My office manager needed a new cartridge for an ancient Laserjet 5 Si… and she wanted it cheap.Calling around town, she heard $186 for an extended length, $137 for standard… then $60 for extended.
“Sixty bucks?” she squealed. “What’s the hitch?”
“Actually we refill your cartridge,” said the Cartridge World sales gal, “But it’s guaranteed to perform just like the original.”
My OM has always avoided refills, on the principle that renegade particulates from unknowns may stimulate more equipment trouble than they’re worth. But this is a special case. The printer’s on its last legs.
Further, Cartridge World’s a national franchise, with nothing else to sell. If anybody’s going to pump a good product, it’s a single-product national franchise operation. In addition, that 67% discount is awfully appealing.
All in all, today seemed like a good day to test refill-theory… as long as refilling didn’t take too long.
“No problem,” soothed the sales smoothie. “We’ll fill it up in half an hour, while you wait.”
That was it. My OM was out the door.
Two hours later, she stormed in.
Turned out, when she got to Cartridge World, the clerk hemmed and hawed for several minutes, then told my OM that she’d have to drive to another Cartridge World about ten miles away.
Half an hour later, my OM discovered that Cartridge World can’t refill a C3909X cartridge, but has a dandy workalike cartridge… for only $120. Sixty bucks times two. Smells like a classic bait-and-switch.
Initial prints are just OK. The bolds are black. Regular fonts come out light grey.
And I find myself wondering if the tiny evil my OM encountered was one stupid employee, a crooked franchisee or an overly aggressive franchise training program.
My OM wouldn’t care if the output was perfect.
She doesn’t like trading money with bums who think so little of their fellow man.
46 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 21st, 2006 at 10:55 am
Pingback from RobZazueta.com - Blogchives
July 20th, 2006 at 7:04 am
Mary Hudson
Well I’m a very happy Cartridge World customer using them for refills for 2 printers for my small business.
Why doesn’t your OM, do what anyone would with any poor product or service - contact the Manager of the store or contact the Head Office.
As they say in customer service, if you want resolution, ’start with the head not the feet’!!!
My experience of Cartridge World is they provide great friendly service and real value for money - the refills work and so has any cartridge I’ve bought.
Guess any company can have one bad experience caused by an employee but it doesn’t mean the Company’s all bad.
July 20th, 2006 at 7:46 am
BJ Gillette
Hi Mary.
Glad to hear you’ve had good luck. If Cartridge World handled everybody the way we were treated, there wouldn’t be a Cartridge World.
As for me… When I was little, my mama told me, “Stove hot. Don’t touch.”
I couldn’t resist… always had to touch. And Mama was right.
Once again, despite all the stories I’ve heard about refills, I touched.
Stove hot.
July 20th, 2006 at 7:56 am
Mary Hudson
Hi BJ - ….
guess if everyone was treated like I am, your OM would be happy and you too!
Now we’re all big girls and boys we have to cut it without Mom’s advice and the grown up thing, for your OM to do is to complain!!!!
You’d be doing her a favour to suggest this and I guess your business and Cartridge World too.
Good luck
Mary
July 20th, 2006 at 8:13 am
BJ Gillette
Hi Mary.
I think my OM can handle Cartridge World, if she decides to compound her waste of time by pursuing one stinking cartridge deal. I’m not in that loop, but thanks for your excellent business advice anyway.
Regardless of how my OM deals with suppliers, I find her experience with refills and refillers instructive.
And who knows? Cartridge World may take a harder look at its franchisee training and monitoring policies.
July 20th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Mick
From everthing I’ve ever heard about these cartridge refill oufits, Mary’s experience is the exception to the rule.
Speaking strictly from a toner/ink standpoint, the author’s story jives with everything I’ve ever heard about these places. Cheap ink equals poor prints.
As for customer treatment, sounds like someone owns a couple of stores that are hurting for business and will do anything for a sale. Sounds like they blew it, to me. Repeat business is the name of the game, especially when you’re dealing with a consumable.
July 20th, 2006 at 11:41 am
BJ
Hi Mick.
Well said. In the Internet Age, the customer is king.
Somebody at Cartridge World must have missed the memo.
July 20th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
b.underwood
Hasn’t the customer always been king (or queen)?
July 20th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
BJ
Hi b.
You know it. I know it. Does Cartridge World? I’m not so sure.
As for suggesting that customers are “queens”… These are strange times.
I’ll let you say that.
July 21st, 2006 at 10:27 am
Mary Hudson
Wow - so much steam about a small issue like one experience of poor customer service and a ‘cheaper than anywhere else was able to provide’ cartridge.
Time to get out there, smell the roses, hit the real priorities and enjoy life !
Guess Wal Mart must clock up many complaints each day but it doesn’t stop most of their customers supporting them as a great business, so they must be doing a lot right. Most businesess the same - we just don’t live in a perfect world!
Hey how do we know, some of these criticisms might be from people with a vested interest, like working for HP, Canon, Epson or any of the printer companies who just want to take your money at any price (like they do with their new cartridges)
You know the only way to find out anything of value in life is try it for yourself, so go on and then comment first hand instead of just listening to third hand gossip and rumour.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Cartridge World does it for me and many people I know as a great company saving us huge amounts of money, with a print quality as good as original cartridges (I use mine for a photo design business so the quality issue is very important to me as it has to be right for my very discerning customers) and the Cartridge World service is just fantastic!.
Have a great day everyone
July 21st, 2006 at 10:49 am
Josie Summers
Does Mary work for Cartridge World? Yes, most likely.
Thank you Mary.
July 21st, 2006 at 10:55 am
Thomas
Methinks Mary Hudson (if that’s his/her real name) smells suspiciously like a corporate shill.
July 21st, 2006 at 11:35 am
Shaun Hey
What if it was just a mistake? An honest mistake? When I was younger, I worked for RadioShack. Sure, every once in a while, someone would call in asking a question. I’d answer, sometimes incorrectly, and have to apologize when they came in. It happens. It’s not a reason to write a freaking article about. Wow.
July 21st, 2006 at 11:35 am
Bee
People don’t go to walmart because they like the company. They go to walmart because it’s cheaper than most places. It’s like Fry’s electronics in California. The customer service in all Fry’s I’ve been to has been atrocious. Like really flat out bad. But I don’t go there for the customer service, I go there for the price and selection.
For example, Best Buy screwed me with their “great warranty”. My cellphone had a software error that was reproducable but only in certain areas (when it dropped calls). They basically said “you have to PROVE it to me right here that it’s broken.” I told them I couldn’t since the reception in the store was fine. They said “go to a Sprint store and have them give us written evidence that the phone is broken.” I wasted 3 more hours of my time finding a sprint store that actually did diagnostics (apparently only a few stores do that), waiting in line, having them perform it, and driving back. And yes, it was busted. So their “warranty” was a LOT of hassle to get them to honor it.
Do I hate Best Buy because of that experience? Yes. Would I still go to best buy? Yep, if they have good deals. Would I ever buy the warranty again from Best Buy? No. If I need to buy something with a warranty, I’ll buy from some place else.
July 21st, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Matthew Pasley
I have used Cartridge World to refill cartridges for 4 inkjet printers; both color and black; for a local corp. that I am the purchasing director for. Over time, the cartridges seem to leek a little extra ink gumming up the printer. We took our printers into be cleaned and the informed us of the refill cartridge problems. After this, I contact Cartridge World and they offered, yes came out and OFFERED to pay for the cleaning of our machines. Not only the first time cleaning but every time after that. I was pleased with there services and I am going to take them up on there offer.
July 21st, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Tim
I manage a company that sells both OEM and Remanufactured cartridges called O-ink (yes make the pig jokes). We do not do them in store, we have them in stock that have already been done, or can ship them out. I make sure my staff know that if a customer isn’t happy, we lose money. Since we sell both new and reman I can offer the customers both. I make sure to tell customers, if they are unhappy for any reason with our products or service, let me know right away. That way I can resolve the issue to the best of my ability
What CW did was just wrong. I have had that happen to me before, and I let the manager know what I thought. I strive to make sure my customers have a great time and service at my company, because if I was them, that is what I want. I don’t jerk someone’s chain, just to get them in the door, I am up front and honest and that has lost me customers before, but it has also gained me more customers.
July 24th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Mary Hudson
From Mary - no I run my own small business - as I said before, I’m just a happy CW customer !
July 24th, 2006 at 10:21 am
Todd G
OMary, OMary, Time for a mea culpa from your Cartridge World bosses.
July 24th, 2006 at 11:28 am
Avery
For someone unassociated with Cartridge World, Mary sure spends a lot of time defending them. I call bulls**t.
July 25th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Mary Hudson
Thaks Avery - guess about as much as other do making negative comments - maybe I’m just fair minded!
July 25th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
JH
I stumbled on this via Google. I own 3 Carridge World stores. I am not involved in the day to day operations - so I can’t speak to all the technical complaints. I know we bend over backwards to help a customer. We can and have fired some of our staff because we want both technical skills and customer service skills. I suspect there could be more to the story or your boss just ran into a poor or poorly trained employee. No company or product is perfect and remaning a product is inherenlty going to have a higher failure rate than OEM, but it shouldn’t become numerous enough to be a nuisance or we lose a customer. The best way to judge a store is how they handle a problem and not just when things go right. I suggest giving the store a chance to make good and talk to the manager or owner. You might just find them very responsive - that is my guess. Good luck.
July 26th, 2006 at 7:42 am
BJ Gillette
Hi JH.
For better or worse, after exposure to two Cartridge World stores, a few employees and grey printouts, my OM says she’s spent enough time on this. She considers this an inexpensive lesson in over-zealous cost-cutting.
RE: I suspect there could be more to the story or your boss just ran into a poor or poorly trained employee.
Agreed. With any luck, our $120 will go toward employee training. As I said in the article, I have no idea if this runaround was the result of a renegade employee or systemic on a local or national level.
As to the print quality, in many utility scenarios, the grey print and light line rendering would present no problems.
July 28th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Phil Jorgenson
All of this doesnt really matter much anyway….Do you honestly think the big printer companies are just going to sit around and let these ink refil companies take away their business. Investing in a franchise like ink refiling is just stupid….should have opened a Quiznos…..people will always want a sub-sandwich….hell I am craving one right now….hmmmmm Quiznos….
August 1st, 2006 at 10:30 am
Rich
I also experienced extremely poor service from Cartridge World.
I took my very common cartridge into the Orlando Cartridge World on Monday 7-3-06. The salesman stated that they would have it filled by Thursday afternoon. I had to ask him to call me when it was ready and he agreed.
I waited. I then called their store on Friday morning to find out they hadn’t done a thing; nor had they called me. They didn’t have the right powder.
The salesman was beyond complacent and naive to the idea that it’s easier not to do business with them. I quickly picked up my still-empty cartridge and replaced it at a big-box store.
August 12th, 2006 at 3:07 am
Jason Shahan
Listen up ya Jabroni’s,
The proof is in the pudding. Cartridge World is good for your printer, It’s good for your wallet, And its good for the enviroment. Here’s some points I’d like to make
FACT: using a refilled cartridge that is properly refilled will cause NO damage to your printer at all.
FACT: Cartridge World has been around for 14+ years They are a worldwide company with over 500 stores in the US alone.
FACT: Every cartridge that leaves a CW store is backed by a 100% gaurentee. To where it would be virtually the same as going down to your local “big box” store and paying and arm and a leg for the same or sometimes less quality that you would recieve from Cartridge World.
FACT: If you have a dell printer then guess what for your name brand cartidges can only be bought from dell.com oh and did i mention that you also will have to pay shipping on top of that.
FACT: Printer companies will tell you to buy theyre brand of ink only to get you to spend money through them because they do not make any profit from the printer itself.
FACT: Every Inkjet that comes through CW is cleaned, filled, weighed, and tested to ensure the highest quality possible. Every Toner Cartridge is completley rebuilt with brand new parts from the inside out to where you are pretty much getting a brand new cartridge for half the price. Simply Put we test everything.
Oh and one last thing for the dumba** that thinks investing in a franchise that only sells one thing is stupid. Well let this twist on your tittie for awhile. Not everyone wants a sandwitch, But everybody Does need ink for their printer.
Thats all I got for now.
Catch you on the flip side
August 12th, 2006 at 9:54 am
BJ Gillette
Hi Jason.
I said it earlier: “With any luck, our $120 will go toward employee training. As I said in the article, I have no idea if this runaround was the result of a renegade employee or systemic on a local or national level.
As to the print quality, in many utility scenarios, the grey print and light line rendering would present no problems.”
Like every company, Cartridge World has a choice. Search out threads like this and forcefeed them to every franchise manager so they come to understand the damage that one stupid employee, store or franchisee owner can do to all, or flatter itself that the posters are all idiots and attack anybody with a gripe. CW made the wrong choice.
Instead, CW has thrown everything at this but what those on the fence need to see. Beating up unhappy customers doesn’t work anymore. It’s just too public.
Next time you get a breakout… and in the Internet Age, there will forever be a next time… investigate quickly, have a senior exec hit the forums explaining what you came up with and what you’re going to do about it.
For example, let’s say your franchise agreements in Iowa limit your normal franchisee controls. Then say it in a way that doesn’t upset your other Iowa franchisees, but helps others understand how this happened. On the other hand, if it’s a sloppy franchisee, a properly held public flogging may be in order.
You’ll be much more likely to gain potential customers and franchisees, as opposed to the current strategy, which appears to be hellbent on chasing them away.
Don’t believe me? Find someone who has no dog in this fight. Have them read this entire posting, from top to bottom. Then ask them what they think of the whole deal, including your response.
Ouch.
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:09 pm
David
“BJ Gillette”? Hmmm, did you come up with the idea for giving away razors and then charging the earth for the replacement blades? Sounds familiar to me…
September 4th, 2006 at 7:52 am
BJ Gillette
David, you’re off by 100 or so years. King Camp Gillette (of the Wisconsin Gillettes) invented the safety razor in 1901. I should be so lucky.
September 15th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Dan
I have no dog in this fight. I’m a business journalist with no experience with Cartridge World. Some thoughts:
1. BJ and his office manager did spend a lot of time and emotional energy being angry about one bad experience. The advice about letting the store manager or local franchise owner know about the problem is good. It’s one 15-minute phone call, and you would have a better idea of how they really handle unhappy customers.
2. I was a little puzzled about the skeptical-bordering-on-paranoid comments about Mary. Obviously, you can’t take everything you read on the ‘Net at face value, but c’mon. This is supposed to be a forum to exchange ideas. If you attack people personally for taking a position, that’s going to keep some people away.
3. The bottom line is all consumers need to be educated to make intelligent buying decisions. This thread helped me learn some things about Cartridge World. I have a local CW franchise owner pitching me to do a story about them. I can make a better decision about their pitch.
September 24th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
z man
I just picked up 2 pre-refilled cartridges at Cartridge World and found both to be very low, basically underfilled. Called the store and they said come back and we will fill them up. Seems the person whom I called checked the other stock and found the same issue. So, check_em at check-out!
October 15th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
CWman
I own a Cartridge World franchise and would like to suggest that you guys try our service. Refilliing is an art not a science and we’re not perfect. Many of our stores are new and still learning. How can you make a negitive judgement about a company in business since 1999 with 1,300 stores worldwide on the basis of one or 2 bad experiences?
When you decide to give a Cartridge World store a try you will be greeted and served by a member of your community offering a service 33% of the population will be using in 6 years. Oh, and you’ll be welcome and appreciated when you do.
June 12th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Chuck Carpenter
On Cartridge Refilling (old TWIX from 2006), CW says try Cartridge World.
NOT! So far as I am concerned. I had to cajole the outfit to refill a cartridge once before and today I just spent time driving down to Cartridge world on Fruitville Pike, in Lancaster, PA and was told, again, that Cartridge World could not refill a remanufactured cartridge TYPE M4646, manufactured by Smart Imaging Solutions, that replaces the Dell M4646 cartridge. They could not guarantee the quality that Cartridge World gives (much ado over nothing as far as I am concerned), because it is not a genuine Dell product.
I was to understand that Cartridge World was in the business of refilling ink Cartridges and not in the business of choosing not to refill a Remanufactured Cartridge. You either refill ink Cartridges or you don’t, no sorry, in between reasons.
Of course, I opted to take my business elsewhere. Sure, it may not be super big bucks but it is just that, bucks, lost to a franchise company, that will not meet my needs. No sense supporting a company that can not meet it. I gathered all three cartridges of mine and left.
I may even go back to refilling the things myself. Either way Cartridge World is one Franchise business that has lost my not too shabby green backs and support from now on and another will gain it.
C.C.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Bill
I want to start off by letting you know that I am a manager / owner of a cartridge world since the 4th store in the united states. First of all about your problem with the m4646 personally myself this would have been handled differently with our store on the same note I am not saying that the cartridge world in Pa was wrong and I will explain.
Cartridge World inks blends are as close to O.E.M chemical composition as you can get. We have thousands of inks . Aftermarket companies (speaking from experience) tend to use “Universal Inks” . Our inks are designed to be 100 percent comaptible with the oem ink. Cartridge worlds guarantee is a 100% satisfation guarantee even to the point that if our cartridge damages your printer we will repair or replace your printer at no charge to you. Would you stake your companies dollars or reputation on taking a chance that an aftermarket cartridge is using the same quality of ink. How I would have handled this would have been to swap you with a cartridge filled by us. Unfortunately Dell is a hard empty cartridge to come by with any kind of volume because Dell sells Dell so there is not a large amount of what we call in the printer world virgin empties due to Dell’s use and return program. If anyone in this thread would just like to ask questions or had concerns about anything related to your printer or cartridges please feel free to email me at cartridgeworld147@tulsacoxmail.com
June 14th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Lori
As a Cartridge World store owner, please allow me to apologize on behalf of my fellow franchise owners for your poor experiences. While I am limited in my ability to address/correct the issues of customer service in another store (a definite downside to franchising), I am surprised to hear sentiments that the ink qualities are low compared to OEM products.
An independant study released on April 27th set out to find if prints produced using third-party inks and papers were as good as those produced with manufacturers’ own products. The key conclusion was that the “panel preferred prints produced with ink from a third-party provider over those produced with the manufacturer’s own products”.
More specifically, when they looked at inks across a full range of papers, taking an average of the scores from the different paper samples, Cartridge World won three out of the four categories. I would invite you to read the entire study titled “The Inkjet Investigation” for yourself at the link below:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2007/04/21/The-Inkjet-Investigation/p9
As Bill mentioned, CW blends all their own inks to match OEM inks as closely as possible without infringing on patents. This is an important point because it differentiates us from a lot of other refill companies that use universal inks and is likely why we scored so favorably - and ironically -above the OEM inks.
I hope those of you who have had bad experiences will give Cartridge World a second chance. Thank you for your time!
June 14th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
JLD
Phil, you say “Investing in a franchise like ink refiling is just stupid….should have opened a Quiznos”. Stupid would have been taking your advice. If I had, I’d be part of a class-action lawsuit filed by franchise owners against the parent company over inflated food prices. Or worse, I might be like the Quiznos franchise owner who shot and killed himself last November citing in the “injustices of the (Quiznos) franchise system” in his suicide note. We’ll be sure to check back for more great insights from you in the future. In the meantime, hope you enjoyed that Quiznos sub which after food costs the franchise owner probably netted $.03.
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
al
sounds like disgruntled lower to middle management on this site, only if they new some of the top banks, schools, restraunts, law firms, accounting firms, mortgage, title, and real estate offices use cartridge world for their cartridges across the country. If cartridge world has such poor quality then you’d think there would be alot of middle managers terminated for their decision making leaving room for some of the wise ones on this sight.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Another Mary
I couldn’t hang with all of these comments but I did want to state that I have used Cartridge World for about 2 years now spending an average of approximately $500 per month for our company. This has saved us over half when compared to the price for new cartridges. We’ve had minor issues once or twice but Cartridge World has always rectified immediately and to our satisfaction. When deciding to use Cartridge World, their guarantee sold us. Just like everything else: nothing is perfect. One has to wonder what HP and others actually do with the ink cartridges they recycle. Read a box: “This newly manufactured product may contain parts and materials recovered from the HP Printing Supplies Return & Recycling Program”. So, it’s only ok if HP does the refilling? Not in our book!
November 9th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Doug
BJ - you should be ashamed of yourself for all your negative comments in your article, irregardless of the poor customer service you got;
> Smells like a classic bait-and-switch.
> one stupid employee,
> a crooked franchisee,or,
> an overly aggressive franchise training program.
> bums who think so little of their fellow man.
Such negativity and name calling without them being able to defend themselves. Thats so typical of journalists nowdays though. Quick with the pen but too lazy to go investigate further and actually have a conversation with your victoms. Yes victoms. You’re totally tearing them down here with a one-way conversation. How do you think this is going to look to any readers? You don’t give the other guy a chance. Personally, I can’t stand that type of reporting!
A stupid employee? What information about this employee did you personnally observe or test to determine the employee was “stupid”?
Bums who think so little of their fellow man? Wow… pretty strong statement. Don’t see the justification of this comment either!
Let’s just leave it that I’m a fellow small business owner probably much like the Cartridge World franchisee with a similar size of business; one owner trying to do the job of three employees, 2-4 lower end hourly employees, a rather large investment that includes most of my life savings, long work weeks that are typically 12 hour days, countless thoughts running wildly in the back of my mind about what to do next, don’t forget this, but most of all “How do I imrove this or that”! With so much riding on making your business go and your family’s livelihood riding on it’s success, I can’t believe anyone would jepardize that success with intentional poor customer service, cheating the public or scamming them somehow. Good relations are built on performance and trust and you build that up with positive results. Any formula that has the potential of the opposite should never be used, i.e., scams, cheats, bait and switch, or whatever dim word you choose to spin. I suspect the Cartridge World business owner is not far different than this. Consider that this is a huge undertaking by one person or family … not some big corporation like Wal-Mart or Staples. The guy has probably poured his guts into this business and would probably do whatever it takes to ease your pain and accomodate your needs. For you to go off with these wild accusations of stupidity and name calling is far more disturbing to me.
OK, there were some mistakes made by some of these people. That one mistake though doesn’t mean that all of the 1300 + stores, including this one, are bad stores! I’ve had a bad experience at many different places but have also had far more good experiences at those some places; Hotels, Airlines, grocery store, Post Office, my dog, etc… Thank god I didn’t condem them after one bad experience though or I may have missed out on Many, Many great experiences.
God didn’t make everyone perfect. Hopefully you can be a little less negative in the future … try to find the positive in each experience. Believe me, I struggle daily with this but I am trying to be more positive and jovial. Life’s to short BJ.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
seb
i came across this thread by researching cartridge world online. i am an investor looking to open my own franchise, and im considering an inkjet and toner refill franchise such as cartridge world. in doing my research, i have determined that yes of course there are many quality issues in this industry, and some remanufacturers are better than others. i am sure that most cartridge world stores do a good job, but there is of course cases where problems may occur, so like the other person mentioned earlier on - talk to the store owner and they most likely care about your business and their reputation enough to make it right.
however, the main complaint from the start of this article was “bait and switch”, which although i disagree that what happened was a classic bait and switch, it speaks to the notion that cartridge world does not keep good stock levels for all cartridge types, and they “wait” for customers to bring in their empties, and many times they cant even remanufacture the empty if its not that popular and therefore they dont have filling / testing equipment.
cartridge world is not bad, but they are not the best at what they do, even though they have so many stores. they are a “franchise” company, they dont really strike me as an ink/toner company.
some of their competitors im evaluating include: Caboodle, 123 Refills, Rapid Refill. I like Rapid Refill and 123 Refills most at this point, but im still doing my research. It seems like a great industry, but who is the best long term partner to franchise with, the jury is still out.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
lawrence
i agree that cw doesnt keep many models in stock. i live in venice, ca, and there are 3 cw stores within 20 min drive. i called all 3 of them and none of them could refill orprovide a remanufactured cartridge for my dell 1815. i called the 123 refills store in la and they had it in stock. so i agree it seems like cw franchisees are not as well prepared for new or difficult to find models. i can see how that would lead to confusion and customer dissatisfaction.
i havent tried the 123 cartridge yet so i cant speak about the quality, but they did save me about $50 compared to buying from dell, and their servise was expeditious and knowledgeable. im still wating to hear back from 1 of the cw stores (they told me 2 weeks ago they would get back to me if they could get my cart in stock), the other 2 stores said its too “new” for them. note that this printer is over 1 year old!
April 12th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Corey Boehm
I read through all of these comments and I am quite shocked. We own a Cartridge World in DeLand, FL. We have been open since January now, and we have had 3 incidents happen. One being the print head on a HP 78 color cartridge fell off during packaging and was unnoticed, and the other was a chip did not successfully reset on an Epson ink cartridge. The thrid however was the customers fault. I told her to run a few test prints when she installs the new cartridge to basically get the ink flowing good. She printed a small paragraph of words. It was a little light. She then takes the cartridge out, shakes it up, then puts it back in the printer. It printed almost everything brown. She came in furious. She told me the whole situation and I explained to her that when she shook the cartridge, it contaminated the whole thing. She felt like a donkeys butt, but since we try to exceed any and all expectations, I took the cartridge from her, and traded her straight across and gave her a new one, after running a few test prints on it so it would be all ready to go. Just for that simple customer service, she went to work the next day, told her boss, now we supply them with ink and toner (FloMet of DeLand, FL), which makes up to be an average of $1,600 a month. As for these bad CW reviews I see, shamefully there are some bad seeds out there. For example there is a CW store 20 miles from us. In our first month we hit their monthly sales mark, and they have been open for 2 1/2 years. This month we have doubled over them in just our 4th month. They have a poor return rate because they are slow and unmotivated (they moved over here from Russia in 2000), and opened the doors and expected people to just come in, and I guess they are still waiting. My store is very active in several city and county functions, and members of a quite of few organizations. Not a single customer we have had hed can tell you a bad thing about us. Oh, and we CAN reman a HP C3909A or X.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Cristy
I’d like to clarify the difference between a compatible cartridge (what the OM was sold) and a refilled cartridge. A compatible is usually made overseas, frequently in China, and typically uses lower overall quality plastics and components. The quality of the compatible varies, depending on the company producing it. Some CW stores do carry compatible cartridges, but generally speaking, the concept is about refilling actual Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) cartridges with high quality ink or toner that closely matches the OEM ink or toner. This was pointed out in an earlier response, as well.
As with other tech, it takes over a year from a printer model’s release before reliable after-market supplies (toner, electronic chips, replacement blades and other internal parts) become available. Few cartridges in use are a simple case of putting in more ink or toner now. Many have “kill chips” or chips that mate with the printer, or simply ones that need to be replaced before the cartridge can work again once it has become empty. Additionally, because it is not a simple matter of fill-’er-up — every cartridge has unique aspects — there has to be enough time to develop the techniques that will be used to remanufacture or refill a cartridge.
A laser printer cartridge is an average of 3 1/2 lbs. Every time one of those is refilled, that’s 3.5 lbs of solid waste that is *not* going into a landfill. In my opinion, that is significant.
April 20th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Corey Boehm
Christy seems to know what they are talking about. Not all compatibles are made overseas though. In fact, our two main supplier of compatible cartridges are produced by them here in the great states. This being Arlington (which also supplies us with OEM cartridges), and Static Control (they carry a very limited amount of compats, mainly toners, but also our main supplier of toner replacement and remanufacturing supplies). And the fact of 3.5 lbs is very true. There is also another 3 1/2 fact: All of the ink and toner cartridges thrown away throughout the world in one year, if you linked them together, they would wrap around the world 3 1/2 times. One reason many people are not satisfied with Cartridge World refills on inkjet cartridges is this, some (not all) CW locations will put a “like” HP ink in a empty HP cartridges, or a “like” Lexmark ink in an empty Lexmark cartridges, and so on and so on. CW provides franchises with a chart of the exact ink to put into the cartridges, along with a specific amount. Some stores will say put a HP 57 ink into a HP 78 cartridge. Reasoning behinde this is the cost of the ink. Every single ink has a very slight tone to it. The cartridge is manufactured to deal with these certain tones of colors. In some cases, the stores that put in a lower cost “like” HP ink into a HP cartridge, the color won’t be as “true” as the OEM. This is a very sad scenario. This leaves many customers unhappy. Proven fact is this, when someone buys OEM again and again, then they decide to give CW, or 123 Refills, or other similar stores a chance, they natually pay more attention to how many pages they get, the color difference, and the overall performace. Personally, I believe ALL CW locations should be evaluated by their master franchisers on a regular basis. My store, we personally do EVERYTHING “by the books”. If a cartridge calls for a specific ink, we put that specific ink into it. Toners on the other hand, you really have no option but to put the exact toner that is reccommended. Personally, I have only come across a few toners that can be subsituted. That being a HP Q2612A/X and a C7115A/X black toner. As far as the “kill chips” go. If we can refill that toner cartridge, we can replace the chips as well. Personally I have a Samsung CLP-300N and a Samsung CLX-3160FN, both which take the CLP-300 series cartridges, which have the “kill chips” on them. I have found a way to bypass this, and is very simple. Both printers software provides the little meters on the computer. If you watch it closely and have it refilled right before it sends a messages saying your toner is running low, you will not need to replace the chip. The “kill chip” basically communicates with the printer, remembering the cartridge is either empty or almost there. Once you receive any type of warning that your cartridge is running low, the chip must be replaced. But anyways, the whole CW concept is amazing, and really has a lot of benefits to it. Not if only ALL CW locations would follow the exact scripts provided for them, CW would have a 0% return ratio.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:26 am
franchise seeker
i am also considering buying a franchise in the toner and ink refill industry, ive noted in this forum and others people talking mostly about cartridge world, rapid refill world and 123 refills. cartridge world seems to have most of the locations, but im wondering if anyone has evaluated all these 3 companies in detail and has any suggestions about which franchise program is best. i hope to have some non-biased 3rd party replies.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Steve
Wow, what a thread, I am also a Cartridge World Franchisee. I would like to make 2 comments, firstly to any potential customers;
This thread was started some 2 years ago, there have been many new techniques developed in that time, particularly for ink cartridges. Our ability to successfully refill cartridges is far greater now than before. The equipment available is constantly being upgraded, so our processes are always being upgraded.
Secondly to those of you looking at a franchise opportunity, my best advice is to assess whatever opportunity you are looking at, at a local level. The key to your success will always remain predominantly with yourself, the franchise offers the system, YOU are the one that has to deliver it.
Having said that your master franchisee can be a major hinderance to you if he/she is not prepared to provide the support you are entitled to, particularly in the early stages.
Fortunately this can be identified very easily. Just ring a range of franchisees that are in your region to canvass their opinion. Set yourself some specific questions, try not to ask open ended questions.
Beware of franchisees who complain about franchise fees. You know what the fees are before you sign up so don’t be complaining about them at a later date. Your objective should be to identify if there is support from the master, and from the group, and is there money to be made.
My final comment is that no matter what organisation you look at, you will find good and bad operators. Cartridge World today has over 1600 stores world wide. The franchise was started in 1997. Those statistics are proof that the system works. You do not grow to that size and remain in business if it does not work.
Having said that, it is not perfect and clearly as evidenced by this thread, there are stores that need to alter their attitude or move on. There is also a failure rate. My personal view on returns is that it simply gives me the opportunity to demonstrate what customer service is really all about, and I know that the vast majority of franchisees in my area have the same attitude.
Good luck and have a great day.
July 5th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Tom W.
It isn’t just CW these days! This is a growth industry and the franchise offers are flying in many directions from a multitude of sources. The BIG GUYS practically give away the printers because the industry is centered around the sale of ink and toner. What with almost $4.00 a gallon gas prices that will cost consumers an average $575.00 a year more per vehicle we need to save money somewhere. The ink is the same and the toner is the same it’s just that you are buying a refilled container or having your own refilled. Savings comes from not having to manufacture another container from that plastic which uses oil too! It’s a GREEN industry we all need to use whither it be CW or any other!