Quote:
Originally Posted by astrangerhere
But contractually, it is well within a printer company's rights to say that if you want us to pay for repairs or replace it when you break it, you can only use ink and toner products that we have stated are compatible with the product. It is their way of protecting themselves from grey market companies who stick a label on a box when it is not, in fact, ink or toner that was ever meant to work with that printer. If I'm Epson, I don't want to pay out a warranty on my user because they could not be bothered to use the ink that is designed for that printer.
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I emphasized the "because" because I believe that's relevant. The stated point of this part of the law is to prevent "tie-in" sales, making the warranty dependent on buying a certain company's parts.
So I interpret my reading of the law, and interpretations like the one above from Deskisamess, to mean HP can say "the problem is the toner cartridge overheated and destroyed the printer. It's an aftermarket toner, so we're not fixing the printer under warranty." But they cannot say "The problem is that the LCD light went out, but you used an aftermarket toner, so we're not fixing the printer under warranty."
Does that seem to be the case? Otherwise there would appear to be no consumer protection against tie-in sales at all.
By the way, we're getting a new small Canon color laser printer, which costs well under $300. Canon toner costs around $300 for a set of all four colors, while well-reviewed aftermarket toners are $60 for the set of four.
I think I'm going aftermarket....