CCS-Digital Ink and Toner Cartridge Warranty

This site started out as an advice site to educate people on how to save money amid all the confusion and scams on the net. What the printer companies are doing amounts to legalized piracy and our goal was to help you keep your own money in your pockets. Eventually visitors urged us to stock the items we recommended and offer them on the site. Our advice site evolved into a family business. Our goal is still to help you save money while getting great results from your printer.

We consider ourselves more than reasonable in dealing with customers and go the extra mile to make sure no one is disappointed. However, sometimes a few individuals make it difficult for everyone else. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone conducted themselves fairly and we wouldn't need lawyers and contracts to keep people honest? So while we would like to say 100% money-back guarantee, no questions asked, a few people have made it impossible to do this without adding some conditions. They can be summed up in two words: be reasonable.

Any problems must first be reported via email. Don't just return something without notifying us first.

Delivery Problems

We consider ourselves responsible for the order until it is shown as delivered. This means we will replace it if tracking shows it was lost (no delivery). We ship to the address you (or paypal) provides. We are not mind readers. If we are sent the wrong address, it was your responsibility to check it first. If the order returns to us, we will reship it at your expense or refund you less the shipping. If the mistake is ours, we will reship at our expense. We are not responsible for the security of your address. If tracking shows it has been delivered but you can't find it, take that up with your mailman or building management.

Damaged In Shipment

Email us immediately with a photo of the package and contents. Do not discard it until instructed to do so. Do not contact us and say it was damaged so you threw it out. We will contact the Post Office to make a claim, so they may need to inspect the package. Since a claim can take weeks to process, we will issue the replacement immediately upon USPS inspection or claim approval.

Incorrect/Incomplete Orders

There are two types of order errors. 1) You received an incorrect or incomplete order or 2) You ordered the wrong item. The error must be reported within two weeks. We have had customers claim that an order received months or even years before was wrong. Several times when explaining what was wrong, it became clear they were talking about an order from another company. Two weeks is more than enough time to detect a problem with what was received.

If the mistake is yours, we will instruct you to return it at your expense to have it exchanged for the correct item. You will be credited for the cost of the product. If there is a price difference in your favor, you will be given extra product or issued a credit. If in our favor, you will pay the difference. If you are returning an item you ordered by mistake for refund, you will be refunded the price of the product less 15%.

We calculate shipping based on our cost to ship to you. When returning, it is a good idea to use the same shipping method we did (first class or flat rate priority). If the mistake is ours, we will add extra cartridges to more than compensate you for the shipping cost. This is important. We have had customers return something via overnight mail or ship a small item in a large priority box, expecting us to pay extra for this wasteful method.

Items Damaged or Not Working

Paypal - which we use to process credit card orders as well - gives us a 60-day window in which to give refunds, so refund requests must be received within this time frame. The time limit for replacement is much more generous. Within two months, if there is a problem with one or two of our cartridges, we will replace them. If three cartridges, we will refund the purchase price for those cartridges and any unopened ones returned within the window. If a printer uses four or six different cartridges (black and 3-5 colors) and you opened one of each, we will take those back. But don't open more than two of a color and expect a refund.

Why this limit? It is always possible that one or two were defective. This can happen (and has) even with genuine Epson products. But if it is two of the same color, this indicates a problem with the printer itself. (If you order more than one of each color, we try to send them from two different manufacturers. What are the chances that both manufacturers made a defective cartridge in the same color and the same person got both of them?) What happens is the print head gets clogged and the printer stops producing that color. The customer puts in a new cartridge and it still won't print. The customer assumes the cartridge is defective and tries a second. At that point, the customer should realize it is a printer problem. Even if the customer believes it to be a cartridge problem, if two don't work, there is no point in continuing to open the rest. Return them for a refund. But we did have at least one person order a dozen black cartridges, then return them all opened (and empty) six months later, claiming they were all defective. We did not refund in that situation.

Another customer received 12 black cartridges on a hot day in a southern state. Exposure to heat creates pressure within the cartridge. (So does exposure to extreme cold.) He then emailed to say all 12 cartridges spewed ink when he removed the yellow tape and he wanted a refund. Had he called or emailed after opening the first one or two, we could have told him to put them in a refrigerator and let them cool off before opening. (And had it been a cold day, we would have recommended letting them warm up.) But if the first one spewed and then the second, why continue to open all 12? We have to protect ourselves from geniuses like that. Incidentally, we did send another 6 and that person is still a loyal customer. But we went beyond our warranty and are not obligated to do so.

It does not take two months to decide an entire order is defective. The customer tries one and it doesn't work, tries a second and has the same issue and at that point should contact us. Naturally we don't expect a customer to test an entire order within two months. So if they bought a quantity and a few months later find that one didn't work properly, we will add extra to their next order. Since it costs $3 in postage to ship a $2 cartridge, we prefer to avoid that. So to request a refund or immediate replacement, it must be done within the 2 month window. The excuse "I know I bought these 6 months ago but I just got around to using them" doesn't cut it. What's to stop anyone from buying anything - a MP3 player, computer, car, etc and saying they didn't use it until after the warranty expired? The warranty begins from date of purchase, not the date they decide to use it.

We have made exchanges a year after the purchase date when there was good reason. For example, customers bought a quantity of cartridges and then had to buy a new printer which couldn't take the old cartridges. But we don't want to be obligated to do so, hence the limitations in the warranty.

If you experience a problem, email or call first. Often we can resolve the problem over the phone. We get very few cartridges back and most of those work just fine in our printers. If we can't solve it, the next step would be to replace or refund. Because of a few scammers or unreasonable customers who expected unlimited free replacements, we may require that you send the product back to us. We do not send prepaid postage labels or reimburse your shipping. If this is for replacement, we will add extra to cover your costs. (We also put extra cartridges in most of our orders.) This is what you accept when placing your order online. If you buy an item from a store and it doesn't work, it must be returned to the store. You can't call them up and expect to get your money back. If you expect a refund without returning the merchandise, shop elsewhere.

Generally we don't require that you return an open ink cartridge but there are rare occasions when we need to see them to determine the problem. When returning opened ink cartridges, you must be careful to seal them against leaks. If they leak, the Post Office will dispose of them without delivery. Tape the bottom of the cartridge where the printer punctured it and the top where you removed the yellow tape. Place them in a baggie. Do not put closed cartridges in the same baggie. Return them to:

CCS
2412 Oceancrest Blvd
Far Rockaway, NY 11691

Our warranty only covers the cartridges bought from us and for up to the amount paid us. We do not cover any other expenses. If someone waited until the day an important job was due and discovered a cartridge didn't work and had to run out and pay a lot more somewhere else, they can't expect us to refund the amount they paid for the other cartridge. We had one customer say since a cartridge didn't work and she couldn't find another one, she bought a whole new printer and expected us to pay for it. Sorry, but that's not the way it works. Another customer complained that his 4-year old printer stopped working a year and a half after putting in our cartridges so it had to be the fault of our cartridges and therefore he expected us to buy him a new printer. I hope anyone reading this understands why this is not a reasonable expectation. If not, please shop elsewhere.

Don't wait until the last second to do a critical job. At about $2 a cartridge, there is no reason not to have a backup. Someone's failure to spend an extra $2 does not impose an obligation on us. An entire set of our cartridges cost less than a single Epson, Brother or Canon cartridge. Instead of spending $60-$100 for one set of OEM, spend $20 for two to three sets of ours. With our special bonuses for buying backup sets, there is no excuse not to be prepared.

We do not offer lifetime free replacements. Cartridges do not contain any moving parts. There is no particular reason a reusable or refillable cartridge can't last for years. We have a set going on four years. However, electronic chips can be damaged by stray voltage, liquid, or being touched by sweaty fingers. So don't count on your cartridge lasting forever. We typically replace it free within a few months of purchase. But we did have a professional print shop with multiple printers buy a single set of refillable cartridges and move it from printer to printer. Naturally doing this caused the ink to be used very quickly. Every time time cartridges are inserted in a printer, they go through a charging process which uses a good deal of ink. This print shop kept calling to complain the ink was being used too quickly. In four months we had sent five replacements for the four cartridges they bought. In all that time, despite our reminders, they didn't take the obvious step of buying a set for each printer. Expecting unlimited lifetime replacements of a $2-$4 item is not reasonable. Epson won't do it and their cartridges cost five times more and give one-third the ink. Incidentally, when we stopped replacing the cartridges, this print shop bought several sets and has had no problems since. They still buy their ink from us.

We supply schools, professional printers, photographers and corporations. We do almost no advertising. Most of our customers come to us by referral from other customers. Read the many testimonials left by customers, some of them who have been with us for over a decade. We must be doing something right (and our cartridges must be working properly) to achieve this track record. As long as your expectations are reasonable, we will be more than reasonable.