Will using Compatible Pitney Bowes Ink or Sealing Fluid Void My Warranty?
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:
- 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
- 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.
Our meter repair guy tried to pull this on us!
Asked him to document that the after market ink we are using caused the head to fail.
He would not do it.
Before he left, I went through our service records and found that head actually lasted almost 3 times longer as the previous 2 heads.
The 1st 2 heads both went while using PB ink. We switched to your ink about a month after the 2nd head was replaced.
So I just had to share the information with the technician!
He was very surprised and told me that the heads tend to fail between a certain print count. But low quality ink will cause early failure.
So, PB is using lower quality ink!?
This is an interesting article that leads me to a few questions and thoughts. I think that car dealerships make this same type of claim for their warranties to be valid when you buy a car. Here are a few questions:
1) What do you do if the technician is willing to document that the unauthorized ink or product caused a breakdown and the technician’s boss asserts the same?
2) Do you not need to prove that the replacement item has the same technical specs to support your argument? For example, Pitney Bowes will not release the technical specs of E-Z Seal solution so that you can find a substitute product that is virtually the same and therefore would not damage the machine.
3) This idea leads me to think that this principle applies to sealing solutions, developer, toner, machine parts, etc. Correct?
I look forward to your answers.
In response to mailfellows
All For Mailers Inc. and Supplies For Mailers has an A+ rating with the BBB for a few reasons. One of which is, if they put it in writing they stand by it. That is why we note that there are shady manufacturers out there that supply little to no warranty and warn purchasers to be careful.
Your correct to often auto dealer warranties are usually a few pages long stating all kinds of stipulations, like if you don’t change the oil every 3,000 miles. So beware of long convoluted warranties.
1) If the technician stated in writing that the replacement cartridge and or tank, and or sealing fluid, caused x to fail. That is all that is needed. And of course the cost of the item that needed to be replaced. The technicians supervisor / boss is not needed to file a claim.
2) If it actually went as far as going to court, yes the warranting company would need to prove that is’t product is just as good or better.
3) Correct