Photocopier maintenance and service contracts: what they should cover

An office copier is full of moving parts that wear with every page: rollers that pick up paper, a drum that carries the image, and a fuser that melts toner onto the page. Paper dust and toner build up inside. Without regular cleaning and part replacement, quality drops, jams increase and eventually something expensive fails.

Regular servicing costs less than emergency repairs and keeps the machine running when you need it most, like exam time in a school or a deadline in an office.

• Pay as you go. You call a technician when something goes wrong and pay for each visit and part. Cheapest if your machine rarely breaks, unpredictable if it does.
• Maintenance contract. A monthly or yearly fee covers scheduled servicing and labour, and sometimes parts. Parts like drums may still be extra.
• All-inclusive or cost-per-page contract. You pay per page printed (often with a monthly minimum) and the vendor supplies toner, parts and labour. Simple to budget, but read the page rates carefully.

Which suits you depends on how much you print and how much downtime costs you. A print shop or school usually benefits from a contract; a light-use office may not.

Ask for these in writing before you sign:

• What's covered: labour, parts, drums, fuser, toner. List the exceptions.
• Response time: how many hours or days until a technician arrives, and whether that's written into the contract.
• Scheduled visits: how often the machine will be cleaned and checked.
• Page counts and rates: how pages are counted, who reads the meter, and the price for black and colour pages.
• Contract length and exit terms: the minimum term, notice period and any early termination fee.
• Price changes: whether the fee can rise during the contract, for example with the exchange rate.
• If it can't be fixed: whether you get a replacement or loan machine while yours is repaired.

• Protect it from power problems. Voltage fluctuations damage electronics. Use a stabiliser or UPS.
• Use good toner. Cheap or fake toner is a common cause of streaks, leaks and damaged drums. Our guide to checking whether toner is original explains what to look for.
• Keep paper dry and flat. Damp or curled paper jams.
• Clean the glass and feeder. Lines on copies are often just dirt on the scanner glass.
• Don't force jammed paper out. Follow the machine's instructions; torn paper left inside causes more jams.
• Watch the warnings. Replace toner and parts when the machine asks, not weeks later.

Get offers from two or three vendors and compare the yearly cost for your actual page volume, including anything not covered. A cheap contract with slow response times can cost more in lost work than a dearer one with a same-day promise.

If you're still choosing a machine, ask about servicing before you buy. Our list of questions to ask before buying a photocopier covers it, and the buy vs lease calculator lets you add servicing to the total cost.