Printer Quest - An Epic Adventure Part Deux

To bring you up to speed, our heroes just finished Day 22 of their quest for a new printer, only to come up empty handed. Things are starting to get tense for our trio as a new printer MUST be acquired for the big 'First Birthday Invitation' job Embee has to complete before the end of the month.

And now back to our tale...

Day 23: The better part of day 23 was spent scouring the internet for every review of EVERY printer EVER made. A thoroughly frustrating task as nearly EVERY printer has a different model number from the one which is reviewed.

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth occurs due to the mental wrestling over what options are most important to have in a printer. The struggle goes something like this... Do you want a printer that prints color? Well yes. Okay, Do you want a printer with a scanner? Well, we already have a scanner so, not really. Do you want a printer with a copier? Um, okay. Do you want a printer with a fax? Hmmmm? I never fax anything so, No, I don't really want a printer with a fax. BUZZ! Sorry, you fail, the printer you're looking at comes with a fax! Um, okay, I'll take the fax thing then. But, may I ask, Does this printer come with cd printing capabilities because NOW I really want that. BUZZ! No this printer does NOT come with that option. You Fail! Then you begin searching for a new model all over again. Then the one you find, that you think you like, has a review which states, "This printer sucks! I've done nothing but try to clear paper jams ever since I turned it on." And then you're back to square ONE!

Evening of Day 23 sounded something like this: "I've decided on model #C6480, yep, I read the reviews, that's the right one." Husband looks up model on laptop and points out an obvious flaw regarding ink style. Half-hour later, "You were right about that last one, I think I want the C4450, yep, that one is a winner!" Guess what, the big box electronic store you got that $200 gift card for DOESN'T SELL THAT MODEL! Round and round it went for hours.

Day 24: Admitting defeat, because I've reached the point at which I just don't give a damn anymore, I send husband and computer boy to the big box electronic store to buy whatever the hell printer they think is the best. I'm DONE with trying to make this decision. Just as they're preparing to pull out of the garage to leave, I run like a mad-woman from the bedroom upstairs, screaming for my daughter to stop them. Just in the nick of time I catch up to my husband and hand him the $200 gift card still in my purse. Because yeah, that would've been just a perfect 'Icing on the Cake' scenario to this whole annoying situation. "Look son, we found the printer, it's perfect, let's go to the check-out and purchase this here beauty. Oh wait?" *mwah-mwah-mwah! You Lose!*

Day 24: Two hours after husband and son leave for big box electronic store with gift card in hand: Cell phone rings. "Hello?"

Husband says, "You know that printer we were going to buy but didn't, the last time we were at the store? Well the day we looked at it, that was the sale price and it's not on sale anymore, it's now a hundred dollars OVER the amount of our gift card. They're telling me there's a sale that starts tomorrow, so NO printer today." *The loud banging you would've heard, were you within earshot? Was from my head repeatedly hitting the wall*

Day 25: Could it be? Is this the day? We'll see! I once again opt to just stay home and read a book as husband and computer boy head out, ONCE AGAIN, to that big box electronic store, this time with the gift card already in hand.

This is the story they shared when they returned after 2 hours.
"We went to the first big box electronic store and what do you think we found? We found the printer we wanted but it wasn't on sale. We asked the employee about the price and he simply stated it wasn't on sale this week." BUZZ! You lose!

"Then we decided to head across town to the 2nd same name, big box electronic store and see what the story was there. When we got there we found the printer we'd decided on but it was still priced at over $300. HOWEVER, as we were standing there, a timid little printer rep lady approached and asked if we had any questions." Husband proceeded to share our printer quest tale of woe. That's when timid little printer rep lady said, "You know, if you go over to the computer department and look online, you might be able to find this printer at another store cheaper and this big box electronic store will match the price." My husband and son kind of hemmed and hawed because they didn't quite believe this could be true or they just didn't know where to start looking.

"Eventually we made their way over to the computer department and plucked at a few sites." they continued. "When to our surprise, the timid little printer rep lady, who had been tap-tap-tapping away at a nearby computer walked over and softly said, "You know, that printer is on sale at Target for $199. You can just go over to Customer Service and have them look up the price and they'll match it." Husband and son could hardly believe their ears... They scurried over to Customer Service and received verification that the price would indeed be matched.

Legend has it that the big box electronic store had never before seen two more agile men make a run for the printer department, grab a box and make their way through checkout, WITH a gift card, in quite the record time, that my husband and son succeeded in attaining. My son says as they made their way out of the store with the printer in hand it was a scene out of that new IKEA commercial. They were both running through the parking lot yelling, "Start the car! Start the car!"

My new printer has now found it's home. No, it doesn't the the ability to print on cd's and yes, it does have a fax but I'm not going to waste time focusing on anything other than the fact that it prints out a damn fine photograph. I'll just have to wait and see how it performs for this 'Birthday Invitation' job I have to complete by Sunday. In fact, I really shouldn't be blogging, I should be PRINTING!