Tell us the fault. We will tell you the price.
Printers onsite in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, and in Geelong, Wollongong, Newcastle and the Central Coast. Anywhere else in Australia the printer comes to us, and we quote before anybody touches it.
Scanners and mobile computers are return to base wherever you are. They are not onsite work at all — no call-out, no visit, and no hourly figure. They come to us and the quote is the price. Scanner and mobile computer repairs →
This form is a request, not a confirmed booking. Nothing is locked in until we come back to you with a time and a price — for the call and for any parts. That beats having you clear a morning for a visit we have not agreed to yet.
Start to finish, including the waiting.
Eight steps, three of them a fork. Written down so you can read it rather than be emailed it, and so you know what happens before you pack anything.
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1
Ring or email, and say what it is doing
0414 53 53 95, andrei@barcodedatalink.com, or the form at the bottom of this page. Describe the symptom rather than the diagnosis — “a white line down every label” names the part far better than “the printhead is gone” does.
Answered the same day -
2
Send a photo or two
One of the fault and one of the whole machine. A photograph of a bad label tells us more in a second than a paragraph describing it, and on a cracked screen or a damaged case it is the difference between a guess and an answer.
Have a look at what else is in the shot before you send it. Delivery dockets and paperwork turn up in the background more often than people expect.
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3
Read us the serial number off the machine
It is on the label on the unit itself — the back or underside of a printer, the underside of a scanner, and under the battery on a handheld. It tells us whether the machine is still in warranty or on a support contract, which can mean the repair costs you nothing at all.
Worth finding before anything else, for that reason alone.
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4
We tell you whether it is worth sending
Before the machine moves, not after. This is the step that saves people the freight, and it is the one most repairers skip.
Usually within the dayWorth itSend it in
We tell you where to post it and what to put in the box with it.
Not worth itWe say so on the phone
A corded scanner under about $500 is rarely worth repairing, and we would rather tell you that than take the job. That conversation costs you nothing.
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5
You send it in
Any courier you like. Getting it to us is yours, and on a repair that goes ahead that is the only freight you pay. Put the power supply in if the fault is anything to do with power, and the ribbon and labels in if the fault is print quality — we test it on what you actually run, not on ours.
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6
We open it and find out what is wrong
Not a queue it sits in for a fortnight. It is looked at within a day or two of landing, and you hear back from a person rather than a ticket system.
And if we find damage you did not know about, you hear it then rather than on the invoice. Machines often arrive with more wrong than the fault that prompted the call. Nothing is done until you have approved the real number, and if the real number changes the answer, we would rather you changed your mind than paid it.
1–2 days from arrival -
7
You get a quote, and looking at it was free
No assessment fee and no minimum charge for being told the answer, whether you go ahead or not. What happens next turns on one thing, and we tell you which it is before you approve anything.
Parts are hereThree business days
From your approval to it going back out the door. Most repairs are this one.
A part has to come inYou get the lead time first
On the quote, before you accept it — not after the machine is sitting on our bench and you are ringing to ask. If the wait is bad enough to change your mind, we would rather you changed it then.
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8
Your call, and both answers are fine
Nothing is done to the machine until you say so.
You approve itFixed, and posted back to you
The freight home is inside the price you approved, so the number you said yes to is the number on the invoice.
On an account, it ships and the invoice follows. Otherwise the repair is settled before it leaves us, so paying when you accept the quote is the quickest way to get the machine back.
You turn it downIt comes back, or it goes away
A small freight charge to send it back unrepaired, signature on delivery so there is proof it arrived. Settled before it ships, the same as a repair, unless you are on an account.
Or confirm it in writing and we dispose of it, at no cost.
Four things, and no surprises in any of them.
Written out because the surprises are what people actually dread about a repair, and every one of them can be headed off before the machine moves.
We come back with a time and a price
Not an automated confirmation. A person reads what you have written, works out whether it is an onsite call or a return to depot, and gives you both numbers before anything is booked.
We would rather quote before turning up than turn up and then quote. Metro is a $352 call-out with the first hour on site and the travel in it, and after that $297 an hour. Simple repairs are usually sorted inside the hour you have already paid for.
Every onsite visit is attended by a Zebra partner technician local to you — which is why a call-out in Perth costs what a call-out in Sydney costs, and why there is one metro price rather than five. Wollongong, the Central Coast, Newcastle and Geelong sit outside those metro areas: those four are $297 plus the driving, rather than the metro $352 with the travel already in it.
You ask us first, and you have the price before anybody comes. The visit is arranged in advance — nobody turns up unannounced, and nobody is sent out before you have the number in writing. We book it, we quote it, and we are who you ring when it is done.
Half of it is cleaning, not parts
A platen roller is the usual example. It looks finished, and most of the time it wants a proper clean rather than replacing — adhesive and paper dust build up until it stops gripping. It only gets replaced when it has gone hard, split or been cut, and those you can see.
So a part on the quote is not a part on the invoice. If cleaning fixes it, cleaning is what you are charged for.
We quote for three parts and often fit one
Printhead, platen roller, drive belt. Not because all three are needed, but because the fault you describe on the phone is not the whole story until the printer is open. Nobody mentions the labels were skipping — and then the belt turns out to be worn, and now it is a second phone call and a bigger number.
Quoting for all three means the price only ever goes down. We would rather you saw the worst case up front and paid less than it, than approve a tidy figure and get a revision.
Read us the model and the part number and we can price the parts before anybody drives. The model on its own does not settle it — the same printer is sold at 203, 300 or 600 dpi, and a printhead for one is a different part number at a different price from the head for another. The number off the machine is what turns the parts line from a guess into a figure, and the roller and the belt are the same story.
We check price and availability before we quote, not after. That is why the table below says quoted against parts rather than carrying a number: a part price published today would be the wrong one to hold you to, and whether it is on a shelf in Sydney or coming in changes the answer as much as the price does.
What it costs, and why looking at it is free
If we assess it, the quote costs you nothing — whether you go ahead or not. We open it, find out what is wrong, and tell you the number. There is no assessment fee and no minimum charge for being told the answer.
Approve the repair and the trip home is in it. An accepted quote covers labour, parts and the freight back to you, so the number you approve is the number on the invoice. Sending it to us in the first place is yours, and on a repair that goes ahead that is the only freight you pay.
Turn it down and the assessment still costs you nothing. The one thing you pay is a small freight charge to send it back unrepaired, and we book that ourselves rather than leave it to you.
It goes signature on delivery, not ordinary post. A machine we have already told you is not worth repairing, going missing with nothing signed for, is an argument nobody can win — so it travels the way that produces proof it arrived.
And if it is finished and you would rather not pay to have a dead printer delivered to you, confirm it in writing and we will dispose of it, at no cost. In writing rather than on the phone because it is your property and the authority to scrap it should exist somewhere other than in somebody's memory of a call.
That is deliberate. A customer told their machine is not worth fixing should not also get an invoice for being told.
The one exception, and we will tell you before it happens. A few faults have to go back to Zebra rather than stay on our bench — and Zebra charge to assess a machine whether or not it is then repaired. You will hear that number before anything is sent anywhere, and nothing goes to them without you saying yes first.
The rates below are for printers. The eight steps above are for everything — a printer, a scanner or a handheld goes through the same process once it is in the box. But scanners and mobile computers are never an onsite visit, so there is no call-out and no hourly figure for them: they come back to us and the quote is the price. How a scanner or mobile computer is quoted →
| Inc GST | |
|---|---|
| Onsite call-out, metro Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. First hour on site, travel included. |
$352 |
| Onsite call-out, Geelong / Wollongong / Central Coast / Newcastle First hour on site. Cheaper than metro because the travel allowance is not in it — the driving is charged below instead. |
$297 |
| Driving, for those four There and back, in 30-minute blocks. Billed at what it actually took, not what was quoted. |
$154 per hour |
| Every extra hour on site After the hour already in the call-out. By the hour rather than the half — a technician's day is booked in hours. |
$297 |
| Printer sent to us instead No driving at all, so none is charged. Billed in half hours — $148.50 — because work back at base is booked that way. Freight to us is yours; the trip back is inside an accepted quote. |
$297 per hour |
| Parts Quoted before anything is fitted — see above. |
Quoted |
A Sydney call with no parts in it, which is the usual one. One printer, one visit. The technician comes to you, services the machine, cleans the printhead and the roller, calibrates it to the stock you actually run, and prints test labels and checks them. That is the job, and $352 inc GST is the invoice.
| Call-out to Sydney metro, travel included | in the $352 |
| First hour on site | in the $352 |
| Service, clean, calibrate, print a test label | in the $352 |
| Driving | none charged in metro |
| Onsite, no parts — total | $352 |
| Parts, if it turns out to need one | Quoted first |
Most service calls finish exactly there. If the job runs past the hour it is $297 for the second one, and you hear that on the day rather than finding it on the invoice. Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth are the same $352 — the technician is local to you in all five, so there is one metro price rather than a cheaper city and a dearer one.
Parts are the only thing that can be on top, they are never fitted without your say-so, and we price as many of them as we can before anybody drives — which is the card above.
Roughly what that comes to, before anybody quotes it properly. In the five metro areas there is nothing to work out: $352, with the hour on site and the travel both already inside it, and no driving line at all.
Outside them, in the four places we drive to, the call-out is $297 with the hour on site in it, and the driving is $154 an hour on top, there and back. What varies is how many hours that is — and that depends on where the technician is coming from on the day rather than on where you sit on a map.
Where we drive: the Central Coast, Wollongong, Newcastle and Geelong, plus the five metro capitals at the $352 rate above. There is no useful way to work the driving out from a distance, so it is a figure on your quote before anybody gets in a van. The two real jobs below both went to the Central Coast and between them carried two, three and four hours, which is the honest reason there is no table here.
A real one, on the Central Coast on 9 June 2026, priced at what it would cost today. Two printers. Each took half an hour, so the hour on site was the hour already in the call-out. We had quoted four hours of driving because that is what the run can take.
It took two. So two is what was billed.
| Call-out, including the hour on site | $297 |
| Two printers, half an hour each | in the hour above |
| Driving, quoted at four hours | $616 |
| Driving, actually two hours | $308 |
| Quoted $913. Invoiced $605. | −$308 |
Nobody had to ring and ask for that. It is the same rule as the three parts above — quote the honest worst case, bill what actually happened, and the number only ever comes down.
Same destination again this month, quoted at three hours. Not four, and not two — a different run from a different starting point. One suburb, two jobs, three different driving figures between them. That is why the number lives on a quote rather than in a table you could look yourself up in, and why the rule above matters more than any estimate: whatever is quoted, the driving is billed at what it actually took.
Seven answers and we can quote it.
The seven marked fields are the ones we genuinely cannot work without. Everything else helps, and none of it is compulsory.
A preferred date is a preference, not a diary entry. No slot is held when this arrives, because a machine nobody has seen yet might need a part that is three days away. Tell us when suits and we will tell you what can actually be done.
Not sure it is worth repairing?
Sometimes the answer is no, and you will get that answer too. A machine we would not repair is one we will say so about — the trade is thirty-five years long and a bad repair costs more than a lost sale. What usually goes wrong →
