The Coverage Conundrum

Close analysis shows the real cost of your new multifunction device may lie in the toner—especially when the vendor estimates lower toner coverage on a page than you'll actually get.

By Kathy Tadlock

A recent marketing campaign by a vendor selling cross-over multifunction equipment brings to light some marketing tactics that make fair comparisons among multifunction machines difficult. In a tight and competitive multifunction market, this vendor has taken a different approach that does not bring all costs out in the open.

The print vendor quotes a low price of $4,000 for a 45-image-per-minute multifunction printer with duplexing, scanning/copying capabilities and a finisher. The vendor also quotes a price of $.005 per image for toner. On the surface, the per image price appears much lower than comparable multifunction machines.

The toner is sold at $150 per cartridge and the vendor claims a 30,000 yield at five percent coverage resulting in the $.005 per image price. One of the features of the printer is its ability to print out a usage report for the customer. The internally generated usage report states that the coverage is five percent, using some analysis and calculation by the printer.

Because the usage report states five percent coverage, the customer assumes they are paying $.005 per image. The general industry standard estimating toner coverage on an average office text page ranges from 12 percent to 18 percent depending on which vendor you ask.

The customer commits to the vendor to buy a certain number of images, for example 210,000. The vendor sends the customer seven cartridges. What happens when the cartridges run out? The vendor says "You must have made more than 210,000 images. Let us sign you up for another 210,000."

Toner Usage Not Measured

The problem becomes evident when you realize the vendor is not checking meters on the machine and the customer does not independently record meters to confirm the toner usage or the image purchase but instead relies on the usage report.

There is no independent measuring occurring of the actual toner usage or the meters. In addition, there is no current independent industry standard method to determine toner coverage, and calculation of coverage varies from vendor to vendor.

It is almost impossible to compare this vendor's products with another multifunction product because of the servicing and parts pricing structure. The vendor is closely tied to IT departments and their products are usually serviced by funded campus personnel. The vendor does not maintain its own service organization and it is difficult to get a comparison of true service costs to the parent organization.

The vendor's machine has modular components that can be replaced easily and the cost of those components can be buried in an IT equipment budget. On the surface, the only expense to the user appears to be the per copy toner cost, but the actual cost to the overall organization is higher.

The equipment the vendor is marketing is actually supplied and built by other multifunction manufacturers. Instead of comparisons and purchasing decisions being made on the quality of the equipment and service, maintenance and supply costs, this vendor is burying costs and using methods to determine coverage that are difficult to verify. The true costs should be close to those of other vendors, but the competition has been reduced by the vendor's marketing campaign.

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Kathy Tadlock is Support Services Supervisor at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Wash. The Support Services area includes the copier management program, copyright/student manual services and technical support for Publishing Services. She has worked at WWU since 1980. You can reach her at:

Kathy.Tadlock@WWU.edu