I have owned an Epson Picturemate digital photo printer for 6 months and have just put it on Ebay. The average cost of each picture you print is about £0.50, which is very high. The main reason is that about a quarter of the ink cartridges you will buy (£25 each from Staples, but probably cheaper elsewhere) will be rejected by the printer with the error "The ink absorbing pad in the cartridge has become saturated, the cartridge must be replaced" when FIRST REPLACEED NEW!

As usual, there is no reply from Epson on the 'Customer support' line, and when I finally get through on a telephone call, the line either goes dead after I describe the problem, or they (probably reading from a screen) keep repeating that 'when the ink absorbing pad is saturated, the cartridge must be replaced' - completely ignoring my words "the cartridge is new".

The only good points are that when the printer behaves itself it is very easy to use with a good user interface, and very good quality pictures.

The bottom line is don't buy one. It is simply not worth the money; customer service is appalling (seemingly the norm these days for large companies), and the build quality is very bad.

While the Epson PictureMate digital photo printer prints beautiful pictures, it is not worth the cost. The print nozzles jam up constantly, leaving you with a bad print. You also have to buy the ink cartridge and paper together, and the ink never lasts as long as the paper. Customer service for Epson is terrible; they are always rude and do nothing to help. I had trouble with mine after three months, and they would not exchange the unit, saying that I would have to return it to them at my cost and pay to have it repaired. Now, after 11 months, I get a General Error message when turning the unit on. Their website suggests that I return it to one of their service centers for service, at my cost of course.