I was printing one day and discovered my black ink was running a little low on my Dell J740. Hmm, I thought. Dell inks cost $45 a pop (at best) and being the penny- pincher I am (ha ha ha), I decided to hop online and find a refurbished ink. I found one, for $27. Wow, what a deal!
My mom used to tell me, If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Why this slipped my mind is beyond me.
So I ordered it. And waited two weeks for it to get here. And put it in the printer, despite that it looked like the top had been sawn off and super glued back on. The first two pages were ok, then they started streaking (ha ha what a phrase!). I emailed customer support at the site I bought it from, and here is what they wrote back:
We are sorry for this inconvenience. Please follow these steps to resolve the problem:
1. Place the cartridge in a bowl of warm water. Let soak overnight.
2. Remove ink and set upright on a paper towel for three hours.
3. Place ink in printer. Run the printer's ink head cleaner (this can be found in your printer's manual).
4. Print a small word document.
5. If you still have "streaking" on your printout, remove ink. Clean head with alcohol. Replace. Run cleaning program again.
6. Print a small word document.
7. If there is still a problem, run the cleaning program again.
8. Print a small word document.
9. If there is still a problem, run the cleaning program again.
10. Print a small word document.
This should solve your problem. Sincerely, Tom
No, I didn't lose my place when typing this. The e-mail actually instructed me to clean the ink head three times. After repeated attempts, I still had crappy printouts.
So I e-mailed them again, requesting a refund.
Their reply:
We are sorry for having received a defective product. We have sent out a postage paid return label. Please send the cartridge to us. Once we receive the item, your refund should post to your PayPal account in approximately 30 days.
WHAT? 30 days? And why do they want the ink back? So they can sell it to another poor soul? Once again, I sent an e-mail. I told them that 30 days was not acceptable and I either wanted an instant refund or a replacement. They agreed to the replacement.
Waited another week. Received the ink, tried to print. Still streaky! On a hunch, I ran the head cleaning program (which can be found in your printer's manual. If you can find it!). Now it works. I'm just sighing in relief when my computer notifies me that my color cartridge is empty. GGRRR....
Went to Ebay. Found one for $6 (where are you, Mom?). Bought it. Got here in record time. Tried to print a picture. Apparently, cartridge only has magenta ink in it. Ripped ink from printer, threw against the wall, remembered we live in a rent house, scrambled to fetch ink before it leaked onto the WHITE carpet. It now sits on my computer desk, where I glare at it as I type.
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