I brought it home, installed it and started using it. It was so far so good at that point. Still slow as Xmas but it seemed to print fairly nice prints. After a few weeks I ran out of ink and that's when I discovered I'd been screwed. You see, on the front of the box in the lower right hand corner in teeny tiny print was a notice that the ink cartridges for this printer were available only from Circuit City or direct from Lexmark. None of Circuit City's employees bothered to point this out to me. The print is almost impossible to read without a magnifying glass and a very bright light. I don't know about you but no Circuit City stores are near my house. None of their stores are convenient or easy to get to and since I'm not the kind of person that ever shops in a fucking mall except as a last resort, a trip to Circuit City (all of the locations here are near a mall) is out of my way.
So I end up having to go to Circuit City to get a printer cartridge. That's a pain in the ass but I figured I'd get a couple color and a couple black and try to stay ahead of the game. Well, much to my surprise, the closest Circuit City was out of the black cartridges so I had to go across the river (basically backtracking 8 miles and going 8 miles further) to get a cartridge. This happened the next time as well. So the last time my computer told me I was running low on ink I decided to order direct from Lexmark so I clicked the "order now" link in my printer's program. It took me directly to an order page and recommended the #34 "high yield" black ink cartridge. "Excellent," I thought, "more ink!" So I ordered the slightly more expensive #34 which came in the mail a few days later.
When the printer program warns you're running low on ink it doesn't mean you're about to run out the next page you print. I kept using the cartridges I had, waiting for the quality to deteriorate. So it comes around to tax day and I've finally finished my taxes online. For some reason they couldn't submit them electronically so I had to print them and mail them in. No problem, I thought and went to print. After two or three pages (that were instructions on how to file) the black ink cartridge gave up the ghost so I opened the #34 and put it in the machine. Lo and behold, the Lexmark Z1480 doesn't support the #34 cartridge that Lexmark's website recommended to me! I call Lexmark and they promise me a new cartridge... in a few days! When I question them about the different cost I'm assured they'll contact me within a day to refund the difference. To say the least I was furious at this point, having to drive to Circuit City to get another cartridge instead of being able to walk to Walgreens.
When I arrived at the closest Circuit City (drive 2 miles through the city, get on the interstate, change to the expressway, get off near the malls, drive another couple of miles to the point where I have to wait several minutes for traffic to clear enough to turn into the stripmall) I go in only to find they're out of the fucking things. This is an EXCLUSIVE PRODUCT!!! They're out every goddamned time I need one of the things and I really need one. So I wait for some kid to finish with another customer and get him to find me one in another store. There's an old lady waiting for the exact same thing. This is the fifth time she's been to this store to get a replacement cartridge only to find none in stock.
There is no excuse for a store like Circuit City to ever be out of anything unless it is no longer being manufactured. Every time an item enters or leaves the store the UPC symbol is scanned so there is a record of every sale made. With a centralized system like they have you should be able to order any piece of stock and have it the next day. You should never run out because you can see you have twenty in stock and you sold five a day for the last three days and you can rush order another thirty or hundred.
So let's sum up here.
Circuit City: sells exclusive product requiring refills. Is always out of stock on refills.
Circuit City = CRAP
Lexmark: produces an exclusive product but sells the wrong refills from their own website. They also never contacted me about refunding the extra I spent on the #34 cartridge and it took more than ten days for the replacement #3 to get to me.
Lexmark = CRAP
When the cartridges I have in this printer run out I'm buying a Canon printer from anyone but Circuit City.
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5 comments:
Computers make everything easier.
A few things about the Lexmark #2 and #3 ink cartridges:
Circuit City was the only supplier but has since gone bankrupt.
A few online retailers sell them like InkCloners.com.
The only thing is that the ink level indicator would need to be disabled to avoid that annoying popup.
But otherwise they print pretty good.
Screw Lexmark is all I have to say. When your customer representatives lie to customers like they did to me that's enough reason to never do business with you again. Add on top of that the difficulty of buying replacement cartridges and how insanely overpriced they are and you have a losing combination. You have lost a customer in me and I do hope I will prevent others from becoming your customer.
Thanks for the heads up on the nightmare of trying to purchase replacement cartridges, you saved me a lot of time and aggravation....I'm tossing the printer in the garbage and will never purchase a Lexmark product again.
I assume you already bought a Canon printer; that's great! Now it's easier for you to purchase ink. No need to cross the river as they're available in most stores. You could even purchase online and have it delivered for free, depending on the number of purchases. I hope you never have a printer/ink crisis after this. Fletcher @ ConcordSupplies.com