Periodically, I get to complain about the high cost of being a Family Law lawyer. Last week, my network printer hit about 500,000 pages, and we'd been having periodic service calls - I had pledged to order a new one when we inserted the last laser cartridge - they run about $180 each, and I thought I'd try to squeeze out the last of them, and have a standby when it ran out - the printer cost $2500 when you could buy a car for that sum. I thought I could never burn it out, but who knew we'd print that much.
Unfortunately, one of the paper trays was pulled out to fill it, and wouldn't slide back in. So we decided to limp along with one tray, plus the envelope feeder. Then the remaining try started jamming. End of the road, I figure - cheaper to waste the new cartridge than pay for a service call. OK, so I got my money's worth, but it was supposed to last forever.
The direct replacement for an HP 5Sx we've been nursing along for the last year, is about $2500, delivered, and weighs close to 100 pounds. Individual printers for each staff member that last a long time just take up too much room, so when I bought this office, I decided networking would save each staff person desk space. Saturday, I get to bring in several people to help me cart off the old one and put the new one in place, so we can be up and running by Monday.
The copier is at around 1,000,000 copies - when we bought it we got a super deal - we had a close relationship with a repairman, who found a very slightly used machine for us, and replaced every conceivable part - essentially, it was brand new, and has served us well. Our service company got bought up by another company and it won't continue to fix the machine since it sells a different brand, so a new one is on the horizon. The new cost for the existing machine was $18,000 [no, I didn't pay anywhere near that], and my connection is long since retired - looking toward paying retail for a new digital/scanner/printer/copier/whatever it does. I feel like any day it will stop working.
Then there's our $3200 scanner. I know someday I'll need to start buying a service contract and having someone deal with that - it has been running daily for 1 1/2 years. It's been absolutely reliable.
Amazing how the paperless society has created so much paper. It's certainly helping me contribute to the economic recovery. And I won't talk about the new carpet and paint.
