A local shop received a customer’s Hewlett Packard Deskjet 3070 printer into the shop for repair owing to poor printing quality and owing to the printer and ink cartridges locking, preventing any form of printing. The Printer was purchased from PC World on 13th September 2012, returned to them for assistance and they refused to help owing to the customer using remanufactured cartridges.
The remanufactured cartridges that were installed were purchased from PC World under the PC World Essentials labelling and when the customer pointed this out to PC World, they advised the customer that their sales staff all know not to sell these remanufactured cartridges to people who have printers that are less than a year old, accordingly they could not help with the issue.
We expressed doubt at what we were being told but the receipts and labelling were given to us along with the printer and what the customer is saying appears to be correct! We also have a receipt showing that the customer returned some unused PC World essentials cartridges dated 12th March 2013.
a) Are we missing the point here, do some cartridges really only work with machines that are 366 days or older?
b) Is this some kind of retailer warranty avoidance scam to avoid giving warranty on printers?
c) Are retailers allowed to sell dubious cartridge products with no customer comeback?
Diagnosis of the fault
When the printer was turned on it went to screen info but did not start up any of the maintenance sequences of checking cartridges and charging the print head.
The printer was switched on and all 4 cartridges were removed, the printer was powered down on the button and then the power lead removed for a few minutes to clear the printers memory. The power lead was replaced and the printer turned on. The printer advised that the cartridges were missing. A set of our new Compatible HP 364 cartridges (4 colour set) were installed, which were accepted and then the printer started up the maintenance sequences.
After a couple of minutes the printer advised that it was ready to print, but that non HP cartridges were being used. The accept button was pressed and the printer went into ready to use mode. The printer was turned off and then re-powered up and again the maintenance sequences started up. A test print page was sent to print and printed perfectly.
The printer was turned on and off a couple of times to test cartridge recognition and it was noted that during one of the start-up cycles, the printer complained that one of the cartridges was installed incorrectly or was faulty. The cartridge was removed and the same cartridge reinstalled and the printer accepted the cartridge and carried on starting up.
Comments
1) The remanufactured cartridges that were installed were not good quality and the chips appeared not to have been reset?
2) Good quality 364XL compatible cartridges work well with this printer model Tel – 0845 3096375
3) The printer firmware is designed to recognise when customers use non HP cartridges and the customer has to acknowledge and accept this into the printer through the panel menu
4) We suspect that the printer firmware is designed to send out inconvenient and misleading messages relating to cartridge failure when non HP cartridges are installed.
5) Not over impressed at the build quality of this model, however it does print well and is quite fast for a budget printer of this type. Has lots of features.
We do not know quite what to make of this overall, however why would people choose to use a remanufactured cartridge that is awkward to use and that causes issues with the printer??? Surely it is much simpler to find a good supplier of quality compatible cartridges, rather than have the issues that this customer has had. Come to that it is a lot less hassle using genuine cartridges!
The customer does have a choice in what cartridges they use, however customers must be advised that the printer manufacturers will do all that they can to prevent them using non genuine inks and in many instances they will advise that it negates the printer warranty.
In this instance the question should be asked if PC World advised the customer that using their remanufactured cartridges in the printer would invalidate their warranty, even if they did surely one of the PC World “Know How” team could have had a quick look at the printer for 5 minutes and offered some customer advice and service.
We think the fact that a simple change of cartridges solved the problem says it all on this issue.
Purchasing a Printer – Advice
We would urge any customer who requires a printer to talk to a company that can effectively advise them based on product knowledge. There are good specialist companies around who can help in the selection of the right printer to match your particular needs and who are competitively priced. Buying on price from a limited available selection or based on a special offer, in most instances will not give you a printer to match your needs.
Any good printer supplier will also cover the cartridge choices available and the implications of using some of the choices in relation to printer warranty, printing limitations and cost.
Come and Meet Home Media
We attend and sell at a computer fair at the motor cycle museum in Birmingham most Saturdays, run by Excalibur www.excaliburcomputerfairs.co.uk At the fair are 3 suppliers of printers and ink cartridges, Home Media, Refill Express and Pro Imaging. All 3 companies have a good knowledge base and do offer good a good choice of products and offer good advice on all printing issues.
Buy on the Internet from : www.cartridgeoutlet.co.uk