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Cartridge photos are a representative sample. There may be variations in design.
design details
warranty details
This site started out as an advice site to educate people on how to save money amid all the confusion and scams on the net. What the printer companies are doing amounts to legalized piracy and our goal was to help you keep your own money in your pockets. Eventually visitors urged us to stock the items we recommended and offer them on the site. When we discovered the reusable cartridges, we found a fantastic product difficult to obtain in the US so we had to import them. Our advice site evolved into a family business. Our goal is help you save money while getting great results from your printer.
We consider ourselves more than reasonable in dealing with customers and go the extra mile to make sure no one is disappointed. However, sometimes a few individuals make it difficult for everyone else. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone conducted themselves fairly and we wouldn't need lawyers and contracts to keep people honest? So while we would like to say 100% money-back guarantee, no questions asked, a few people have made it impossible to do this without adding some conditions. They can be summed up in two words: be reasonable.
We have a 60-day window in which to give credit car or paypal refunds, so refund requests must be received within this time frame (though we have at time sent refund checks even after that time period). The time limit for replacement is much more generous. If there is a problem with one or two of our cartridges, we will replace them. If three cartridges, we will refund the purchase price for those cartridges and any unopened ones returned within the window. If a printer uses four or six different cartridges (black and 3-5 colors) and you opened one of each, we will take those back. But don't open more than one of each color and expect a refund.
Why this limit? It is always possible that one or two were defective. This can happen (and has) even with genuine Epson products. But if it is two of the same color, this indicates a problem with the printer itself. What happens is the print head gets clogged and the printer stops producing that color. The customer puts in a new cartridge and it still won't print. The customer assumes the cartridge is defective and tries a second. At that point, the customer should realize it is a printer problem. Even if the customer believes it to be a cartridge problem, if two don't work, there is no point in continuing to open the rest. Return them for a refund. But we did have at least one person order a dozen black cartridges, then (without contacting us) return them all opened and empty six months later, claiming they were all defective. We did not refund in that situation. Another customer received 12 black cartridges on a hot day in a southern state. Exposure to heat creates pressure within the cartridge. (So does exposure to extreme cold.) He then emailed to say all 12 cartridges spewed ink when he removed the yellow tape and he wanted a refund. Had he called or emailed after opening the first one or two, we could have told him to put them in a refrigerator and let them cool off before opening. (And had it been a cold day, we would have recommended letting them warm up.) But if the first one spewed and then the second, why continue to open all 12? We have to protect ourselves from geniuses like that. Incidentally, we did send another 6 free and that person is still a loyal customer. But we went beyond our warranty and are not obligated to do so.
It does not take months to decide an entire order is defective. The customer tries one and it doesn't work, tries a second and has the same issue and at that point should contact us. Naturally we don't expect a customer to test an entire order within two months. So if they bought a quantity and a few months later find that one didn't work properly, we will replace it or add extra to their next order. But to request a refund, it must be done within the window. The excuse "I know I bought these 6 months ago but I just got around to using them" doesn't cut it. What's to stop anyone from buying anything - a MP3 player, computer, car, etc and saying they didn't use it until after the warranty expired? The warranty begins from date of purchase, not the date they decide to use it.
We have made exchanges a year after the purchase date when there was good reason. For example, customers bought a quantity of cartridges and then had to buy a new printer which couldn't take the old cartridges. We almost always take back sealed cartridges. But we don't want to be obligated to do so, hence the limitations in the warranty.
If you experience a problem, email or call first. Often we can resolve the problem over the phone. We get very few cartridges back and most of those work just fine in our printers. If we can't solve it, the next step would be to replace or refund. We may require that you send the product back to us. We do not send prepaid potage labels or reimburse your shipping. If this is for replacement, we will add extra to cover your costs. (We also put extra cartridges in most of our Epson, Canon and Brother orders.) This is what you accept when placing your order online. If you buy an item from a store and it doesn't work, it must be returned to the store. You can't call them up and expect to get your money back. If you expect a refund without returning the merchandise, shop elsewhere.
When returning opened ink cartridges, you must be careful to seal them against leaks. If they leak, the Post Office will dispose of them without delivery. Tape the bottom of the cartridge where the printer punctured it and the top where you removed the yellow tape. Place them in a baggie. Do not put closed cartridges in the same baggie. Return them to:
Izzy Goodman
2412 Oceancrest Blvd
Far Rockaway, NY 11691
We supply schools, professional printers and corporations. We do almost no advertising. Most of our customers come to us by referral from other customers. We must be doing something right (and our cartridges must be working properly) to achieve this track record. As long as your expectations are reasonable, we will be more than reasonable.
Our warranty only covers the cartridges bought from us and for up to the amount paid us. We do not cover any other expenses. If someone waited until the day an important job was due and discovered a cartridge didn't work and had to run out and pay a lot more somewhere else, they can't expect us to refund the amount they paid for the other cartridge. We had one customer say since a cartridge didn't work and she couldn't find another one, she bought a whole new printer and expected us to pay for it. Sorry, but that's not the way it works. Another customer complained that his 4-year old printer stopped working a year and a half after putting in our cartridges so it had to be the fault of our cartridges and therefore he expected us to buy him a new printer. I hope anyone reading this understands why this is not a reasonable expectation. If not, please shop elsewhere.
Don't wait until you're down to your last cartridge on the last day you have to complete a critical job. At about $3 a cartridge, there is no reason not to have a backup. Someone's failure to spend an extra $3 does not impose an obligation on us. An entire set of our cartridges cost less than a single Epson cartridge. Instead of spending $60-$100 for one set of Epsons, spend $20 to $40 for two to three sets of ours. With our special bonuses for buying backup sets, there is no excuse not to be prepared.
We do not offer lifetime free replacements. Cartridges do not contain any moving parts. There is no particular reason a reusable or refillable cartridge can't last for years. We have a set going on four years. However, electronic chips can be damaged by stray voltage, liquid, or being touched by sweaty fingers. So don't count on your cartridge lasting forever. We typically replace it free within a few months of purchase or we add an extra in your next order. But we did have a professional print shop with multiple printers buy a single set of refillable cartridges and move it from printer to printer. Naturally doing this caused the ink to be used very quickly. Every time time cartridges are inserted in a printer, they go through a charging process which uses a good deal of ink. This print shop kept calling to complain the ink was being used too quickly. In four months we had sent five replacements for the four cartridges they bought. In all that time, despite our reminders, they didn't take the obvious step of buying a set for each printer. Expecting unlimited lifetime replacements of a $4 item is not reasonable. Epson won't do it and their cartridges cost five times more and give one-third the ink. Incidentally, when we stopped replacing the cartridges, this print shop bought several sets and has had no problems since. They still buy their ink from us and gave us a glowing recommendation. See our customer testimonials on the upper left. We also had customers call every few months to ask for a replacement for a different cartridge - all without placing any new orders. They were basically using our warranty to get free replacements every time they ran out of ink. Over a year they had received a complete new set, cartridge by cartridge. With some people abusing our warranty we can no longer afford to be that generous. So if you make your purchase expecting our basic warranty and you experience some issue, you will receive service which exceeds any reasonable expectations.
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Caring for Epson printers by Yisroel Goodman
by Izzy Goodman
Ink is a lubricant for the print heads. Some inkjets work by heating the heads, causing expansion, which forces ink out. Some color ink is used even if you only print in black or vice versa. If you printed with a color missing, you could destroy that print head from the heat and friction of running without ink to lubricate it. That's why most printers won't allow you to print with a color missing even if you aren't using it. If you allow a color to go empty, the residual ink in the head could clog and become permanently blocked. You would never be able to print that color again. So always replace ink cartridges as soon as they are empty. At about $3 a cartridge, it's foolish not to.
Leaving your printer on takes very little power. Every so often the printer force out a drop of ink so it doesn't clog. If you turn your printer off, the next time you turn it on it will do a cleaning which wastes a lot of ink. (For a video on just how much, see the bottom of this page ). Considering that some companies give you only 3-7 ml to begin with, you don't want to waste it on a cleaning. The excess ink is soaked up by the waste pad beneath the printer. When the waste pad is full, the printer stops working. The cost of repairing it is more than a new printer. Shutting off an inkjet between uses can actually shorten its life.
If you feel you must shut off your printer, never do it through a power strip. When you shut down a printer by pressing its power button, it goes through a shut down routine designed to clear the ink from the heads. If you use a power strip, it won't go through this routine.
If you leave the printer off for extended periods of time, the ink in the heads will clog and you may have to throw the printer away. Before you do so, try our Epson head cleaning kit. Someone I know with a Canon (though this can happen with any inkjet) had to have the heads replaced twice within the first few months before the Canon tech told her to stop turning it off. Since then it has worked perfectly for over a year.
Incidentally, the Canon tech had to replace her ink cartridges in order to run a print test. He used compatible cartridges. When she questioned this he said, "They're all the same." If a Canon tech can use compatible cartridges, so can you. Check out the savings available right on this site.
Warning about running out of ink with Epson printers
I don't know if this applies to other brands of printers but I know it applies to some models of Epson. If the printer were to continue printing without ink, air would get into the jets and the residual ink remaining will coagulate. Air in the tiny tubes can also break the vacuum effect needed to continue pulling ink into to the head. This may permanently prevent those heads from ever printing again. To prevent this from happening, Epson printers report that the cartridge is out of ink when there is still some left - in order to force you to replace the ink before it runs out. However, the printer doesn't know exactly how much ink is really left. It estimates. This means that things can go wrong and it is possible for you to be printing with an empty cartridge.
Some people take a half-empty cartridge out and put it back in. This can fool the printer into thinking it is a new cartridge. But then it will continue printing after the ink has run out, which could lead to that print head failing. So playing games like this is false economy. You save a dollar's worth of ink at the risk of your whole printer.
This is why you must take special precautions with our re-usable cartridges. The chips are designed to reset to full upon re-insertion in the printer. You get a warning that your black ink is low, so you replace it. Other cartridges may reset to full, even the cyan which was 3/4 empty. The printer believes it to be full and continues printing even when there is no ink. So when changing any cartridge, check the others to make sure they are at least half full. The back of the ink tanks are transparent so you can see ho much ink remains. Don't risk your printer trying to save a dollar's worth of ink!
What to do if your printer stops printing a color?
Call Epson and have them walk you through solving the problem. Under no circumstances should you tell them you used third-party ink cartridges. They will sieze upon this as an excuse to stop talking to you. If they can't solve the problem over the phone and your printer is still under warranty, they will fedex you a new one. You will then return the bad one to them in the same box - removing the cartridges from the printer first.
What if the printer is no longer under warranty?
Our Epson head cleaning kit might solve the problem. It forces a special cleaning solution to the head under pressure. The solution will force out the air and break down clots.