I envy you guys dealing with Epson US, who seem to be everything you would expect of them. I wish I could say the same for Epson UK, who are
appallingly bad, and will do anything they can to avoid supporting you.
After a whopping total of 79 pages on my 7890 (I'm not a high volume printer, I just like BIG prints), I've just reached the end of one of my first "starter" cartridges. I have a full set of ink on-hand (all in-date), which came with the printer as a promotion when I bought it. The new Light Black cartridge was not recognised, I tried all the tips, shaking it, bang it on the table etc. The printer refuses to recognise the new 150ml cartridge, if I put the old one back in it is quite happy with that, so it's clearly a fault with the cart.
So begins the debacle with Epson UK support....
I contacted them via their online chat, because of their opening times I can only do this whilst I am away from the printer. The first person I spoke to asked a serious of suspiciously bizarre questions, upon learning I was not near the printer asked for the serial numbers of all the
working cartridges in the printer... I'd anticipated many things and had information to hand, but not that one. She said the "system" would not let her proceed and she refused even log a call on the issue without the other serial numbers.
Having collected that information, I tried again the next day. The next person I spoke to never even asked for the numbers on the other cartridges...
Second attempt, the questions I was being asked seemed a bit suspicious, they appeared to be designed NOT to diagnose the fault, but to identify a clause by which they could avoid any liability. Things like, "what brand are the cartridges?" and "what country are you in?", and finally "when did you buy it?". I even got "was the printer turned on when you replaced the cartridge?", given the only way to unlock the ink bay doors is via the menu system, well,
yeah, it was on....The replacement cartridge which is defective is dated to expire 07.2013 (some 8 months away), but as soon as they learned I got the cartridge with the printer just over a year ago, I get the door slammed in my face with "
The warranty on the cartridges is 3 months from the date of purchase. Therefore the cartridge is out of warranty.".
Basically, they will only warranty the cartridge for 3 months, regardless of the expiry date. Of course Epson UK don't sell the 150ml carts they gave me in the promotion, the smallest is a 350ml one, which is not economical for the volume of printing I do.
Finally after asking to speak to a supervisor (which I didn't get), threatening to report them to trading standards, and asking them to send out an engineer to diagnose the fault (I have 3 year onsite warranty), they finally agree to make an "exception" and allow me to send them the cartridge for "testing". If they find it faulty they may replace it, otherwise they'll send it back.
Ultimately this means having a "stock" of ink on-hand is not a sensible option, as if you don't use them within 12 weeks and they turn up defective, well, tough luck. Now I have to decide whether to check all the other cartridges to see if they're also faulty and send back all the defective ones at once so I don't have to go through this debacle every time I have to replace an empty cart.
Epson UK are one of the worst customer support companies I've ever dealt with.