Still under warranty, but two print heads later.....

I purchased the ESP C310 in April 2012 from Tesco, and for a while it worked well, actually better than my two previous Epson printers. It was simple to use, with the ease and speed of changing ink cartridges being a very positive feature. The scanner was not as good as those from the Epson though - less easy to use. Colour was fine.

However, after five months I started to experience problems with the black ink cartridge running out - in fact it wasn't running out, the print head was just not working. Not being a nerd, I wasn't sure what was wrong and after wasting a huge amount of both colour inks and black ink from a new black cartridge that I had installed, I went through the Kodak diagnostics for this printer, where it indicated the symptoms experienced were due to a faulty print head.

I contacted the Tesco Electrical help line, who I must say were first class in their approach - they were professional and experienced, diagnosing the same fault, a faulty print head, from what I had told them. They then passed me to Kodak, as their protocol required, where I had a negative and unprofessional experience. The female that I dealt with had very poor English, kept me on the phone for 20 minutes, and indicated that I would have to go through several other diagnostic procedures before they would send me a new print head. This cost me time, more ink and a high level of frustration. Eventually the new head came after about a week and was fine, though I estimate that the whole exercise cost me around £30 in wasted ink - this printer uses huge amounts during the warm-up period, when print head cleaning and doing standardisation/check runs.

Now, within another 2-3 months it has gone wrong again, with the black ink being the problem again - more wasted ink!! It started soon after I had installed the new print head, when black and white photos developed lots of parallel lines over them. Eventually the text began to fade and disappeared entirely. I have again contacted Tesco, and normally they have to abide by the manufacturer's rules, which state that they will replace parts like the print head on two occasions before they will change the whole machine or give you your money back. Tesco were again very professional and tried to put me through to Kodak, but even the Tesco man was kept waiting in a queue, so he took the unprecedented step of bypassing the system and allowing me to have my money back. He indicated that they got frustrated with Kodak also and that they had experienced a high number of issues to do with print heads!

So within a day I have a new HP Laser jet printer installed, producing some stunning colour documents!