheap for back then. The replacement cartridge was 35GBP, so I just kept buying a new printer every time I ran out of ink, it was retarded.
I had 6 of hem in my shed. Hoarder :-D

 

One of Kodak's advertising points was that ink cartridges are cheaper than some competitors.

HP (Hewlett-Packard) printers were very popular and had a reputation for good quality (construction), even with the cheaper models.

According to surveys, the biggest complaint by customers was about the cost of the replacement ink cartridges.

I had an HP printer that I got on sale for about $90 and it worked very well.
Replacement ink were $30 each.

 

It was pretty commonplace, up until about 10-12 years ago to be able to buy service kits and spares for many printers at a reasonable price. Then greed and wanton wastefulness of our resources took over

 

The newer printers have chips in the cartridge and they can tell the printer ink levels. Due to the HP lawsuit where the stupid monitor said you are OUT OF INK when you had 25% left, they now drain to about 5%. We have always ran our ink until the page is blurred.

Also Kodak NEVER released printer drivers for Linux. :yum Lexmark was touchy and so that left me with HP, Brother, Epson, or Canon. HP are bulletproof to work out of the box, and Brother is a close second. I would not hook up a printer I could only use in Windows. [/rant]

Enterprise printer- we are using Lexmark where I am temp office admin of the week.

 

I always research the availability of generic ink/toner before I recommend a printer to a client.

As an example, aftermarket Brother ink and toner is available by the ton on eBay and Amazon. If you check the product ratings (Amazon) or stick with Top-Rated Sellers on eBay, you'll normally get quality equal to OEM replacements.

I have a Brother inkjet AIO at my shop I use to print flyers and handouts. I purchased 24 of the aftermarket LC-65 ink cartridges (6 of each color) for $50 incl. shipping on eBay - less than a single set of four cartridges (1 of each color) at Office Depot.

On top of this, I take the empties to Office Depot and get a $2 store credit on my rewards card per empty cartridge (up to 10 per quarter, $20 total). I use the rewards bucks for paper and other office supplies. eBay pricing plus Office Depot rewards basically equals free ink.

 

Yeah, I'd say that's a good deal Over here, at the other side of the big splash, you can either buy new ones or have your old ones refilled at the videostore. Works wonders. Only problem is that sometimes my HP doesn't like the new ink and tries to force me to buy new cartridges, because the one I'm using isn't an official HP cartridge. I find that to be retarded, ink = ink

 

It is strange how some people just forget common sense.
I did some work with a company that was a muti million dollar operation owned by two brothers.
They had a service truck that was 10 years old and the engine blew so they searched the internet until they found a second hand engine to fit, it lasted about 2 months and it blew again so it cost a lot of lost time and money and was a false economy.
Now these were directors who thought nothing of spending company money on on new cars I.E. $80,000 on a new Mercedes and $65.000 on a BMW every two years.

 

How do you even fix a printer? No one knows how they work,it's all reverse engineered alien technology. You press print then some witch craft happens and a page comes out and if it doesn't not even Stephen Hawking could tell you why.

Yup better to buy and new one than deal with forces beyond our comprehension.

:-D

ATM I have a Canon Pixma and its a good printer apart from every couple of pages get an error that says the ink pad is full when it isn't or when you use the cleaning function and it pumps half a cartridge of ink out and doesn't clean the nozzles anyway or some other weird error code every so often with a fix that says 'Take to an authorized Canon engineer'

Area 51 then...

 

Now that is just funny. :-D

I have an old HP, it is out of ink, and has not been used in a while. I think I was paying $30 or so for 2 black ink cartridges and one color. Will have to find my ink source.

 

We have a couple HP's in the office and the cheapest I get the ink is $60, if I'm lucky, but I usually spend about $70 on each one. However, they do last a long time and every time that ink button starts blinking, we just take out the cartridge and give it a good shake. We do that a few times and then only change it once we start getting the stripes down the page but at that point we've gotten at least 200 more sheets out of it.


This is OT but on the same idea of just buying a new printer when you run out of ink because it's cheaper than the ink itself. Razors, I just got a new razor from Schick (for free I might add ) and I went to look at the price of the refill cartridges. It was a twice the price!! hmm.. razor with 3 cartridges $7.99.. 4 refill cartridges $16.99. To heck with refills, when I run out I'm just gonna buy a new razor!! :-D

 

You got that right. I hate printers with a passion...

Audio is NSFW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5orss3fAEU

 

So, the printer after I left was put back in place, just to be out of the way.
I was approached by a co-worker who said "I told boss about printer, he wants to know whats wrong with it other than the broken part"

"Other than the broken parts?... what? the fact there are broken pieces of plastic floating around in there isn't enough?"

"He said his buddy can get parts for them"

Oh dear god!

 

At the risk of being canned for sarcasm, my response would be:

"Can you say 'fire hazard', boys and girls? Sure, I knew you could." :-D

Since laser printers can technically burn paper if it jams in the fuser, this isn't really a lie.

 

I get clients wanting me to fix their old p.o.s. $60.00 printers that have been FUBAR'ed by them putting cheapskate recycled paper in them and it ends up jamming the works. Yeah sure, if I fix it, then sure enough, a few days later they are complaining again and implying I did a rubbish job repairing the stupid, evil Dinosaur of a paperweight. (Yeah, they STILL persist in using the el-cheapo recycled paper).rolleyes
That's when I stop being nice and doing it for free and tell them it will cost $150 per hr + parts + call-out. That usually gets rid of the said pest, usually with the "you greedy smegger!" look on their face). Unfortunately, some are extra-stupid and STILL want to pay me $500 or so to fix their beloved p.o.s. :confusedrolleyes

These are not poor people, if they were, I'd just GIVE them a printer! They are usually driving around in some big, cheesy $80,000 S.U.V. They have more dollars than sense, I tell you!

 

I have had this happen so many times at my shop I've devised a new plan:

When my local wholesale sources have deals on AIO inkjets, I buy a few and put a $30 markup on them. As an example, I can sometimes get Brother AIO units (with fax) at $39 and I mark them at $69.

"My printer is broken. Can you fix it?"

"It's not worth the repair cost. I have a deal on this model at $69 - and it comes with a fresh, full set of ink that usually costs about $60 at Walmart or Office Depot"

I make a quick 30 bucks and the only "work" involved is writing up the receipt. To avoid hassles, I remind every customer the warranty is through the printer manufacturer (not my shop) and the manufacturer has a toll-free # for any set up questions.

 

Hell just go with it:-D

It will cost the price of a new printer in man hours just to find out what part it is and then hunt down a place that stocks them before they even start replacing anything and then if you do fix it how many years has it got left?

I have fixed my own printers in the past but its not fun and its not worth it unless you enjoy taking things apart.

 

Tell them that the new printers save more money in electricity in a year than the cost of said new printer costs when compared to the old printer. Who knows, it may even be true. Then you've just got to convince them that it was their idea, that's the Jedi mind trick to it.

 

Maybe you could let your boss know that I have a couple of gaylord (a 4' x 4' x 4' box on a pallet) containers full of old printers he can have for free for parts if he wants them. There might even be a couple in there that work. Then I wouldn't have to pay disposal costs on them. :-D Boy, that would be profitable wouldn't it.

I really do have that many old printers but I was just being sarcastic.

 

The odd thing is, he's one of those people who doesn't look at things from the long term cost POV. The kind of thinking that goes...

"I don't need to change my engine oil or have a service or change the plugs etc, I'll just buy a new car in a couple of years when this one is dead"

Weird huh lol

 

Find one with cheaper ink. Then tell him about the cheaper on electrical bills thing.
But again, you've gotta make him think that it's his idea. That's the trick. Just stand out of ear shot, wave your hand towards him and whisper "this isn't the printer you're looking for".

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzcWPKAv2Ow]

 

You hot the proverbial nail right on the head there, this guy will happily lose money hand over fist just so he doesn't have to admit he's wrong or someone elses idea is better. It drives me insane, I'm a very logical thinker and illogical thinking annoys me a lot.

 

If he REALLY wants a cheap printer, just give him a notepad and a pencil.:-D
He can alwas "upgrade" by going to a ball-point pen. rolleyes

 

Or you could upgrade him to wide format printing. Put him in the parking lot with a hammer and a chisel. :-D

 

Flintstone style.

 

Nah, didn't you know that's the neo-liberal, free market copula function?

Short term profits, are FAR more important that long-term stability...

rolleyes

 

Do you know someone who is a cheap bastard, but really doesn't need to be? Meaning they got money, but are just so friggin tight that they cannot bear to part with a fiver?

Here's a recent case. On the way home yesterday I get the following email:

Just to let you know, this man as recently as last month was promoted to full partner in an accounting firm, so that puts his salary around 100K per year. His prior position paid at least 80K per year, but this guy is such a cheap bastard he cannot buy his wife a friggin 300.00 laptop for feck's sake!

Here's another thing that happened to my System Admin, and frankly I blame him for this. One of the partners whose daddy actually started the firm, wanted this guy to come down to his apartment and setup a wireless router. Now, this man makes in excess of $200K per year easily, and I'm probably being conservative.

Anyway, this is all done outside of working hours. This partner never takes his laptop home with him, so there is no way this is for work use. My System Admin travels to the store in own vehicle, spends his own gas money, all total time of shopping and travel and installation, about 2 hours. What happens next is absolutely priceless:

WTF!!!!!

This guy spends his own time, gas, mileage, and this cheap bastard says "where's my change" which totally a little over 2 dollars as I recall the story he told me.

Of course there is the old saying that rich people are rich because they are so cheap, but come on! $300.00 laptop....a $50 router..please.


Anyway, any of you have stories of cheap bastardry?



P.S. I have been told as of this morning that I have to loan out the laptop to the guy in the first story.

What I am wondering from all of you, is that, should I perhaps put some clippings from the internet in his mailbox in the mailroom of some affordable laptops, and just leave it at that for him to figure out?

 

Wow, that is some cheap people Motc7. I used to get a kick out of the people who would drive up in a big gas guzzling SUV, by Crown XR (over $100 for a 750ml) and then raise hell about the price of gas.

Makes you wonder.

 

The world is full of these kind of people.

I met a friend of one of my clients at my clients office. He asked if I had a card so I gave him one. According to my client, the man is very well off through an inheritance.

The guy calls me a week or so later because he put an additional HDD in his computer "but Windows doesn't see it". I emailed him instructions on how to partition and format the drive but he said it didn't work, he want me to come over and do it for him. The following evening, I drive to his home, about 15 miles. It takes me about 13 seconds at his computer to do what I emailed to him earlier. We talked for a few minutes, he asked me what he owed me. I suggested a twenty dollar bill would cover it. He got really mad at me, gave me the 20 and gave me back my business card and told me to get out of his house. He said I was too expensive for him so he won't be calling me again. I guess my time driving to and from and the gas are of no consequence to him but they sure matter too me.

 

Yeah, I get cheap-skates that are earning six figure incomes as well, like own about 17 houses, just for investments, have a ridiculous $170k Humvee, (these folks are in their seventies - so it's just for show-off value). Fine, I don't begrudge any of that. But then they come up to me and pester me about repairing a $20.00 mouse. I'm like W.T.F., firstly it's not repairable, secondly,do you really want to pay me $150.00 per hour + parts, (i.e. new mouse - duh!) plus call-out, etc? Makes you wonder what makes some people tick, eh. <*shakes head!*>. http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g309/Zobor/jawdrop.gif

Re: Traveling costs:- That's why I tell clients that the minimum call-out is $70.00, (more if distant), since it also cost me valuable time. Don't like it? Fine - take your lousy business elsewhere. I won't be crying a river, for sure.

 

I heard some people talking about a really cheap person. One guy said "That guy is so cheap, he still has his first communion money." :-D:-D Have never heard that before.

 

I told him I was doing him a favor because he is a friend of a friend, I usually charge $45 for the first half hour plus $35 for the travel making my usual onsite call a minimum of $80. That really made him mad.

I once hear some say "He's so tight, when he farts, only a dog can hear it"

 

to motc:
You HAD to?
Company laptop?
What about possible bad side effects while not in your possession?

 

I am not the system admin who approved it.
Yes, a company laptop for personal use.
As for side effects, I would likely be responsible for cleaning up the mess, but not responsible for the fallout butt chewing.

 

Sucks to be in a position like that, doesn't it?

 

Man you guys I'm assuming are talking about Computer repairs etc, I do this as a side line but am trying to build it to a proper income so I don't have to work where I work anymore lol
I charge a sort of flat rate. $45 for the first 2 hours (which so far has been every issue since I don't charge for letting a scanning bar creep across a screen as I leave it going)
I then charge a $20 call out if I come to your house or have to pick up/drop off.

And most people complain how expensive I am, yet the guy in town will charge you $140 to run a system restore, that's like 8 minutes Max of your actual time. Seriously, one of my more regular customers first came to me because IE kept crashing, he paid the guy in town $95 for him to install and explain how to use FireFox.... Are ya kidding? You know what I did? Uninstalled both FF and IE and reinstalled IE, cleaned up and it was fine. Charged him $45.

I have never had any comebacks and have all my customers on refferal since I can't afford to advertise.
So on average it's $65 for me to fix almost any software related issue you are likely to come across.
Obviously it's different if hardware is involved, but thats surprisingly small amount of my customers.

Trouble also seems that I don't get very much regular repeat business, I always include an optional setup and explanation of security software and cleaner, free of charge or included in the flat rate. (Avast, SuperAnti Spyware and Ccleaner)
So I often see some of these guys and they call me maybe twice per year, but they usually tell me how great their PC is working since I fixed it and installed the software.

Starting to think I need to stop teaching people how to look after their PC's :-D

And like I said, had several people complain about $65, but they are usually the ones who have messed it up the most through human error and ignorance.

 

Oh here's another one, my g/f's aunt.
I made the mistake of mixing family and business.
She had her own franchise of a popular adult clothing and "accessories" business, which made her a decent chunk of money.
She paid some dude $1200 to set up a website so she could sell online as well.
I was round her house one day and she asked me if I knew anything about websites. Back then I was still in the loop for the most part.
She showed me all these things like buttons red-xing and links not working and more importantly the cart system not actually taking orders.

She had called the guy and he wanted $90 per hour to "Refine" the site.
So long story short, I ended up re-doing it.
Man it was a knightmare, when I finally got the admin info from the company I started looking at the HTML and PHP etc etc, holy mess of GOD!

I could barely read it because it was not spaced hardly at all, code was just..... nasty.
The graphics he used for buttons etc were bland to say the least.
So I made some graphics, rewrote the code, cleaned up the garbage, replaced the graphics, fixed the links and got the Cart working properly AND set up the forum.
I then spent a few hours per week updating the specials and new product etc.

Total of 94 hours logged over about a month.

I also made the mistake of not talking about how much I was charging, she just said I'll pay you for it.
I assumed (yeah I know) she would be paying me at maybe $25 per hour.
Hell at the time I would have been happy with $15 per hour.

So she hands me a cheque for the 94 hours of technical work I just performed for her company.

$400

Not joking.

I asked how many hours that was for and I got "Well that's for everything so far, I am a bit short at the moment but if you want to keep doing the updating I will pay you $35 per update."

What's scary is she was genuinely confident I would be over the moon about this.
But I was still fairly new to the country and family and didn't want to upset the apple cart, so I simply declined the continuation of updates having now realised web building is far too much work for little money.
I left it at that.

 

My case is 'prolly a bit different from the normal "looking for customers" or semi-amateur categories.
I'm a commercial/industrial Consultant, tied in with my Chemist/science background, so 95% of work is Govt. or commercial contracts. The 5% of private work is mainly just to do friends/associates a favour, (something which I regret on a regular basis - but hey, if it helps them).
So, truth be known, I usually DON'T want the small jobs. (vis. being paid a few thousand $ for a few days, Vs. working half a day for a hundred or two, often for 'love'. Which is fine, as long as they don't be a miserable ingrate about it, then come back next time their comp is FUBAR'ed again. I don't even care if someone is mad at me for their own stupidity - Just don't tell me about it. I won't lose any sleep over it.rolleyes