That £800 per gallon stuff

Webbo

Webbo

Grandpa — 31/07/2005 14:49:03
Hello again,
Regarding that £800 per gallon ink that Margaret mentioned in her ‘Writing through the night’(7) posting.
It reminded me that the bill for £50-a-time ink cartridges at one office had become so great that the management found it cost effective to buy cheap printers and replace the whole shebang when the ink ran out.
It ensures pristine output at zero maintenance cost.

lixxy — 02/08/2005 09:07:58
There is another way; we have a local company that refills cartridges at less than a quarter of the price of a new cartridge. There might be someone like that in your area.

Grandpa — 02/08/2005 11:21:21
Hello lixxy,
Thanks for your hint. I’ll see what a Google-search of my area (Cumbria) reveals. There may be a supplier similar to the one in your area.

Grandpa

Hello again lixxy,

Google revealed numerous on-line sources for re-fills, look-alike replacements, and a few suppliers of genuine, fully guaranteed mfrs originals.

Advice from a friend with contacts in the printer servicing area is this - - - tread VERY warily, printer heads are delicate, easily ruined devices that are expensive to replace. I recall reading something similar many years ago in a news review.

Gltagaman

My recent experience confirmed that your last point is still happening. About two years ago I bought a Brother MFC890 cobimed printer and scanner.It worked beautifully until about two months ago it displayed a message that the black cartridge was nearly empty. As the printer was in constant use I rang up my normal supplier, Viking Direct, and bought their own brand compatible cartridges. Less than a week later the machine displayed the same message despite the cartridges being pretty full, The message would not clear. I rang up Brother and they confirmed that this was a standard error message and suggested I contact a local agent,as the printer was out of warranty. The quote to rectify the problem was quite high and the repairer asked the specific question 'Do you use compatible ink cartridges?' He said that first this practice voided the manufacturer's warranty and that in his thirty year experience he had never found compatible ink cartridges worthwhile. The upshot of this was that I scrapped the printer and bought another Brother machine which I will now treat as disposable if it goes wrong.

On the other side of the coin I have a client who uses her inkjet frequently and consider the refilled cartridges from Cartridge World very highly.

So its back to the old warning 'Buyer beware'.

Geoff L