I spent the morning with the printer guy from Allied Business Solutions, Boise, Idaho. I considered not naming the company; after all, I’m not a hater, but I am a dissatisfied customer. Not that the printer guy today didn’t do all he could do to help because he did; he did his part.

My frustrations go back almost three years when one of the companies that I contract with decided that I needed access to commercial printer. It seemed like a break-even financial decision at the time. What they didn’t count on was the fact that the printer was really too big for our needs, our space, and three years later, our budget. Most of all, they didn’t realize that the leasing agent, “Mr. Trust Me,” was not trustworthy.

Three tips today: 1) Don’t oversell. 2) Don’t over-buy. 3) ‘Trust me’ should raise a red flag.

I’ll start with number 3: Mr. Trust Me was related to someone who had the ability to make decisions in our organization. He professed to know all about our needs and how to provide the best solution. He outright lied about the cost and features and once the product was delivered, it was out of his hands and into the service and fulfillment department. They drug out, feigned ignorance, and declared problems solved when they weren’t. Two problems identified within the first thirty days still exist today. I work around them.

On to number 2: The printer was not in sync with our needs or market trends. Our company prints at a commercial pace twice per year. The thought was with the printer, they might print more. In the advancing world of technology and environmental awareness, who prints more? That was not a reasonable expectation and I’m sort of embarrassed to have been a part of it.

At the end of the day, the problem truly rests in number 1: Whether it is the fault of consumer or the seller, the company oversold. Furthermore, when they fully understood that their salesman had taken advantage of a customer, they did nothing to fix the problem. A different printer with fewer features would have made everyone happy. What happened to customer service?

I decided to use this story today to highlight something that I believe is great about online technology, specifically webhosting providers: scalability. You don’t have to purchase big in the beginning. You can choose features that meet your needs today and add more and different features when you discover you need them tomorrow.

It is stories like this that make me realize there is more value in the Kindle, iPad, reader and Smartphone technology. Let’s stop printing. Use your websites, blogs and networking capabilities to learn and grow instead.