I tried going through some of the recent discussion pages for some insight on this, but haven't found anything.
We're a medium-sized public Library that have a few HP LaserJet Printers set up in the building for public printing. We bought 2 HP LaserJet P3005N printers in 2007 and 1 in 2008 and all 3 of them have since failed on me. HP says it's a motherboard issue and based on the cost (since of course they're out of warranty) it doesn't make sense to try and get them repaired. These are $700+ printers that barely lasted us 2 years. The printers were in different locations of the Library and although they received heavy usage, I would expect them to last at least 5 years.
With that said, I'm being very cautious on how to proceed. Even in warranty the process to get them out to HP for repair seemed relatively tedious. There are no Authorized Service Centers in the area any more that makes it easy to drop the printers off. The cost to repair it myself is at least $200-$300.
I was just wondering:
A) What kind of LaserJet Printers do other Medium-sized Libraries use for Public Printing?
B) What warranty support options (and how long) do you usually get with them?
C) Have you thought about using MFP devices instead of stand-alone LaserJet printers?
D) Do you also elect to buy auto-Duplexing and Network-ready Printers?
E) Have you had any luck with Dell Printers or Dell Printer support?
F) How many computers do you typically hook up to a single LaserJet, standalone Printer? How about to the MFPs?
And kind of off topic ... do you use any print management software?
Sorry for all of the questions but it seems like there should be a more efficient way for a Medium-size Library to handle Public Printing requests than what we do. I've thought about migrating them over to an MFP device that is serviced by a local shop in order to clear me free of these kind of issues.
Thanks again!