Beware alotofthings.com

[Jane]

I have not had good luck with this company when buying ink cartridges.
I have placed orders with them three times. The first time they only
sent me half of the order. They apologized and sent the rest.

The second time everything was fine.

The third time they did not send me what I ordered but did send me
something else, a substitute they told me. On the box my printer was
not listed as being supported for those cartridges. They could not
assure me that it was OK for me to use in my printer and I didn't want
to take a chance. When I contacted alotofthings.com they said I should
return the entire order and they would refund my money. They would not
refund shipping costs. When I explained I didn't want to return
everything but just wanted what I ordered they became rude and told me
to just send everything back.

Naturally I won't be using them again despite the fact that their
prices were very good.

Thought I'd pass this on.

 

[measekite]

This was the first company I contacted. No website other than ebay in
the beginning. No disclosure on what they were selling specifically on
prefilled carts and what they did disclose was not prominent. They
spurned any constructive criticisms. I agree with your decisions.

I have not had good luck with this company when buying ink cartridges.
I have placed orders with them three times. The first time they only
sent me half of the order. They apologized and sent the rest.

The second time everything was fine.

The third time they did not send me what I ordered but did send me
something else, a substitute they told me. On the box my printer was
not listed as being supported for those cartridges.

They could not
assure me that it was OK for me to use in my printer and I didn't want
to take a chance.

Right. They do not tell you what they are selling and now you say they
will not even disclose that the stuff is OK for your printer. I would
stick with OEM ink.

When I contacted alotofthings.com they said I should
return the entire order and they would refund my money. They would not
refund shipping costs.

What do you expect when you do not deal with a large company like Canon,
HP, or Epson.

When I explained I didn't want to return
everything but just wanted what I ordered they became rude and told me
to just send everything back.

I find this unprofessional and I also found them rude when I contacted
them. People in this ng said it was me but now the truth finally comes out.

Naturally I won't be using them again despite the fact that their
prices were very good.

you can get cheap prices on generic ink all over because it is not the
quality of the OEM. That said OEM ink is priced higher than it should be.

Thought I'd pass this on.

Thank you I am glad you did.

 

[william.pease]

Doggone, that is bad luck, Jane, and there certainly is no excuse for
any company you're doing business with to be rude to you.

I've got to say, though, that I've bought cartridges from them for over
two years (and at least 6 to 8 orders) and have never experienced
anything like you did, for which I'm thankful. All my dealings with
them have been courteous, very efficient, very fast delivery (and I
live all the way across the American continent from them), accurate
shipments, and products (at least their Arrowjet line, which is the
only line I've ever bought from them-- they have quite a few others
now) that I've always been very satisfied with. Measekite likes to
insist on this forum, repeatedly, that using non-OEM cartridges will
clog your printer's printheads, but after over two years of using these
Arrowjet cartridges from alotofthings.com exclusively, about a hundred
of them in my Canon i860, I've never experienced a clog.

As for their performance, the following is a test I made of them a
couple of years ago & posted on this forum. It may be getting out of
date now, so anyone reading it should consider that. And it doesn't
address your experience with the company, Jane, I do understand.
Surely, at the very least, the company should have readily and
courteously accepted in return only the cartridges that you questioned
because they were substitutes, for after all you ordered the cartridges
because you needed them-- and you did, indeed, need them. The company's
rigidity in dealing with you was unnecessary and very unbecoming. Sure
hope you have better luck next time or with another supplier.

Here's the simple test I did two years ago:

From: Bill Pease
Date: Tues, Jul 20 2004 7:59 pm
Email: (e-mail address removed) (Bill Pease)
Groups: comp.periphs.printers

I've just completed a simple experiment to compare photo prints
from my Canon i860 printer using (first) OEM original Canon inks, then
Inkgrabber.com inks and then Alotofthings.com inks in the same
printer. I wanted to find out how these two 3rdparty inks compared
with the OEM Canon inks. I thought readers of this forum might be
interested in the results of this experiment.

As the test print I chose a standard test image whose origin I failed
to note when I saved it from some printer forum on the web several
months ago. Sorry about that. It's the one with the gorgeous
girl's eyes in the center, the church and sunset pictures at the top,
the
baby's face on the right and the color samples at the bottom.
Perhaps you recognize it from that description. It's a great test
print.

First I printed this test image on my i860 Canon printer with the
original Canon inks in it. The result on letter-size Canon Photo
Paper Plus Glossy was gorgeous-perhaps just a trifle
over-saturated for best taste, but nevertheless, gorgeous enough to
melt your
insides.

Then I pulled the OEM Canon ink cartridges from the printer and
substituted Inkgrabber.com ink cartridges. I printed a full color
purge print to get all the residual Canon ink out of the printhead
and then printed the same test image as before using the
Inkgrabber.com inks. The result was lovely on the same paper, but it
differed from the OEM Canon print in the following ways:
1. the grey clock face on the OEM print had taken on a slight
greenish hue
2. the rust-colored bricks of the church on the OEM print had
turned to a dull brown
3. the blue cast of the ocean in the sundown OEM print had
turned to a greenish hue
4. the greyish-blue eyes of the gorgeous girl in the OEM print
had turned to greenish-blue, her skin had turned very pale, and her
eyebrows had turned from brown to greenish-grey
5. the grey-to-black picture of the man in the OEM print had
turned to green-to-black.

In conclusion, the print produced using the Inkgrabber.com ink
cartridges differed considerably from the print produced using the
OEM Canon ink cartridges. Nevertheless, the Inkgrabber.com cartridges
produced a lovely print that might please some even though it did not
duplicate exactly the colors of the OEM Canon print. The
Inkgrabber.com ink cartridges for the Canon i860 printer cost about
$2.00 each.

Then I pulled the Inkgrabber.com cartridges from my printer and
substituted Alotofthings.com cartridges. Again I printed a full color
purge print to get all the residual Inkgrabber ink out of the
printhead and then printed the same test image as before using the
Alotofthings.com inks. The result was gorgeous on the same paper,
ALMOST identical to the OEM Canon print. It differed, ever so
slightly, in the following ways:
1. the grey clock face in the OEM print was just slightly tan
2. the grey parallel lines in the OEM print were just slightly
tan
3. the gorgeous girl's skin tone in the OEM print was just
slightly lighter
4. the grey-to-black picture of the man in the OEM print was
just slightly a little tan.

I would emphasize the word "slightly" here; you had to look
REAL hard at the print done using Alotofthings.com cartridges to
discern any
difference from the print done using OEM Canon cartridges. And the
OEM Canon cartridges cost about $11-$12 each. The Alotofthings.com
cartridges cost me $2.40 each (including postage) when I bought an
i860 combo package that included 18 cartridges of the 5 different
ones for the i860.

I'm not a photo purist (or a pro) who would quibble about the
VERY slight differences between the OEM Canon print and the
Alotofthings.com print, but I am a retired realist who can appreciate
the fact that the Alotofthings.com cartridges cost one-fifth of what
the OEM Canon cartridges cost while producing gorgeous prints that
are ALMOST identical to the OEM Canon prints. Alotofthings.com is
going to get my cartridge business from now on. I'm going to
print all my photos and a couple of family history books with them.

By the way, Alotofthings.com also sells bulk ink and paraphernalia
for refillers too. With superb cartridges for just $2.40 each,
though, I can't see much sense to go through the trouble of
refilling cartridges with all its hassle. Others may want to.

And I am in no way connected with anybody or anything at
Alotofthings.com except as a happy and very satisfied customer.

Here are the relevant web addresses:

http://www.inkgrabber.com/index.htm

http://www.alotofthings.com/index.html

 

[zakezuke]

I have not had good luck with this company when buying ink cartridges.
I have placed orders with them three times. The first time they only
sent me half of the order. They apologized and sent the rest.

The second time everything was fine.

The third time they did not send me what I ordered but did send me
something else, a substitute they told me.

I was not aware alotofthings sold HP cartridges, but I imagine they may
have at some point or i'm not seeing it.

I usually don't bother with picking a polite company, often the most
rude tend to be the most accurate with their words. My limited
experence with www.lasermonks.com was pleasent, and the staff went out
of their way to be polite. I only exchanged a couple of e-mails with
these folks, and bought a few cartridges fro my hp psc 950. They
worked. The savings are not stellar, I spent about 40% less than OEM.

 

[Taliesyn]

I have not had good luck with this company when buying ink cartridges.

Your odd "beware alotofthings" warning (if real) doesn't hold much
water. This company has a positive feedback rating of 99.9% at
eBay. A total 19,346 customers have left positive feedback after
buying their products. You then are in that 0.1% (that's 1/10th
of 1%) crowd, or one of about 19 people out of 19,336 who have had
some kind of problem - either the product was lost in the mail, wrong
item sent, miscommunication, customer error, company error, wrong
address given, etc, etc. Few people will take your post too seriously
and begin throwing out their alotofthings cartridges ;-).

-Taliesyn

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Your odd "beware alotofthings" warning (if real) doesn't hold much
water. This company has a positive feedback rating of 99.9% at
eBay. A total 19,346 customers have left positive feedback after
buying their products.

-Taliesyn

While Jane's problem would be something that, if it happened on eBay,
would result in negative feedback, I do not view eBay as a good
representative of a company's long-term service.

You win an auction.

You send payment.

The company sends you an item that matches the description of what you
bid on.

You both leave positive feedback for each other.

Two weeks later the item breaks. The company refuses to replace it.

No way to change the positive feedback you gave the company.

Now I'm not saying that this happens with alotofthings, because I've
personally never worked with them. I think their website has some
horribly out-of-date information on it unless it's been changed in the
past month or so. But I am saying that an eBay feedback only means
that you will recieve an item in the mail after paying for it. The
quality of the item or the company's service after the auction has
ended has zero effect on their eBay rating. Now if you buy an item
that is sold 'As Is', or is a 'Store Display' or 'Used Item', you're
taking your chances and the company shouldn't be held responsible if
the item doesn't last long, or doesn't work. But if you're buying new
items or things like refilled cartridges, eBay's rating shows nothing
about the long-term quality of it.

--

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.

 

[Taliesyn]

While Jane's problem would be something that, if it happened on eBay,
would result in negative feedback, I do not view eBay as a good
representative of a company's long-term service.

You win an auction.

You send payment.

The company sends you an item that matches the description of what you
bid on.

You both leave positive feedback for each other.

Two weeks later the item breaks. The company refuses to replace it.

No way to change the positive feedback you gave the company.

Now I'm not saying that this happens with alotofthings, because I've
personally never worked with them. I think their website has some
horribly out-of-date information on it unless it's been changed in the
past month or so. But I am saying that an eBay feedback only means
that you will recieve an item in the mail after paying for it.

Not necessarily. Not everyone sends feedback immediately upon receipt.
I sold hundreds of items on eBay. Sometimes months weeks and months
would go by before I received feedback from an individual. In the case
of ink, customers will often try the product first. If you read the
reviews you'll see people talking about the quality as well. And many
are repeat customers, which aren't shown.

And do you see the feedback feature any less credible than an anonymous
message posted via Google from someone identified as "Jane"? I too can
post anonymous messages as "Larry" if I choose too, and you'd have no
idea if it was real or a harassment message. I'm not saying that this
"Jane" isn't the lovely creature we hope she is, but you get my message
;-) . . .

-Taliesyn

 

[Jane]

If this had been an Ebay purchase I'm quite sure they would have sent
me what I purchased and not a substitute. They would not have wanted
to risk negative feedback.

In any case, this is just my experience. When I look to buy from an
online company that I know nothing about I look at experiences others
have had, plus and minus.

I'm sure many people have had good luck with them. I'm just not one of
them.

What bothered me the most was the fact that they were very rude to me.
I think that Customer Service is as important as the product and
their's frankly stinks.

 

[Jane]

My printer is a Canon. Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

 

[measekite]

Your odd "beware alotofthings" warning (if real) doesn't hold much
water. This company has a positive feedback rating of 99.9% at
eBay.

I believe what she said. I do not find ebay reliability ratings factual.

A total 19,346 customers have left positive feedback after
buying their products.

You have no way of knowing that. Maybe it was `1 customer posting
19,346 times. You do not know.

snip

Few people will take your post too seriously
and begin throwing out their alotofthings cartridges ;-).

unless they have a good IQ and can reason things out.

Besides, they will not ship to Canada.

 

[zakezuke]

My printer is a Canon. Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

I don't know why I was thinking HP then, it's clearly not in your
message. My bad.

I don't know what they could have sent you that could have been wrong,
so wrong it wouldn't have worked. Not saying you were wrong, I presume
you ordered one thing and they sent another, and that's a worthy
complaint no matter what. It's just from your complaint it's hard to
establish what you ordered and what you got.

 

[measekite]

While Jane's problem would be something that, if it happened on eBay,
would result in negative feedback, I do not view eBay as a good
representative of a company's long-term service.

You win an auction.

You send payment.

The company sends you an item that matches the description of what you
bid on.

You both leave positive feedback for each other.

Two weeks later the item breaks. The company refuses to replace it.

No way to change the positive feedback you gave the company.

Now I'm not saying that this happens with alotofthings, because I've
personally never worked with them. I think their website has some
horribly out-of-date information

I have been saying that the same thing but was admonished by the cult.

on it unless it's been changed in the
past month or so. But I am saying that an eBay feedback only means
that you will recieve an item in the mail after paying for it.

tallyho

The
quality of the item or the company's service after the auction has
ended has zero effect on their eBay rating. Now if you buy an item
that is sold 'As Is', or is a 'Store Display' or 'Used Item', you're
taking your chances and the company shouldn't be held responsible if
the item doesn't last long, or doesn't work. But if you're buying new
items or things like refilled cartridges, eBay's rating shows nothing
about the long-term quality of it.

they will not disclose what they are selling and when asked they get
very rude.

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

If this had been an Ebay purchase I'm quite sure they would have sent
me what I purchased and not a substitute. They would not have wanted
to risk negative feedback.

In any case, this is just my experience. When I look to buy from an
online company that I know nothing about I look at experiences others
have had, plus and minus.

I'm sure many people have had good luck with them. I'm just not one of
them.

What bothered me the most was the fact that they were very rude to me.
I think that Customer Service is as important as the product and
their's frankly stinks.

Did you do anything to provoke them into a nasty reaction? This is just
a thought -- I sometimes have a hard time putting myself in the shoes of
the person at the other end of the line. I know that I received a box
that didn't contain what I wanted, so when they pick up the phone, they
get an irritated person on the line.

Frankly, I do not take kindly to businesses that screw up orders and
want me to return the merchandise for credit. It's important to me that
they get the order right in the first place, with merchandise that's
adequately described, accurately described, honestly described, and
properly made. That's their side of the transaction.

It is in imposition on me to require me to go stand on line at the post
office to return their mistake to them. It's a further imposition to
expect me to pay the postage for their mistake. The way to retain my
business when there's a mistake or customer dissatisfaction is to send
out the replacement, issue a credit, etc., totally at their expense, and
promptly. If they want me to return their error, let them send me a
postpaid mailer; then, I'll be happy to oblige.

Some sellers don't have the ability to relate to their customers'
experiences with them. They don't realize that if their credit policy is
rigid, I'll decide that they will get no further business from me.
Repeat purchases are important, so a company that deals with their
customers this way shoots themselves in the foot, at least with me.

About once every ten years, I send an order to JC Whitney. Then the
package comes. The package contains a mixture: some items are what I
expected; others are nasty surprises -- items that I consider unfit for
sale at any price. And they continue to waste money sending me catalogs
for three years or so, losing the profit from the previous order. Ten
years later, I forget what happened the last time, and I do it again ("I
hate when I do that."). On the other hand, I once bought a "Lear Jet"
car stereo from them. It's a pretty nice unit. I called Lear to ask them
about it; they were quite surprised: "Are you sure that it has our name
on it? We haven't made any car stereo for the last twelve years."

There are only two years left. I'm already feeling the urge...

Richard

 

[Taliesyn]

Taliesyn wrote:




You have no way of knowing that. Maybe it was `1 customer posting
19,346 times. You do not know.

No, "you" certainly don't know how eBay works.

The right to send feedback is linked directly to your purchase on eBay.
No purchase, no feedback possibility. And you physically cannot send two
feedbacks for the same purchase.

-Taliesyn

 

[Taliesyn]

If this had been an Ebay purchase I'm quite sure they would have sent
me what I purchased and not a substitute. They would not have wanted
to risk negative feedback.

In any case, this is just my experience. When I look to buy from an
online company that I know nothing about I look at experiences others
have had, plus and minus.

I'm sure many people have had good luck with them. I'm just not one of
them.

That really goes for anything in life. There are people here who have
had terrible luck with Canon printers and vowed never to get another
one. I've had a great experience with them, and I exclusively use
generic inks.

-Taliesyn

What bothered me the most was the fact that they were very rude to me.
I think that Customer Service is as important as the product and
their's frankly stinks.

But that's life. You got "Mr. Crabby Appleton" that day. It doesn't mean
the whole organization is bent on poor Customer Service. They wouldn't
be as successful as they are otherwise. I've never dealt with them.
Actually I did send them an email once. And they replied; it "business"
polite.

-Taliesyn

 

[drc023]

Jane,
It seems like only the third order you placed resulted in dissatisfaction,
but you didn't supply any details as to what printer you have and what
cartridge you received. While Canon makes a wide variety of printers, the
selection of ink cartridges is fairly limited and the same cartridge will
fit many models. As an example, for quite some time after the iP4000 came
out it wasn't shown on the websites of most ink vendors (including
Alotofthings) as having cartridges for that model. However they all listed
the i860 printer as a supported model. The same cartridges fit both
printers. Give us some specifics so that we can understand exactly where
they went wrong.

 

[drc023]

All readers of this forum please note that Measekite has never ordered from
Alotofthings although he did try to tell them how to run their business and
when they didn't accept his inane blathering as gospel he got his feelings
hurt. He has since waged a war of libelous slander against them.. He also
states "No website other than ebay in the beginning". That statement is an
outright falsehood. Alotofthings.com has had a website in addition to
selling on eBay since before Mousepoop was even housebroken (if he is).
Until they introduced their new website design they always stated on the
first page that all inks they sell are manufactured by Sensient Imaging
Technology, Formulabs Division Inks. That info is now on their bulk ink
page. I've spoken to the owner of Alotofthings several times and never has
he been rude or hard to deal with. In one of the conversations, Joe (the
owner) stated that Measekite has been very beneficial to his business. Once
MK started his Jihad against them, Joe told me they saw an immediate
increase in business volume. Anyone who reads this forum will know very
quickly that if Mousepoop is slamming a vendor, then they must be a very
good vendor to do business with.

 

[zakezuke]

All readers of this forum please note that Measekite has never ordered from
Alotofthings although he did try to tell them how to run their business and
when they didn't accept his inane blathering as gospel he got his feelings
hurt. He has since waged a war of libelous slander against them.. He also
states "No website other than ebay in the beginning". That statement is an
outright falsehood. Alotofthings.com has had a website in addition to
selling on eBay since before Mousepoop was even housebroken (if he is).
Until they introduced their new website design they always stated on the
first page that all inks they sell are manufactured by Sensient Imaging
Technology, Formulabs Division Inks. That info is now on their bulk ink
page. I've spoken to the owner of Alotofthings several times and never has
he been rude or hard to deal with. In one of the conversations, Joe (the
owner) stated that Measekite has been very beneficial to his business. Once
MK started his Jihad against them, Joe told me they saw an immediate
increase in business volume. Anyone who reads this forum will know very
quickly that if Mousepoop is slamming a vendor, then they must be a very
good vendor to do business with.

Yes, I've been looking into other places to order ink from other than
MIS since I now have an ip5200, but alas alotofthings doesn't carry the
cli8 inks. I can't remember if it was "alotofthings" who took the time
to post in this group or not, but there was one man from one of these
companies who maintained this group's website and actually went out of
his way to help users with printer issues. Measekite harassed him till
he left, which is quite sad as he was very helpful. The main reason
i'd consider doing business with alotofthings is the fact that they
disclose their bulk ink is made by Sensient Imaging Technology, aka
formulbas. But no cli8 inks. To date only hobbicolors and weink are
selling the ink I need that I know of, though hobbicolors seems to be a
decent enough option.

 

[Jane]

I thought I was pretty clear. They sent me a substitute cartridge that
did not list my printer on the box. I am not willing to take a chance
on trying a cartridge that may or may not be the proper one for my
printer. I'm sure it could really screw things up if it were wrong.

It may very well have been OK but they didn't do anything to help me
find out. The told me to contact the manufacturer (Arrow). They gave
me an email address that didn't work.

Having said that however, my biggest problem was their attitude. I
simply asked if they would send me what I ordered. I had ordered a set
of three cartridges (yellow, magenta, cyan). It came as a set but they
sent me two of one type and one of another. Doesn't sound like a set
to me.

When I asked them if they could replace it with the same type as the
others they said they couldn't and that I should return the entire
order for a refund. They would not refund shipping which didn't seem
at all fair. Besides I didn't want to return the entire order. When I
told them I only was looking to have that one cartridge replaced or
refunded they told me that out of 2500 orders I was the ONLY person who
had complained (they capitalized ONLY). They said they were "bending
over backwards" and if they went any further "they would break".

I told them not to worry since I wouldn't be ordering from them in the
future.

 

[Craig]

Jane,
You are quite rude on this one. You must be one of those vicious people.
As Taliesyn commented, you must be in that < 0.1% (that's 1/10th of 1%)
crowd
I have been buying a lot from alotofhtings.com for many years as recently
as a month ago.
I am one of those happy customers.
In any businesses, mistakes do happen.
Don't try to destroy a business because of one of those unhappy orders.
Macho