How many times to you have to go through something before you learn from your mistakes? You would like to think that once would be enough but I reckon it’s pretty safe to say that most people don’t actually learn unless it happens more than once. OK, that may not be entirely true, they’ve probably learned a lesson but they fail to act upon it and it’s probably because of sheer laziness.
I run a wholesale business and unless I bill my customers I know I won’t get paid for the stuff I’ve sold. Part of that billing process is printing the actual accounts and I can still remember vividly one weekend when my printer ink cartridges ran out and I wasn’t able to print them on time. Not a major drama as it just meant that I would have to get them out to the customers later on in the week but it did mean that I had to wait that little bit longer before getting paid.
The thing was I didn’t do anything about it until the time when my daughters assignment had to be handed in the next day and again I ran out of ink. You would not believe the amount of paper and ink these university students chew up, which is why I had to source some cheap ink cartridges. Man, the drama I went through that night was unbelievable.
That was when I finally decided that I would always keep spares on hand, inkjet cartridges for the daughter and toner cartridges for myself, so that I will never have to put up with such dramas again.
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Tagged with: Business and Economy • Hardware • Ink cartridge • Paper • print • Printer • Supplies
Filed under: SpecialOps
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It’s not the ink that is causing me the problem at the moment, it’s my printer, after four years of loyal, hard, service it’s decided to pack up and go to that great printer heaven in the sky :eek_wp:
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Often the new printers will come with the exact same cartridges as the replacement ones, for the same price as just paying for the cartridges seperate. They make all the money off the ink sales. :surprised_wp:
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Fortunately the price of printers have come down a lot and like Sara says they are sometimes cheaper than the cost of replacing the cartridges. Still I would shop around for the best printer for the job even if it did use different cartridges.
I use a Kodak printer, the highest recommendation for those that use a lot of ink.
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I used to like the Epson printers, but that was until I got my Canon.
Kodak is cheapest, plus the printers are designed to use less. ;)
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One of the greatest things about business for me, is I can invoice people and send “paperwork” almost all digitally. Instead of printing out and handwriting invoices, I can just send out a PDF. I could lie and say I’m doing it all to be “Green” but the truth is, it’s a lot more efficient.
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Unfortunately most of my customers prefer a ‘hard’ copy, otherwise I would get you to make up some colorful invoices for me
Haha! I guess it really does come down to what the customer’s preference is. Have you ever thought about outsourcing your print work? There are a lot of affordable printers out there that do great work.
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Mope, I can print the invoices at a touch of a key and I figure it’s a hell of a lot cheaper to print them myself than to have someone else do it.
That sounds like a pretty good gig then. And I’m sure you’ll remember to stock up on printer ink haha!
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I actually use a fax/copy/printer as it uses a toner and the printed invoice does not run if it get’s wet.
I just don’t like that these ink cartridges cost so much. And you always hear people complaining that they make the printers cheap so they can kill you with the cost of the ink cartridges. After all, where else are you going to get the ink you need? From them of course. And there are so many different versions for the exact same machine these days. I hope in the future these sort of things become much more simple and easier to source.
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There are savings if you have your cartridges refilled or by buying generic brands. I wouldn’t do that on a new machine though because it may void the warranty.
I have many bad experiences with cheap ink so I decided on always buying those relatively expensive but reliable ones.
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I haven’t had any bad experience with the cheaper ink but I have heard of others who have. It does pay to ask around for other peoples experience on any given brand. You will more likely than not find a forum on the subject.
I used to be TOTALLY guilty of last-minute printing, when my printer would (of course) fail — say if I were off to a songwriting critique session where I’d need 12 copies of my lyrics to pass out.
But my printer broke about a year ago and I’ve not replaced it, saving me problems.
I stopped going to critique sessions.
life is good!
:)
xo
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I love it! No printer, no problem!
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So does that mean you outsource your printing jobs?
I was a little wondering about the title. Expected something philosophical about ink and print haha.
I can totally understand your issues with printers they seem to have magical powers so always when you have to finish a important piece… poof!… no more more ink.
And now after all the refills I gave my printer he finally gave up 2 days ago. Nothing works anymore not a big problem considering I paid 50$ for the whole device ;)
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That’s a good thing about technology, it seems to get cheaper as time goes by.
I used to complain about the price of changing my “6 color inkjet” cartridges every 3 months, until I got a color laser printer and it costs now about $350 just to change all 4 toner cartridges. Costs less to buy a new Color Laser printer than to replace the toner cartridge, feel like I should just keep buying a new one and selling the old one used to offset the costs.
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That’s amazing isn’t it. At least if you buy a new one every time you don’t need to worry about the warranty
Have you ever tried buying the generic brand toners?
I use generic staples brand toners, not the original Brother or HP ones and they are still that much :)
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Looks like you’re pretty well damned no matter where you go.
Ink cartridge really bother me much. My HP Deskjet printer really eat it well and cut my pocket so much that I ask my friend to hide the power cable, so that I stop printing internet pages every now and then. :) I know that is not a good decision but that teach me something; I can live without those print pages. So, now I only invest ink when I need to print an ebook.
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Print an eBook? Is that because like me you find it hard to read it on the monitor?
I don’t even use a printer now. Everything I need, I take with me on a USB drive. If someone needs a document from me, I’ll email it to them.
Have you tried to invoice your customers electronically? Have them provide you a valid email address. Just a suggestion. I don’t know how your business is setup, maybe this is out of the question.
Most of my customers prefer a hard copy. It’s all I can do to get them to use EFT! I’m sure technology will catch up with them someday.
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Hey I do know without ink the printers are just nothing. But till you loose the effectiveness of your cartridges you may try to fill ink in them with the help of syringe. Its comparatively cheaper.
True, but that does not work with every printer. I remember my Epson had a chip that remembered that cartridge was empty and so refilling it with a syringe just didn’t work.
Re-use & refill your printer cartridges – At Cartridge refilling stores their technicians refill & refurbish your printer cartridges and this offers you up to 50% savings as compared to buying a new one.
That does work but the quality may not be the same.
Yeah refilling the printer cartridges always doesn’t work also there are chances that the quality may not be that good. I always go for the original ones though they are expensive but reliable for our expensive printers.
Wendy, it does seem silly to put an inferior product into a printer that is worth a fair bit of money, so I have to agree with you.
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Yeah I can too never risk my printer for sake of some money and not go for an original cartridge. But when I thought of keeping a stock of extra ones my friend said that it get dries and all would go in vain. So, I dropped the idea.
Actually I think your friend is wrong as they’re sealed pretty well. I mean who knows how long they’ve been sitting on the shop shelves before you buy them.
I just checked on of my spares and there’s no expiry date on it.
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