All Life Is Local: Still Life with Robin: Hey, Printer....Shut UP!

by Peggy Robin

Last Saturday on the Listserv someone answered a query about using off-brand printer cartridges, saying this: 'I order mine from Amazon and have had no problems" (Message #216721 )

Well, I've ordered them from Amazon, too, and while they do work, I have to be honest: Using them is not a good experience. It's unsettling. Why? Because my printer YELLS at me.

It's a very good printer, the Epson Workforce 2540. I've probably had it over a decade, and it still works great. But it does eat up a lot of ink, and those Epson cartridges are expensive little suckers! So I decided to save myself some $$ and go for the remanufactured, off-brand cheapies. They're about half the cost of Epsons.

They install just like the pricey ones, too....but here's what happened the first time I tried to print something with my cheap Amazon substitute ink:

I hit the print button and instead of printing, the printer balked, and threw out a dialog box that said something like this:

You are not using Epson ink. This may harm your printer. Do you want to proceed?

I clicked yes, expecting it to print.

Instead, another dialog box popped up to let me know I was violating my warranty (on a printer whose warranty had run out sometime in the 2010s, I would guess). Did I still want to proceed?

I clicked yes. I think it finally let me print, and when I printed, the pages came out fine.

Well, that's the end of that, I said to myself.

But the next time I wanted to print something, it started all over again. This time, I swear, it was even balkier than before. That thing was angry at me! "Are you crazy??!!!" it said to me. "You are feeding me cheap, crappy ink! How do you expect me to work under these conditions! Haven't I served you well on quality ink for all these years? Why are you doing this to me! Stop!! Let me live my best life! Feed me real Epson ink! Do you want to continue"

"YES, I DO" I shouted back at it. And hit yes on the screen, and again, it printed the pages just right.

Now that I've proven that the cheap ink works fine, maybe my printer will relax and accept the situation. I'm not sure how much more resistance I can take. You see, I don't want to fight with it every time I want or need a hard copy of a document Sure, I've won the first two rounds, but it was a struggle. I want my printer to obey me each time, mindlessly, like a good little machine. I'm tired of fighting with it over each piece of paper it spits out.

Now my black and my cyan are running low. I've got to make a choice. Save myself a few bucks and continue the fight with it? And for who knows how long? Or cave and pay the premium it demands of me, to be able to print on a whim, print without giving it another thought, print when it suits ME, not when the damn printer is done trying to guilt-trip me into spending my hard-earned dough.

I won't leave you in suspense. Epson has won this round. My new ink cartridges will be here on Monday. I'll try not to think about it, at least till mid-September when the next Visa bill arrives.