Price over quality?

When you consider purchasing alternative toner and ink cartridges for your printers, do you jump for price alone? or do you consider the quality? - own up........

Earlier this year, one of our NHS clients challenged us on the price of a toner unit, bringing to our attention the fact that they had been quoted, £5.00 less per unit by a competitor. A considerable saving.
We wished them all the best!
Less than one working week later and over 70 units purchased, they were back paying £5.00 more.
The units they had purchased were troublesome to say the least.
Plain white boxes, flimsy internal packaging, refilled in some instances and hey, isn't the powder supposed to remain, inside the unit? and not all over the printer? - sound familiar?

Whilst there is and will always be, a percentage of failure associated with alternative toner and ink cartridges it is always worth investigating and certainly, trialling alternative products.

We have distributed over 48,000 HYTEC products, predominantly within our NHS since 2011.

We have had a less than 0.87% failure rate.

HYTEC is a competitively priced product, not a cheap product. Guaranteed 100% or your money back.

Why not check the brand out? Call your Account Manager today for a free trial.

01924 233775

Christmas 2014 and beyond

To all our visitors and customers, please note our Christmas trading times for the remainder of 2014 and the New Year 2015:

22/12/14 - Open
23/12/14 - Open
24/12/14 - Closed
29/12/14 - Closed
30/12/14 - Closed
31/12/14 - Closed
02/01/15 - Closed
05/01/15 - Business as usual






We would like to extend our thanks to all our existing customers, new contract customers and all visitors to our website for a great 2014 and we look forward to a mutually beneficial New Year 2015!

On behalf of all our staff, we wish you all a very merry & peaceful Christmas and a happy new year!

Warning! Order 2015 diaries and planners in the next month!!

Eh?! - 2015 diaries already?

Unbelievable as it sounds, 2015 diaries generally start selling out from stationery suppliers by August!  If you haven’t put your order in by then, you might have to settle for a different size or colour to your first choice.

If you haven’t order by September there’s a chance we won’t be able to get what you need at all.

Seriously.  All of the major suppliers under stock on diaries, calendars and year planners.  Every year we end up having to send someone out by September/October scouring local retail shops or internet auction sites to buy up the extra bits our customers need because all of the bulk suppliers have sold out.   

If you order after all regular supplies have sold out we will still do everything we can to source an alternative product but the chances are it will be more expensive.

Have a look on our website to be able to filter down to the exact desk diary, pocket diary, year planner or calendar you need or give us a ring on 01924 233 770 for advice.  You can place your order online, by phone or by emailing your account manager.

Tour de France, a sheep's eye view

There's great excitement here about the Tour de France starting in Leeds this weekend.  Everywhere you look at the moment there are yellow spray painted bicycles, Tour de France bunting and sculptures.

Yorkshire sheep have a makeover for the big day.

The statue of Harold MacMillan in Huddersfield is currently carrying a baguette under one arm and anything that stays still long enough has been painted in the colours of the Tour de France jerseys, as a flock of sheep near Otley found out...

But my favorite story about Le Tour in Yorkshire so far is that Sony are attaching video cameras to sheep so that we can get footage of the Tour going past from the sheep's perspective.

Yorkshire sheep ready to film the action.

Five sheep from Hewell Hall farm in Harrogate have been selected to do the honours.  The waterproof action cameras mounted on special harnesses for the sheep to wear and can be operated by remote control. 

These little cameras are actually quite clever.  They have a wide array of mounting options, making them perfect for filming cycling, snowboarding, motorsport track days and anything else traditionally difficult to film from a point of view angle.  They come with 4K Ultra HD resolution which was previously unheard of for such a small action camera.  You can use them to film 130 feet under water, so they should have no trouble coping with the Yorkshire weather.  If you fancy a Sony GoPro Action Hero camera, they are, of course, available to buy on the Scorpio website.

Is there still a need for paper catalogues?

Even though our website offers countless benefits over the traditional catalogue, the Scorpio catalogue is still used every day in the Sales Team office.

The website allows us to search pretty much however we need to; by keyword or category.  Sorted by relevance, price or alphabetically.  We can save favorites so we don't need to search for them at all.  Then, once we find the right item, we just click to add it to the order without having to copy codes onto an email or read them out over the phone.  We use it as our first port of call now to find items.

However, there is something about flicking through a catalogue that just can't be replaced by technology.  You're much more likely to spot those gems you didn't know the name for or didn't even know they existed, but they are exactly what you need!  There are things in there that you had no idea you could order from your stationery supplier but now you know, its a lot easier than having to put through a specific procurement request to use a one off suppler.

So here's a few bits and bobs that you might not have spotted if you only deal with the website:

Velos Eyeletter 950 20220049 Parallel action mechanism for punching and eyeleting, ideal for binding documents, presentation folders and D.I.Y. applications. First, punch the hole then place and clinch the eyelet. Extra eyelets available all 4.7mm diameter.	Pentel Chalk Marker Chisel Tip Pack of 7 Assorted SMW26/7  Pentel Chalk Markers have a liquid chalk formula which imitates real chalk, but has a far superior performance and is ideal for use on blackboards, whiteboards, glass, ceramic, metal and non-porous surfaces. Assorted Colours.
Chartwell Watershed Book 6x4 inches Ruled Red 2291  Chartwell Watershed Waterproof Ruled Book. Specially designed books for the most demanding environments. Features synthetic, tear resistant, waterproof paper, wirebound with a tough plastic cover which is impervious to water and chemicals. 101x156mm.	Leitz Rapid Sure Ring Reinforcer 25100411 Rapid Hole Reinforcer. Provides extra strength to papers kept in binders. Simply press the stamp over your punched hole for instant reinforcement. Automatic hole alignment. for perfect placement. Easy refill, just press the side button to reload.
HP Iron-On Transfer A4 Pack of 12 170gsm C6050A HP Iron-on Transfers. Iron-on, cool peel transfers make it easy for you to design your own T-Shirts, caps, bags - just about anything you can iron! C6050A A4 to fit Deskjet 600/700/800 series 170gsm. Pack 10.	Motorola Talker T60 Two Way Radio MR446 radios - license free. Up to 8km range (subject to terrain and conditions). Free Calls. Rechargeable NiMH batteries (supplied). 8 channels + 121 codes. Scan/Monitor. 5 Call Tones. Room monitor. Single Pin Headset Connector. LCD display with backlight.
Wallace Cameron Alcosense Breathalyser 5001113 Alcosense Breathalyser, Twin Pack 5001113. Can be used to test multiple times or several people accurately in a short period of time. Accurate. Quick results. Easy to use. Compact and sleek design. Low cost and reusable. Easy cleaning and maintenance.	Defibtech Lifeline AED Defibrillator Semi-automatic Portable Ref 5001112 Lifeline AED defibrillator, simple to use for non-medical personnel and is now becoming standard equipment for schools, offices, shops, shopping centres, sports centres and public places.

If you would like a copy of the old fashioned paper catalogue, give us a ring on 01924 233 770 or email info@scorpio-uk.com.

World Cup Fever Hits Scorpio Offices

 The England flag is flying in the window of the Scorpio offices..

715.1 million people were estimated to have been watching the 2010 World Cup.  I’ll be honest I wasn’t one of them.  Football really isn’t my thing.  I am, however, very excited about the World Cup this year.  We’re running a sweepstake in the office and I’m feeling lucky!  I’ve drawn Mexico and Italy.  Watch this space for a surprise World Cup winner this year!

Lucky Diane in the Warehouse Dispatch Team drew England so she’ll not have any problems finding people to cheer with her.  I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for James from the Sales Team who was incredibly excited about the sweepstake.  He’s looking a little disappointed with his draw of USA and Honduras.. Like I say, I’m not an expert on football but I googled the odds and Honduras is 4,000/1.  I can see why he’s looking a little bit glum!

Generacide

A proprietary eponym, or to use its more ordinary name, generic trademark, is a brand name or trade-mark which has fallen into common use.  The world of office supplies is full of them.

We have all sorts difficulties here at Scorpio with a customer asking for the cheapest version of Blue-Tac, Jiffy Bags or Sellotape, to name a few.  When you have a very strong trade name, you tend to find companies have to be quite diverse in finding ways to describe similar products, knowing that their customers are just going to call them by their major competitor’s brand names regardless.  Search on our system for Post-It and you will only get 3M Branded Post-It notes.  If we want to find an alternative brand, we have to search for repositionable, sticky, self adhesive, removable, or quick notes.

And if you want to find cheaper, non branded alternatives to some of the generic trademarks, here are some suggestions to try in the search box:

Sellotape	Sticky tape, clear tape, transparent tape, adhesive tape, Polypropylene tape
Bubblewrap	Bubble film, bubble roll, bubble pack, bubble wrap
Post-it	Repositionable notes, sticky notes, self adhesive notes, removable notes, quick notes
Tipp-ex	Correction pen, correction roller, correction tape, correction fluid, cover-u-p, cover up, corrector
Biro	Ballpoint, ballpen, ball pen
Jiffy bag	Padded bag, padded envelope, padded mail sack, bubble envelope, postal bag, protective mailer, bubble bag, protective envelope
Blue-Tac	Reusable adhesive, re-usable tack, sticky tac, repositionable tack, adhesive putty