Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

**Lagonda** · 01-19-2019, 06:05 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

My two bobs worth.
i work for a major dealer and we scrapped the last of the MP C5000 a year or two ago. The MP C5503's are now hitting 5 years old and we are starting to pension those off as well.
i wouldn't consider a 5000 as they are too old and if you can find a low page count 5503 it's going to be a few years old to start with and be prepared to pay $5k for a full drum kit and fuser every year if you are going to push half a million pages through it per annum.

However at 500k pages per year do you really want to be bothered with pissing around with a second hand copier? That sort of usage is a lot higher then some of our major accounts put through a machine each year.
With that sort of volume you would be better off leasing a new one with a service contract and rolling it over every few years when it hits the 1.5 to 2 mill. mark.

**Zaxxon** · 01-19-2019, 08:33 AM

**Lagonda** · 01-19-2019, 10:16 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Just reread your post and realised you only print B&W, so in that case steer well away from a colour and only look at a B&W copier.
If your serious about doing 500k per year you want to look at a MP 7503.
Do every thing you want with ease, 350k between services, no known problems and would be the best value for money copier that Ricoh put out.
They have my seal of approval.

**NeoMatrix** · 01-19-2019, 11:55 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Print manage solution is the way to go....
Buy a good high end Black an White copier machine.

Pay the 1-3 cents(B&W) per page for your maintenance contract, then sit back an let the service Tech worry about the machine.
You just press the print button an watch a page come out an staple at the finisher. Let the Tech worry about how that page is printed.

Get on with your business worry free , hassle free, go home an put your feet up each day,let Copier Techs be Copier Techs.....

A lot less grey hair if you worry less about micro management of your business.

**copier tech** · 01-19-2019, 07:09 PM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

At 500k per year go to a reputable copier company & get a new machine on contract this will be your best option not worth buying 2nd hand.

**aussiecopier** · 01-22-2019, 04:25 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Thank you to everyone who has replied! Such great help and useful advice. I am not looking to try to fix my own copier by myself. I will definitely get a technician on task to service the copier. 4 main questions.

1. Now I wanted to get a better understanding if it was better to take choice 1 or choice 2?|

Choice 1: Buy/rent new copier outright and pay for toner/servicing/parts additionally separately

Choice 2: Buy/rent new copier outright and pay via service agreement ($0.006 - $0.01 per copy)

My Situation:
Last year I printed 500,000 copies but only went through about much less than $1000 AUD worth of toners (I wasn't on service agreement but my machine is quite old/dead now).
My only concern was that most of the pages I am copying/printing would have a lot of blank space due to the nature of the worksheets that I print.

A lot of your comments have suggested service agreement is the way to go. Is it still better for my situation to take up service agreement cost-wise & performance-wise?

(Cost & consistent performance is really important to me)

2. Do service agreements ensure I receive better servicing than if I were to get the same company to service me separately or something?)

3. What can I hypothetically expect to pay for servicing/parts separately on a fairly new copier on average?

4. Also is it better to contact/purchase via the manufacturing company directly or is it better to go through a separate reputable local company that distributes a few different brands?

I'm still new to this but thanks so much EVERYONE for your patience and understanding.

**Oze** · 01-22-2019, 05:10 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Originally posted by aussiecopier

Thank you to everyone who has replied! Such great help and useful advice. I am not looking to try to fix my own copier by myself. I will definitely get a technician on task to service the copier. 4 main questions.

1. Now I wanted to get a better understanding if it was better to take choice 1 or choice 2?|

Choice 1: Buy/rent new copier outright and pay for toner/servicing/parts additionally separately

Choice 2: Buy/rent new copier outright and pay via service agreement ($0.006 - $0.01 per copy)

My Situation:
Last year I printed 500,000 copies but only went through about much less than $1000 AUD worth of toners (I wasn't on service agreement but my machine is quite old/dead now).
My only concern was that most of the pages I am copying/printing would have a lot of blank space due to the nature of the worksheets that I print.

A lot of your comments have suggested service agreement is the way to go. Is it still better for my situation to take up service agreement cost-wise & performance-wise?

(Cost & consistent performance is really important to me)

2. Do service agreements ensure I receive better servicing than if I were to get the same company to service me separately or something?)

3. What can I hypothetically expect to pay for servicing/parts separately on a fairly new copier on average?

4. Also is it better to contact/purchase via the manufacturing company directly or is it better to go through a separate reputable local company that distributes a few different brands?

I'm still new to this but thanks so much EVERYONE for your patience and understanding.

You should probably pm Lagonda as the company that he works for is Australia Wide and he can pass your details along to sales.
My recommendation is to purchase/lease a machine and pay for a maintenance agreement.
Tell sales they owe me a beer Lagonda

Typically a Maintenance Agreement cover parts/labour/toner and is arranged by the dealer that you purchase your copier from so it with be THEIR dealer techs that come to service your machine.

**Lagonda** · 01-22-2019, 05:57 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Originally posted by aussiecopier

Choice 1: Buy/rent new copier outright and pay for toner/servicing/parts additionally separately Can't get that option on a new copier. major dealers wont do that on S/H either

Choice 2: Buy/rent new copier outright and pay via service agreement ($0.006 - $0.01 per copy) The only way to go with toner included

My Situation:
Last year I printed 500,000 copies but only went through about much less than $1000 AUD worth of toners (I wasn't on service agreement but my machine is quite old/dead now).
My only concern was that most of the pages I am copying/printing would have a lot of blank space due to the nature of the worksheets that I print. With toner inc deal you just ring up when you run out, no extra cost to you.

A lot of your comments have suggested service agreement is the way to go. Is it still better for my situation to take up service agreement cost-wise & performance-wise?

(Cost & consistent performance is really important to me)

2. Do service agreements ensure I receive better servicing than if I were to get the same company to service me separately or something?) Yes, you go to the top of the queue. Do and Charge customers are a pain in the bum.

3. What can I hypothetically expect to pay for servicing/parts separately on a fairly new copier on average? Lots! an eye watering amount for the parts and $300 for the first hour and $200 an hour after that.

4. Also is it better to contact/purchase via the manufacturing company directly or is it better to go through a separate reputable local company that distributes a few different brands? six of one and half a dozen of the other! We're only a dealer but bigger then some of the RA branches.

Don't take the first quote a salesman gives you, drag out negotiations for a while and make him sweat. They have all just come back from their summer hols and are terrified that the credit card statement is about to drop into the mail box so they will be hungry for a deal.

**sturmtrooper** · 01-22-2019, 04:35 PM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Originally posted by Lagonda

Just reread your post and realised you only print B&W, so in that case steer well away from a colour and only look at a B&W copier.
If your serious about doing 500k per year you want to look at a MP 7503.
Do every thing you want with ease, 350k between services, no known problems and would be the best value for money copier that Ricoh put out.
They have my seal of approval.

If he is printing lots of worksheets that have a lot of blank space a 7503 isn't going to run so hot. Those big machines tend to get unhappy if you don't run constant 5% coverage or better. The ones we have in schools take a lot more work to keep running than others.

Personally I'd rather run an mp6055 and just deal with the more frequent PM's You could probably push it from 160k to over 200k for the drum with constant use anyways.

**NeoMatrix** · 01-22-2019, 09:57 PM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Originally posted by Lagonda

Don't take the first quote a salesman gives you, drag out negotiations for a while and make him sweat. They have all just come back from their summer hols and are terrified that the credit card statement is about to drop into the mail box so they will be hungry for a deal.

They're be licking their lips like a hungry dog in a butcher shop window...

**aussiecopier** · 01-23-2019, 11:39 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Update:

Going to follow through with leasing a brand new machine with a service agreement. Still researching and nothing finalised yet.

Today I had a meeting in Melbourne, Australia summary:

- The sales rep suggested MP 5055SP and MP C4504exSP

About their offer:
- Compared to b/w, the colour machines were relatively slightly cheaper to lease per month and also had a relatively lower b/w cost per copy compared to the b/w machine.
(b/w machine is 0.75c per b/w copy + GST, colour machine is 0.5c per b/w copy + GST) (if you're curious, colour machine is 5c per colour copy - but I personally won't be using this at all for my worksheets)
- He said if I default my copier to b/w toner on the colour machine, I will defs save money via this agreement by going through colour machine (provided I do not touch colour toner at all.
- He said they have a large certified team of techs available to work in our region and average less than 4 hour response rate with 95% of them being sorted in the first visit.
- He said in my specific case, if I go from MP 5055SP to MP 6055SP, I get the exactly almost the same machine with the same life count, only thing different is speed and lease cost per month. Service cost per copy will stay the same. Same thing applies with going from MP C4504exSP to C6004exSP. But he said if I were to go from MP C4504exSP to MP C3504exSP, the MP C3504exSP are a different machine and will have a lower life count as they are built similar to the MP C3004exSP.

He suggested these 4 machines for me (MP 5055SP, MP 6055SP, MP C4504exSP, MP C6004exSP) as he said they are made to take on approx 50k copies per month (which is above my current forecast of 40k copies per month), and fit my other specs of b/w printing, 50-60 cpm & finisher with stapling.

I will keep doing research and will definitely negotiate on pricing/features where possible as suggested.

What do you guys think of the copiers suggested and the structure of their offer so far? Is there anything else I should be looking out for?

**davel** · 01-23-2019, 01:01 PM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Go for the 5055, much easier to service. Colour toner will still be used for routine process control and colour units will need serviceing at some time, also the colour machine has more parts to possibly fail.

**sturmtrooper** · 01-23-2019, 02:34 PM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Originally posted by aussiecopier

Update:

Going to follow through with leasing a brand new machine with a service agreement. Still researching and nothing finalised yet.

Today I had a meeting in Melbourne, Australia summary:

- The sales rep suggested MP 5055SP and MP C4504exSP

About their offer:
- Compared to b/w, the colour machines were relatively slightly cheaper to lease per month and also had a relatively lower b/w cost per copy compared to the b/w machine.
(b/w machine is 0.75c per b/w copy + GST, colour machine is 0.5c per b/w copy + GST) (if you're curious, colour machine is 5c per colour copy - but I personally won't be using this at all for my worksheets)
- He said if I default my copier to b/w toner on the colour machine, I will defs save money via this agreement by going through colour machine (provided I do not touch colour toner at all.
- He said they have a large certified team of techs available to work in our region and average less than 4 hour response rate with 95% of them being sorted in the first visit.
- He said in my specific case, if I go from MP 5055SP to MP 6055SP, I get the exactly almost the same machine with the same life count, only thing different is speed and lease cost per month. Service cost per copy will stay the same. Same thing applies with going from MP C4504exSP to C6004exSP. But he said if I were to go from MP C4504exSP to MP C3504exSP, the MP C3504exSP are a different machine and will have a lower life count as they are built similar to the MP C3004exSP.

He suggested these 4 machines for me (MP 5055SP, MP 6055SP, MP C4504exSP, MP C6004exSP) as he said they are made to take on approx 50k copies per month (which is above my current forecast of 40k copies per month), and fit my other specs of b/w printing, 50-60 cpm & finisher with stapling.

I will keep doing research and will definitely negotiate on pricing/features where possible as suggested.

What do you guys think of the copiers suggested and the structure of their offer so far? Is there anything else I should be looking out for?

If you only really ever need the BW get the BW machine. A color machine where the color drums are never used will slowly kill itself over time. They must be hoping you'll get hooked on having a color machine and start running a bunch of color clicks at the higher cost. Also price difference from ricoh for a MP 5055 and an MPC 4504ex is a couple thousand dollars at least. You should go over all the numbers very carefully to determine what upfront costs are going to be, what you will be expected to pay per month for the lease cost of just the machine alone before copy clicks, what kind of buyout price you are expected to pay at end of lease, etc. Personally im getting a bit of a "too good to be true" vibe on the color machine being cheaper.

Additionally anything you PRINT in full color mode will be charged as color regardless of actual color content in the file.

For both the BW and Color machines 50K a month is near the top of the MAX rated monthly volume. I think they'd do it, but you should keep that in mind.

**NeoMatrix** · 01-24-2019, 12:38 AM

Re: Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Its welcoming to see that you've done a tad of home work....

With out trying to sway your decision; you've basically already answer your own question.
You've already stated you wanted a work horse black and white machine.

Would you want to buy a top line Mercedes car to drive around the city shopping, just incase you greet with royalty?
It might happen, but the additional bells and whistles may not warrant the limited justification.

Either a colour or B&W machine can work for you. From a Tech perspective a B&W machine is generally quicker and easier to service.

Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

Ricoh Copier Pages Life Count

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