Epson are the worst of them. Utterly vile and disgusting. Bankrupt them and castrate them.
They have put more effort on software in the cartridge to prevent you from refill or using other brands. The levels are lower than a thimble and cost a shocking amount of money - for coloured water. I'm on the third cartridge just to print a 360-page book that I've designed. It's the slowest printer I have ever, ever, seen. It registers that cartridges are empty, 'please buy more' - yet I can hear plenty of liquid inside when I shake it, not even half empty. This will cost me about £60 to print this project. I have just inserted the third and final cyan cartridge today and still have another 100 pages to print. I have used HP or Brother for decades, effortlessly, printing design work without haemorrhaging money to Epson, or continually stopping to refill or sort problems. Living with this two-week old piece of crap is causing havoc to my work-load.
I should set up a company, manufacturing a sturdy, efficient printer, that costs a fraction of the ink and have large reservoir ink tanks. Anybody should be allowed to refill any brand of ink if they wish, just as I may fill the car with Shell, or BP or Tesco. People should not buy from these monkey-fudgers.
I should complaining in a letter to Epson but don't have a spare hour to print it. What I should do is return this dreadful shank of plastic, and force feed the chairman of Epson, piece by piece.
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>>this two-week old piece of crap<<
Should have done your homework! an asked on here first ;-) but I know what you mean! I cut my losses gave away a nearly new one (for the exact same reason) and got a Cannon! - gets way more print for the pennies!
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Yeah, we've got a Canon that worked straight away (although given to us already used) and hasn't run out of black ink yet although it soon would if we printed a lot of photos with it.
The ink cartridges are absurdly small and expensive though. I believe the economical solution for text is a laser printer. Nearly everything we print is just text.
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Buy compatibles and lower your blood pressure BBD
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Agree cartridges are a rip off.I've got a Epson don't print a lot.
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Inkjet ink is one of the most expensive fluids on earth. Some makes cost the equivalent of £6000 per litre.
But it is also why you can buy a high resolution, high quality printer for less than £50.
Last edited by: DP on Mon 27 Feb 12 at 19:11
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>> £6000 per litre.
Wait 'till Starbucks get hold of it as a sideline. That'll seem cheap...
:-)
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It'll probably taste better than their coffee though :-)
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>> Wait 'till Starbucks get hold of it as a sideline.
We went to see Jackie Mason perform last week, he did the Starbucks routine brilliantly..;)
Why do people fall for it, badge?
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Sounds like a cheap colour laser with relatively cheap toner carts available maybe a better bet BBD. Dell 1320CN if you can still find one.
It generally takes the 3rd party ink manufacturers one generation of printers (about a year in other words) to come up with viable 'chipped' carts. So best to try and get a printer that's just been superceded than the current model.
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For a long time the received wisdom was that Epson were cheapest to run because they used refillable ink tanks also separate from the print heads. Clearly that's changed. There's a lot of it about - my Panasonic camera will use compatible batteries, now £2.99 but its successor needs Panasonic branded ones at £40.
I bought a Brother DCP-J715W wireless printer-scanner-copier for about £100 recently. Compatible inks work fine and bought in 10-packs are between £1 and £2 each delivered (Amazon).
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I used to swear by our HP 960c for its solid, dependable printing, long-lasting cartridges and clever auto-duplex device. Its eventual replacement was another HP, a Photosmart All-in-One Premium, and that gets sworn at instead.
As BBD describes with his Epson, the software is designed to maximize ink use; you can use black ink only, or you can duplex, but not both at once, and you can set the ink amount to Minimum (which is plenty) only to find that it's back to Profligate the moment you look away. I don't - much - mind paying for the cartridges, but this stuff is just underhand.
So, tell me which Canon I should be looking at.
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"So, tell me which Canon I should be looking at."
That's the problem WDB, I have no idea.
I bought the Epson, because I was rushing, had a couple of hours. I was in the equivalent "Curry's" store. Fifty or so different printers all boring me to death, with no more info than a price sticker. These stores should show price, cartridges price (brands and cheaper ones), volume of ink and speed - easy to compare. Of course not.
I ended up by studying a printer, noting the model number, walking 100 metres to another part of the store to check out the cartridges, work out what was compatible and what it costs, walking back 100 metres to the printer section and look at the next one.
Exhausted, after a 3 mile jog around the store, dropping pages and pages of notes, I just grabbed the one in a nice box. Epson.
What a mistake. I should have gone for an HP. I use high volume printouts working on books and magazines, they pack up after 12 or 18 months and I expect that. I usually buy a similar HP, two projects or so and a new cartridge is needed. Fine. But Epson are the ultimate pee takers. Hang 'em high.
I also have a Samsung laser printer black-only toner which is a fantastic machine. But I only use it when I'm typesetting text-only books. Expensive toner but economical for type-only work (no images).
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With printers i tend to do a bit of online checking of ink prices before buying, our first was a Lexmark where the ink cartdidge was about £2 cheaper than a new printer, lesson learned the costly way but never forgotten.
Canon for us now, so far so good.
I do the same with cars, research probable faults, maintenance, service costs and especially tyre costs before buying.
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Of course GB, I'm happy to sit for hours online researching cars for maintenance and service costs before buying.
But some products I'd rather see, touch and feel - maintenance and service costs before buying at Sofia's Lap Dance Bar
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>> But some products I'd rather see, touch and feel - maintenance and service costs before
>> buying at Sofia's Lap Dance Bar
>>
Its OK i've already appointed you entertainments manager in the C4P co-operative, it'll have to be a no wives (and no cameras allowed) affair or none of us will have any wives left by the time you've finished..;)
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BBD, I can recommend the Canon MP980.
Excellent all in one scanner/printer jobbie with six cartridges (CMY plus Grey and Black for colour and a seperate, larger black cartridge for print). With the exception of grey (~£10), non-OEM cartridges can be bought online for £3-£4 each. I recently bought two full sets on special offer for £30.
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>> BBD, I can recommend the Canon MP980.
Agreed, MP970 here and does everything SWM asks of it, again all with cheap aftermarket inks.
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I thought Sofia's closed down after I left town and took my business elsewhere?!
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>> I use high volume printouts working on books and magazines
Wouldn't a colour laser printer be more suitable for your requirements?
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Might be for BBD but we're not so high-volume here, at least not in colour. I'll look into the Canon MPs; thanks to Kevin and GB.
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>>Its eventual replacement was another HP, a Photosmart All-in-One Premium, and that gets sworn at instead. <<
Yeah, I made the same mistake. I have now gone back to using my 12-year-old Epson 760, which is not only economical and still works but I can buy cartridges for a couple of euros.
I will never buy another HP product if I can help it.
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BBD, if you haven't seen it, read this. Fits your plight quite neatly :-)
theoatmeal.com/comics/printers
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BiggerBadderDave,
What model no. Epson have you got?
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I find that BBD's original gripe applies when buying other products and services these days. How many of us get confused by mobile phone contracts and packages that include services you don't need? Or when choosing an electricity/gas supplier?
They deliberately set out to confuse us and make more money that way!
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Cheers Kevin! I will have a look at the Canon (when I spare an afternoon). It seems many guys are heading in the direction of Canon.
VxFan mentioned that my requirements may be met using a colour laser printer. I should work out whether it's a good financial bet or not. My other consideration is that the high-volume printouts are only needed for editorial requirements as opposed to providing high quality printouts with creative cabbages and marketing muppets who debate hours and hours. In those cases, I have them run out from a print bureau.
Only one client want to see printouts, almost everything else is sent as pdfs in one form or another. But this client works very traditionally - and keep me (and that printer) busy.
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Just to muddy the water a little, I found some unhappy users on PC Advisor who are convinced the MP980 wastes ink on excessive self-cleaning - although it's less of a problem if it does long print runs, apparently.
In any case, the MP980 is now discontinued ('archived' in Canonese) so I'll be looking at the MG5150 instead. Probably.
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I've seen that thread but can honestly say that I haven't seen any problem even though my usage (infrequent short runs with lots of on/off cycles) sounds typical of their complaints.
The printer is about 18 months old and I'm still on my first set of (non-Canon) replacement inks.
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Inkjets have always been stupidly expensive to run. Get a colour laser. I'd recommend Samsung.
Unless you can run a continuous ink system then they're a waste of time.
I'd return it to the shop as faulty if it is saying cartridges are empty when you can hear there is quite a bit in them. Ask for a refund as you've lost confidence in their product.
Sounds like the duty cycle of the printer just isn't up to what you intend doing with it. Which model is it?
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I was just about to post a long, livid rant about the 196 page book that died after 180 pages and took 16 hours - but there was a power cut. Lost my post.
I'll just say, Epson are a theiving, despicable, evil bunch of c-words. I'd like to meet with these bankers, armed with the shocking, pish-poor quality print-outs, a blade and a knuckle duster.
Perhaps they should change direction and develop cars instead. £3000 for a tank of gas, 5 miles and it's empty, and thousands killed every day on the roads.
Now I have to apologise missing a deadline and buy a printer. Choose your words carefully, salesmen is in the next shop. Be very careful.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 31 Mar 12 at 23:53
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>> I'll just say, Epson are a theiving, despicable, evil bunch of c-words.
I've no complaints about my Epson Stylus DX4800.
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Would you have no complaints if it cost you £120 to print this book? A few millilitres of coloured water?
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Feel strongly about it Dave ?
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>>Now I have to apologise missing a deadline and buy a printer. Choose your words carefully, salesmen is in the next shop. Be very careful<<
Go get em Floyd Dave.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 31 Mar 12 at 23:52
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I'm going to grill some sausages, check out some porn and lower the blood pressure before something bad happens.
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Don't let the red mist trick you into grilling the wrong sausage before you check out the porn
:)
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>> check out some porn and lower the blood pressure
Usually incompatible mate unless you have found some other way.
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The mother-in-law just visited. Hope I don't get mixed up with the sausage, the porn and the wife's mum.
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Sounds like a possible mange-a-trois
I'll get mon manteau...
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>> I'll just say, Epson are a theiving, despicable, evil bunch of c-words.
In faireness to Epson, it sounds like you're demanding something beyond the capabilities of a domestic home printer. Not really its fault that it gives up the ghost when asking it to do a task that is more suited to a professional / industrial printer.
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It lasted about 7 or 8 reams and 6 or 7 weeks. All the others managed a year or more - not fell to bits, just the quality dropped off.
Yesterday the print was so poor I did two cleaning cycles, and each cartridge dropped by 50% in ink. Cartridges ran out within 8 to 12 pieces of paper. Each one costs a fiver (each colour). Each one contains 3 ml of ink - not enough cough medicine to give a baby.
I had to steal the HP printer that I'd given to my daughter and finish the job. The last few pages look fantastic, so I reprinted 30-odd pages on the HP too.
Should a car fall to bits if the pensioner drives all week instead of just nipping to Asda once a week?
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Dave, for the replacement something like this might be worth investing in:
h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-236251-236261-24728-f58-83387-83389-83390.html?dnr=1
Duty cycle of 30,000 pages a month so should last and be a better investment than a cheaper consumer oriented printer.
Not cheap... e.g.
www.scan.co.uk/products/hp-business-inkjet-3000
and I know you're not in the UK. Just giving an example. Or cheaper and not quite so business oriented how about an HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer
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Epson: Thieving, rip-off, con merchants. - devonite
