With massive marketing and advertising budgets that dwarf those of their small-business entrepreneurial competitors, original printer manufacturers (OEMs) have created a cacophony of claims about printer cartridges that are aimed at confusing the consumer into believing that they must buy their new supplies to be certain of quality. Or worse, they must buy their new supplies or risk running afoul of some law.

This misdirection and deception is aimed at hurting the printer manufacturer’s chief enemies: its competition. Although aimed at other OEMs as well, much effort is spent making claims that keep customers from buying products from aftermarket competitors.
But the deception really hurts the consumers most, as it costs them oceans of dollars in overpriced supplies and hours of aggravation in determining what he or she is entitled to purchase from competitors — and what it is that they are really purchasing.

For instance, Lexmark proudly announces that its HP 4000 Linea brand compatible cartridges “are 100% all-new, not remanufactured.” These cartridges are not new, and certainly not 100 percent new. They are also definitely remanufactured.

Welcome to the deceptive marketing zone, where cartridge customers are routinely led astray and outright lied to. How can a cartridge buyer be certain that what he is buying is new, compatible or recycled? And upon reorder, how can he be sure that he is buying what he intended to buy as a replacement?

We submit for your consideration the following information on the many ways that some manufacturers and supplies resellers might try to confuse consumers. We also offer ways to tell what is real and what the customer can depend upon.

Let’s Examine the “New” Lexmark Linea Cartridge

As clear as a bell, molded on the side of the Linea cartridge was the phrase “made in Japan.” As Lexmark does not manufacture cartridges in Japan, it is safe to assume that Lexmark did not manufacture this core.

As for its status as “100 percent new,” the label on the cartridge reads “Lexmark: This high quality cartridge is made of new and recovered, domestic and foreign parts.”
Further evidence demonstrates that the Linea cartridge is a wholly remanufactured one. There is residual toner on the drum from post-testing. There are the clips that are only present when a cartridge has been split and opened to permit remanufacturing.

Brussels-based remanufacturer Eddy Samson of Marcos S.A. was angered when Lexmark sued him, claiming that his packaging misrepresented its contents. His packaging, standard in the industry, claimed that the cartridge it contained was “compatible” for use in the Lexmark printer for which it was remanufactured.

Samson didn’t cower from the suit as Lexmark undoubtedly hoped, but instead he counterclaimed that Lexmark was equally guilty for claiming that its Linea cartridges were “100 percent new.” That led to an interesting defense mounted by Lexmark.
The company based its case on the premise that most of the cartridge was new; therefore, it could claim that it was “new.” It submitted technical drawings of cartridges that detailed which components were new and which reused.

As expected, the new components included items that would be replaced in standard remanufacturing practices, such as drum and toner. However, the items that are commonly reused in the remanufacturing process, such as the hoppers, cartridge core and most gears, were reused.

In the HP4000, 22 of the 33 components were reused. This is hardly a staggering case for being considered “100 percent new.”

Lexmark has sold these cartridges as “new” to several institutional buyers who have been led to believe that these are “100 percent new” cartridges, including the University of Pennsylvania and the state of Florida.

I’ll Reuse Yours, But You Can’t Reuse Mine

The Lexmark Linea subterfuge would not be so insulting if the company didn’t proclaim that remanufactured products are inferior when it comes to the use of the same in their own printers. After a questionable evaluation of remanufactured cartridges by the National Software Testing Lab, Lexmark determined that remanufactured cartridges were inadequate for use in its printers. (NSTL is a fine organization, but one that routinely tests software, not hardware like cartridges.)

The tests were used to justify Lexmark’s launch of the Prebate program. This program provides an upfront discount to buyers that agree — consciously or inadvertently — to refrain from giving the spent cartridge to a remanufacturer.

The cartridges must be returned either to Lexmark for “recycling or remanufacturing” or thrown away. Lexmark’s intention here is to keep the empty cartridges out of the hands of its competitors.

Many unsuspecting buyers want to remanufacture their cartridges, and are alarmed when they find that they cannot save money by giving their cartridges to a local remanufacturer.

The remanufacturer or service provider will instruct the buyer to make sure to purchase the non-Prebate Lexmark cartridge, which can be remanufactured, in the future.
Yet, when the customer attempts to do just that, they find that the cartridge is unavailable or they somehow accidentally reorder the Prebate cartridge.

Looking for a Unicorn.

Lexmark markets its remanufacturable cartridges on its website, but website purchases, like any mail order, take time to receive. A consumer that chooses to go to a store to buy a cartridge will usually only find the Prebate cartridge on the shelf. That’s because the two cartridges are identical in all ways except the Prebate restrictions against remanufacturing.
Office supplies’ stores have limited shelf space, and don’t want to stock two identical items, one that costs $45 less than the other. Therefore, the stores generally stock only one, the lower priced Prebate model. Customers take the time to get to the store to purchase a cartridge, but may find the search for unrestricted cartridges is akin to hunting for a unicorn.

Numbers do Lie.

Other consumers choose to buy cartridges by undertaking a common method: they glance at the cartridge to find the reorder number and then proceed to order via the phone, fax or Internet. The key is the reorder number.

They reorder off the cartridge that they currently have. Let’s look at the Optra T cartridge label (Figure 1) and see what happens when a customer wants to reorder a remanufactured cartridge by using the one they were smart enough to purchase originally.
The reorder number that is listed directly beneath the words “recommended reorder” are the number 12A5840 and 12A5845. These numbers are the part numbers for the Prebate cartridges with restrictions on its remanufacture. The true reorder number to receive an identical remanufacturable cartridge is actually in smaller type and listed well under other numbers. The remanufacturable cartridge part number is also listed in red above the “recommended reorder” information, but appears to be more likely an identification number for that specific cartridge rather than a reorder number.

This mislabeling scheme is actually an improvement from the one that used to be emblazoned on the cartridge a few years ago when it was first introduced. In the late 1990s, the part number for the remanufacturable cartridge was even more difficult to locate on the body of the cartridge.

Lexmark expends a great deal of money and energy in keeping supply alternatives away from its customers. Perhaps it should reflect on investing those energies elsewhere, as PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Survey on Printer Service & Reliability indicates. Lexmark laser printers were the poorest in their class in scores on customer satisfaction, units needing repair and loyalty to the manufacturer.

Counterfeit Cartridges

At the other end of the spectrum of cartridge deception is the counterfeit cartridge. Counterfeit cartridges are remanufactured or refilled cartridges that are sold as “new.”
According to the Imaging Supplies Coalition, counterfeit imaging supplies account for more than $1 billion in sales. “The manufacturer’s good name is damaged and they lose revenue, profit and most importantly brand equity and future hardware and supplies sales,” said Bill Duffy, executive director of the Imaging Supplies Coalition. “Remanufacturers lose because they must compete with the counterfeit product in the marketplace.”

Counterfeiters do not care about quality, so the customer often has an unpleasant experience with the counterfeit cartridge and returns it, with ire, to the OEM. The OEM is understandably unhappy to have to defend a bad product with its name on it. Its representatives will undoubtedly inform the customer that it is counterfeit and it is remanufactured.

The customer walks away from the bad experience believing that remanufactured products and counterfeit products are forever, linked. Or worse, that “counterfeit” and “remanufactured” are synonymous terms.

What Counterfeiting IS NOT

OEMs are undertaking efforts to stem the spread of counterfeit products, but some attempts to warn consumers may actually further confuse them.

For example, the Hewlett-Packard 4100 printer contains a chip that monitors the printer. It also allows the customer to view a “Supplies Status Page” that indicates the level of toner remaining, as well as the number of pages remaining before the cartridge must be replaced. It functions much as a gas gauge in a car does.

Once the toner is depleted in the cartridge, the chip stops functioning as well and cannot be “reset.” And the news on the supplies status page changes as it depicts an empty “gas gauge” for remaining performance, even though the cartridge is full.

Further, the supplies page gives this warning: “ATTENTION. A non Hewlett-Packard toner cartridge has been detected…Service or repairs required as a result of using a non Hewlett-Packard toner cartridge will NOT be covered under the printer warranty. If you were sold this cartridge as a genuine HP product, then please call our fraud hot-line.”
Unwitting consumers read this carefully crafted language and believe two things:

1. That the warranty on their printer will be voided for using an aftermarket cartridge.

2. That anything other than a genuine HP product is a fraudulent one.

Of course, both claims are erroneous. HP’s policy on voiding a printer warranty states that repairs under a warranty will not be covered ONLY if there is actual damage caused by a non-HP cartridge. Simply using another company’s cartridge in the printer is perfectly valid, and to try to interfere with such use could constitute an illegal tying arrangement.

Equally disconcerting is the claim that the use of the product might be somehow fraudulent. As many cartridge remanufacturers (including other OEMs) market their cartridge as being “HP compatible,” it is easy for the consumer to confuse this with “HP genuine.”

Let’s Talk “ Compatible”

And as for the term “compatible,” it has no significance at all. It generally means that a cartridge can be used in the printer model designated or can be used as a replacement for the cartridge number designated.
The term “compatible” is often used by remanufacturers to mask their remanufactured status, and that is tragic. As cartridge remanufacturers have sought respect and credibility by investing countless dollars and hours in technical research, standardized production and quality control measures, it seems futile to then deny or belittle the very fact that the cartridge is remanufactured. After all the investment, why not put “brilliantly remanufactured for the HP 4000” on the cartridge instead of the milk-toast “compatible with the HP 4000.”

Marketing claims are supposed to encourage customers to purchase a product and enhance customer comprehension of what she is buying, thus leading to enhanced customer satisfaction.

However, these marketing claims do exactly the opposite, especially when they are designed to confuse or mislead the customer. There have been a spate of such claims recently, and they warrant exposure.

So Many Terms, So Much Confusion

Any consumer confronted with these misleading and confusing marketing choices is well within his or her rights to give up and buy familiar, safe OEM products. Sadly, those consumers are missing out on the many benefits of buying a remanufactured product that offers so many benefits:

n It is good for the environment. Remanufactured cartridges are reused, and reuse is the highest form of recycling. Although many OEMs offer so-called recycling and return programs, their real motive there is to keep the cartridge out of the hands of remanufacturers. Once it is returned to the OEM, there is no telling what really happens to it. Concerned environmental groups have noted that this trash, deemed e-waste, actually ends up in third-world countries where it is scavenged and then burned, destroying local ecosystems.

n It is good for consumer choice. Like a lock in a key, printer cartridges are designed by the OEMs to fit only the printer for which it was designed. There are no “universal” printer cartridges. The cartridges are covered by patent rights that keep others from manufacturing new compatible cartridges. The only option is a remanufactured cartridge. Without the competition from remanufactured cartridges, OEMs would have a monopoly on the cartridges for their printers, and the prices would skyrocket.

n It is good for local economies. Cartridge remanufacturers are local businesses that provide supplies, printer service and document solutions and support. Cartridge remanufacturing cannot be automated and is labor-intensive, while OEM cartridges are mass produced.

What to Do About the Confusion

If you or your customer has been misled or confused by any marketing claim or has been the victim of a fraud, such as the purchase of counterfeit products, we want to help.
Call us or write us to report:

• OEM warranty voiding.

• Non-Prebate availability.

• Cartridges that cannot be refilled.

• Cartridges that when remanufactured result in loss of printing features.

• The high price of printer cartridges when only OEMs are available.

• Restrictions on importation of lower priced cartridges.

I-ITC Consumer Protection Department
2501 Cove Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89128
Fax: 702-838-3695
Email: exec@i-itc.org