Ink Cart Frustration

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

After scanning the forum I can see that I’m not alone or experiencing an abnormal problem. I have to say that had I known I would have to shim ink carts to get them installed properly I never would have ordered $1500.00 worth of your products. The ink seems fine, it’s the mechanical and electronics that are poor. The problem with the carts not fitting into the machine correctly seems to be at the root of chip failure. I was having one chip obviously fail, then ordered another and it also “failed to be recognized” and will not reset (Blinking green not solid)

In most of your responses to folks, you dismiss the trouble as unusual, but I’m seeing enough reports to make me think it’s typical. Your answer: purchase a couple of pounds of spare chips and keep replacing one after the other. This bad fit of the ink carts, ergo chip malfunction, -your solution of pushing them to the left and shimming them is totally unacceptable. My epson 7900 printer sat idle for a while because of a head burn out. It’s fine again but this continuing lack of quality with the chips, and ill fitting carts is a terrible disappointment.

FYI only 400 sheets have been printed on my machine, yet only 5 out of 11 carts do not have air leakage & failed chips –this success rate is only because I got lucky with my effort shimming the carts. The sad thing is this trouble started only a couple of months after I changed to your products, but I went along with the bad fit adjustments, subsequent chip failures and air tight ink pouches that, well only some of them are not leaking.

There’s one more thing I want to share here, and that is: When the machine reads “ink cart not installed” It is not a good thing from the standpoint of assuring no head dry out in the capping station. I learned this from the tech that did my print head swap. In order to rectify this until some suitable replacement carts are acquired, there’s an action that needs to be performed every few days. > >The head is uncapped, an eye dropper of lubricating solution applied to the cap pads, and then re-capping the head. Shame on you for undertaking to replace an stringent OEM product through trial & error at the expense of your unsuspecting customers.

2

Hi RayRay~

We carefully test several sets of each model cartridge in our own printers to make sure they work well before we buy inventory and sell to our customers. Even after we have a cartridge design we’re happy with we continue testing new designs as they come available, to ensure we always have the best solution for our customers.

After reviewing your order history, I see you bought the previous model 350ml refillable carts with internal bag, in Jan 2013, then got two replacement chips later in the year. Please know, we did start having some fit issues with this model cart around the end of l, which the manufacturer was unable to resolve for us (it was their suggestion to wedge and push carts towards the left). We have since found a different cartridge design that we feel fits/works much better, and have been selling this new cartridge design for several months with great results. Based on my experience working with all carts we’ve tested, I suspect you’d have much better results with the new model carts. I can talk with sales to see if we could offer you an upgrade discount to get the new carts if you’d like.

I reviewed our past communications, and see you contacted us with a chip recognition error last November, I told you about pushing/wedging carts towards the left for the best fit, then you got two replacement chips and reported the new chips solved your problem. I haven’t heard from you since then, so assumed everything has been working well, and you were happily printing. If you had contacted us again within the past year, to let us know you were still having issues, we would have resolved your problems then, but now after so much time has passed, it’s well beyond our warranty period.

Please let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana

3

Thanks for your reply Dana,
As I mentioned, within 6 weeks of installing your carts in my new machine I began having issues with the machine not recognizing carts. The indicators would blink on the carts that were affected. My first common sense instinct was to open the bay door, remove the cart, reset the chip, reinsert the cart and continue. After this repeated 6-7 times, and I noticed that the ink level was not reading correctly (level indicated as “full” when it was 1/3 spent) I called Ink Jet Mall and had a conversation with a young man there. I asked why several chips did not reset to a solid green , but only “blinked” His explanation was that resetting the chips repeatedly was not a good thing, that they were “delicate” and extra sets should be kept on hand. I ordered 2 replacements because those chips would neither read ink level or turn green, blinking or otherwise. I employed the benefit of doubt by fidgeting with shims, etc.

Then the head failure occurred, coincidentally on channels where no ink level was read by the chip. I tried cleaning cycles to clear up the gaps in my nozzle checks and the problem got worse. After reading about a hundred hours of forums help/advice etc. on my model of printer, one piece of advice was to see if ink was even reaching the print head. Those colors, and two others that were also beginning to show gaps, had ink sloshing around in the 2/3rd filled internal bags of those carts. The failed air tight vacuum in the bags had caused ink to not be present at the print head. I wish I could substantiate that this is what caused the head to dry out and then burn out, but too many other head failures around the world regardless of using OEM ink carts or not, however suspect was still not not a solid conclusion. There is at least a 50% chance of a possibility of bad print heads - a very complicated issue. Some months went by because i did not have the $$ to repair or replace the printer.

Finally the Tech that fixed my machine warned me that the carts in my printer were defective for air leaks on one end or the other, poor fit, and damaged/defective chips. Unless they were kept completely full or until I get OEM’s or other reliable ones, I should keep bleeding air out and/or continually fill & resetting the problem ones. Short of installing new OEM carts this was the only way he could keep the machine operating to repair it! Since bringing it back home (a couple of weeks) this is how I have been operating it to follow his advice for “preventing another problem.” I’m writing now to see what recourse I may have, while also seeking out other 3rd part ink companies for what they offer. Come what may, I will be reporting here in this forum on the outcome.

So now I have half a dozen hardly used failed carts with unreliable chips. In my business, I could never get away with offering my customers a “discount” on another version of a product of mine that was not the quality of what they paid me for in the first place.
Lets just leave it at this: I’m going to call you to see what kind of “satisfaction offer” you’re willing to make. How conscientiously does your “sales” department truly pursue having loyal repeat customers that will praise you for standing behind your products? I imagine they will expect me to return alleged bad carts for inspection while my machine sits in the lurch- something I’m not willing to do.

Talk to you soon.

4

Thanks for the additional information RayRay.

I’m sorry to hear of troubles you’ve experienced with these carts. Please understand, we can not help if we’re not aware of your problems.
Last November, you contacted us for help with chip errors, which we worked thru and resolved, but you never responded about the second issue of your printer’s pressure pump turning on (http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/showthread.php?446-Epson-7900-quot-no-ink-cart-installed-quot-mssg-Many-attempts-to-re-insert)
We can not know what’s going on and troubleshoot an issue if the user doesn’t provide us with information in a timely manner, if you don’t respond or contact us to alert us of a problem, we’re not aware of your problem and therefore can’t help. Had you responded about the pressurization issue last year or reported the other details included in your last post, I would have already been able to resolve your issues and you would be happily printing. In the future, please be sure to contact us right away if you have problems or need help.

Air should only need to be removed from the internal ink bag when fill plugs are removed, as long as the fill hole is sealed, air should not enter the ink bag.

I have discussed your situation with Wells, so he is expecting your call, and is prepared to resolve your troubles.

Please keep me posted, thanks and best regards~ Dana

5

Dear Dana,
Re the no reply, it was at that point that the head failure set in. My machine was out of commission, so replying about carts not being recognized and ink level not reading was mute. I will never know if the head burn out trouble was caused by ink failing to reach the print head due to air leaks in the cart. It was a new machine that did not have any pump problems. and worked great with OEM carts which were pressurized as they should be, and had reliable electronics.

All I know now, and all you need to understand about my problem, is that I do have a new [repaired] machine, that still has carts which don’t fit properly, loose pressure unless I repeatedly prime/fill them, only reset with a blinking green light, and the ink level either only reads “full” regardless of how much is in there, or reads “no ink cart installed”

5 of the ink carts work as promised. Six do not- pretty simple. It was a bad idea for you to stop checking/testing every single cart. From what I’ve read on this forum about the problems others experience, it would seem pretty obvious that there was/is a quality control issue with the parts, mechanics, and electronics of the 'generation", or design version of the carts I received.

I am hoping to have the time to CALL about this later today or tomorrow.

P.S. Can you please publish or tell me where I can find out what the time limit is before being logged out?

6

I understand your not having much to say with your printer being down, but with no word from you in the past year, we had no idea you were still having issues, and for all we knew the problems were resolved and you were happily printing. Please understand, we support thousands of customers, so if someone doesn’t follow thru with communication, we can’t know what’s going on to help or resolve their problem.

We are prepared with a solution to resolve your issue, so please do call and discuss your situation with Wells to move forward and get back to happily printing.

For more information that you need: when we started selling the internal bag carts that you’re using, we pressure tested every cart by hand (both plastic shell and internal bag) in the first two shipments, but after feeling comfortable with a very low failure rate, and considering the huge time expense, we decided to stop pressure testing every cart, and keep a close eye on feedback from customers (which we do anyway with all products). For quite a while, things were good, but shortly after receiving the last shipment, we started getting reports of problems. At this point, we immediately tested carts from the latest shipment, then stopped selling the carts after confirming a higher than normal failure rate, and reported to the manufacturer to resolve the issues, but they weren’t able to give us a satisfactory solution, so we got different model carts from several other cartridge manufacturers, and carefully tested them, which is how we found the latest style cartridge that we currently sell. We did send replacements to customers who contacted us with problems, and would have sent you replacements last year had we knew you were still having issues (it was right around the time I was working with you that we discovered the issue, so I wasn’t fully aware there was a problem when you first contacted us).

I’m not sure what the timeout time is, but after having a few of my posts not go thru because of the timeout, I always copy my post before pushing the “post” button… because I’m frequently doing many things at once, so can pulled away from what I’m writing, then get timed out when I return, and I hate retyping everything again.

Please let me know if you have further questions, or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best~ Dana

7

Thanks for your diligent and thoughtful reply Dana,
This is the kind of thing that first appealed to me about your company- willingness to achieve success finding solutions. I truly understand your position. I’m trying to think of some support documentation I can muster to illustrate the time line of my machine simply being in limbo. During the down time I learned more about this machine than I ever imagined. Perhaps some email messages, or posting dates for the many forums, and dated individual communications I had with other 7900 owners, plus my repair invoice, etc… Something to show just how minimal my printer was used after the onset of using your products. less than 400 sheets and probably 100 of those were nozzle check tests. I have to do something soon and will call Wells asap- in the midst of being very busy shooting a catalog, we’re dealing with some family health issues.
Kind Regards

8

You are very welcome Ray, we’re here to help! I certainly understand being busy, and sorry to hear about your family health issues- but please do call so we can get you squared away and back to happily printing.

Unfortunately, these printer models can have serious mechanical failures no matter the age or use history. For example, we got a 7900 a few years ago when they first came out, and since it’s so different from previous models, I was testing and getting to know the printer with Epson inks installed. Within just the first few months, the repair tech had to come out three times to replace the head (twice!), cleaning assembly, and even the main board before it was working correctly. After all the initial repairs, it worked well for about two years, then developed a permanent clog that we couldn’t fix, and ended up getting rid of the printer since a replacement print head costs about as much as a new printer (which totally annoys me).

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: