I just bought several new refurbished ink cartridges at the local office store and they would not work. So, I took them back. The manager pointed out to me they were expired and should not have been on the shelf. They were HP refurbished/refilled cartridges. He explained to me that after time, ones that are refilled lose head quality and can sometimes even damage your printer. So, they have a microchip in them that will cause them to quit working on the expiration date, even if they are still full of ink.
I thought that was odd, so I called HP. They transferred me to numerous people until I got a guy who knew what I was talking about and he confirmed what the manager of Office Depot told me.
So, check for the expiration dates. If you buy several, rotate them so that they don't expire and quit working on you. This is true for HP, don't know about the other brands.
With some cartridges costing up to $60 or more, this tip can save lots of money.
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I thought everybody at Thrifty Fun knew about Atlantic Ink. Dear Webby has been pushing it for years.
HP sucks. The Atlantic replacement for my HP 61XL cartridge costs $19; HP wants over $30.
Contact Atlantic at www.atlanticinkjet.com, or call them at
1-866-512-7162.
Also, Atlantic sends notices of frequent sales. Over the years I've received exactly ZERO sales offers from HP.
The Atlantic cartridges work just fine -- ask Webby. Also, HP softwear flashes a message on my monitor screen whenever I use my printer, warning that the cartridge isn't whatever. That's a laugh. One more thing: When my HP Photosmart All in one D110a printer scanner quits I'll never buy another HP piece of anything.
I have used places where they refill cartridges and the first one I had really good luck with. After that, they didn't seem to work well so I stopped buying refills and just buy new ones.
Thanks for this advice. I had it happen to me just last week, so I will be checking from now on.
I have suspected this for over a year now. I have an HP printer and I refill my own cartridges. About a year ago, the one I had been refilling simply refused to work. I ended up buying a brand new cartridge, and have been refilling it. Now I can expect this one to bomb out on me some time in the near future.
The chip and the expiration date are HP's way of defeating those of us who want to save money by NOT buying their overpriced cartridges! It's a dirty, underhanded way to make people spend more money on HP products. I will NEVER buy another HP printer again!
I had an Epson printer years ago and I refilled the original full-size cartridges for 7-8 years, over and over. I never bought another black or color cartridge for that printer after the original set. The printer finally wore out, and the cartridges were still good when I threw it out. Unfortunately I replaced it with the HP printer, which I now regret.
If the manufacturers are going to resort to these schemes to make money off the public, they're going to earn a lot of ill will. Some people will figure out how to defeat their nasty little chips. Unfortunately, I'm not able to do so. I can't wait for this printer to wear out, so I can replace it with a different brand, assuming the other brands don't all adopt the same nasty tactic.
There's something wrong when one cartridge costs nearly as much as the printer itself did, new. If HP wasn't so greedy in the first place, and sold their cartridges at reasonable prices, there would be less incentive for people to circumvent buying them by refilling the ones they have. Some of us are NOT made of money!
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