When your office printer goes down, it can feel like the whole workplace grinds to a halt. Deadlines get pushed, employees hover around the machine pressing buttons, and someone eventually says, “How hard could it be to fix this thing?”

We know how tempting it is to roll up your sleeves and try to fix it yourself, especially when repair costs and downtime feel overwhelming. But printers aren’t like coffee machines or microwaves. They’re complex, high-voltage devices packed with delicate parts, specialized software, and very specific repair needs.

As a print vendor with decades of experience, we’ve seen many businesses try to handle repairs themselves. More often than not, this approach ends up costing more in the long run, both financially and in lost productivity.

In this blog, we’ll break down four big reasons why servicing your own printer or copier is a bad idea, and what you should be doing instead to keep your office equipment running smoothly.

It’s a sad fact that most school budgets are tight. This makes it crucial that schools are careful about their spending. And, when it comes to school spending, printing-related costs can be some of the most draining. Every dollar spent on paper waste or untracked printing could be dollars better spent on classroom resources, technology upgrades, or student programs. In fact, studies show schools can spend as much as 1–3% of their annual budget on printing alone.

Given these costs, it’s understandable that school administrators and IT directors struggle to manage printing resources efficiently. Issues like toner closets filled with the wrong cartridges, staff printing unnecessary color copies, and printers frequently breaking down when teachers need them most can turn print management into a full-time job.

Think about the last time you had a deadline and were waiting for a print job to arrive. Maybe it was a batch of event brochures, training manuals, or direct mail pieces. You had the designs ready, the order placed, and then you waited, hoping there wouldn’t be a shipping delay, a misprint, or an unexpected rush fee. For many organizations, this back-and-forth raises a bigger question: Would it be better to invest in a production printer and bring this work in-house, or should we keep outsourcing?

It’s a decision businesses wrestle with more often than you might think. At STPT, we work with organizations of all sizes, from schools and churches to enterprise print shops, who are weighing this exact choice. The truth is, both in-house production printing and outsourcing have strengths and weaknesses. The right option depends on your volume, budget, priorities, and long-term plans.

So, you’re nearing the end of your lease agreement for your office’s printer/copier and want to know what your options are. 

Knowing your end-of-lease options is crucial. Consumers who ignore the upcoming end of their copier lease agreement can open themselves up to automatic lease extensions if they don’t notify their print vendor or provider in a timely fashion.  

This means you could be paying for a machine you no longer want for another year, resulting in frustration and financial burden to the tune of thousands of dollars.  

As a long-time print vendor, we’ve learned the importance of having a plan for when you come to the end of your lease. And since over 90% of our customers choose to lease their machines, we’ve had to assist a number of clients in their post-lease decision. 

Just like any app on your phone, printer apps can also reach an “end of service.” But what happens when you get an email that reads “this app will reach end of service next month”? What does that actually mean? Will the app simply stop working? And most importantly, what should you do about it?

As long-time Xerox partners, we’ve guided businesses through this exact scenario more times than we can count. Printer apps, like those in the Xerox App Gallery, are meant to go through a lifecycle. And while “end of service” sounds ominous, it doesn’t have to spell disaster if you understand what it truly means and plan ahead.

In this article, we’ll explain what end-of-service for printer apps really is, the risks of ignoring it, how Xerox typically handles it, and the smartest steps you can take to keep your workflows running smoothly.

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