I am afraid this may be "vaporware". Look at the earliest date on the "View-the-Queue" link: October 2007. It's been almost a year. And there were repeated suggestions (and assurances) since then. Since I got Presto service 3 months ago, I myself have suggested and then begged Presto Customer Care for this very-basic absolutely-necessary feature, with no response at all. Below is a copy of my latest request:

"I could rave about what a good idea the Presto Printing Mailbox is except that the support has been so poor.

Actually, if you want to improve the support situation the single best thing you could do would be just to include a "Mail Inbox List" box in the empty box space on the Account Manager Welcome page. Clicking on the box would give two lists:

Mail Waiting To Be Printed (newest down to oldest)

Friend Address Subject Attachment Received
(name) (email) (line) (yes/no) (date,time)

Mail Recently Printed (last 7 days, newest down to oldest)

Friend Address Subject Attachment Received Printed
(name) (email) (line) (yes/no) (date,time) (date,time)

No access to the body of the listed emails should be given, so as to protect the privacy of senders.

I had to beg to even once get only a part of this information from Customer Care to figure out if my Printing Mailbox was initially working at all, wasting a lot of both of our times."

So Peter, I am thinking about purchasing one of these for my 75 year old mom who is in Ohio, I am in California. Should I wait to purchase until the end of the year when you might have these new features added? Or will the new version be coming out after the holidays? I would be really upset to buy one, then a few weeks later a newer, more improved version be introduced.

Peter R. said: Dear GoodIdeaBut: We can't act on every request in the time frame that every subscriber wants. The feature you are requesting is something that we have long wanted to work on, but it just couldn't take priority over other items our engineering team was working on. That was a business decision we had to make, and it was a hard one. I'm sorry if my last comment saying "Shhhhh...don't tell anyone but we are working on that" sounded glib. We really are now working on this feature, and a lot more to bring to Presto subscribers. In fact, before the end of the year, we will be adding a major group of features that will substantially enhance the Presto service. We really aren't in a position to talk about these in specific as of yet. So, once again, I must ask for your patience but I want you to know that we believe you will be really pleased when these roll out. Thanks so much for your continued support.

The feature I and others have requested is not some bell and whistle, like yet another ink-sucking email template.  It is, as I and others have indicated, a very-basic absolutely-necessary feature.  Would you buy an email program that didn't list the emails?  That's what you have now.  I would not have bought it had I known before; I could not have imagined it did not have this feature.  It should have been part of Presto from the start and Presto is broken until it has it.  It should be priority one.  It was a monumentally bad business decision, which you have paid for in dramatically increased tech support time and Presto customers have paid for in time and frustration.  Be clear:  will this feature (as I described) be available before the end of the year?  I'd advise those considering buying a Presto to hold off until this feature is added. 

OK. That is good news. It will be by far the most important feature in Presto.

However, I still recommend not subscribing to Presto until this feature is added. As can be read throughout Presto Place, getting Presto and the Printing Mailbox to work initially can be a nightmare and this is usually because this feature is missing.

So, an incentive for Presto to actually deliver this feature before the end of 2008.

Another nice feature would be an email to the account manager when the printer is out of paper so that I can call grandma up and tell her that she needs to reload it (same with ink when it runs out). Just giving me a indicator (which I didn't see if it does exist - does it exist?) in the account manager isn't enough and grandma did not realize she was out of paper.

Make sure to Make It Easy

The system does indeed already do this. They are called "Presto Bulletins" and cover a number of issues that indicate a fault of some kind.

Presto Insider: Peter Radsliff
CEO, Presto Services Inc.

Also, when you do get a low-ink warning that seems legitimate wait as long as possible before actually changing the ridiculously-expensive HP ink cartridge. I have found that many more emails (including pictures) can be printed after this warning.

Unfortunately, you do have to use ridiculously-expensive HP ink cartridges. If you use another cheaper brand the ink sensor will probably not work at all (this is designed into the HP ink cartridge).