Choosing a Printer Cartridge Shop That Will Fulfil Your Needs at an Affordable Price

When you rely on your printer, or a number of printers to get business done, you will need a cartridge shop that you can rely on at all times. This is even truer when you tend to work after hours or over weekends. Often, printers have the nasty habit of running out of ink or toner at the most unexpected and inconvenient times, so you need some good backup when this happens.

While you can find a printer cartridge shop in virtually any shopping mall in South Africa, it is often hard to find the particular one that will suit your needs the best. Here, we provide you with some tips on how to choose the best shop for your particular needs.
  • Do Some Research: One of the best ways to learn about any kind of supplier is by word of mouth. Ask colleagues or friends for recommendations. They often have experience with different suppliers, and will be able to provide more information about the way that the company operates. If you cannot find recommendations from friends, do research. Look at the history of the company, their client lists, online references or recommendations, and their catalogues of products and prices. This will provide you with a good indication of what you can expect when you work with them.
 
  • Keep it Local: Pay attention and focus on the companies that have branches that are close to your work or home. This brings down delivery costs and also shortens delivery times. If the cartridge shop you like is far away from you, enquire about their distribution network and courier services. Often, these outlets are based in one town, but have a reliable network of distributors that you can rely on to supply the products you need in a short space of time.
 
  • Know What You Need: You will have to have a firm understanding of the types of products you need. Make an inventory of all the printers and their makes and model numbers, as well as the type of ink or toner cartridges they will need. Some printers will be used more often than others, so a history of how long a cartridge will typically last and how often these should be replaced will be very helpful. This will allow you to supply the shop with an inventory that they can use to anticipate your needs, and order the products that you will need on a proactive basis to ensure that they always have the products in stock that you need.
 
  • Do Not Choose on Price Alone: While the prices at one cartridge shop may be much lower than another, you have to find out whether there are hidden costs. Sometimes, the generic cartridges they sell are low quality, and while it costs much less than an OEM cartridge, it may provide very low print quality, blotches on pages, and prints that fade quickly. If print quality is vital, it is best to stick to branded, manufacturers’ cartridges. If print quality does not have to be optimised, there are often third-party and generic brands of toners and ink that can be used instead. These tend to cost much less than OEM printing consumables as well.
 
  • Check Out Their Customer Service: Great customer service and a good relationship with the cartridge shop of your choice are both important as well. Ideally, you should be allocated a dedicated person that will look after your business account. This person should hold full accountability and be your point of contact. This means that you do not have to speak to strangers or to people at the cartridge shop that do not have any idea how your business works or what your printing needs are.

At CH Africa, we specialise in the provision of high-quality OEM and generic printing consumables. We have a wide distribution network and can deliver anywhere in the country. Because we work hard to build and sustain long-term business relationships with printer manufacturers across the world, such as Canon, HP, Brother, Lexmark, and many others, we often order products in bulk, which provides us with significant savings. We pass these savings on to our customers in turn, and everyone is happy!

To find out more about our cartridge shop and arrange a meeting to discuss your requirements, give our team at CH Africa a call.
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