Rip of Epson

[bobbyfett]

I don't know if anyone has ranted about this before, but me and my work colleagues had a right good old moan about this today and I thought I would share this with the rest of you.

We have been using Epson printers for a while now, got a phat color 3000 A2 with I might add oversize ink carts that last for donkey years separate colors as well. (but as yet no OS X driver...very slack, but thats another gripe)

We have brought recent Epson printers for the home, updating older versions or HP ones, and we are all totally annoyed at the fact that the ink runs out so quickly, or that we are told the ink has run out by that stupid intelligent chip, and that once this annoying little thing has told me it has run out I can't use my printer.

Perhaps I want to run out a Black and White copy without a usable color cart, why can't I? Since when does a black only text letter require cmy??? Why am I forced to buy an overpriced color cart that I will not require??

I don't actually believe I have used as much ink as this thing tells me I have anyway. When a cart started getting old before this chip you saw noticeable banding, perhaps I want to take the cart out, give it a shake and take my chances?? Perhaps I want a stripey print out which is good enough for a rough proof??

And have you noticed how small they are getting for even more money?

No wonder epson printers are so cheap, they make all their money from these poxy little ink carts at over inflated prices. You buy a printer out of trust that what you are buying is economical and there is no hidden maintenance cost.

They may have a good reason for this chip, perhaps the heads are more suseptable to clogging with these newer inks at these higher res's. (doesn't excuse the no color no black only printing conundrum though)

They should be more honest in how long their ink cartridges last and not catch people out with this extra cost.

[lurk]

I just bought an HP this past fall and I seriously looked in to the costs associated with the different printers and ink cartridges. The simple truth is that I was too poor (pronounced stingy) to be able to afford a cheep inkjet printer. It also amazed me how hard it was to get honest data on the different models that you could compare from one to the other. And don't get me started on the yellow journalism out there when you look at the comparison articles. Hint to journalists and editors when a datapoint is two orders of magnitude away from the rest of the population give it a second look just to make sure.

But basically my results were:

1) Stay away from the cheepest models the ink is almost always overpriced. The cartridges look cheaper but they hold less so you will lose.

2) Stay away from the one color per cartridge scam. That is great for large format printers but when you do the math you would need to have very uneven color usage (always printing red text or something similar) to be able to overcome the added expense.

One nice thing with my HP is that if you run out of one color in the color carterage the printer will compensate with the other colors to try to give you as close of a color as it can. It also does a really good job of it. If you compare photos side by side you can tell but they still look OK. I print lots of draft charts and graphs and for that it is great.

3) Stay away from printers with cripple chips. That is one of your biggest complaints above and it serves no technical purpose. They are only there to prevent you from refilling your own cart, other companies from selling remanufactured carts, and preventing you from "running on empty" when you should be using a new cart

In days of old I have had to work a Cannon and Epson printer both of which would require occasional manual cleaning when things got gummed up. The idea that I can't trouble shoot the goofy thing by taking the cart out and looking at the head really bothers me.

-Eric

[bobbyfett]

Sounds like you did your homework, your HP sounds pretty cool. Had a HP a while ago and wish I had of stuck with'em.

Those cripple chips are a pain in the backside, they should be made illegal.
I think epson are really extracting the urine with these things.

Just told the people in the office what you have said, so we have all agreed to chuck our epson printers in the bin and never buy epson again for home or work and buy HP or look elsewhere instead!!! : )

Anyone else going to boycott epson??? Or have I just been unlucky