
Lisa of Jacksonville, FL on Nov. 2, 2009
After looking at many reviews on printers, I settled on the Minolta 1600W color laser printer as the best deal for the money. I purchased the printer NEW - around 8/20/09 for $158.65. On or around 9/20/09, the printer ran out of black toner and I had to order a black toner cartridge for $65.74. Just over a month later (and a little over 60 sixty days since I purchased the printer), on or around 10/28/09, all of the three color cartridges ran out of toner.
Replacement costs for the three color toner cartridges range from $206.97 to $383.85. This is apparently a new model and not all discount toner suppliers carry the toner for this model. Adding the cost of the black toner I bought in September to the cost to purchase new color cartridges would be somewhere between $365.62 to $542.50.
I spoke with Ray at Konica's customer service who advised that the printers Konica makes are worth much more than their sales price, and that they "make up the difference" by pricing the toner very high. Maybe I am naive and this is standard practice, but it should be disclosed on the sales literature that the printer comes with "starter toner cartridges" which will need to be replaced after 500 pages, and that the cost of the replacement cartridges, although having a much higher yield of 1500 to 2500 pages, will well exceed the price of the printer.
If I went to a car dealership and the salesman showed me the car of my dreams with all of the features I was looking for at a great price, I would buy it. If I were to find out after buying the car that it came with "starter tires" that would only last two weeks and that the cost of the replacement tires for this particular car exceeded the amount I paid for the car by double, I would be mad as hell and screaming for some governmental agency to step in and say "this is not fair dealing with the consumer". But there doesn't appear to be anyone who can stop these printer manufacturers from selling their printers cheap and their replacement toner cartridges at inflated prices to "make up the difference".
Do your research. Price the replacement toner cartridges when you are pricing the printer. Ask what the yield is for their "starter cartridges", that is, how many pages will you be able to print with the starter cartridges. Then make up your mind whether it's a good deal or not.
I have a worthless two month old printer that I can't use (it won't even print black and white pages without the color toner cartridges), a worthless black toner cartridge about thirty days old which is 82% full, and I am forced to buy a new printer because it is more economical than buying toner for the printer I have.