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Does a compatible toner void my warranty?

The Facts…

The biggest advantages of using compatible toners are that they give
good quality printing at a reduced cost, over branded toner toner
cartridges.

In our case, we aim to provide our ColourSoft Compatible laser toners at
the same performance as our Original Counterparts, thus ensuring our
customers get not only good value, but excellent print performance.
Finding good compatible toners at a low cost is not difficult if you ensure
that you purchase from a supplier that have guarantees and returns on
their websites.

If your printer has been purchased within the last 12 months, by law
manufacturers legally have to give a 1-year guarantee on any electrical
products. This is whether you use an original or compatible toner.

Will compatible toners affect my printer warranty?

It is highly unlikely that any toner cartridge will cause damage to a
printer. This is because toners are self-contained units and only come into
contact with mainly the paper you are printing on!

There are instances whereby a toner can cause damage to a printer.
However this is only in the case of a really poorly manufactured toner,
which is not aligned and developed to fit into the printer well. Also
poorly re-manufactured or refilled toners can cause leakages in a printer.
Again, be prudent on where you purchase toners, as these above factors
could cause you inconveniences.

If you purchase a cartridge from a reliable supplier they will guarantee
machine performance if there is a failure with the cartridge. So in
essence, using compatible toners will not affect the warranty of your
printer. The quality is almost the same as if you were to buy original
equipment from the manufacturer, just at a lower cost.

Do you need to buy Original Toners to get the best performance from your printer?

Some myths surrounding product specifications are circulating around the internet, alleging that
using OEM products is the only way to ensure that you’ll get an OEM-level performance out of
your cartridge. However, this just isn’t true. The publishers at PC World worked with researchers
from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to compare the print capabilities of several
OEM cartridges against compatible/remanufactured replacement cartridges. What they found
was that all of the compatible/remanufactured cartridges they tested produced a higher volume of
print work than OEM cartridges printed. This means that, in addition to saving you money off
the purchase price of a cartridge, compatible/remanufactured cartridges will generally print more
pages than their OEM counterparts. This gives you additional savings off the OEM cost: you’re
paying less and getting more ink or toner per cartridge!
While print specs may vary from one product to another, you can count on ColourSoft
compatible and remanufactured toner cartridges to deliver an OEM-comparable performance on
every project. Our cartridges have a standard two-year shelf life, which is the same shelf life
most OEM cartridges carry. Our compatible and remanufactured cartridges also carry at least the
same page yield as OEM products, and some cartridges are actually capable of outperforming the
OEM version (per the previously-cited findings of the RIT/PC World investigation).

DO TONER CARTRIDGES EXPIRE?

Expiration dates are easy to overlook and ignore. Does anyone check the
expiration dates for beef jerky or pasta noodles?
Like that cup of mixed berry yogurt, toner and ink cartridges come with
expiration dates that are kind of important to pay attention to. Especially
when it comes to storage and usage.
INK CARTRIDGES
The truth of the matter is that the workings of it can be rather tricky. For
example, once an ink cartridge expires the integrity of the ink goes downhill
rather fast.
TONER CARTRIDGES
On the other hand, after a toner cartridge expires you may get a few more
years of use if it was stored properly.
While an expiration date will forever be looming over your cartridges, it
may seem like there’s nothing you can do to prevent the inevitable.
But that’s not true. Proper storage of the cartridges can make a huge
difference.
For both, make sure you keep them in their original packaging. Store in a
cool temperature-controlled environment.
For the Toner:
-Make sure it’s lying flat and not upright
-In an area free of dust
-Nowhere near where corrosive gas
For the ink Cartridge:
-Store in an upright position
-In a dark area free of sunlight
-Keep the cartridge sealed

Inkjet V Laser Printer: Dawn of Cost Reduction

We have all been there – decisions, decisions. Choosing the right type of printer, either for home or work, has never been a walk in the park. One tricky part of buying a printer is undoubtedly deciding whether to get a laser printer or an inkjet printer. And for good reason.

The two types of printers employ different approaches, with each suitable for different printing needs. As you might expect, each printing technology has its own pros and cons. But when it comes to buying a printer, the cost -both initial and ongoing – is paramount. Which begs the question: which is cost-effective, an inkjet printer or a laser printer?

This blog post looks to give you a succinct guide on the pricing of both laser and inkjet printers. It will look at the initial price tag as well as the cost in the long haul. Read on; you will be glad you did.

But first, let’s delve into a few rudiments.

What are Inkjet and Laser Printing?

Back in 1969, a luminary Xerox worker named Gary Starkweather had an ingenious idea that marked the birth of laser printing. Simply put, Laser printers render a digital image by scanning a laser beam across photoreceptors. In essence, a laser printer utilizes a toner cartridge and a thermal fuse. On its part, inkjet printers do the same by spraying liquid ink through a raft of minute nozzles onto the paper.

Price Tag

I’ll admit right from the outset that you can garner a basic inkjet or laser printer for practically the same price tag. Quite unexpected, right? If you are looking for a basic printer that can print as well scan and photocopy, there is simply not much difference in pricing. There’s little or no difference in the prices of a budget all-in-one printer.

What’s the most noticeable difference? A budget laser printer is only capable of churning out black and white prints. Conversely, an inkjet version can print color documents.

If you crunch numbers, a laser printer is a little more expensive. You can garner a basic laser printer for something like Ksh 12,000/-. An inkjet alternative will set you back around Ksh 4,000/-. There is a catch, though: they typically come complete with a starter cartridge that is almost spent, implying that a refill is inevitable.

Ongoing Cost

With time, printers require consumables like toner, ink, and paper. You can quote the running cost of a printer using a standard cent per A4 page. A budget laser printer capable of producing only black and white documents has an average cost per page of around 6 shillings/page. But the rate drops drastically if you go for a higher price tag.

An inkjet printer typically rakes around 30 Shillings/page for both color and black & white prints. For black and white pages, the cost drops to around 8 or 10 shillings/page. What’s more, laser printers have extra maintenance costs if pit against inkjet printers. You will require regular replacement of components like fuser cartridge.

Parting Shot

Pound for pound, inkjet printers are more economical than laser printers for low-turn printing. In case you do large printing, you’d be much better off with a laser printer.

 

Just what is 5% coverage?

I often hear that customers can’t believe their ink or toner cartridge is empty.  Yet, when I check them, they are in fact empty. I know the perception is that cartridges don’t last as long as they should.  That is because of the page count on the box! These numbers really don’t mean much to the average user and don’t reflect the reality based on what people normally print.

The reality is that all page yields are based on 5% coverage of ink or toner.  This is a mandate from Organization for Standardization (ISO). Most people regularly print more than the 5% average.

5% represents a small invoice or memo (covering around half the page) and not a full page of larger text with logos and other print. For example this newsletter will end up representing more like 10%-12% coverage if it was printed out.

So your actual page yield will most likely be less than the advertised yield, no matter where you buy the cartridge-as everyone’s yields are all based on only 5% coverage- everyone has to place the same amount of ink or toner in cartridges.  Starter cartridges that come with new printers often have half or less toner or ink in them than a normal cartridge.  In fact, we fill some ink cartridges with more ink than the originals had in them.

Over the years, I have performed enough research and development to find these facts to be true on several of the same cartridges from different vendors, including our own products, against the OEM (name brand cartridge).  Using our compatible toners will make sure that all you do is save lots of money with products from ColourSoft!

 

Benefits of using Compatible Toners.

The market for compatible toners is very large, due to the need for affordable toner cartridges. However, not all compatible toner cartridges are made equal, and care should be taken when selecting the right product to purchase. There are many benefits to using compatible toner cartridges rather than brand name products. Here are some of the main advantages that you can enjoy if you decide to use an alternative option instead.

  • Firstly, the most significant advantage of using Coloursoft products is the fact that they are significantly cheaper. OEM toners can be very expensive, and therefore with coloursoft toners you can save up to 70%, especially with our exclusive range of High Yield and Jumbo range of toners, which is not offered by any other supplier.
  • Coloursoft toners have very good customer testimonials. Positive customer feedback will tell you whether the company’s products are actually worth the money they are asking for. A great deal of authentic, positive feedback is a good sign that you will be getting value for money.

Another advantage of buying these compatible toners is that there is often far more choice on the market. When you buy a brand name product there is often only one key choice for your particular kind of printer. This is not the case when you buy the compatible toners.

What this means is that there are many different companies who are selling compatible cartridges. This means that you have a range of choice in colour, texture and appearance of ink on the page compared to the original product. This may or may not be a positive thing for you.

It could be a positive thing if you are not satisfied with the original quality of the brand name products. Sometimes, the quality and colour that is provided by compatible brands is as good as or even better than the original product. This is of course, entirely subjective.

However, this does mean that there is ultimately more choice on the market. If you are not satisfied with your original brand name product, you might as well try a compatible toner cartridge, and see what the results are like. If you like the product you can continue with it, if you don’t you can try another brand and see if you get better results the next time.

Being smart about where you spend your money is important as a business owner. If you buy compatible toner or compatible cartridges this is one very smart way of getting the ink and toner you need, without spending a lot of money on those things. You can still get the quality you need while not spending a lot.

Smart business owners know where they can save money on some of the little things, and that is a great thing to keep in mind. Office supplies can run up a huge expenses bill and if you can save some money in areas such as compatible toner, this is a great way to start. Get out and start making smart choices today with COULORSOFT TONERS.

Compatible Ink and Toner – High Quality, Low Cost Alternatives to OEM.

Total Office Solutions is proud to offer its customers high quality, low cost on toner cartridges as reliable alternatives to over-priced OEM brand supplies.

OEM’s like Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Canon, Brother and Epson will often market printers at very low prices. Their objective is to then sell very high cost, high profit margin supplies to the printer buyer. It just like the old razor and blade business model – give away the razor to make incredible profits on the blades. You would be amazed to know just how much money the OEM’s make from OEM-brand supplies sometimes they sell for prices ten times the cost of the cartridge – all at your expense.

That’s why Total Office Solutions gives you the opportunity to Print More for less by offering high quality, low cost compatible cartridges for your ink jet and laser printers. Our compatible cartridges are produced in manufacturing facilities that are ISO 9001 and ISO 14000 certified – the highest quality standards in the world. We also do further incoming inspections and testing at our own facility to be certain we are offering our customers outstanding products that produce superior print quality, extended yield plus savings up to 60% compared to OEM.

With our ColourSoft Brand, which has been perfected since the Year 2005, you can have the confidence of buying knowing you are completely safe, with our Money Back Guarantee, our 100% Quality Guarantee, and our 3 year Warranty. The reason we offer such guarantees is because we are that confident with our laser toners. If you’re not satisfied, we are not satisfied. If you ever have a problem with a product purchased from Total Office Solutions just let us know and we’ll repair, replace the product so you can get your printer running again.

 

Just as important, buying from Total Office Solutions helps protect the environment. Many of the products we sell contain carefully selected recycled components, keeping them out of the waste stream. Save money and protect the environment – it’s a winning combination and to everyone’s best advantage.v

5 ways to be sure you are buying a good quality toner in Kenya

Kenya is indeed an interesting country. It is a country in which two people can buy the exact same item at different prices.  The main reason why this happens is because there are basically no standards. This means the customer who in most cases is the end user of the product has no way to differentiate a good product from the bad one.

In the laser toner market there happen to be 3 quality standards with 3 matching prices. There are the refill toners mostly of the HP brand that sell anything between ksh 1500 and ksh 3000. There are the grade 2 toners that sell anything from ksh 3000 and ksh 6000 and finally what is called the original that costs anything between ksh 6000 and ksh 12000.  

The biggest issue is that there are cases in which the customer will actually buy a toner that should actually cost ksh 3000 for ksh 12000 thinking that he has bought an original toner.  The customer generally believes that if he buys the toner from a particular shop or trusted source expensively, then he must be telling the truth. It appears that most toner buyers have not learnt that Kenyans are capable of doing and saying anything to make money.   If there are pastors that are faking miracles and yet pastors are considered holy and honest what stops your toner supplier from also been dishonest to you?

The intention of this article is to therefore give you additional tools that are product based that are independent of the supplier. Actually, customers of toners need to be educated on quality and the expected performance of the products they use since it ensures value for money.

Why pay more for a product that you can get at a much cheaper price and performs better? If you were sure you could get a genuine acre of land in Karen say for ksh 20 million instead of ksh 50 million would you buy it? well you would say it must be a con. But what if you were given the tools to know if the deal is genuine? What if you are taught how to measure the size, how to do a search, verify the ownership, how to pay for the land to ensure no money is lost, to find out any legal cases or issues that the land has and after you apply the knowledge that you have acquired everything shows the land has no issues will you buy it?  This article hopes to give you the same tools and information that are independent of the person selling to you to help you get a good product at a bargain maximizing your value for money especially in this hard Kenyan economic environment where every shilling counts

Part II

So as stated in part I of this article the aim is to give you the tools on how to independently identify a good toner. Let us start with

  1. The obvious

Any good quality toner needs to print a clear and dark copy. Clear copy means that it should not have any dirt like dots, lines and dust particles on the page. Sadly, a lot of Kenyans due to past experiences with printers have got used to this type of printouts and accept them especially when there supplier mentions to them that they have no alternative. GOOD NEWS you can now get printouts without any dirt on the page no need to suffer any longer since 2009 a solution has been there in the form of compatible toners and one of the leading brands in that market is coloursoft toners. More so with the availability of digital buying outlets one can get the toner in any part of the country just with a touch of a button you can find out more by googling coloursoft toners.

  1. Learn about the standards

Every product in the world has a standard even the button on your shirt. The role of standards to ensure that the buyer get a product that would serve him. Some sellers of products since the 1900s have always been looking for shortcuts to make more money and some unscrupulous businessmen would even sell ineffective products. Governments therefore in the interests of protecting their citizens created rules and measures to be met before one would sell a product to a customer… this later evolved to become the ISO (international standards organization). The first thing therefore is to learn about the standards for toners.  One of the key ones is in relation to yield which is ISO 19752 for more information on toner standards visit www.tos.co.ke/tonerstandards the standards are independent of the manufacturer and therefore sales pitches that consist of false information become ineffective. This now means the tools to verify if the products you purchase are now in your hands and not in the hands of your supplier.   You can also now ensure that if you spend ksh 4000 on a toner you get ksh 4000 worth of value and not ksh 3000

  1. The packaging

One thing that’s standards demand is that the customer must be informed of any good or bad thing about the product that he is using.  Say if he is buying medicine, the manufacturer must inform the customer of any side effects of using the medicine. Ordinarily, the seller would want to hide the information but ISO standards force him so share it.  One of the requirements is that any useful information on the usage of a product must be printed on the box of the product in a language the user understands. Therefore the rule of thumb is the more the information on a product box, the more likely it is genuine or from the manufacture and meets the required standards. In the world of toners most boxes are reprinted boxes lacking security features… that’s a clear sign that the toners are not genuine. Other toners are sealed with cello tape and lack proper binding meaning they can be easily be tampered with to learn more about how to tell good toners via the packaging you can call  +254722144396 or on our toll free number -0800 (they are available in Kenya)

  1. Test the toner output and quality using the actual printer

The ultimate test one can use to determine if the toner is a good toner is by installing inside the printer and doing a few printouts.  Then compare the actual print outs with the requirements as per ISO. Please note don’t measure against your eyes or what your supplier tells you… test against the ISO standard. In Kenya one of the major problems with toners is that users do not know the amount of powder in the toner cartridge and the number of expected printouts you are to get from the said toner. Most people rely on the number of paper reams they have used or the number of days the toner lasted in the machine.  But since it is possible to print a lot of material in say two days then not print in a month and since it is also possible for staff to buy reams of paper without informing the business owner, this are not reliable methods of determining number of copies. ISO has the solution and it states as per ISO 19752 a HP 85A toner should produce 1600 copies at 5% coverage yield.  Now the current HP toner boxes do not have 1600 copies written on the box. That is one of the main reasons why toner prices have such a huge price range from ksh 3000 to ksh 12000 for the same HP 85A toner. Since the customer does not know the yield he might buy a toner that prints only 500 copies for ksh 3000 and think it’s a cheap toner. What he doesn’t know he may have bought an different 85A toner for the same ksh 3000 and got 2000 copies from it. Now that is a real saving! Moreover the printer itself has setting that informs you of how to know exactly how many copies your toner has printed. It is usually under the print preference setting section of the printer for more information visit www.tos.co.ke/howtofindprinteryieldsettings

  1. Finally find a reliable, trustworthy and consistent supplier

Ultimately and this has happened a lot in Kenya, a lot of toner suppliers sell very good toners on the first orders or when they are trying to acquire the business and then later sell worse performing toners on later orders. The reasons are because they do wish to make bigger margins on the toners they sell so they comprise on quality or the sources from which they get their toners from become unreliable and inconsistent. It is therefore important to find out if the supplier themselves as a company adhere to any standards that forces them to be consistent, reliable and putting the customers interests first over a long period of time. For us at coloursoft toners the company is an ISO certified company meaning that it must stick to certain procedural activities that would guarantee 100% customer satisfaction. Now 100% customer satisfaction is not an event but a process which means that if you have achieved 100% then you aim for 150% percent by continuously improving the quality of the product and its delivery to the customer.  Does your supplier have this kind of system in place? What happens when there is an issue? Does he make follow ups and resolve the problem in a way that it does not occur again without offering shortcuts or offering a bribe to maintain the business? With coloursoft we ensure that the performance of our toners is maintained right from the factory to the installation on your printer. In case of any issues we resolve the issue in a way that it does not occur again by either training the users of the products or removing from the system any unreliable reseller or part manufacturer. That’s why as I said in the beginning that we offer various guarantees including a 14 day money back guarantee and for us it is not a sales pitch but a statement of fact. So much so that for 85A toners the acceptable failure rate is 2 toners per very 1000 toners, at coloursoft we are now heading to 10,000 85A toners over the last 3yrs and with a zero failure rate.  It does mean that all our toners are perfect but we make every effort to get there and even surpass the general ISO performance standards.  That’s why we do have clients that have not used any other toner even when offered a cheaper option over the last 10 years.. Do you want to be one of those customers thatss will have a guaranteed performance on your toner without all the numerous explanations and drama that most suppliers give as they supply you toners? Visit www.tos.co.ke or call +254722144396 for more information

Why Choose Colorsoft Toners

Coloursoft toners are internationally packaged and standardized toners that are made from scratch to meet ISO, STMC and CE amongst other standards. Our toners are not counterfeit or repackaged and are made from scratch. They are also Compatible and work with any HP, CANNON or SAMSUNG just the same way a HP Keyboard will work when connected to a Samsung desktop.

We are fully aware other companies make the same claims but we are the only Kenyan company that can demonstrate Quality and Guaranteed performance right from the empty cartridge to the final print out.  Please note for coloursoft toners it is about sale gimmicks but a statement of fact and you are free to put us to the test.  It is no wonder that we do have customers that do buy our products every month consistently over the last 10 years and are unwilling to use any other brand of toners. You can call us for any customer references and stamped recommendation letters from our clients

so as you enjoy world of value and good service please search, browse, shop and use the other services on the website for our various products on offer and in case you GET STUCK at any point during your visit to our website… DON’T LEAVE… You can CALL us using the numbers at the top of the page, CHAT to directly reach us using the chat tool at the bottom left hand corner… finally do not forget to share your FEEDBACK using our mid right handle bar… remember our goal is to ensure 100% customer satisfaction in terms of your print document experience

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