what's risk with buying after market toner?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe
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J

Joe

I have an HP LaserJet- I've found several web sites selling compatible
cartridges for much less. What's the risk? yes, I know, HP and other printer
makers preach that we'll lose our warranty if an after market toner damages
the printer, but what's the likelihood of that happening?

Are some of these firms dependable and others to stay away from?

Joe
 
Joe said:
I have an HP LaserJet- I've found several web sites selling compatible
cartridges for much less. What's the risk? yes, I know, HP and other printer
makers preach that we'll lose our warranty if an after market toner damages
the printer, but what's the likelihood of that happening?
Click to expand...

In one situation, we had a relatively high toner usage and tried various
brands of toner to see if any of it was as good as genuine HP stuff.

I learned two things from that. First, cartridges with green foil drums
were of low quality and not worth the effort. They were likely to fail
early, and the drums were prone to scratches. Genuine HP and pricier
non-HP cartridges have the clear yellowish emulsion surface.

Second, nothing matched the HP capacity. The HP C4127X usually printed
10-20% more (I'm estimating, this was several years back) than even the
best non-HP brands.

We had some printers that went through 10,000 pages in a week, and we
kept stats. The sellers that claimed their toner would last just as
long as HP never seemed to expect anyone to actually measure it.

We never had a printer damaged by non-HP toner. We did have more than a
little hassle dealing with replacing low-quality cartridges that had
failed for various reasons.

Back to the question: what's the risk? There's not a lot of risk to the
printer. A bad cartridge could damage a printer, but it's unlikely.
More likely is that the cartridge would go bad far too early.

If you buy local, a failed cartridge or even damage to the printer is
likely easier to handle.

Mailordering genuine HP from a trustworthy place is probably okay.
Maybe even their house brand of toner.

Buying by mail from Crazy Eddie's Toner Emporium, Trailer Park, Credit
Repair, And Gator Farm... maybe a smidge higher hassle factor.
 
Joe said:
I have an HP LaserJet- I've found several web sites selling compatible
cartridges for much less. What's the risk? yes, I know, HP and other printer
makers preach that we'll lose our warranty if an after market toner damages
the printer, but what's the likelihood of that happening?

Are some of these firms dependable and others to stay away from?

Joe
Click to expand...

Modern toner is not carcinogenic, as someone else pointed out inhaling large
quantities is not a good idea because it is so fine. There is no reason at all
to believe that aftermarket toner cartridges use toner that is essentially
different from OEM toner cartridges. There are some excellent suppliers of
toner cartridges and there are some poor ones, like everything in this world
you should research the company you plan to buy from especially their
reputations, how long they have been in busness and if they are very large they
are likely to have good product. There is also no reason to believe that an
aftermarket toner puts more particles into the air than an original.
Aftermarket toner cartridges from reputable companies use the same amount of
toner during remanufacturing as the OEM versions. In my experience there is no
difference in the page yields from OEM and a reputable aftermarket supplier.
I have never seen a toner cartridge damage a printer and it is hard to
understand how that could occur unless the toner was so badly engineered that
it somehow bonded to the fuser rather than the paper. As I said I have never
seen that and I rather suspect that I never will. At the same time I have never
seen a reputable ink damage an ink printer, the rule is to always use
compatible and not generic inks (or toner for that matter).

Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
What's gotten me to not want to buy HP toner is the fact that Staples no
longer sells it's house brand which was somewhat cheaper than HP's. One
Staples employee told me that HP was going to shop off Staples if they
continued to compete with their brand of toner. HP is gouging us!

Joe
 
A LOT ... (if not most) of what you hear from store employees is simply
not true. Store employees are mostly "near minimum wage" employees
without much education who really don't have a clue as to what is going
on. For HP to threaten Staples would be a violation of anti-trust laws,
and I simply don't believe that it happened as you described.
 
Try your local Cartridge World (if there is one). They will remanufacture
your cartridge with a 40% to 60% saving for you. They also give an
unconditional warranty.
 
You are truly an elitist prig, and I'd like to know where you got your
stats from.

I don't know if store employees are more or less knowledgeable about
corporate rumors, but at least here in Canada, most people I've met at
big box electronic retailers are articulate and relatively informed.
Many are in post graduate university programs and work part time to help
pay the bills while they are completing their graduate degrees (often in
high tech areas, or business management). Some work on commission and
make a good salary well beyond "minimum wage" and do so by keeping well
informed of the technology they sell.

Must be the neighborhood you live in ;-)

Lastly, although again, I don't know what HP did or didn't do with
Staples (although several big box store have removed 3rd party
consumables in recent years from their shelves), but I have worked in
all levels of retail, and you are very naive if you don't believe
manufacturers strong arm retailers into complying with their desires.

Again, I have no specific knowledge, but HP/Compaq is the largest
purchaser of shelf space in high tech big box stores in Canada, by a
huge margin, and since shelf space purchase is the main income generator
at those stores, I expect there could be demands made and agreed upon
which may not benefit the consumer directly.

Art
 
on. For HP to threaten Staples would be a violation of anti-trust laws,
Don't mean to cut into your msg BUT

Mr-- if you don't think this happens , you should get your head out of the
bucket.
It is worldwide way of big business...
People will do anything for the big bucks. Including murder HP probably
will
not murder but I think everything else is on the table. That includes all
businesses....
Used car salesmen are the cleanest of the lot..
 
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