Brother HL-1470N Laser Printer

When I first bought my HL-1470N in May of 2002, I was really impressed. It was easy to install, it supports every Macintosh and Windows operating system version (a requirement for me as the printer is in a private computer lab), and it's got a very nice built-in print server. How awesome to just plug it into my Ethernet network and print to it from any machine in the lab (after a simple software installation).

Then the warranty expired and a couple of months later, the printer died. I took it to the repair shop and their comment was, "Hey look, another Brother 1400 series printer." I asked if they see a lot of these for repair and their answer was, "Yes, they're junk. They're not built very well." The repair shop owner went on to comment that Brother is a very difficult company to work with (from the perspective of a printer repair shop) because it's hard to get parts from them and Brother is not prompt or reliable in communicating.

I'm awaiting the verdict from the repair shop regarding the cost of repairing the printer, but a preliminary estimate was $100 - $200. In case you're wondering how much use the printer got, I hadn't even finished the first toner cartridge yet.

Perhaps the Brother HL-1470N is a fabulous printer (I sure loved it during its short life) and perhaps the printer repair shop owner is religious about loving HP printers and hating Brother printers (people become very loyal to certain products and companies), but I must say that I'm disappointed to be out nearly five hundred dollars (the cost of the printer when I bought it) and have the printer die very shortly after its warranty expired. Your mileage may vary, but I won't buy or recommend a Brother printer to anyone. Perhaps they should have stuck with making sewing machines and typewriters.