If it ain't broke, fix it!

Was: CANON: DESIGNED TO FAIL by a dishonest company

About my old failing Canon BJ-300, I wrote:


It is not a 15 years old printer. It's a three weeks old printer! I've
seen some Laserjet 4 printers print more in 3 weeks as mine in 14
years. Consequently, when the glitch goes away, it prints perfectly.

I had to face one such planned glitch 8 years ago. (Cf. the little
sponge in the purge unit.) Canon told me the printer was dead. After I
pressured them into telling me how to fix their planned glitch, a 5
minute job got it working until now.

Comparing a BJ-300 to the plastic ink dispensers that Canon sells
nowadays does prove what kind of fuchhead you are.

It's slow, it doesn't print color, but it still fits my needs. I
wouldn't print in color even I had a color printer and I'm never in
such a rush.

Mickey answered:

How sad you are but there is hope. Maturity comes with age and 21 is
not too far away.

21 not too far away? Oh, this would be the nicest Christmas gift!
Unfortunately for your reasoning, if I was one of those kids who's been taught
ecology instead of how to use a screw driver, I probably would have declared
my printer obsolete soon as it first stopped working in 1996.

I suppose I got this attitude from one of my uncles, a mechanic who was still
driving his 1947 Chrysler around 1980. Not only did he keep his car for more
then 30 years before he sold it as a vintage car, but every time a part would
fail, he would consider fixing it before buying a new one. Open the hood, take
a look, consider: that was his attitude.

I still own his mini-dryer. In twenty years, I only had to change a switch and
a fan belt. My only regret is that, though the dryer will be 40 years old in
2005, I can't any money from it as a vintage dryer

Are you aware that the HP LaserJet you mentioned is powered by a CANON
printer engine. All LaserJets have used CANON print engines.

"Have used." And now?

What you're saying here just goes to prove my point. The BJ-300 is a work
horse capable of delivering much more than the 12,000 sheets I got from it.
And Loosenut Boogs may rest assured that the stainless steel shafts are not
rusted, the rubber rollers are not degraded and no ink has spilled on the
printed circuits. This printer was mechanically made to last. So what?

It seems that at the time of manufacture, Canon decided at the last minute
there was more money to be made with ink than printers. That's when the change
occured, Soon thereafter, the new Bubblejets came out at around 200$. So they
had a problem on their hands with this printer designed the good old way.

There were no one picoliter, or whatever, drops at that time and any ink would
do OK. So, they put a sponge in the purge unit that would at least eventually
block the most off-the-plate non-Canon inks, in order to sell their 35$, 350
pages, cartridges.

In other words, they ****ed up the ink distribution system. But because the
printer had been costly to produce, they didn't lower the price. So, the
customer -- me , in this case -- ended up with an expensive unreliable printer.

What was HP's approach with the Deskjet 500 at the same time? As I already
explained, it's one of the most rugged printer of all times, and it sold at
about 50$ less than the BJ-300. Millions of pages must have gone through some
of those printers. And the printhead being part of the cartridge, it couldn't
clog.

Of course, if was impossible, even less than now, to build a disposable
printhead of as good quality as a permanent one. When you looked at a print
made by a Deskjet, you could see minute droplets of ink around the letters.
And, of course, every magazine would confirm this.

So, I told myself, what was 50$ more to get better quality? Only later was I
to discover that the difference in quality would cost so much more and so much
pain in the ass.

A friend of mine had a Deskjet and used to buy plain Carter's ink, which still
sold in pharmacies at the time, and refilled her cartridges with a seringe for
her drafts.

"It must clog the head", I told her. "Of course, after 4 or 5 refills, it
does, she answered. I then have another new empty cartridge ready to refill."

With the help of magazines, who hardly ever test long-term reliability, I've
been one of those Bozos who've been lured by Canon's so-called
high-technology. Too bad there isn't a law to forbid printer companies to sell
ink. The printers would certainly be more expensive, but the print would
finally come down to a lot less, with much less trouble.

Of course, I'm neither a printer, nor an industry specialist, and I couldn't
tell how HP is behaving since La Fiorina took control or how Lexmarks does
after IBM decided there was nothing to get out of it. But I know one thing for
su Canon has spearheaded this /revolution/ were the customer has become the
sucker.

And I know that, to this day, Canon has refused to acknowledge they sold me a
printer at yesterday's price with today's flaws. I know they went as far as
refusing to provide the information I needed. I'm sure they still perfectly
know about the flaw I'm experiencing today and are still refusing to provide
the few words of support I need.

I had only words of praise for Canon before I bought this printer. I still own
a Canon FTB-QL 35 mm camera and, though I haven't used it for quite some time,
it probably still works perfectly. But sometimes, companies change. They're
headed by /more efficient/ administrators invertors learned to luv.

As a customer, I don't peculiarly appreciate Canon's way of management. As a
matter of fact, I now truly abhor this company. They might send as many trolls
they want, whether I tell my story long or short, it will get more precise
each and every time, and rest assured I'll get the message through. Money talks!

In the meantime, the planet is dying and buying a Prius is really an indecent
way of acquiring an ecologist status. "Cutting-edge technology", as Motor
trend puts it, comes at an expense when repair time comes.

So here's my advice for the New Year to every sensible citizen of this world.
Stop preaching ecology, get a screwdriver and, if it's only a glitch, it ain't
broke, fix it!

GP