wrote:
Hi Tony

(sorry for delayed answer)

On 09/08/2014 12:32 AM, Tony wrote: All laser printers end up with wasted
toner, in most cases it is not actually
toner but a carrier for the toner but of course it retains the colour of the
toner. This ends up in various places in the printer including the imaging
units and in some cases in a waste toner compartment.

Yes, but in this case, there's clearly something wrong - I only printed 75
color pages, before I had to replace the yellow toner cartridge (it was
supposed to last for maybe 4000 pages!). Minolta support said I should shake
the imaging units, so I did - and there was a LOT of yellow toner powder in it.
I suspect a LOT of toner powder went into the imaging unit, because of some
(mechanical) problem. Also when I shaked the imaging units, the blue one also
had a lot of toner powder. When I print now, I see yellow and blue dots on
places, they shouldn't be. I think Minolta wants me to replace these two parts,
but they're a bit expensive, as I don't really use the printer very much
anymore.

My problem is that I've already spend a lot of money on buying new toners
cartridges and the print quality is really bad now, after 5 years. Minolta
wants me to buy 2 new imaging units (blue+yellow). I can buy a high quality,
totally new color laser printer for the price of that + 2 color toner
cartridges - I'm thinking about throwing the printer out. Minolta wants to
send
out "an engineer" - I call it a technician, but they're so stupid so they
want
to send out "an engineer" and will probably demand a lot of money for that.
But as I see it, it's not worth spending more money on this printer.
They are probably correct, as the imaging units wear more toner is wasted.

75 color pages is way too little. And the print quality is also really bad
now...

Minolta writes: "You bought a hight end office device but you used it as a
SOHO printer so you will never reach the consumable lifetime mentioned in
the
pre-sales documentation and your reseller should have informed you about
this
fact." - it's ridiculous. So because I'm not using the printer very much,
they
claim that the problem is me - and not their stupid printer, which throws
around all the yellow toner powder in places where the toner powder should
not
be.
As explained above, there is always wasted toner or carrier. If you used the
printer to near its capacity, the real cost of replacement parts (like
imaging
units) becomes more reasonable - I suspect that is what they are really
saying
to you.

Yes, but I'm just not very happy anymore. I think it's the quality of their
product, that is the problem. But I just wanted to hear other people's opinion
- thank you.

I think minolta support is pretty arrogant - yes, the printer was cheap
when I
bought it, but I still didn't expect this to happen around 5 years after.
It's
not very good to throw a printer out, which I thought could last at least 10
years. I appreciate if any of you have any experience/advice - it's my
first
color laser printer, so I haven't really had that much experience with the
internal parts and haven't had to think about problems before now where I
seriously consider being cheated. Thanks for any comments/advice/input, if
you
have any.
I suggest that you do some careful research before you start to denigrate
companies and their employees. I have absolutely no affiliation with Minolta
or

What do you mean by "careful research"? This is not a science project - it's a
consumer problem. I have the right to say or write what I think to other
consumers and I don't think I have a problem here. If manufacturers made their
products very good, they would not hear from any unhappy customers.

any printer manufacturer but your tone left me a little bemused.
You are not being cheated, your experience is not unreasonable depending on
the
total amount of printing the printer has done but you don't mention that.

Because I don't agree with you, nor minolta - inkjet manufacturers also sells
cheap printers and built in various kinds of things (e.g. chips) in order to
push the profits from the very expensive consumables. In my opinion Minolta is
doing the same here, which I didn't know before now - I thought this kind of
"trick" was only for inkjet printers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, though.

The marketing model you refer to started with (I believe) Gillette who almost
gave away their razors and charged lots for blades. It is now prevalent in
nearly all printer manufacturers (and other market places), for both laser and
ink, for the consumer and low to mid-range business market at least. I don't
know of a manufacturer who doesn't do this. However, there have been some
decisions in the EU that affect the European marketplace. That is what I meant
by research, the model is almost always like this. (I do not suppport the
model, I am merely the messenger). The total number of prints the printer has
made during its life is a critical factor in making a judgement about whether
the printer has perfomed well or not, other less critical but important factors
include the age of the printer (nowadays 5 years is no longer young I'm afraid)
and the age of the consumables.
A bad imaging unit (old or failed) may well increase the use of toner and as I
said there is always waste toner somewhere in the printer whoever the
manufacturer is (some manufacturers are better than others at handling the
waste).
Minolta have a good reputation for lasers, better than some and I have never
seen a serious issue with one of their printers that wasn't caused by either
normal wear and tear or occasionally improper use( rarely).
It seems to me you have little choice - either bite the bullet and purchase the
parts they recommend or replace the printer. Brother, HP, OKI and Canon make
reasonable colour laser printers (there are many others as well). The trick is
to buy one that suits your pocket and the amount of use you have. I personally
believe that OKI make the best but that is for mid range business use rather
than home use which may well suit a Brother unit best. Both OKI and some
Brother printers use LED arrays instead of a laser scanner and they are more
reliable because LED arrays have no moving parts. Strictly speaking LED
printers are not laser printers of course but are often lumped into that
description, apart from having a LED array instead of a laser scanner the two
types use identical technology. LED and laser printers produce very good
quality colour brochures but do not compete at the high end photoquality market
just yet. There is also Xerox who make solid wax printers which have their own
strengths and weaknesses.
Good luck
Tony