Anyone ever calculated the true costs of printer ownership?

[jezeus]

We take a different approach towards advertising printers and printer ink cartridges of brands like Brother, Canon, HP & more. Calculating the true costs of printer ownership over lifespan will give you some interesting information. Printer.com puts buying a printer and ink cartridges in a different perspective.

We want to know what you think of this approach, is it informative? yes? no? If you have some time to share your opinion please help us better serve our customers.

Thank you

Eric R
Printer .com - Calculate the Cost of Printer Ownership

 

[michaelejahn]

SO, is this a survey, a poll - or some side-handed pitch to sell something - or a request for help ?

there are several companies offering "ink savings" at the inkjet level - here is one - http://www.inksaver.com/

 

[SlaveToTheMan]

Looks alot like spam to me.

 

[jezeus]

Not Spam!

Not Spam!

I work for Printer.com and we are re-evaluating our marketing approach and want to get opinions from professionals in the industry. Are there improvements we can make? Any suggestions from real people would be great.

And no this is not spam in any way, I apologize if it even hints that.

So if you have some extra time please take a look at Printer.com - Calculate the true cost of printer ownership and let me know your honest feedback.

we do not want it to look like the rest of your basic ink saving sites, we actually want to provide valuable information for the buyer.

Thanks again.

Eric
Printer.com - Calculate the true cost of printer ownership

 

[J]

Why don't you include Kodak printers? They claim they save some 50% in ink costs. Would love to know if the claim is true.

J

 

[KevinC@EFI]

J - I think the answer is clear... we don't pay them to.

It doesn't take too many clicks to find out it's not a "journalistic" site (i.e. truly "independent" opinion and analysis as their banner may seem to claim), but that it's simply an advertising service to direct consumers to their advertisers, in return for a pay-for-click model.

If I'm wrong, I'd love to hear it... but I suspect his post here is advertorial in nature.

 

[jezeus]

Hi Everybody,

In response to the last couple of posts, I showed this thread to our Director of U.S. Operations, and here’s what he wanted me to post in reply:

Kevin@Kodak: Actually, none of the printer manufacturers pay us to put their products into the Printer.com database. We have expended a great deal of effort to create our own database of about 4,500 printers and 1,600 cartridges. All the data for the printer and cartridge specifications come directly from the manufacturer’s websites, most of the time from the “spec sheet” or “data sheet” for the products. We really do want to be independent from the printer manufacturers!

As for the comment about how we make money, well it is true that we generate revenue from the click-throughs to the online merchants who have either joined the Printer.com affiliate program (you can read about it in our Merchant Center), or for those whose affiliate programs *we* have joined. This business model is well established, and it’s very common for shopping comparison sites to operate that way.

What we think distinguishes Printer.com from other comparison sites is that we focus exclusively on printers and cartridges, that we have information about a wide range of printers for home, small businesses and large corporations, and that we expose the “true cost of ownership” of these printers by calculating the cost of cartridges over five years based on the user’s estimates of printing volume. For that reason alone, some of the printer manufacturers might not be too happy about exposing the costs of cartridges over time!

I wanted to thank you for pointing out that Kodak printers were not included in Printer.com’s database. If you check back, you’ll see that they are now there. We have added the Kodak ESP 3, 5, 7, 9, and the EasyShare 5100 and 5300. We’ve also applied to Kodak.com’s own affiliate program so that our users will have the option of seeing the prices for Kodak products directly from Kodak.com.

Hope this answers your questions!

Bob Crum
Director of U.S. Operations
Printer.com® | Find Printers, Compare CostsTM

Let me know if this clears things up.

Cheers!

Eric R
Printer.com

 

[KevinC@EFI]

Hi Everybody,

In response to the last couple of posts, I showed this thread to our Director of U.S. Operations, and here’s what he wanted me to post in reply:



Let me know if this clears things up.

Cheers!

Eric R
Printer.com

Well, I'm glad to be wrong, and happily admit it! Thanks for posting the Kodak printers now - although it's a separate division from mine, it's good to see that independent review also places their cost-of-use as the best on the market. We are on your side here - exposing the real cost of ink, and pricing ours much lower.

Thanks,
Kevin.