Printer Rant

[Truktek2]

Can't any aftermarket company make a toner or ink cartridge that actually works? Every aftermarket cartridge I've tried either leaks or prints the pages completely black. I tried going cheap, but I guess I'm going to have to pay $90.00 for a cartridge that I can put into my $100.00 printer. What do you people do?

[ehque]

I find that aftermarket cartridges generally end up costing more in the long run than genuine.

A printer design with the print-heads on the cartridge will generally have more expensive cartridges. On the other hand, if the heads jam up, a printer with this design usually means you only need to change the cartridge and not the whole printer.

If you do a lot of printing (at least some every day), get a printer with the heads on the printer and use genuine ink. If you rarely do printing but need a printer anyway, get a printer with the heads on the cartridge, as lack of use tends to gum up the works.

Of course you could also go to shops that do printing - over here they are relatively easy to find (especially in universities) and are quite affordable.

[JohnnyNacho]

This will not help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQGtucrJ8hM




Might make you feel better, though!

[Eric Perry]

Originally Posted by JohnnyNacho

This will not help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQGtucrJ8hM




Might make you feel better, though!

HAHAHAHA!!!!

[FL Knifemaker]

Honestly, I just by a new printer when the cartridges run out. Time is money and farting around with printers and cartridges just isn't worth it to me. My Cannon MP 190 has lasted almost a year with almost daily use. I'm tempted to buy cartridges when they finally run out but for me, that's just bad karma.

[TrooperFarva]

Color Laser printer. The long term cost per page is significantly lower than an inkjet printer.

[tplyons]

Don't forget that printer companies seldom make much money on the actual printer, but rather the cartridges.

[lowendfriend]

As CIO in our company, I banned the use of desktop printers becuase of the cartridge cost. We just gave them to employees to add encouragement for getting rid of them. It worked!

Went to MultiFunction Devices that do color/bw/fax/email and default to 2 sided black and white and hung pictures of baby trees being tortured in paper factories.

[Truktek2]

Looks like I'll be buying a new printer. Ugh...oh well such is life.....

[Ziltoid]

Don't forget to say no to:

The extended warranty
Their home brand (the shop's) of paper
the gold plated cable
the extra cartridge set
Any other "class attachment" they might try to sell you



I worked at Staples 1.5 yrs ago and still have bad dreams about it.

[DanAleks]

Printers were sent from hell...

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

[Auzzie-Phoenix]

Ugh... I hated those back to brighton upsells and prp quota's at staples... And trust me... you never want to have to clean out a printer after one of those refill cartridges dumps all over the insides. It ranks up there right behind working on crt monitors in terms of "things you'd rather not do".

Color lasers are fine for standard use printing. The only reason to own an inkjet is if you need one of the upper end 6+ color models for high-res photo printing with extended range color (if you're going to do that, just go all out and buy one of the epson 8 color bench printers so you can make posters).

[MJ5150]

I can't remember the last time I actually printed a document. The printer I have is just wasting space on my desk. It makes me look busy, so I leave it there.

-Mike

[MIJ-VI]

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