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About Compatibles
FAQ About Compatible
and Remanufactured Cartridges
Q. Why are Original inkjet and toner cartridges so expensive?
A. Printer manufacturers such as make very little
money by selling printers, they make it all by selling consumables such as
cartridges, branded paper etc. The cost of making the cartridges is a small
fraction of the final selling price. The distributors (such as the High Street
stores) make only a few pence per cartridge when they sell them on, so the bulk
of the money goes to the manufacturer. The Printer companies say the cartridges are
expensive because the research, development and testing costs. These do increase
the price but lets face it, what you’re really paying for is the brand name.
Q. What is a Compatible Cartridge?
A. A Compatible cartridge is a clone of a branded cartridge. A new plastic
case is moulded and filled with high-quality inks in the same way as the branded
cartridges made by the printer manufacturer. Each cartridge is brand new and in
our opinion
they perform as well as the branded cartridge.
Q. What is a Remanufactured Cartridge?
A. A Remanufactured Cartridge is another name for a recycled inkjet or toner
cartridge. Empty cartridges are dismantled, cleaned, refilled with high-quality
inks, tested and sealed. In our opinion
they perform as
well as the branded cartridge.
Q. What exactly do you mean by ‘in our
opinion they perform as well as the branded
cartridge?’
A. Our personal opinion is that as a typical consumer, you
will not notice any difference between our high-quality compatible cartridges
and a cartridge made by the printer manufacturer. By this we mean that the blacks will be as sharp, the colours will be as vibrant
and you will get the same number of pages per cartridge. This is only our
opinion, it is based on anecdotal evidence from compatible cartridge uses and we
do not have independent evidence to support this opinion. Not surprisingly,
Epson (UK) Ltd disagree with our opinion and believe these it to be false and
misleading.
We believe that you, the consumer, are intelligent enough to
make up your own mind which cartridges you wish to use based on price and
performance. You always have the option of buying genuine cartridges made by
the printer manufacturer, but you will have to go elsewhere to do it as we don't
sell them on this website.
Q. I’ve used compatible products before and they were rubbish. Why should I buy yours?
A. Its true
that there are a lot of cheap and inferior cartridges on the market which do not
deliver the high quality results that you require. However, many printing
problems blamed on compatible cartridges, such as patchy printing, are not
actually the fault of the cartridge used. Problems such as this occur regardless
of whether branded or unbranded cartridges were in the printer. Click here
for how to get the best out of your printer or refer to your printer manual.
Q. What about the warnings in my printer manual that using non-branded
cartridges could damage my printer and invalidate my warranty?
A. Remanufactured and compatible cartridges bought from Print4Less
are no more likely to damage your printer than the branded cartridge. In the highly unlikely event that a
Print4Less
cartridge is proved to have
caused damage (and it would be an unbiased, independent assessor who decides the
cause of damage, not Print4Less
or the cartridge manufacturer!), the manufacturers
are insured and will repair the printer or replace it with one of a similar
market value.
Q. So I will
never get any problems with your cartridges then?
A. If only life were that perfect! The failure rate for Compatible cartridges is less than
0.25%, about the same as the failure rate for the equivalent branded cartridges
(yes, branded cartridges have problems too!)
With the remanufactured cartridges, the rate is about 1.5%. This is slightly
higher than the equivalent branded cartridges, but lower than cartridges sold by
many other companies. One or two cartridges types do have a higher failure rate
because they are so difficult to recycle. However, you will be advised of this
if you try to order one.
Bearing in mind Print4Less's
no-quibble guarantee, most people are happy to bear the slight inconvenience of
exchanging a reject cartridge when balanced against the significant savings they
will make and the fact they are helping the environment.
Q. I’ve got a problem with my cartridge. What now?
A. Try the suggestions on the Getting
the Best Results from your Printer page. If they don’t work,
contact us and we will help you to sort it out.
Remember, with cartridges bought from
Print4Less, the only difference you
will notice is the price.
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