My confidence in Canon Printers customer support has been restored

Voxman

Around 4 years ago I bought a Canon Pixma MX925 from John Lewis. Duplex printing and autofeed, great photo printing, scan, copy ... in short, perfect for my home needs. About a year ago, 2yr warranty expired, printing quality deteriorated until it was ghosting badly. No amount of printer head cleaning or using different solutions with proper cleaning kits worked.  A new printer head was around £80, Canon would supply one for £65 . But for £100 I could buy a new Epson all in one with a 3 yr warranty, so it wasn't economical.

But I liked the printer which was otherwise perfect, and didn't want to throw it out as it was such a waste.  And then there was the faff of loading new software on our computers and phones, and throwing out spare ink cartridges and buying supplies for the new printer.

Anyway, I complained to Canon as the print head shouldn't have gone and after quite a few calls and emails and persistency they agreed to send me a new print head at no charge for good will. Installed it today and my printer is like brand new again (sent them a thank you of course).

So my confidence in Canon is restored and I'm a very happy bunny!  Moral is, even if warranties have expired, and even if at first you don't succeed, it can be worth being persistant with customer support, particularly with big companies. 

hywelg

No, the moral is, printers are a rip off. I had a Canon ip7200 fail on me. New printer head needed at £50,  bought a replacement printer successor model, takes same carts, for £48

midlifecrisis

of course the'yl send you a new print head if you ask nicely... it means you will continue buying their pricey ink carts

Voxman

midlifecrisis said:

of course the'yl send you a new print head if you ask nicely... it means you will continue buying their pricey ink carts

Actually no, I use compatible cartridges from a supplier recommended by Which?  And I had to do a bit more than 'ask nicely' - it was a bit of a 'fight' but resolved successfully in the end.

Voxman

hywelg said:

No, the moral is, printers are a rip off. I had a Canon ip7200 fail on me. New printer head needed at £50,  bought a replacement printer successor model, takes same carts, for £48

And that's a point I raised with Canon - if the whole all-in one printer sold for £200, how can just the printer head cost £65 even at a Canon direct price (and retail at circa £80)?  It's completely disproportionate on something that was made in China and probably cost no more than £3-5 to make?  Even allowing for profit, shipping, taxes etc it really shouldn't retail for more than £25-30.  And I wonder how many people are being 'forced' to dump printers made largely of non-biodegradable plastic because replacing a printer head is so uneconomic?  

I'm sure printer companies do this to make you buy another one of their printers every few years. And if the majority of home users buy compatible ink cartridges, then why not sell own brand at a more realistic price?  I think the reason is that it's the money they make from corporate ink/toner sales that's where the big bucks are for them - not the private consumer.  If they reduced the consumer ink prices they'd have to cut the corporate prices & that would really hurt them.  So, after sale stuff for consumers is artificially high accordingly.   

hywelg

The whole business model for printers is arsenal backwards. The companies sell the printers too cheaply, in the expectation that cartridge sales will generate the profit. Cartridges that cost less than a pound to make spelling for £10 plus. So the aftermarket cartridge manufacturers jump in at a sensible price point.

Then the printer manufacturers have to discontinue the model in oder to introduce a new cartridge to keep the profits rolling. And repeat ad infinitum. 

IMO, this is one area where the EU could have done something useful instead of singling out vacuum cleaners and ignoring nearly every other home appliance. 

57Deluxe

In 1998, I had only had my Bubble Jet BJC4300 for just 3 months and only a dozen printouts before the print heads clogged. The cost of new heads was TWICE the price of the printer. Back then printers were NOT marketed as throwaway just to hook you on ink. I have been disgusted with the whole inkjet business since and refuse to buy one. I only use other ppls printers when I can.

thermionic

Voxman said:

Anyway, I complained to Canon as the print head shouldn't have gone and after quite a few calls and emails and persistency they agreed to send me a new print head at no charge to shut me up

FTFY.

Funnily enough, my Canon Pixma is now playing up - it refuses to print onto CDs (one of the reasons I bought it). I have a feeling I’ll have to throw a lump of plastic and electronics into landfill and buy a new one again. Pretty sure it was the print head which died on the previous one.

Voxman

thermionic said:

Voxman said:

Anyway, I complained to Canon as the print head shouldn't have gone and after quite a few calls and emails and persistency they agreed to send me a new print head at no charge to shut me up

FTFY.

Funnily enough, my Canon Pixma is now playing up - it refuses to print onto CDs (one of the reasons I bought it). I have a feeling I’ll have to throw a lump of plastic and electronics into landfill and buy a new one again. Pretty sure it was the print head which died on the previous one.

Lol...well, maybe ....but seriously, you have to complain in the right way and put forward a rational argument.  If your Pixma prints on paper but not CD it's not the print head...sounds more like a settings issue.

thermionic

Good for you for getting a result - I think we're all getting screwed when we buy inkjet printers!

I can't see anything wrong with the settings, it accepts the cd carrier into the right slot, feeds it in when I press OK, makes printing noises... but it comes out blank each time. I've done loads of these with no problem, but I just gave up this time.

Voxman

thermionic said:

Good for you for getting a result - I think we're all getting screwed when we buy inkjet printers!

I can't see anything wrong with the settings, it accepts the cd carrier into the right slot, feeds it in when I press OK, makes printing noises... but it comes out blank each time. I've done loads of these with no problem, but I just gave up this time.

Just a thought - not all CD's let you print on them - they have to be ink-jet compatible. Have you checked that your CD's are the compatible type?  If they are, in the system Print dialog, set Presets to Default Settings if you have selected there anything else.  One other quirk I've seen - for some reason, some older Canon printers don't let you print wirelessly to a CD (Crazy I know) - you have to be direct-wire connected. 

UPDATE: Did some digging b& found this - might only be a driver issue!  Guy here solved problem by updating the drivers:

https://www.belightsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13700

thermionic

Yup - the CD came from the same stack/pack that I did all my others with. I also updated the drivers a couple of days ago, and tried a newer version of the CD print/design software. I always have it on USB as I found the wireless printing to be very flaky. The options are set to the printable disk tray. It goes through the motions right up to the point where I'd expect ink to be deposited. Something fundamental is wrong somewhere!

Voxman

thermionic said:

Yup - the CD came from the same stack/pack that I did all my others with. I also updated the drivers a couple of days ago, and tried a newer version of the CD print/design software. I always have it on USB as I found the wireless printing to be very flaky. The options are set to the printable disk tray. It goes through the motions right up to the point where I'd expect ink to be deposited. Something fundamental is wrong somewhere!

This is bound to end up being something really simple - what's the exact model printer you have?   If you were previously printing to CD's, something has changed somewhere....either the settings or there's a problem with the driver - in the thread I posted, have a read at the end  re having to load the software in a different way to get it to work. 

BTW - if you call Canon they give free UK telephone support - might be worth calling them to see if they can sort it for you. 

Voxman

Meant to post an update - received the print-head a couple of weeks back and installed it. Printer is now like brand new with superb print quality and I'm delighted.  Sent a big thank you to Canon. 

57Deluxe

I've had even a better result printer-wise... A week a go I spotted a NEXTDOOR post for a Dell C3110 colour laser with 4K pages of toner left plus a new. unopened colour toner set  - "FREE for collection as since moving to W10 it doesn't work properly..."

Yes - was just a driver issue - works great for me! Cheers, don't mind if I do!

Voxman

57Deluxe said:

I've had even a better result printer-wise... A week a go I spotted a NEXTDOOR post for a Dell C3110 colour laser with 4K pages of toner left plus a new. unopened colour toner set  - "FREE for collection as since moving to W10 it doesn't work properly..."

Yes - was just a driver issue - works great for me! Cheers, don't mind if I do!