TRUTH ABOUT REMANUFACTURED LASER CARTRIDGES
• To become part of the recycling community. We are moving towards a Green society!
Our business talks to prospects on a daily basis and a lot of them have doubts in their mind concerning the quality of Remanufactured Laser Toner Cartridges. First let us define a Remanufactured laser Toner Cartridge, it is a product made from an empty Original Manufacturer Cartridge that was never filled before and is inspected both visually and electrically. Components are replaced and the empty toner is filled with a toner powder with similar characteristics as the original product. There are some businesses that may have a slightly different definition, since they allow the reuse of the same cartridge multiple times. It is a proven notion in the industry that a Toner should only be remanufactured once, leading to a much smaller ratio of failure.
Here are some questions/statements we frequently listen to from our prospects
• Do the products work?
• Do they last as long as an Original product?
• My Equipment Manufacturer serviceman told me that remanufactured laser toner cartridges leak.
• Would remanufactured products damage my equipment?
• If I use remanufactured products, the Equipment Manufacturer/sales person stated that I am loosing my warranty.
The list of questions is certainly much larger but in benefit of brevity we will restrain to the five points about
The first three points could easily be covered if you hold back from buying a remanufactured laser toner cartridges that is not ISO 9001 certified.
Why such a requirement? The ISO seal represents that the certified company adheres to the stringent standards defined by the ISO Organization (check here for details http://www.iso.org/iso/about.htm). In summary, not only do those companies control their quality very close but they also follow pre-defined steps to achieve:
• Employee and supplier accountability
• Page yielding
• Ratio of failure
• Perfect customer support & honorable reputation
So this companies become the front runners of the pack and they support and implement higher pay and better perks, leading to very little employee turnover and great quality. To maintain the ISO registered seal these companies are inspected yearly by the ISO organization. Some of these companies have failure ratio of less than 1% and only 15% of companies doing business in the carry that seal because it is time consuming, expensive and painful! You need dedicated staff to do that! Those companies use the best components for example Mitsubishi drums, Static Control components and etc. Certainly there are companies that do not have that seal and still have a good product, but it is like picking a nail in a hay stack. The choice is yours, if you found one keep it, but you need to be in the safe side and avoid what is not ISO certified. Many companies have created a bad reputation for remanufactured toners, they did not become an ISO registered manufacturer and little they care about quality, so the bad quality made the above perception a reality to a lot of people. There are many companies selling goods made abroad, products made in places were standards are not obeyed and not even known.
In relation to a Remanufactured product damaging your equipment, it certainly depends on what one understands by damage. Your equipment has movable parts and any cartridge breaking in pieces could potentially cause mechanical damage. Some brand unit may be potentially more prone them others. That damage is not only restricted to remanufactured laser toner cartridges but could also be caused by an Original Cartridge. Most cartridge breakages occur during transportation and once it passes unnoticed by the user nobody knows what the consequences are. If you have followed all normal standard procedures for installation and you experience: a strange noise, see a bad printout after a couple of pages or see heavy flow of toner almost like mud, smears, the common sense says: “Remove the cartridge and get a replacement”.
Could you imagine a car manufacturer telling you that you need to service your car at their dealership network or only use a certain brand of gas, tire, spark plugs and etc... This is exactly what they are doing to you.