can anyone give me some advice regarding these machines,
we are not sure which is best for us, we are a quick printing and copy centre
i have an C3220 and was looking to either replace it with 5180 or Xerox 260,
can't decide, canon is much cheaper but Xerox seems to have a better print quality.
mostly used for printing heavy stocks, Tabs, and high speed quality black and whites,

your reply is appreciated

thanks
A2282

As I just mentioned in your other thread, one of the first things I'd do if I were you is to talk with customers who are currently serviced by your local Xerox techs since you're already familiar with canon support in your area. In my location which is fairly isolated I was really attracted to the xerox machines, but the local xerox techs don't provide good service whereas the Ikon support for canon machines is simply excellent. A great machine with poor support is worthless to me though, so I can't consider xerox machines no matter how good they are if the support isn't good.

Jeff is right, first and foremost get a working relationship with your techs. But as one technician told me about Canon equipment vs Minolta- the minolta was easily 3x more reliable. And to Xerox, there is no equal.

I just got done talking with a Xerox tech today. He told me that outside of Seattle there are 3 techs for the entire state of Washington, and non of them are Xerox in house people, but contract workers. I would assume this is the same for other companies as well.

The other problem with downtime is the time lag with parts, does your service vendor ALWAYS overnight parts? That's a major part with me.

Did you ever get any info on this? We are comparing a c1 to a 242

C1 very reliable good construction. Will last the duration of your lease. Slow on heavier stuff. Best quality in my opinion

242 great quality but not on par with C1. Fast and functional. More rip options but its built more like fast plastic.