Your Printer Breaks - Now What?
The short answer is - don’t get it repaired.
A lot of our customers have old HP inkjets that have worked faithfully for years and then have stopped working all of the sudden. They ask if there is a magic solution to fixing it, and if not, where they should take it to get it repaired. Most of the time, our advice to them is to buy a new printer. We don’t want to sound like we are encouraging them to spend money needlessly, because the reality is that buying a new printer is the best option.
For a lot of older printers, beyond running the cleaning cycles and unplugging your printer, there really isn’t a whole lot you can do yourself to fix it. So anything beyond that may require a certified technician to solve the problem. This can mean a flat hourly rate (even if it takes him five minutes to see what’s wrong) and then an additional cost to actually fix the printer. Based on how little new printers cost these days, it’s just not worth trying to get it fixed. In addition to the money, it’s also not worth your time to try to fix your printer yourself, then take it somewhere, then wait for it to be fixed. It’s better to junk your old printer (not literally junk it, but recycle it, of course) and buy a new one. You will also get the benefit of about $50 worth of new ink cartridges.
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5 Comments about “Your Printer Breaks - Now What?”
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September 29th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
I have recycled a few printers now. It make me feel much better than throwing them in the trash. You can’t even donate broken ones because places such as Goodwill don’t want to spend the money to repair them.
I have tried a few different companies. Here in San Francisco I am able to use a company called E-Cycle Enviornmental (www.ecycleenvironmental.com). They have a drop off location close to me. I have also utilized Dell’s printer recycling program. The offer a great service if you purchase a new printer with them. All you have to do is put your old printer in the box your new one came in and use the prepaid label to send it away. Dell will also recycle your computer equipment, but you have to pay for that.
October 4th, 2006 at 8:48 am
After careful study of the replace v. repair issue, I elected to spend $80 to repair a Canon S820, and am glad I did. The cost of buying a comparable printer would have been more, it would have required more expensive OEM inks, and I had opened and spare ink cartridges that would have been wasted or required returning. The latest technology was not needed. The key factor in the decision was verbal advice from the repair service. It was my own opinion, and verbally theirs, from the pattern of the dot failure, that the problem was very probably the print head, which was super-easy to replace in this model, warranted, and not that expensive when purchased from their shop. That’s how it turned out.
October 4th, 2006 at 11:31 am
After spending way too much money on repairs, I’ve also found it’s cheaper to simply buy a new printer, and especially because I tend to wear them out in short time. I usually opt for an inexpensive model which includes at least a color cartridge and it actually costs less than if I bought the ink cartridge at retail prices, and it serves my purposes just great! The quality of the cheaper models are getting better all the time.
October 5th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
AFTER MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS TO GET HP TO REPLACE AN ALLINONE MACHINE W/ DOCUMENT FEEDER THAT FAILED TO GRIP THE PAPER , I FINALLY WENT WITH THE CANON PIXMA MP830.
BETTER MACHINE.
BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE.
BETTER COMPANY.
INK IS HARD TO FIND THOUGH BECAUSE IT’S SO NEW.
October 7th, 2006 at 9:21 am
I read your information about “recycling” old, damaged printers,and about what you stated regarding USB cables and why a purchase of a new printer would not include a USB cable. I am a bit surprised you stated that even the retailer from which one purchases a new printer can also state they, (the retailer), would not be able to sell the USB cable to the customer who purchases a new printer. What is a USB cable where might a purchaser of a new printer be able to purchase it, and, why do retailers from which a purchaser of a new printer also have the ability to inform their customers that they cannot sell USB cables to purchasers of new printers?