Is it better to purchase a printer or use the Free Printer program?

You might be saying to yourself:

	My print volume is not high enough to justify using a program like this?
	That's just too expensive.
	It might be better if I just purchased a printer.
	Do I really need on-site service?

It all boils down to total cost of operation or in this case total cost per print.

I've done some analysis below to show how the free printer program saves you 35% or more in your total cost of ownership. 

I will assume that the reasons you are probably looking at this analysis are that you feel your print volume might not justify using the program.

The analysis below is based on the following assumptions:

	That your print volume will require about 60% of the toner in the provided in the program.
	That you may be able to purchase the toner for the C912 on the internet for 7% less if you look long enough.
	That you may be able to save $100 on the printer if you look around a little.

	If Printer Purchased	FreePrinter Program
Printer Cost	3,399	FREE
On-Site Service	1,799	FREE
Toner&Supplies	13,560	24,300
Printer Shipping	100	FREE
Toner Shipping	225	FREE
Total	19,083	24,300
# of Prints at 5% Coverage	126,000	252,000
Cost Per Print	0.15	0.10
Savings		36%
# of Prints at 20% coverage	25200	50400
Cost Per Print	0.76	0.48
Savings		36%

When we talk about printers, the industry likes to use 5% coverage as an assumption to indicate approximately how many pages you can expect to get out of a set of toner. However, realistically most documents exceed 5% coverage.

Using 20% coverage, the Free Printer program will yield approximately 50,400 prints over the three year agreement, or approximately 1,400 (8.5 X 11) pages per month. The yield will be less than this if you are using the C912 Wide format capability.

If you elected to purchase the printer and only used 60% of the toner that is included in the program your printing cost is 36% higher on a cost per print basis that using the Free Printer Program.

Believe it or not but likely the most valuable feature in the program is the Free on-site service. Just one repair might easily cost in excess of $1,000. If you elect the purchase route and you elected not to purchase the on-site service your printing cost per page at 20% coverage would still be 30% higher than using the free printer program.

Looking at just the dollars, if you go the purchase route and use just 60% of the toner of that offered in the program, your monthly expense is approximately $530 per month. For each dollar you think you are saving you are loosing almost twice that in the value of supplies. So you are saving $145 per month but actually loosing $270 in supplies value. As your print volume increases the differences become even greater.

The bottom line is this: If you have the need to print in excess of 1,400 color prints per month then the Free Printer program offers the absolute lowest cost per page in the industry for a Wide Format Color Laser printer.

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