Does it really matter if a company has a service department capable of servicing their own equipment? My answer to that is yes. Of course it does.

There are a lot of office equipment dealers out there trying to get your hard-earned cash. Good for them, but there is one problem. Many dealers of office equipment are unable to service their own products. If a gear gets broken, a manual needs to be replaced or some other problem occurs, you’re out of luck.

What surprises me is that many Internet dealers have an “all sales are final” policy. This means if your equipment is faulty or you need to return something, you’re out of luck. Because this is typically in their Terms & Conditions, they have washed their hands free of responsibility.

ABC Office has its own service department with a full-time staff. We are able to repair our entire selection of equipment, order you parts and offer technical support over the phone. We back our products and know exactly how they work. You can rest assured that ABC Office has your back.

If you don’t want to bother sending your equipment into ABC Office for repair, we have a national network of repair departments capable of fixing your equipment on site. Just give us a call and we can hook you up.

You can visit our service department page online by going here.

As with any retailer / distributor, over time an accumulation of used and demo products will occur. At ABC Office, we have a large showroom that is full of demo products. Most of these pieces of office equipment have been used for demonstrations over the Internet via our Live Video Demos. The equipment is lightly used and in like-new condition. Many pieces have only been out for display.

We also have an accumulation of returns that can no longer be sold as new. This means a customer purchased the product and either didn’t want it anymore or exchanged it for an upgrade. This equipment is often never used or has only been pulled out of the box a couple of times. We have a star rating system, from one to five, that lets you know how good a condition it is in.

Last, but not least, we have several closeout items. These are items that have been sitting in our warehouse, but need to be moved to make room for new stock. These products are brand new, but priced to move.

We now have a large online index of all three product categories: used, returns and closeouts. Products can be ordered online, and because they ARE in stock, they will usually ship out same day.

You can see the entire selection of used / closeout office equipment here: http://www.abcoffice.com/overstock-used.htm

I get a lot of questions from people asking me what the difference is between cross cut, diamond cut, particle cut and confetti cut paper shredders. The short and quick answer is that there is not really any difference between the various synonyms. The original and probably more correct terminology for paper cut in a criss-cross pattern is cross cut.

Cross cut is a generalized word that can be used to cover all the various shredding terms. Diamond cut paper shredders typically cut paper into very tiny diamond-shaped particles, but this is still referred to as a cross cut paper shredder. The same goes with confetti cut. Confetti cut shredders, which produce very skinny 1 to 2-inch long strips is also a type of cross cut shredder.

Cross cut is even spelled differently, depending on who you talk to. I have seen it spelled both cross cut and crosscut. Ultimately there really is no wrong answer, but you’ll probably confuse fewer people if you stick to using “cross cut” when referring to this type of shredder.

Cross cut shredders cut paper into various sizes and lengths. The different cut patterns are referred to as “security levels,” sometimes referred to as DIN 32757 (the official definitions). The higher the security level, the more secure your shredded information will be.

The highest security level currently available is security level 6, which is almost dust. This security level is used by the military and government for top secret shredding. While most people will not need shredder security level that high, I wouldn’t recommend going with anything under a security level 3 if you can help it.

You can see detailed specifications on all paper shredder security levels by going here: http://www.abcoffice.com/shredder_guide.htm#security

When looking for lamination film, you have probably noticed the term mil come up. Lamination film is often available in 1.5, 3, 5, 7 and 10-mil thickness. Logically it would seem the higher the number the thicker the film. That would be correct. But what does the term mil stand for?

Mil comes from the Latin mille, which means a thousand. One mil, in lamination measurement terms, is a thousandth of an inch. Your standard credit card is 30-mils thick, which equals out to be 0.03-inches thick.

If you like to use pouch laminators, you may think that a 10-mil pouch is 0.010 inches thick. That would be incorrect. It is a bit of a trick question. Lamination pouches, when labeled 3, 5, 7 or 10 mils thick, are actually referring to one side of the lamination pouch (total of two sides). Combining both sides of the lamination pouch, the thickness is doubled. A 10 mil lamination pouch is actually a total of 20 mils thick once laminated, not counting the paper, photograph or card being laminated.

Roll lamination film, on the other hand, is a little less confusing. When you buy a roll of 5-mil film, you get a 5-mil roll. Remember, however, that roll laminators use two rolls of film to laminate a poster, map or whatever you need. Using a 5-mil roll on the top and a 5-mil roll on the bottom would be a total of 10 mils of film. Simple math.

Getting back to pouch laminators, you may have ordered a box of 7-mil lamination pouches and noticed on the box that it says 2/5. Yes, 2+5 does equal 7, but what does it mean? That number is letting you know that the pouch consists of 2 mils laminate glue and 5 mils of hard plastic, giving you the total of 7. This isn’t always labeled on the box, but often is.

You can read more about laminators and lamination by reading our lamination guide here: http://www.abcoffice.com/laminating_guide.htm.

Good luck laminating!

In case you haven’t been around the past decade, scrapbooking is huge. It is a multi-million dollar business and is popular in both hard and computer formats. Although scrapbooking by means of a computer has its benefits, most of the people I know use traditional stamps, custom-printed cardstock, scissors, glue and printed photographs.

I have been asked on several occasions, by customers, family and friends, which paper cutter is the best for scrapbooking. A lot of it depends on what you plan on doing, but I have personally purchased the Carl RT-200 paper cutter for my wife and she loves it. I’ll explain.

The RT-200, although a low-volume cutter, is inexpensive and is packed with features. It uses a rotary blade, which ensures a straight cut every time. Not only that, but about 11 different blades are available depending on the cut you desire. This varies from a perforating blade and a deckle blade to scallop or Victorian blade. It cuts through cardstock and photographs without a problem.

You can find the Carl RT-200 cutter here. For the price you really can’t go wrong, especially considering the cost of ink stamps, thermography powder and other scrapbooking equipment. Good luck with your scrapbooking!

You don’t often say, “What genius invented this?” when referring to a letter opener. That is exactly what I say, however, when presented with the task of opening hundreds or even thousands of letters at once. And no, I’m not referring to this kind of letter opener:

I’m talking about the Porche of letter openers. The machines that are fully mechanized and ready to open hundreds of letters in seconds. They range from hand-held electric letter openers to assembly-line style letter openers capable of handling bag loads of letters.

This is an example of a hand-held letter opener. It can be easily held in one hand, is completely portable and can be stored in a cupboard or desk drawer at the office.

And this is an example of an industrial-strength letter opener. It is designed for high-volume industrial use. This is something you would see in a large business mail room. Although big, it is still relatively easy to set up and use.

These letter openers are readily available at ABC Office. Take a look at this selection of letter openers.

Letter openers vary from speed, size and quality, but any of these models certainly beat using a pair of scissors, a knife or even your bare hands. Come and take a look. You’ll probably find something you like.

We are always looking at new ways to help educate our customers and help them learn more about the office equipment they are purchasing. Over the past few years we added several product category guides to our Web site loaded with information. You can find those guides by going here:
http://www.abcoffice.com/product_guide.htm.

We have just added three new “How To” guides to our Web site. The “How To” guides are different than the older guides because the offer more detailed information on specific products. The three new guides just added to ABC Office are the How To Comb Bind, How To Wire Bind and How To VeloBind.

Each guide includes detailed information on how to use the binding machines including step-by-step details and also includes links to video demonstrations of the products. You can find the three current “How To” guides here:

How To Comb Bind

How To Wire Bind

How To VeloBind

We plan on adding many more “How To” guides to our Web site over the coming weeks and months. Be sure to come back and check out our new guides!

This month we added a new business card cutter to our Web site. This new business card cutter is called the Instant Card and is made by Tamerica. This new business card helps a wide variety of organizations and businesses to create their own business cards in seconds. All that is needed is a printer and the business card cutter. Once printed, a sheet of business cards can be cut down in seconds.

Businesses typically use business cards on a daily basis, especially in sales and trade show environments. Business cards are a great way to get your name out and build relationships/network with clients, customers and more. This new business card cutter is designed to help people and businesses save money by moving operations in-house.

This particular business card cutter is different from the rest because it can be used with glossy paper, photographic paper and a variety of cardstocks. It works with both laser and inkjet printers. Come take a look at the Instant Card business card cutter for yourself by going here.

At ABC Office we are now offering service agreement plans available to all customers on almost the entire product line. These new service agreements will help give you peace of mind knowing that your newly purchased office equipment is guaranteed to work for the duration of the agreement. Our new service agreements are for a one-year period of time and
may be renewed.

The new service agreements guarantee the performance of the product for a year. The contract will cover shipping, parts and labor. You can read more about the service agreements here.

These new agreements should help you cut down on downtime and keep your business up and running.

You are probably already familiar with service agreements in others industries, such as automotive and electronics products. We are one of the first online office equipment retailers to offer this service. Our service technician has reported that the new service is already proving itself successful, after just a few days of being online.

These new service contracts can be purchased online through our shopping cart or may be ordered over the phone (800-658-8788). Feel free to look at and take advantage of this new service.

Many of you may already be aware of this, but we offer a monthly newsletter written by me, Dave. The newsletter is informative, short and good reading. I take a compilation of the most common questions throughout the month and post answers in the newsletter.

It is pretty safe to say that if one customer has a question regarding a product, there are probably several others out there with the same question.Subscribers, and customers, are more than welcome to send us questions anytime. They will always be answered and may even be featured in the newsletter.

The “Ask Dave” newsletter goes out on a monthly basis. The newsletter usually features a few promotions exclusively available to newsletter subscribers. The format of the newsletter usually includes about three to four questions with answers. Industry news is sometimes mentioned in the newsletter as well.

You can subscribe to the newsletter by going here. If for any reason you don’t like the newsletter or no longer want to receive it, it is very easy to unsubscribe. Try out the newsletter today!