You would never want your point of sale system to be down because you ran out of paper. Receipt and remote printers are the parts of your point of sale system most prone to failure. The same is true with regard to not have a supply of ribbons to use when your existing ribbon gets too light to read. Of course this is not the same as printers in any case. Using the standard parallel printer connection for your receipt printer gives you the option to utilize the serial and USB connections for other peripheral devices that will not work on a parallel interface. Most printer manufacturers sell their printers at or even below cost, which makes them seem amazingly affordable.
You might be shocked at the cost when compared to owning your own backup equipment. This is not like cheap HP printers for sale, even thought this is a common misconception. Both Canon and Hewlett-Packard have been involved in lawsuits over both cartridges and alleged unfair competition. To check to see if your computer does have a parallel connection look at the bank of connections generally found in the back of your computer.
Even with your prepaid service agreement the technician has drive time to your place of business or there is shipping time if you are more than a day of travel from the service provider’s office. In 2005, Lexmark won a suit that gives the company the authority under patent and contract law to enforce the “single use only” policy that’s written on the boxes in which their cartridges are packaged. The connectors at each end of a parallel cable are very wide and impossible to run through conduit without cutting off the ends.
You keep other supplies in your operation and you should consider keeping a backup printer as well. Tonik also offers an unconditional guarantee on its Tonik brand of compatible ink cartridges, as well as selling original manufacturer product for all leading ink and toner printers at low prices. Which can be similar to cheap Canon printers for sale in some instances. These same connectors are perfect for receipt printers because they lock into place.
In systems where a parallel printer is used as the point of sale receipt printer and a serial or Ethernet printer is used for the remote printer you will need to buy 2 different printers as most printers do not have multiple interfaces. Not all point of sale software uses parallel printers. Your customers are not inconvenienced by not receiving a receipt, guest check or by having their food come out of the kitchen slow because the kitchen printer is down.
