Color Printing

When it comes to color printing needs, working with a mega printer can be the smart way to go.  A mega printer is a printer that has at least $500 million in sales volume each year. Mega printers aren’t right for everyone though. Here are some pros and cons to working with a mega printer.

Pros

They have more resources for bigger print jobs. Bigger printers obviously have more workers, which means that each worker is probably assigned to do one thing. That means designers can be hired to only work on designing projects, not to also work the presses half of the time. Mega printers can afford to buy the biggest, nicest printers (which can translate into the fastest printers) and they can buy them in bulk which means that they can turn around printing jobs quickly.

They can be cheaper. One print buyer has been quoted saying that when he has a large project he always goes with a mega printer because he can get a bulk discount.

They could save you on shipping costs. Depending on how many printing plants a mega printer has, there could be one close to your place of business. This means you can have your project printed at one of the closer plants and the delivery charges will be less because your project doesn’t have to travel as far. With rising gas prices, this could be a big factor for a lot of people.

They can give you more options. Mega printers often have more color printing options, more binding options and can do more of your work for you. Some might even design, print and mail your entire project for you.

Cons

The customer service level is below that of a smaller printer. A mega printer has more customer service reps that are trying to get through more customer issues than a smaller printer. You could speak to a different person each time you called, rather than speaking with the same customer service rep at a smaller printer. This means you could spend more time on the phone, re-explaining your problem to a new person each time.

You’re a small fish in a big pond. You are just one of thousands of customers, so you won’t get the preferred service you might get with a smaller printer that really values your business.

More chance for billing errors. More customers mean more invoices. One print buyer reported that he worked with a small printer that was bought out by a mega printer. The billing errors got so ridiculous that he took his business to a smaller printer. How much patience do you have to deal with erroneous paperwork?

Mega printers don’t offer as much flexibility. The buyer has to adhere to constraints for invoicing, inventory and she might have to order her projects in a certain way. Smaller printers can be more flexible because they don’t have as many orders to track. You may have to give up some of your control to reap the benefits of working with a mega printer.