ooops

[susandennis]

The tire clamp/boot thingie for the scooter arrived and, contrary to what the website said, it is fucking huge. I didn't even take it out of the hard plastic shell. It's never going to work. So back it goes.

I went to print out the return label and the printer wouldn't print. I finally got up to look and it hates the black cartridge.

This is my first laser printer. Back in the ink jet days, I was always careful to buy the ink from the manufacturer. I paid way too much but I always knew if there was a problem at least they couldn't blame it on Other People's Ink.

My brother convinced me that laser printers are different and I could easily cheap out on toner. So when the black got low, I ordered some cheap stuff. It was okdokey for a couple of weeks... until tonight. Now it's basically saying Get This Thing Out OF ME!!

Happily, I'm still in the return window so back it goes. Except... how can I send it back? I can't print the label!!!

DOH! Order new. This time I went with some higher priced spread that I hope the printer will not hate. It's on Amazon with a lot of good reviews. If it does hate it, I hope it's within 30 days. It gets here tomorrow so then I can print out both labels and drop them off at the UPS store near the pool on Saturday.

Comments

[howeird]

If it's from Amazon, hey have a "let UPS print the label" feature.

[susandennis]

I did NOT know that. And yes, it's Amazon and UPS. I have now crawled all over the options and cannot see this anywhere but Google turned up a couple of references to it in Reddit.

VERY good to know. Thank you!

[howeird]

[mdlbear]

Not buying toner from the printer manufacturer is every bit as bad as not buying ink from them. Not worth it.

Despite the seemingly outrageous cost of a toner cartridge, they last a LONG time compared to ink. (Most printers come with a smaller-than-standard cartridge, but the next one you buy should last for 3000-5000 pages.)

[susandennis]

Yes, the cartridges do last a long time which is lovely. And important since my sewing patterns are a lot o' printing.

I ended up finding/buying the LD brand which is what's been in there for the past 3 months (until the black of it ran out).

The printer is a Dell and Dell's black toner cartridge is $66. The black LD is $15. The one that died after 3 weeks was $8.

My fingers are crossed.

[mdlbear]

If the LD are working, go for it. Doesn't sound like the $8 brand is worth the difference.

[susandennis]

You are sure right about the $8 version!!

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of variation in the quality of replacement printer cartridges of either type. Some of the sources simply refill used cartridges with whatever cheap ink or toner they can get. Stay away from those places. You want to go with sources that either use new cartridges or that do a good job of checking over and refurbishing used ones before filling them. Store brands from places like Office Depot and Staples are generally okay in my experience. (Check the online reviews for the specific cartridge you need even with those.) Brands you've never heard of ordered from unknown sources over the internet can be really problematic. If the cartridges only cost a small fraction of what the original manufacturer charges for them, that's a warning sign. If they cost somewhat less rather than massively less, like maybe $60 instead of $80, there's a much better chance that they're okay.

Some printer manufacturers make it very hard for anyone else to sell cartridges for their printers. Sometimes they do "updates" that cause cartridges that were working to no longer work.