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Warning! Excessively long post containing ranting. You have been warned!
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Thanks so far but I don't think that I have explained what I'm after in a printer. I'm not going out of my way to find the best printer. As long as it can print a letter that's good enough for me, that's why my current printer is 15 years old.
As for Epson... There are few companies that I hold at the level of distain that this company has earned. My first Epson printer was wonderful at first, printed photo quality pictures and fairly quickly for the time. Then it ran out of colour ink, and when I say colour ink I don't mean the cartridge was empty, I mean that the yellow ran out. Now fair enough that a printer can't print in colour because it only has 2 of 3 colours, but this wasn't the case. No, the printer refused to print anything until the cartridge was replaced. Even if the settings were changed to monochrome. So after many failed attempts to print in just black I decided to replace the cartridge... £60. The printer itself only cost £80 if memory serves.
Obviously I refused to pay this and searched for cheaper alternatives. I came across an ink refill kit for a fraction of the price. After staining my hands rainbow colours I managed to inject new ink into my old cartridge. I replaced the cartridge only to find that Epson had started using electronic chips to prevent people from doing just this. Rather than let this deter me from reclaiming the use of my printer I went down to cartridge world (a printer ink refill company) and asked for a refilled colour ink cartridge for my model of printer. Triumphantly I slotted in the new cartridge into the printer and proceeded to print the test page... It rejected the cartridge. Now I suppose that I could have gone back to cartridge world but at this point I has lost the will as I had now spent at least half of what Epson was charging me for their ink and gotten nowhere.
The printer in this story was then packaged up and stored away for 3-4 years before just being dumped as a waste of space, unused and virtually brand new. I should probably add now that the printer was a birthday present for my 14th. Now this was a long time ago and I might believe that times have changed but fortunately my place of work invested in Epson printers recently. A few weeks ago one of the printers stopped working, claiming that the ink had run out, I took out the cartridge and gave it a shake. Full of ink, still heavy being new. I tried the rejected cartridge in the other printers. Non would accept it. So I through it in the bin... (the ink cartridge that is not the printer, although the temptation was there) Nothing has changed.
And that is why I hate Epson. Any Questions?
Sorry that was a bit of rant but my point is that I never want another printer like this. That printer is probably the reason why haven't updated to something new.
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