HP’s Unsuccessful Battle Against Remanufactured Toner Cartridges
As you probably know, HP make far more from their inkjet and toner cartridges than they do from selling the printers. As with razor blades, HP makes their real money on toner cartridges. So it makes sense that HP will do what it can to discredit remanufactured toner cartridges as they threaten a very profitable segment of their revenue stream.
Recently HP wrote 4 myths about remanufactured toner cartridges. This article make an attempt to show how HP’s cartridges are less expensive and more reliable than remanufactured toner cartridges. The problem with the article is that HP unfairly insinuates that all remanufactured toner cartridges have the quality of remanufactured inkjet and color toner cartridges. We actually agree that in the case of inkjet and color toner cartridges HP has a superior product. For that reason we don’t sell a refilled inkjet cartridge. As far as color cartridges go, remanufactured color cartridges are a step below HP, but closing the gap. What HP does, is insinuate that the quality of remanufactured color cartridges is the same as the quality of monochrome cartridges, which is simply untrue. We’ve been remanufacturing monochrome toner cartridges since 1988 and the quality and reliability are quite good. In fact we have less than a 2% return rate, and while HP may have a lower rate (sub 1%) the cost saving is definitely there. Our industry has a long way to go on color manufacturing technology, but to say that the monochrome quality and reliability are the same as color is simply misleading.
HP states that their monochrome cartridges are 10% cheaper than remanufactured but they don’t give any data on how they come up with it other than explaining that once you consider the time you spend dealing with unreliable cartridges makes their cartridge cost less. Remanufactured cartridges from Advantage are typically 40% less than new HP.
HP then goes on to state that HP cartridges are more reliable than remanufactured toner cartridges, and the data they use is from the HP Color LaserJet CP3505. Had they used an HP monochrome toner cartridge such as the HP LaserJet p3005 (Q5771A toner) they would have had a much different result.
Finally HP states that it’s a myth that buying remanufactured cartridges are better for the environment. HP notes that most remanufacturers throw away their unusable cartridges. There you have to select a company that does recycle the empties, even when they are not usable. That’s we we provide “the box” to allow our customers to recycle not only the toner cartridge but many other items on our approved recycling list such as power cords, cell phones, batteries, glasses, etc. Furthermore everytime you buy a remanufactured cartridge, that is one less new cartridge that HP will have to remanufacture.
We like the HP product and believe it’s the best on the market, but feel their article was misleading.
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