Office Equipment Blog from Office Zone

Why do you order products online? Do you shop via the Internet to find the best price deals possible? How about no taxes? A lot of people like the fact that most of their online purchases are tax-free (at least for now).

Larger selection. Some prefer browsing through a Web site that offers a lot of stuff. Or is it the convenience of ordering right from your office or from home? No travel-related hassles, including the rising cost of fuel, is a big deciding factor with me.

So, let me know why you order online. I’m curious to know!

When you call a company’s customer service line, do you like having your call answered by a live operator or by a computer? For example, at Office Zone we have a live operator answer your call when you dial our number (1-800-543-5454). If you’re like me, this saves a lot of time and frustration.

Several businesses, however, use an automated system that sometimes makes it difficult to speak to a live person, who can hopefully solve your problem. So, what’s your preference? Do you have any strong feelings one way or the other? How do you vote: live operator or computer?

If you’re like me, you probably visit quite a few Web sites during the day. You may have noticed that some offer a live chat feature like the one on Office Zone. Companies put this on their Web site in hopes that it will enhance customer service. Do you ever use live chat or think it’s just a waste of time? Have you ever been on a Web site, tried to use their chat and no one was there to answer?

If you’ve had the chance to use live chat on our site, was it helpful? Or did you just find it easier to give us a phone call or send an e-mail? Feel free to give us your feedback, positive or negative.

We received an interesting question the other day about our bill counting machines. The caller wanted to know if any of our models could detect and identify different bill denominations. Unfortunately, most money counters like this one cannot do it. However, we just added a new model that actually does. It’s called the Shinwoo SB1000 Discriminator. Kind of sounds like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Anyway, it not only counts bills, but can identify and spit out a one dollar bill stuck inside a stack of mixed twenty dollar bills. The machine is a significant investment, when compared to most of the other bill counters we sell, but it actually can tell the difference between different values of money. Pretty impressive!

We had a customer ask us the other day if manufacturers misrepresent the capabilities of their machines. A common point of confusion is automatic paper folding machines. Take the MBM 206M High-Volume Paper Folder for example. MBM claims the speed of this machine’s motor is capable of folding a whopping 10,500 letters per hour — an impressive number, no doubt.

After some informal in-house testing here at Office Zone, we’ve verified that this machine’s motor is indeed capable of this kind of volume. MBM has had other outside sources verify this number too. However, we obviously do not recommend you continually operate your paper folder, or any other machinery for that matter, at its maximum operating speed for long stretches of time. That would be like running your car at 120 mph. Yes, your car would mostly likely do 120, but aside from risking your neck and jail time, doing this would increase wear and tear to various parts — dramatically cutting the lifespan of your car. The same is true for office equipment.

The best thing for you to do — if you are using a paper folding machine for example — is to look up the folder’s duty cycle, included in the product manual. Or you can always ask an authorized representative like Office Zone. This will tell you how many hours the machine could be realistically used in a day.

Welcome to the Office Zone Office Equipment Blog! My name is Morgan Cloward and I am the director of marketing with Office Zone. Here, I will post some of the more interesting questions we’ve received about office equipment and other related items. I hope you find the information found here intriguing (well, as intriguing as office equipment can be) and helpful. Feel free to post your comments about my posts and any questions you may have. Be sure to return at least once a week to view new topics and discussions. Your participation is encouraged!