Remanufactured Cartridges Cost Small Businesses Time And Money

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Buyer Beware: Remanufactured Inkjet And Toner Cartridges Cost Small Businesses Time and Money (NAPSA)—Small business is the epitome of the American dream, and entrepreneurs are using technology to level the No Bargain: Remanufactured Ink and Toner playing field. With a good Web Attempting to save money by purchasing remanufactured printing supplies could site, color printers, a high-speed Internet connection and cell actually cost small businesses morein the long run. While remanufactured inkjet and toner cartridges maybeless expensive at phones, entrepreneurs can build successful small businesses, while keeping overhead costs at a minimum. Whenit comes to saving money on office printing, small businesses may turn to remanufac- tured inkjet and toner cartridges. Remanufactured cartridges are actually used cartridges that are cleaned and refurbished, and then repackaged and sold at reduced prices. Small business owners shouldn’t be fooled by these seemingly less expensive print supplies because low purchase price doesn’t necessarily translate into savings. Unreliable remanufactured inkjet and toner cartridges can con- tinue to cost small businesses money after the initial purchase. Whenever employees have to intervene in the printing process or deal with a printer problem, it takes time away from work. This lost productivity, combined with wasted supplies, costs money. Rather than focusing on price alone as the main indicator of value, small business owners should consider the hidden costs associated with “bargain” toner and inkjet cartridges, which include: Technical support and downtime. Problem cartridges lead to tech support calls and more downtime. For example, Quality Logic, an independent quality assurance testing company, com- pared HPoriginal supplies with a And | thought I was getting a good bargain when I! bought these remanufactured inkjet cartridges. name-brand cartridges. They may be less vibrant in color and can tend to bleed into other col- ors, making images appear muddy. Inks and toners found in remanufactured print cartridges also may run when they come into contact with moisture. Poor cartridge reliability. Cartridges that don’t work as promised, stop working prematurely or fail to produce as many pages as claimed, drive up the total cost of printer ownership for small businesses. In fact, some businesses that try to get by with remanufactured ink and toner cartridges may find their employees spend more time replacing faulty cartridges and end up purchasing more cartridges than planned. Printer damage. This crops up less frequently, but it can be serious. It’s usually a result of extreme defects such as ink or toner leaks from print cartridges obtained through unreliable sources. Most printer manufacturer warranties exclude damage caused by remanufactured print- tridges and found that original HP monochrome LaserJet and black inkjet print cartridges were ing supplies, so repairing or replacing a damaged printer can be expensive. For this reason,it’s best to use the supplies recommended by the manufacturer. research also showed original HP color inkjet print cartridges were remanufactured inkjet and toner cartridges, small business owners can save money on printing by simply making an informed variety of remanufactured car- nine times morereliable, on average, than the leading remanufactured cartridges tested. This 50 times morereliable, on average, than leading remanufac- tured brandstested. More user interventions. Clearing paper jams, checking documents for smudges, reprint- ing unacceptable pages, cleaning the printer frequently, and conducting printer maintenance reduce productivity and waste supplies. Poor print quality. Remanu- factured cartridges can result in lower print quality than original Instead of losing money on assessment of their printing environments. Small business owners should first determine how much they are actually spending on printing, and then look for ways to reduce that expense. Small businesses can quickly determine how much they’ve been spending on print- ing by using HP’s online printing cost assessment calculator found at: http://h30194.www3.hp.com/ assessment/index.aspx?jumpid =ex_R295_g0%2fassessment. pointof sale, they may perform poorly when measuring reliability and print quality. An analysis based on data from a recent study conducted by QualityLogic, Inc., an independent quality assurancetesting company, shows that small businesses using remanufactured inkjet and tonerprint cartridges might spend twice as much money on supplies as small businesses using original HP inkjet and tonerprint cartridges. For example, the study also suggests that using 100 typical remanufactured tonercartridges, rather than original HP cartridges, could result in: Up to five extra support calls to diagnose andfix problems. e As many as 23,000 extra reprints of poor-quality pages. Up to 5.5 extra cartridge purchases due to out-of-boxfailures. e Extra laborcosts of up to $11,500. Analysis also shows that using 100 typical remanufactured black inkjet cartridges rather than new could result in: Up to 20 extra support calls to diagnose andfix problems. As many as 1,400 extrareprints of poor quality pages. Upto 11 extra cartridge purchases due to out-of-boxfailures. e Extra laborcosts of up to $700. 2003 Inkjet Cartridge Reliability Comparison Study test results provided by QualityLogic, Inc., and commissioned by HP. Tests were performed underlaboratory conditions and actual performance may vary. See www.hp.com/go/suppliesreliability for full details, or call 402-334-2932. @

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