[OT] Pay-per-click Colour Printers

["Rob Mouser" <groups@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, sorry for the OT but I'm trying to help a friend out. He has a
Gestetner
DSc38 colour printer that he purchased outright but pays for toner and
maintenance through a pay per click/page deal. About a penny for B&W A4
and
8p for colour.



The problem is that he had recently noticed his bills were VERY high and
when investigated noticed that the A3 duplex documents he prints (in
quantity) were clicking up at 4 colour sheets. Now, only the front and back
are in colour the centre is totally B&W text so the real cost should be
2 x
8p colour, 2 x 1p b&W.



The company involved agrees with this calculation but says the error has
been caused by the incorrect install of the drivers when a PC was replaced.
The drivers are RPC5 and can be downloaded from Gestetners web site. I have
trawled every section of the driver setup windows and can find nothing
about
recognising centre pages or anything like that as B&W.



My question is does anyone have any knowledge of how these pay-per-click
printers work? Do they auto-sense colour use? I.e. What happens if you
print
a 20 page word document with only pages 1 and 9 having colour?



Any insight appreciated as this is all getting a little nasty and the
overcharge runs into several thousand pounds which for his small business
is
a lot of money.



Rob



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