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Will using Compatible Pitney Bowes Ink or Sealing Fluid Void My Warranty?

Published: August 30, 2011

The Use of Compatible Postage Meter Supplies Cannot Void Your Manufacturer Warranty

This question is coming up way too often again!

So lets take another look at some of the court rulings that answers the million dollar question!

Next time a Pitney Bowes, Neopost or any meter rep. says anything like..
“The sealing solution you are using clogged your hoses, you may lose your warranty”
or
“The cartridge you are using caused the head to fail, I’ll let it slide this time, but next time I’ll need to charge you.”
Simply tell them to “Please put that in writing, and give me the damaged parts.”
99.9% of the time they will not do it, and will start dancing around the request.
If they do, contact the company you purchased the supplies from!
A reputable company will refund the product and your repair costs, like SuppliesForMailers.com will!

Supplies For Mailers has been selling high quality compatible postage meter supplies for over 4 years and has yet to see a single instance that the compatible meter supply they sold, damaged or harmed any machine!

MAGNUSON-MOSS Warranty Improvement Act

United States Code Annotated • Title 15 Commerce and Trade
Chapter 50 Consumer Product Warranties 15 Section 2302

(c) No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer’s using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name; except that the prohibition of this subsection may be waived by the Commission if:

  1. The warrantor satisfies the Commission that the warranted product will function properly only if the article or service so identified is used in connection with the warranted product, and
  2. The Commission finds that such a waiver is in the public interest.

How this affects you:

The use of our printer cartridges does NOT void your printer warranty.  The manufacturer of the printer you are using cannot void the warranty on your printer because you use a cartridge manufactured by someone other than the printer manufacturer.  This includes the use of compatible cartridges and remanufactured cartridges.

U.S. law also prohibits the manufacturers of your equipment from requiring the use of OEM ink or toner or charging extra fees if you use products other than OEM products with their equipment.

Those requirements and/or fees are in violation of existing anti-trust acts:
The Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts
(see also: Supreme Court decision: IBM vs. The United States 1936)
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/div_stats/1638.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/warranty.htm

IBM vs. The United States
(The Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Law)
The Supreme Court (IBM vs. The United States) held that IBM could not threaten customers with termination of their data processing equipment leases just because they did not use supplies manufactured by IBM.  Such practice constituted a tying agreement and was found to be in violation of the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Law.

Does this sound familiar!?
This still happens far too often!

How this affects you:

Free choice of vendor allows for competition and keeps prices affordable.  Your printer – postage meter manufacturers are aware of lower priced supplies.  Threatening to void warranties and add additional service call charges for use of compatible ink, toner, sealing solution or other supplies, are their way of trying to limit competition.

Save this information to protect yourself against these illegal actions.
And remember the next time a sales person, technician or any rep tries to tell you that it will void your contract or warranty, ask them nicely to put it in writing!
Next time a technician or rep tells you, the ink or other replacement supply, damaged your machine, ask them to put it in writing!

However!

Buying Low Quality – After Market supplies without a warranty can lead to a lot of downtime and loss of contract!!
Yes we have seen were after market postage meter ink has damaged a machine!
And that is why you need to make sure they have a warranty to not only replace the product, but to pay for any damage to your machine!  Supplies For Mailers is one that offers this kind of guarantee!  If you get a signed repair bill stating that the postage meter supply they sold you, damaged your postage meter, they will pay for the repair!  Allowing you to Save and be confident that you are getting a quality product.

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