Epson R320 Photo Printer / CDC computers

CDC Computers

1760 Sargent Avenue

Winnipeg, MB

Canada

R3H 0C7

204-788-0900

On October 16th, 2006 I purchased a Epson R320 photo printer from CDC on Sargent Avenue in Winnipeg.

I bought it at what was advertised as a "sale" price of $200.00. The thing I liked about it was it's ability to print a label directly to a CD or DVD.

Plus the fact that it it had six individual ink cartridges for more economy when it came to refills. I also purchased a continuous ink supply system for it at another "sale" price of $129.00, again from CDC.

I brought it home and tried to print a CD label with it. The arrows on the CD tray were carefully lined up with the arrows on the printer (per Epson instructions).

I kept getting a "CD tray not loaded correctly" message. At this time I was NOT using the continuous ink supply system. I spent two days in useless endeavor trying to get it to print.

Finally, I took it back to CDC.

That when the problems started.

They refused to replace the printer as "it was not their policy". I could see a stack of about 10 more of these printers on the store floor. If I had bought it at Wal-Mart or Future shop I would have cheerfully been offered an exchange for a new printer. Now that I think about it....these printers were not packaged in Epson boxes, but in plain brown ones. This should have been my first clue that all was not on the "up and up"! I am thinking that they were probably refurbished since they were not in the original Epson boxes. Nowhere was there any indication that these were "Refurbished".

However...I digress. Two days later I received a call from their service dept. Saying that there was nothing wrong with the printer! I went down to CDC to check this out.

The tech did get it working all right. ONLY BY SHOVING THE CD TRAY IN WAY PAST THE ALIGNMENT ARROWS! I stated then (again) that the printer was not working as per the Epson instructions. I was told that a lot of them had this problem and it was not their policy to replace them. However, since I was getting badly back-logged on my printing projects, I "bit the bullet" and took it back.

Another month went by with no problems, ignoring the fact that the CD tray loading was still a pain. The ink cartridges were getting very low so I installed the Continuous Ink System. This worked fine for about two weeks. Then I began to get "parts within your printer have reached the end of their service life" message on the screen. Once again, I found myself back at CDC.

It is now January 6th, 2007. CDC says they cannot fix it and Epson will not honour the warranty using a Continuous ink system. The have flatly refused to exchange the printer OR to give me my money back! They claim the hoses for the supply system had cuts in them. They told me that I must have had the ink supply sitting above the level of the printer.

In other words....inferring that it was my fault for all these problems.

At no time was there ANY misuse of this printer on my part. The ink supply was at all times resting next to the printer on the table.

One other thing......when I brought the printer down to CDC the second time, I took great pains to keep the ink wells straight and level beside the printer during the drive over to CDC. All the ink wells were above the half-way mark. CDC insists that the inkwells were dry! But generously offered to refill all of them for only....$70.00!!!! What a nerve. They used all the ink while they were fooling around with the printer.

I have reached the end of my rope. I have turned the wife loose on CDC. She was given the same song and dance as I got. Today we will know. I don't expect to get anything back except a broken printer and empty inkwells. Imagine....all this grief and run-around for a mere $329.00!

Beware of CDC and their unethical business practices!

Bob Ruppell

Winnipeg, MB.

Comment On This

Dear Sir/Madam,

We bought our Epson Printer thinking this was a good all round printer,last year we bought a set of cartriges for £39.99 this year the same cartriges are £59.99 we can buy a new printer for what it costs cartriges.I am very disappointed with Epson

Comment On This

do a google search on "epson r320 reset counter"

You can download this software and reset the counter yourself which will fix the problem

http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml