Free printers IJT Direct

[roytom]

Hi All,

I know this isn't a new idea (I bet this has been covered before - apologies if I'm not adding anything extra here).

The deal is that they give away a printer if you buy the carts/refills from them.

Has anyone done this? Was it ok? Does it make economic sense?

Thanks, Roy

[yasminandrio]

I have used these before and wasn't impressed with there inks/toners had a lot of problems and no help when things went wrong!! I now use a company called Infotone I speak to someone called Damian I think has all my details and very quick and easy to use, nothing is ever free!! Unless you shop at Tesco

[Zanderman]

Originally Posted by roytom

Hi All,

I know this isn't a new idea (I bet this has been covered before - apologies if I'm not adding anything extra here).

The deal is that they give away a printer if you buy the carts/refills from them.

Has anyone done this? Was it ok? Does it make economic sense?

Thanks, Roy

Yes, it works, and makes good financial sense.

But, you have to be careful with IJT - their toner offers etc offers are (mostly) fine - but they do sometimes pull the wool over your eyes with the 'free printers' and some of their cheap computers. Read the offer VERY carefully.

An issue I had with them is the way they describe the yield of the toner cartridges - a 'free' printer I bought from them claimed, in the printer blurb (on their promo page), up to 3000 (can't recall actual figure) pages per cartridge. But the cartridges supplied only did half i.e. 1500. The blurb was describing the standard cartridges, but they were supplying 'starter' half capacity ones. Took me months to get them to admit they had been misleading and send me extra toner cartridges. So make sure what you get is what they describe - or imply.

Also, note that some of the printers involved are shipped, by the manufacturer, with starter cartridges in the box. But IJT open the box, extract those cartridges, and then sell them to you. Slightly dodgy practice - they told me they buy them like that - ie from a third party who opens the boxes, unseals the printer, takes out the cartridges and sells everything separately.

Similar issues in their current catalogue (in the post this week) for re-conditioned computers. Two models are described, in the blurb, as Window 7 machines. But they ship them with XP Pro. One is described as upgradeable to 8G RAM but actually can only take 4.

So they're either careless with their promo wording, or deliberately misleading.

But, as long as you bear that in mind (and are prepared to fight if you feel you've been duped), their offers aren't bad. Just keep your eyes open.

[Lugh_Chronain]

If it's for occasional printing then why not use your local library? Should still work out cheap even if for frequent use. Also saves on having to purchase toners/cartridges.

Each library printout normally cost between 10p and 20p.

[roytom]

Thanks for the immediate and very helpful replies.

The removal of the original carts from the printer's box is the final insult in this "offer" - as stated above.

I've just done some research and seen that IJT sell (in the case of the Dell laser) - starter carts as the 3 you need to buy to get the printer - just as stated in the above post.

I wrongly assumed that the contents of the printer package would be untouched and the 3 sets of carts/inks you need to buy were in **addition** to the ones coming with the printer's OEM carts in the printer box.

So lets look at the Canon Pixma MG5350 - brilliant printer - IJT's 3 sets of own brand IJT carts cost a whooping (total) £102.20 - compared to Refresh Cartsown brand ones of £42.97.

If the Canon OEM carts are taken out of the box then this makes the whole thing non-viable!

Thanks for the help,

Regs., Roy

[Rich44]

I contacted them to ask if they could do a colour laser with network and duplex for me and they never even had the courtesy to reply. My experience says if a company is that crap at the point of inquiry regarding a sale then what are they going to be like at support when they already have your money?

Nope i'd stay away