Getting remote phone Tech Support

[majorshiv]

I have canon iRC3200 and HP 8150. I have a small business not good enough for regular contracts. Location is central NJ near Princeton.
Need to understand the following:
-- Is it possible to have paid remote phone support and generally what would be the cost.
-- How will such an arrangement work.

For example, I get blurry print from Canon -- only for color print / copy but Black print/ copy is OK. I checked the drums -- all are empty except Cyan which is 10-20% remaining. The toner seems to be OK. Had changed the fuser recently. Total page reading is about 90K.

I read in one of the threads here that possible cause of this could be:
-- Empty Drum [which is the case].
-- Lose Transfer felt or
-- Faulty Lasers.
-- etc.

Now with my great deep technical [:o] knowledge about printers, I can never be sure if I should spend so much in getting the Drums only to find that I also need to replace some thing else. I need some expert to help me make the decision.

I know that this is common problem and so many experts here have solved this issue many times over. Please help me solve this problem as a formal way and I should have a reliable source for help.

Regards
majorshiv

[KenB]

Some things just don't lend themselves well to remote support, and copier / printer maintenance is certainly one of them.

You also have the issue of getting parts - most dealers won't just sell you parts, they will need to install them.

If you don't think you need contracts, that's up to you, but you really are better off having a trained, qualified professional servicing your equipment in person. It will cost you way less in the long run. ;)

[nmfaxman]

My problem with phone support is that I can't see what you see.
90 degrees of difference makes for frustration on both sides.
Call a tech to see it for real.

[majorshiv]

Thanks KenB and nmfaxman,
Both points are valid. Some way to reduce the pain of "remoteness" could be use of Web Cams/ Photos in advance ... I understand these are NOT good but just better than nothing.

If I do 10000 pages per year, what would be cost of a contract, please advise.

majorshiv