High printing costs are a common lament amongst most people. Recent surveys point out that expense on replacing toner and ink cartridges is one of the top expenditures for many small to medium sized business organizations. In today's competitive market, if you are a home user or running a business, you can save a considerable amount of money through various online shopping options as well as by making some smart decisions when it come to buying printer supplies.
Listed below are some of the best ways through which one can ideally save anywhere between 30-60 % of their normal printing costs.
Buying the Right Printer- It is very important that you buy a right printer to start. It sets the limits for pretty much everything-what kind of cartridge you would need to buy to refill, how much you would be spending for supplies per year, how many page count you can print per cartridge, energy rating, page per minute (ppm) rating, etc. One will spend much more money on buying supplies than printer itself, so do not go cheap when buying a printer. Do not get persuaded by rebates or discount programs offered by printer manufacturer. Also, what printer you buy determines whether you can use remanufactured/compatible cartridges or not. Remanufactured cartridges are available only for the printers that are already in the market for a while. It takes six months or so for empty cartridges used by new printer models to get to the hands of remanufacturers. If you plan to save money using remanufactured or compatible cartridges, try avoiding the printers that use cartridges with "electronics chips" on them. Although remanufacturers now use compatible chips to overcome this problem, sometimes it causes problem if your printer has latest firmware that is not compatible with the chip. Such problems are very common with Dell and Lexmark cartridges. Most Dell and Lexmark printers have so called "killer chips" that prevent remanufactures to recycle for another use. Some latest HP printers have them as well. Most Canon and Brother printers are free of such technology, which makes easier for those printer users to find remanufactured and compatible cartridges in the market.
Shopping Online - It is no-brainer for some but there are many people who are still visiting local stores and paying a lot more. Due to the wide usage of printing supplies there are a large number of manufacturers and retailers offering their products at highly competitive prices over the internet. Not only you can find the best price online, online stores usually do not charge sale tax that you have to pay at local store. Also, if you buy large quantity, shipping cost can be nearly negligible compared to savings. Before making an online purchase it is important to get information on the reputation, warranty and return policy of the product.
Comparing Prices - One can find some good deals on toner and ink cartridges by visiting various online price comparison sites. While comparison sites give you some idea on market price of the item, they may not offer cheapest price since they charge listing fees to retailers. If you can you can dig harder, you may even find cheaper price from some stores that are not listed there. Try using Google Shopping site, which is free to list so most retailers list their products there.
Use Remanufactured Cartridges - You can find various reputed retailers online that sell remanufactured toner and ink cartridges at very low prices. The cartridges give as good a performance as the original ones and are environmental friendly due to the recycled use of plastics, metals and rubber parts as well as the energy savings involved if same new parts were to be manufactured. If you bought a remanufactured toner few years ago and it did not work well, try again. Over the past years, remanufacturers have greatly improved their production processes and products are getting much better than what they used to be.
Compatible Cartridges - These cartridges are assembled in new plastic housing, not by recycling empty OEM cartridge. They also offer good price break compared to OEM genuine products. However, since they are made with new plastic, they are not helping the environment although many retailers claim otherwise. When buying compatible cartridge, try to find the products made by ISO-9001 certified manufacturers. Xerox now offer HP and Brother compatible cartridges which are cost friendly and give the same quality at a much lower price
Refilling Yourself - Refilling cartridges has some mixed reviews. When it comes to ink cartridges, it can be done and there are very well packaged refill kits out there. These kits come with detailed instructions and can be used several times. It is one of the reasons that make refill kits very popular. However, when you are trying to refill laser toner cartridges yourself, you may be getting into messy, time and money wasting situation. Toner cartridges are much more complicated than ink cartridges that are mainly ink tanks and used to print few hundred pages at a time. Many parts inside toner cartridges (drum, wiper blade, doctor blade, mag roller, etc.) may need replacing after printing thousands pages. Also, there is a waste container inside toner cartridges that needs to be emptied out before recycling it for another use. If you are just drilling and refilling the toner without changing worn-out parts and emptying the waste container, you are not going to get another full life out of it. Moreover, when waste container is full, it will overflow and you will have leaking toner problem in your machine.
Special Offers - Lookout for online manufacturers offering discounts on their products through various schemes which can save a good amount of money in the long run. Sign up for coupon code, special promotions and loyalty programs.
Maintain Your Printer - Do routine cleaning on your printer. Adjust the settings to be optimal so that it is not using up toner unnecessarily. Set your printer to the colorless option and reserve colored prints only when required.
Buyer Bewares Tips -
1) Ask for the warranty period on the products you buy. Most people would buy printer supplies for back up and would not use for few months. You do not want the cartridge to be out of warranty when you open the box.
2) Ask for return policy restocking fee etc. Such information are available on the retailer websites.
3) Do not buy surplus toners. Especially when you are getting unbelievable price on OEM New cartridges, they may be surplus products which are expired, mostly out of date. Such products no longer have manufacturer warranty. Ask seller about the expiration date on the box.
4) If you are buying OEM products, make sure they come in the box with serial # on it. Some seller may send you OEM cartridge in bulk packaging type plastic wrap. Without original box, you have no sure way of knowing you are getting OEM cartridge. Also, you do not have serial # which is printed on the box to claim warranty service on the product from manufacturer if it does not work.
So go ahead and opt for more cost friendly products and practices to bring down your expenses on toner and ink cartridges considerably.
Shwe Khaw
http://www.tonerpirate.com
Start saving on Toner and Ink Cartridges today!
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