The pros and cons of a three-in-one printer

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I purchased an all-in-one printer from Best Buy. It was on sale and I thought I was getting a great deal. When I checked out the cashier asked me if I wanted to buy the extended warrantee. I asked how much it was. It was over $100. I can't remember the exact price, but I remember my jaw dropping open as I laughed out loud. The printer/scanner/fax was on sale for $99. I asked the cashier why the warrantee cost more than the item. She said, I guess they must break a lot. I looked at her funny and asked her, "Why would you sell something that breaks a lot? Maybe I shouldn't buy the item." The cashier proceeded to try and sell me the warrantee. I still declined and then asked to see the manager. When the manager arrived I asked him why the warrantee was more expensive than the item I was purchasing. He said because with a 3-in-1 item it is very likely that something will break. He then tried to talk me into purchasing the warrantee. I told him I didn't think it was a good deal. He tried to convince me otherwise. I then told him it would be less expensive to buy a second printer/scanner/fax and have it as a backup and save the difference in the price they were charging for the warrantee. He actually asked me if he could go run and grab the second printer for me. After I got home, I wasn't even sure if I should keep the item. I went online and started googling to see if the item I purchased was a decent deal and how often they are known to break.

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The great thing about an all-in-one or a three-in-one printer is that you can save hundreds of dollars. Purchasing a fax, a scanner, and a printer can get rather expensive, not to mention take up far more room then any normal person might have in a small home office. I wouldn't have room for my computer if I have all three of those on my desk! The down side is, there does tend to be more problems. When I first hooked up my hp the printer worked great, but the computer kept giving me an error notice that said "No scanner detected". I didn't understand how it could read the printer as being attached but not the scanner, which happened to be the exact same item. I ended up having to do a computer update and it fixed the problem. I have a laptop so my computer isn't always attached to the printer. I have had the same problem twice since I first attached it to the computer.

Comments 5 comments

Overall, the money savings is worth it for the few small problems I have had. I rarely fax things since I prefer email, but I have had to use the fax for a few bank documents in the past and have never had a problem. Unless you plan to utilize all three features very often, buying a three-in-one or all-in-one printer is definitely a deal, just opt out on the extended warrantee!

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billybuc 6 days ago from Olympia, WALevel 8 Commenter

Good review, good suggestions. It just isn't worth it for me to have one; what in the world would I need a fax for? :) Good job my friend!

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TycoonSam 6 days ago from Washington, MILevel 4 Commenter

Interesting point about the warranty. I have a Canon Three in One and Yes, after three years it died completely. I replaced it with the newer version of the same one for half the price the original one cost. I think it was a good deal. The only down side for me was that I have a bunch if ink from the old one and the new one takes a different size ink cartridge...go figure.

Great Hub. Voted up and useful.

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kschang 6 days ago from San Francisco, CA, USALevel 5 Commenter

Best Buy makes a lot of money on those extended warranties. It's almost pure profit for them. Frankly, your printer already has a warranty: 1 year parts and labor. If it breaks AFTER one year, you could probably buy a newer model that's faster / better instead of trying to get that one fixed.

I bought a Samsung multi-function (fax / scan / print / copy ) and it broke after 3 months. Sent it to local repair shop, got it back in 3 days. When it died again, this time out of warranty, and was told it would cost $150 to repair, I headed down to Office Max and bought their floor demo for $125, exact same model.

Printers don't break THAT much, and inkjets are cheap enough to be disposable. Those BB folks are way pushy in sales. Next time, just say "no thank you".

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Cyndi10 3 days ago from GeorgiaLevel 7 Commenter

It seems a lot of products are made to break down now and have limited warranties from the manufacturer. They almost convince us that those extended warranties are a must have, but your case was definitely silly on Best Buy's part. Why buy the warranty when you can buy a new printer at the same price? As kschang says, it will probably be faster and better, anyway. Well done article.

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Christa Michelle 3 days ago from Fort Myers, FloridaHub Author

I remember as a kid my Nana had the same phone in her kitchen for years. I am lucky if a phone lasts me a year. Things back then were built for us to acquire. Now they are made for us to consume. If they made things of good quality we wouldn't need to purchase a new one in a few months and that would not be good for their company. It's sad. That is one of the reasons we have so much garbage and pollution, greed.