BS: Printer scams

Subject: BS: Printer scams
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 07:02 AM

I am becoming increasingly pissed off with the behaviour of printer manufacturers who not only charge the earth for what is basically a small ink-soaked sponge, but are now writing in to their guarantees that, unless you use ONLY their ink cartridges (rather than a cheaper equivalent), you make the guarantee of the printer invalid. This apparently includes the guarantee purchased from the store from which the printer was bought.
They have, for some time, been preventing the customer (aren't we always right?) from having the cartidges refilled
Having just bought a Lexmark X5470, I find that not only is this the case, but also the manufacturers have introduced a block on my using an 'inksaver' programme.
Surely this can't be legal.
If it were a practice adopted by any other product, I have no doubt that any company guilty of such sharp practice would find themselves hauled up before the relevant body to answer charges of sharp practice.
Can anybody provide names of companies who do not indulge in such behaviour.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 08:33 AM

Nope, it's legal. You buy a printer at a low, low price and then get soaked on the ink cartridges.

One of the first things I did when I started at work was to phase out all inkjet printers, replacing them with a shared color laser. Costs per copy went way down. We've also replaced the inkjet color printer at the house with a color laser -- not the fastest or the best, but then we don't do a lot of color printing either.

Ask yourself how much color printing you really do. You might find it cheaper to invest a little more in a laser -- they'll also do b&w.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: eddie1
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 09:07 AM

I agree with you Jim. It's a scam of the first order. If you look around at market stalls you can sometimes find a gadget - costs a couple of £ - which lets you reset the chip that prevents you using refilled cartridges. I've used one in the past with complete success.
I'm presently using an Epson Stylus D68 (or is that my Martin?) The printer cost about £40 from Makro but the set of cartridges cost about £28 in most places although a cloned pack from Argos costs £11.94. Guess which one I'm using?
I do note that you can buy a 3-year Replacement Product Cover for £2.99?? I suppose you could take it back after 2 years and say "It's not working anymore!!!!"

Eddie

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 09:13 AM

Plenty cheap printers on E Bay, that's where I go when mine die. No guarantee, no invalidation of warranty if I use the wrong make of ink cartridge.
G

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 10:51 AM

I wouldn't be concerned at all about invalidating the warranty unless it's a very expensive printer. An average user with a run of the mill printer will save enough money by using off-brand or refilled cartridges to more than cover the cost of a new printer in a matter of months.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 04:46 AM

There is IMHO a strong argument that the practice is illegal under European law.

Lexmark are notoriously the worst for it. I would never ever buy a Lexmark printer.

Until recently, I have found Brother good. I bought an MFC 890, must be about several years go now - it used a huge black ink cartridge and pretty large colours, and the print costs were nearly down in laser territory.

After the year's guarantee expired, it knackered. I rang Brother. They replaced it free. After just after another year, it knackered. I rang Brother. They replaced it free. After another year, it knackered again. I rang Brother. It was obsolete. They gave me a new one of teh current model, free. I had some ink cartridges left unused. They swapped those for the ones for the new one, free, too.

Unfortunately the new one is not a patch on the old one for reliable small office working. It mis-feeds far too often, and that way outweighs clever tricks that it now has like two paper trays and an envelope feeder and acceptance of photo memory to print pictures (which I never do).

When the prices drop a little more I will get a colour laser all-in-one. A friend has a Minolta which he finds wonderful - but it is too large for the space I have for it! I think the new HPs might just fit, but they are always the dearest.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: ard mhacha
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:26 AM

I agree with Richard Bridge, never buy a Lexmark they are the biggest take-on of all the Printers. I am using an Epson R300 and also compatible cartridges for the past couple of years,working a treat.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:42 AM

Why is it that so many printers that are bundled with PCs and laptops are Lexmark?
Yet another scam I suspect
G

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Folkiedave
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:51 AM

I have used a small low cost B and W laser printer (Samsung) for years with no problems and being in a large city I can replace the laser cartridge at a local refiller - thus easing my conscience.

I will soon move up to a laser colour printer - probably an HP or a Canon.

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 08:35 AM

Many years back I had a OkiData LED black and white printer (LED apparently worked on a similar system to laser printer, but reckoned to be more environmentally friendly). It gave me excellent output very cheaply (a £15 toner cartridge lasted about a year of producing large amounts of output). The toner cartridges for the Oki also seemed to be a fraction of the cost compared with those for black and white laser printers being sold around the same time.
What are running costs for colour lasers? How many different things do you need to replace (and how often) to keep one running?
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Anne Lister
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 09:35 AM

We have two Canon inkjet printers and have been using alternative makes of cartridges for both of them for some time with no ill effects. It's useful that although they're different models they take the same size cartridges. We also now have a Samsung colour laser printer and have invested in a kit to refill the colours on that when they need it - have already had to do this for magenta, but we were warned that the printer came with small reservoirs of colours initially. That was to encourage us to buy the full Samsung colour kit, presumably. Good points: when printing onto glossy paper for promo stuff the paper for the laser costs far, far less than a similar paper for the inkjet.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 03:20 PM

My son and daughter each have a Canon printer, and when we needed more ink I bought some cartridges from an off-market company and paid about 30% of what Canon would charge. You have to carefully remove a small printed circuit from the original cartridge and stick it on the new one. And Canon will send "alert" messages when it first detects the new cartridge. My son went so far as to pull the new cartridge out of the printer and race to the bathroom with the leaking box--which I promptly took from him and put BACK in the printer and told him not to be so gullible as to let the printer company try to convince him that the cartridge he was using was going to ruin his warranty, etc. They will try as hard as they can to get you to buy their ridiculously expensive ink (because, after all, they aren't really in the business of selling printers, they are in the business of selling ink).

I shopped around, looking at the price, the reviews, the shipping costs, and decided to go with a company called Printcountry.com for our color printer cartridges. For a Canon copier (old, but still works) I got the last toner cartridge through a place in Brooklyn, NY called BBOfficeSupply.com. BBOffice is probably where I'll get the replacement cartridge for my HP laser printer when I next need one. That cartridge replacement costs more than $200 from the folks who sell the name brand cartridges, and 1/3 to 1/2 the price from the after market folks.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 05:09 PM

I ended up buying a brother hl2040 laser for $69 canadian (which is $69 US roughly) theoretically I should be able to print about 2000 pages before having to replace the toner
as opposed to the 200 with an inkjet.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 05:55 PM

We have a Lexmark all in one jobby, scanner, copier, colour printer - seems to me the colour cartridge lasts half as long as the black one, but we don't print out much coloured stuff... and the blue always runs out before any other colour. Consequently, I'm spending £20 on a colour cartridge that still has a large amount of use in it, if I print in red.

I'm convinced that this 'use only *****'s cartridges or you lose your warranty' is against some trading standard, it's just pinning it down.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:25 PM

I can't see any way they could prove you used cartridges not made by them. Anyway, you could just re insert the original branded ones if there was a problem.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:39 PM

There are other things that are starting to use this technique of locking you into their product.

I was given, free for nothin', a blood sugar testing thing (I have Type II diabetes -- not awful, but I have to watch it). It came with a half-dozen test strips and six lancet points. Additional test strips cost US $54.00 for a package of 25 and additional lancets cost something like five dollars more. FORTUNATELY I already had a kit, for which I have a prescription for the test strips -- $20 co-pay for a pack of 100 strips and a hundred lancets for a couple bucks.

You figure it out....

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Megan L
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 06:42 PM

I work with cannon inkjet and have always refilled the crtridges with ISM ink it comes in a platic bottle with its own needle it was a bit messy the first couple of times as i misjudged the amount but no problems for the past five years.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 11:28 PM

Just recently, noticed some packs of 'tuna and stuff' - individually or in multipacks... it was cheaper to buy them individually.... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 11:39 PM

I always figure that if it seems too good to be true it probably is. I also try to answer the question "Who benefits?" because ain't nobody giving anything away.

TANSTAAFL!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Gurney
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 11:56 PM

Gillette started this system; knockdown price for the razor, huge price for the blades.

If the knock-off experts in the far east can get their quality right, the scam may not last too long.

Subject: RE: BS: Printer scams
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 09:13 AM

At Staples there are color laser printers for a hundred dollars.
I go there for big prints now. I can even reject as many prints as I want for no charge and believe me if they can screw it up they will.
I'm going to give them some chrome covered heavy paper to see what kind of effect some of my abstract art will undergo. opps my irrelevant alert went off.