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1. Beware Supply Pirates. We thought it important to give you a warning about a hot scam that several of our friends have experienced. A call comes into an office from someone posing as an office equipment supplier. One such caller says: "Hi, it’s Erica from ABC Bogus Company. I just need to confirm the model of your copier...do you know if it’s a 5011?" Unwittingly, the person who receives the call happily gives out the information. A few days later, an unsolicited shipment of copier toner arrives at that office, along with a hefty invoice. Office personnel simply assume that someone must have requisitioned the shipment of toner, and they pay the invoice. What’s particularly irksome is that this scam works because it merely takes advantage of a preoccupied workplace. One telltale sign of these scam callers is that they call from blocked phone numbers, can not be return-called by "*69," and use PO Box addresses. We had a near miss with this a few years back when someone new to the office gave our model number and the toner arrived. We sent it back and steadfastly refused the invoice. Eventually they went away. There have been similar scams with bogus bills for "yellow pages ads", but that’s a story for another day. If you will send me your similar war stories, I’ll consider them for future newsletters. 2. Internet-enabled Print Production ROI. Print Buyers Online recently polled printers to determine if Internet-enabled print production has been worth the investment. 42% of respondents said "yes" thus far, 6% said "no," and 52% said they don’t know, either because they’ve not made the investment or haven’t calculated the return. Interestingly, if you look at those who have worked with the technology, the 42 out of 48 percent saying "Yes" represent an impressive 88% who find the system to be helpful. I think it’s clear we’re moving in that direction. 3. Some Tips for the Road. A colleague recently asked us for input on synthetic papers, so our production manager offered recollections on his varied, and often frustrating, efforts: -Tyvek. "We did a folding job on books with 8-page forms using this stock, but they wouldn't stay folded. The same thing happened with a 16-page poster project." -Durarite. "This stock folds ok, but it retains shape memory. It’s important to hold this one in the pockets of the stitcher. Otherwise, it’ll fly out of the cover feeder. Make sure to fold it first." -Polyart. "We did a test map-fold project on Polyart, but it wouldn’t lay flat; retained too much memory. The customer chose to use other paper." -Rite-in-the-Rain. "This is made locally by the JL Darling Company in Fife and sometimes requires extra clean-up of the equipment after running." You can write on it with a #2 pencil while holding the paper under the stream of the faucet in the sink. Try it some time, Pretty cool. -Yupo. "Yupo acts like paper, or like a coated paper. It tends to pick up dirt off the equipment and can be a little messy, due to the fact that the coating will sometimes flake off in the pockets, belts, chain, etc." Hope the information helps. And please send us your comments on special stocks we may have failed to mention, or if your experience is different from ours.
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