okay so I JUST bought a new black cartridge yesterday because my last one died (at 60 something %) but didn’t have time to mess with it, I have papers and labs to print out and NEED black ink now. So, thankfully since circuit city is out of business (rumor has it their site is now up and running and they are trying to become a store company again?) I can finally buy my ink at places other than there (yes, my printer seriously has stickers that say “Inks are available ONLY at circuit city, circuit city.com, and lexmark.com”) regardless, that’s not the point of this blog. The point of this blog is me letting people know that I am not thrilled about the life of lexmark inks, and I am curious to know if others have had similar results.
So after running my printer through several “clean cartridge” cycles and making no progress at all I decided to try lexmark customer service. I figure the worst case senario is they take up a bunch of my time and say sorry buddy can’t fix it we suck at making printer cartridges. best case senario is they send me a coupon for some free ink or something. Below is my conversation with the friendly chat guy JR (JR seems like a guys name right?) anyways, I try to follow these instructions step by step, and chuckle to myself as he follows his obviously strict procedure and talks to me like I am a mentally challenged 4 year old. Not that I can really blame him for that. I’m sure he was, like I said, following some sort of protocol, and a large majority of people that chat with lexmark technical support probably have close to the technical knowledge of a 4 year old anyways.
Here is the chat:
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Thanks for contacting us. An operator will be with you shortly…
[Timothy] My color ink level is at %43 according to my printer, yet blue and yellow do not show up more than a tiny streak. i have tried several “clean cartridge” cycles and would like to know what else i can do
[JR] Welcome to Lexmark Chat Support.
[JR] My name is JR, here is your Chat ID *REMOVED*. (This will also serve as our reference# for this chat session)
I will do my best to help you with your issue.
[JR] Hello Timothy.
[Timothy] thanks JR, hello
[JR] Please let me know the printer model number printed on the top of the printer front panel (Example : X2690).
[Timothy] it is a x4690
[JR] Okay.
[JR] Please let me know the Operating System (Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Mac) installed on your computer.
[Timothy] windows 7 x64
[Timothy] professional
[JR] Okay.
[JR] Are you trying to print wirelessly or via USB cable?
[Timothy] wirelessly
[JR] Okay.
[JR] Please let me know the purchase date of the color cartridge.
[Timothy] I do not remember the exact date, i believe it would have been sometime around September of 2009
[JR] Okay.
[JR] Where are you seeing the low cartridge error message? Is it from the computer or from the printer?
[Timothy] i am not seeing a low cartridge error message
[Timothy] my printer is not printing blue or yellow, i went into the printer menu (on the printer itself) and checked the levels myself
[JR] Okay. I apologize for that. Please do these steps:
• Press the SETUP button (Display will show SETUP
• Press OK (Display will show Maintenance
• Press left arrow button 1 time (Display will show Maintenance
• Press OK (Display will say “Please load PLAIN letter paper and press OK”).
• Press OK. A self-test will print.
Let me know if it will print a test page.
[Timothy] yes it does print a test page
[JR] Okay. How about the quality? Is it good?
[Timothy] the blue and yellow are very streaky
[Timothy] the black and purple look great
[JR] I see.
[JR] Please do these steps on the color cartridge:
1. Please get a damp paper towel.
2. Set the ink cartridge right side up on the damp paper towel so that the ink nozzles are against the towel and hold the cartridge in this position for about 15 seconds.
3. Now wipe the print head (on the bottom where the ink comes out) across in one direction only (left to right) until it looks clean.
4. Next dab the cartridge on the towel to make sure that the ink is flowing.
Please don’t use the same part of the paper towel that you already have used, or you may also use another pair of paper towel for this.
[Timothy] should the towel be damp with warm or cold water or is that irrelevant?
[JR] It should be warm.
[Timothy] Okay.
[JR] Thanks. Let me know if you’re done.
[Timothy] i am done with that step
[JR] Okay.
[JR] Please insert the color cartridge alone and try to print.
[Timothy] okay, i have printed another test page
[Timothy] but now the blue does not show up at all
[Timothy] and the yellow is still streaky
[JR] I see.
[JR] Please give me a minute.
[Timothy] no problem
[JR] Thanks.
[JR] Thanks for patiently waiting Timothy. I have tried to convince my supervisor about replacing your cartridge but it has not been approved because the cartridge is already out of warranty. In this case Timothy, I would be advising you to purchase a new color cartridge for this issue to be resolved. I apologize for the inconvenience.
[Timothy] okay
[Timothy] one more question
[JR] Go ahead please.
[Timothy] i have had two other lexmark brand cartridges
[Timothy] both black
[Timothy] that crapped out well before the 50% usage point
[Timothy] now i have yet to have any problems with the printer itself
[Timothy] but these cartridges seem overly unreliable to me
[Timothy] is this the case with all lexmark brand cartridges?
[Timothy] and if so is there an alternative aftermarket company that makes cartridges that will fit my printer?
[JR] I see. I apologize for that. There is a chance that you’ve purchased an old stock of cartridge.
[JR] I would be advising you to purchase cartridges online or by calling our Pre-sales department so that it would always be fresh and new.
[Timothy] Okay, sounds like a plan JR
[Timothy] thank you for your time
[JR] You are most welcome Timothy. By the way, here is the number of our Pre-sales department just in case 8003585835.
[JR] Will there be anything else that I can help you with Timothy?
[Timothy] That will do it for me, have a good one
[JR] You are welcome. Thanks for contacting us. Please click the END button on the bottom right corner of this window to end this chat session. Have a wonderful day.
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haha, I tried to be nice, patient, and follow instructions well. yet, I still struggle to understand the relevance of my operating system or if the printer is wireless based on my initial question (so macs don’t get viruses AND they print blue and yellow without streaks, damn, I should jump on that bandwagon). Again, with their silly data-mining procedure. Might as well be nice though, I figure this poor guy is not the reason my ink sucks. If I were on the chat with someone in manufacturing or QC I may have been a bit less nice though…
I couldn’t help myself at the end there, poor bastard was probably shitting bricks when I asked if all lexmark inks were completely unreliable (you bought a bad batch; yeah okay buddy, that’s why all of my black inks all bought at completely different times, two from different stores, one from a single pack the others from a multi-pack, were all crap?) and I wonder how many customers ask if there is aftermarket non-lexmark certified inks that could fit bahaha, what’s the procedure for that one!? (apparently it’s giving me the phone number to their “pre-sales department” lol)
Oh, and here are some of the questions from the little surveys they asked after I got off the line with JR
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Customer Support Chat
If you would like a copy of the chat transcript emailed to you, please enter your email address before clicking Done in the lower right corner.
Your Email: *REMOVED* (I used my personal one there, just hit up mobius-comics.com if you want to contact me)
Please complete the optional survey below
On a scale where 5 is Very Satisfied and 1 is Very Dissatisfied
how would you rate:
<<< Poor Good >>>
Responsiveness of Chat Agent: 1 2 3 4 [5] unsure
Professionalism of Chat Agent: 1 2 3 4 [5] unsure
Technical Ability of Chat Agent: 1 2 3 4 5 [unsure]
Overall opinion of the Chat Agent: 1 2 3 [4] 5 unsure
If your overall rating for the support
you received was less than a 5,
please explain what we could do to rate a 5.
[great agent, not great ink cartridges! this is the 3rd Lexmark cartridge that has died on me at around 50% usage according to the printer.]
Then I took another nice little survey that asked for a synopsis of why I contacted technical support and it ended with “from 0-10 would you recommend us to a friend” I answered 2 and the survey box after said:
5. If your response to the last question was not 10, what is the most important improvement that we could make to achieve this rating?
[Have ink cartridges work for more than 50% of their lifespan. this is the THIRD cartridge I have had die on me at about "50% usage" according to the printer menu]
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I proceeded to leave them my information. Now, I’d like a coupon after all these shenanigans but I’d LOVE for their cartridges to just work instead. That stuff is expensive! I just dropped more than 20 bucks on a single cartridge when I bought the black one yesterday, it’s crazy for me to be buying a cartridge every 50% usage, that’s buying 2 when I should only have to buy 1 (yay! for basic math)… unacceptable Lexmark, you have a displeased customer. His name is Timothy Hebert.
