Epson Ink Scam!

rseven · Feb 16, 2006

This is really a rip off. I had nearly 25%of my black ink left when the light started blinking on the printer. I saw that one of the color cartridges had a yellow exclamation point, so I replaced it. Now, without having printed anything I now have exclamation marks on all of the cartridges. The other two color cartridges were low, so i replace them. Now this POS printer says there is no black ink left and it wil print nothing. You are a bunch of crooks!!! There is plenty of ink in there and you have designed these things to say they are empty just so you can rip me off for more ink. Look, I have been bloody robbed by your company enough. I already had to return my All in One machine to you with a full black ink cartridge, I might add and I had to pay for it. It was supposed to be free but you neglected to put in the stickers when you shipped me the replacement. Now this! I will be posting this on my 60,000-member computer forum this evening. I hope that you lose a lot of business. I do not want to see others ripped off by your miserable company. You have cheated me for the last time. Now, this time you folks are going to PAY!!!!

I just sent this to the charming ripoff artists at Epson. This is my third and last Epson printer. It's also my last inkjet as I am tired of paying for the liquid gold they call ink. Epson has already been taken to court and they lost, but the game goes on. :bang head

Nexus Realized · Feb 16, 2006

Unbelieveable. How do the cartridges know when to display they're empty, time delay or something in the software?

rseven · Feb 16, 2006

I really don't know, but this damn thing won't even print when the font is set foor yellow and i have a full yellow cartridge. If my kids weren't asleep I would be smahing it with a sledge hammer right now. I would then pay to send it back to Epson and tell them where they can deposit it.

Maximouse · Feb 16, 2006

Nexus Realized said:
Unbelieveable. How do the cartridges know when to display they're empty, time delay or something in the software?

Maybe the printer goes online and checks your bank account?

Rseven, you have my sympathy. I tried both Canon and Epson inkjets and sometimes found myself replacing the printer after changing cartridges. Its a scam.

I ended up getting a Konika magicolor color laser. The toner costs more than ink, but the cartridges last a long time and photo printing is just as good as an inkjet.

Al

infinitevalence · Feb 16, 2006

i just reset the ink thing and tell it its a new cartrage and keep printing unitl it looks like crap, then replace.

Nexus Realized · Feb 16, 2006

Maximouse said:
Maybe the printer goes online and checks your bank account?

That seems possible...

rseven, I've had a pretty cheap all-in-one HP I've been using for about two years now with pretty light printing and only about 15-20 photos and it's still on the cartridge that it came with and doesn't seem to be fading in any way.

rseven · Feb 16, 2006

infinitevalence said:
i just reset the ink thing and tell it its a new cartrage and keep printing unitl it looks like crap, then replace.

How do you reset it?

infinitevalence · Feb 16, 2006

check in your printer driver, there should be a place where you reset the counter when you put in a new cartrage, just hit reset but dont use a new cartrage

Beginner · Feb 16, 2006

rseven said:
How do you reset it?

the printer icon should have a settings option. i have an rx300-c that prints on disc

same thing happened to me to. at first i would just reinstall the driver but after awhile i figured out that it had a print counter.

godofgorks · Feb 16, 2006

Odd... my epson will print until she runs dry, litterally. It will whine and moan about low ink but I keep printing until it stops. And they are bone dry when I pull them out...

And although a full set costs me ~$60 (for name brand), it's a ton cheaper then the Lexmark printer my parents have. If you don't use it's ink in 2 months they dry up. 1000 pages or 1 page, it makes no difference. ~$40 to replace the cartriges in that one. That's a darn shame. At least my epson doesn't dry up and they drain fully. :shrug:

rseven · Feb 16, 2006

No, there is no way to reset it manually. I 'll have to get a cartridge, but as soon as I can I will bag this thing. I would have been fine if I hadn't of changed the one low cartridge, but i had no way of knowing it. :bang head

Archer36 · Feb 16, 2006

What model of printer do you have? I have a C86 and I really like it and it does not seem to eat though to much ink, and like mentioned earlier the thing will print up till the last drop.

muddocktor · Feb 16, 2006

rseven, I've read that some of the Epson printers have a microchip in the cartridge itself that is supposed to either measure the amount of ink used or counts pages and then shuts the cartidge down before running out of ink to protect the printhead (or something like that, it's been a while). That's why the bastidge quits on you with ink still in the cartridge and you can't reset it most probably.

I agree, that's really dirty of them to screw their customers like that too and I won't buy an Epson printer.

Mr.Guvernment · Feb 16, 2006

wow - i have never had anything but good Epson experiences and i swear by their printers all my life! not one has died on me yet or treated me bad and their photo printers kick the crap out of most other photo printers on the market.

I dont run out and replace the ink cause it says so, i print it till it runs out and i can see it is running out.

Do you jump of a bridge cause someone tells you to ?

Epson printers do have their print heads built into the printer and not in the ncartridges i recall, uinlike HP, so it could be an issue witha dirty printer head.....

the exclamation mark is simply a "warning" your ink is getting low.

have you tried reseating the ink cartridges ?

making sure you took the sticker off the bottom of the catridge...

NoodleHead · Feb 16, 2006

well i have a canon, and even after the exclamation pops up i ignore it, then after a bunch of 4x6 prints, it says out of ink, i just press the continue button and it prints a bunch more pics.....Just print as much as you can until the ink really runs out. I've owned Epsons before and i just take the cartridge out, then stick it back in and usually in still able to print some more.

Tebore · Feb 16, 2006

It's easy to reset the cartridges, Just take them out turn off and turn it back on and put it back in then hit the clean head button on the machine.

BAM new cartridges.

Why you run out of ink or why the printer thinks it's out is because it does autohead cleanings once in a while and it just does calculations that some bean counter programmed in to the firmware.

stool · Feb 17, 2006

I don't even bother buying new cartridges anymore. Almost every week, some printer is on sale, so when the ink runs out, I sell the printer and buy a new one. After a while you actually get ahead of the game.

rseven · Feb 17, 2006

I use to do the buy a new printer routine when I ran Lexmarks that drink ink like water. Yes, I ignore the exclamation marks too, but since I was going out of town and my kids use the printer for their homework I didn't want to leave it. When the printer "recharged" it suck the black ink dry and now it won't print anything, which is bogus because I know their is plenty of ink. Hell it won't print in yellow and their is a full cartridge. I have since gotten a fresh black ink refill, but damn this kind of crap PO's me bigtime. (As if you couldn't tell

) These printer companies get away with murder and Epson has been sued many times and lost. :bang head

Mr.Guvernment · Feb 17, 2006

^^^ so true, especially if your just printing out paper - you usually get some cartridges with the printer anyways and u can get a decent $50 printer these days.

infinitevalence · Feb 17, 2006

this is why i dont cheep out and get laser printers, even used they cost a few hundred but guess what, you buy a thing of toner and it lasts forever

down side is no color

Epson Ink Scam!

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