Franking machine Issue

lcharm

I'm wondering what my rights are as a business as I'm having an issue with a large franking machine company.

I had a cartridge issue back in September which they've said is very likely to be a fault rather than out of ink. They sent out a replacement with an invoice and asked that I send back the old cartridge for testing after which I'd get a credit for the replacement cartridge,

Today I get the old cartridge back in the post with a letter saying it wasn't fault and I'm not eligisble for any credit so I now I owe them £90.

No idea what I can do, I'm writing to them today as I feel cheated but I don't think it'll do me much good as businesses don't get the same rights as consumers. Any ideas?

toddle2u

Does the cartridge that they sent back to you now work?

lcharm

haven't check, wat do i do if it doesn't? Which I'm pretty sure it won't

Savvy_Sue

lcharm wrote: »

haven't check, wat do i do if it doesn't? Which I'm pretty sure it won't

can we cross that bridge when we come to it? If it DOES work, you've now got 2 cartridges. I'd seal one up and consider putting it in the fridge (they keep better there, I believe).

lcharm

It doesn't work as I'd suspected.

They're telling me the cartridge is empty, but when I rang tech support initially, they said an empty cartridge would not print at all (i.e. the machine would refuse to print.

I now have 1 faulty cartridge, and I owe them £90 for the replacement!

bris

You do get similar rights to consumers but you have to fight harder for them, you and the supplier are bound by contract law, the supplier has broken the contract by not providing the service you bought. The problem is you either need to convince them it's faulty and want the credit or you take them to court to make them give you the credit.

It may be that the cartridge is empty and the tech support are wrong. Do you think it could be empty? Have you used it enough to justify an empty cartridge or is it that you know it couldn't possibly be empty so soon. You need to be sure before you start court action over £90 as the costs could be a lot higher than that if you lose.

greyteam1959

Pitneyt Bowes springs to mind...................
My advice for what its worth
Get rid of the franking machine........far too expensive , ink cartridge etc biggest rip off ever/.
I got rid of my franking machine 10 years ago !!!!!!!

lcharm

I spend almost 5k on postage per year so not quite at the threshold for a PPI account but enough that a franking machine saves me a couple of hundred a year. My issue is that if I knew it was empty from the outset, I could have gone to an aftermarket supplier and bought a new cartridge for £35 but now I'm lumbered with £90 charge

Savvy_Sue

Weigh the two cartridges (in grams) and go to your aftermarket supplier to see what they think. They may even be able to get the 'faulty' cartridge going again, or they could give an independent view of the problem?

lcharm

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Weigh the two cartridges (in grams) and go to your aftermarket supplier to see what they think. They may even be able to get the 'faulty' cartridge going again, or they could give an independent view of the problem?

Nice one! Didn't think of that and would definitely be worth a try!

Savvy_Sue

lcharm wrote: »

Nice one! Didn't think of that and would definitely be worth a try!

:rotfl: well, it's the first thing my ink-refiller does when I take in a cartridge and say "I'm not sure if this is empty or what's gone wrong with it!"

Actually, I think that if you know what capacity the cartridge is supposed to have, you might well be able to establish for yourself how full it is, by comparing the difference between the two cartridges, as presumably the 'new' one hasn't been that heavily used.

And you've tried all the 'give it a shake and check the nozzles' tricks?