Tag: toner tips

How To Tell If Your Toner Buyer Is A Scam Artist? The Beginner’s Guide

There are many ways to sell just about anything online. From message boards and classified lists to auction sites and online apps, you have a lot of choices but those options involve quite a bit of work.

You choose what seems to be the best route and sell your toner through a toner buyer website. However, you are posed with a new roadblock. How do you know if your toner buyer is a scam?

Here’s how you can discern if your toner buyer is legit or not.

Website Setup

You decide to sell your toner and find a few websites through a Google search. When you visit the first website though, you notice that it looks dated – like Geocities dated.

If an online site today looks like the one below, chances are that it’s either really old, something basic set up purely to get visitors, or the company does not care about its web presence at all.

There are a few reasons why a website may have such a poor online presence. None of which are good. And it is advisable to steer clear. If you want to ensure a fair and smooth selling transaction, be sure to select a website that is fresh, clean, and up-to-date.

Whatever the reason, you do not want to visit a site that could potentially be a scam and cheat you out of your valuable property.

Even if a website doesn’t look like it’s from the 90s, it’s important for companies to refresh their look somewhat often. Amazon, for example, has updated their homepage multiple times since their launch.

Notice how their homepage from 2008 looks compared to their page today. Every company should update the design and feel of their website to not only legitimize their products and services but also to provide the best web experience possible for their customers. Similarly, it’s good to make use of their customer service options.

Come up with a question you would like answered about selling them your toner and see how quickly and courteously they respond. Remember they’re looking to sell you their business as much as you’re looking to sell them your toner. Feel free to shop around until you’ve found a company you feel comfortable doing business with.

Contact Information

You’re browsing your potential toner buyer’s website and have a few questions that the FAQ doesn’t cover and need to talk to someone.

Is there a contact form?

Or a phone number and email address?

Even better, is there a live chat?

If their website doesn’t have any contact information, can you really trust it?

If a company is hiding their information, chances are you’ll have a difficult time communicating with them.

Employee Information

Who actually works at the company?

Are the CEO’s name and photo on the website?

If there’s no one listed or only one person listed, chances are that they will most likely lowball you and sell your toner to other surplus toner buying companies. You’d be taking a risk selling your toner at a huge discount so that the buyer can make a bigger profit when they sell your toner.

Selling Process

Most people selling toner are doing it for the very first time. They don’t know what the process is like and what to expect.

 

Those who shop around will notice that the professional websites will have a tutorial of some kind to explain the process. Either in the form of an explanatory video or detailed description complete with pictures. They want their customers to feel confident with their first selling experience and hopefully have them come back time and time again.

They’ll also answer the following questions in an FAQ:

When do you actually get paid?

Do they mention anything about shipping costs? And if so, do they pay it or take it out of your possible sale?

Once you sell your toner, is there any sort of step-by-step order tracking system?

How do you know where your toner is?

A lack of transparency in the toner process can leave you worried and frustrated. You don’t know where your toner is, when it’s been received, when you’ll get paid, or even if your toner is acceptable for purchase.

If you can track your Domino’s pizza from the time of purchase, to when it’s out for delivery, you should be able to track your toner.

Customer Service and Reputation

In any industry, it can be difficult to choose the best company, especially if they’re all offering similar pricing.

How do you then decide?

Online reviews from companies such as Yelp, Google and Facebook can give you an idea of what to expect when dealing with each website.


A company is only as strong as its reputation amongst its customers. If a customer complains about a product, service or their experience, a company should do what it can to remedy the situation. Not every company who receives a negative review is a bad company. Mistakes can happen but they should be addressed. Every company who receives a negative review and chooses to not do anything about it is a bad company.

Do your research before you sell your printer toner. Look at what other customers are saying about the company. If they have reviews and address the comments or issues, there’s a higher chance of them being legitimate.

So whether you’re a first-time cartridge seller or you’re a veteran of eBay, understanding the key points in avoiding a scammy website can spare you the time and trouble it would otherwise cost you. Stick to this checklist and you’ll be on your way to turning that toner into cash in no time. And that’s no gimmick.

How to Disable Electronic Chips on Inkjet and Toner Cartridges

Almost all office-grade printers in the market from 2003 onward carry an electronic chip. These chips track the number of papers you’ve printed out and store other information related to your printing.

Refilling most ink tanks or toner cartridges do not reset their gauge levels in their software. You’d find this anomaly in Canon models CLI-521, PGI-520, CLI-8, PGI-650, or HP OfficeJet Pro and HP ENVY, and many other printers.

HP using manual

The chip has no link between its ink reading and the actual ink levels in the printer. So the chip erroneously reads “empty” even if you have ink in your printer. Your printer won’t work if you need to print black text but your yellow ink is “empty.”

So how do you make your printer work?

Bypassing Printer Chip Errors

To bypass your toner or ink chip you can do any of four things.

  • Use an auto-reset ink tanks if your printer models have them
  • Fit your printer with a new chip or ink tank
  • Use your printer model’s chip resetter to restore the “empty” chip to full
  • Disable your ink or toner monitor

If you disable your printer’s memory chip from collecting your printer usage information, you can continue using your printer even if the toner or ink is finished.

So you want to inspect your printer’s ink level at interval by removing it to avoid your ink running out!

How to Disable Toner Cartridge Electronic Chips

Image Credit: Flickr

Different printers have unique ways to turning their electronic chips off. I’ll address two printers here and give you a general guide for your other toner cartridge printers.

Here’s a guide to turning off the the electronic chips on HP ENVY and OfficeJet Pro.

HP OfficeJet Pro

Follow the steps outlined below,

  1. Access “Setup” from the printer’s LCD display
  2. Choose “Preferences”
  3. Click on “Store Anonymous Usage Information”
  4. And then switch it off

In case you didn’t find the “Store Anonymous Usage Information” option, then the electronic chip is already turned off. To reactivate the chip reset your printer to factory setting.

HP ENVY

Turn off the chip of your ENVY using these steps,

  1. Go to “Preferences” by scrolling using the buttons on the right in the home screen of your printer.
  2. Select “Data Storage” by scrolling with the down arrow button and then press “OK”
  3. Now select “Off” using the down arrow button and then press OK to switch the function off

If the selection is off from your printer then your printer’s electronic chip is turned off. To turn on the information usage function again reset the printer to factory setting.

If Your Printer Is Internet Enabled

Fetch your printer IP address. Go to your network setup options to find your printer’s IP address on your printer settings. Now follow these simple steps to turn off your electronic chip.

  1. Open a browser: Enter your printer’s IP address on the web address box.
  2. Your printer’s Embedded Web Server opens up. Click on “Settings” and select “HP Cartridge Protection” on the lafthandside
  3. Click on “Disable HP Cartridge Protection”
  4. Select “Apply” or “Save”

That’s it! Your electronic chip is turned off.

Disabling Electronic Chips in Inkjet Cartridges

Inkjet printers have color tanks. It’s impossible to disengage an ink monitor for tanks that the printer hasn’t signified as empty.

Your printer’s display will show you a messages to indicate that your printer’s ink tank is “empty.” If you have a multi-function printer like the MP or MG printers, you’ll find this message on its LCD screen.

Disabling Electronic Chip for Canon Inkjet Printers

Image credit: Creative Commons

Canon inkjet printers have a wide variety of models. Regardless of your Canon inkjet model, this guide will help you disable your ink level monitor.

Below are the steps you should take. Depending on your printer type, you might experience slight variations in the messages.

I’ve used screenshots from a printer with disabled ink tank for all four – C,M, BK, PK – ink tanks. So, even if you use a Canon iP4200 (which I’d used for this example), you’d experience a bit of variation if your tanks are still enabled.

When you see the message contained in that screenshot above, click “OK.” Another message will come up.

Click “Yes” to move to the next message. What follows is a warning message from Canon. See the next screenshot.

Click on “Yes” to move to the next, and final, step.

You’d just press down the RESUME button for a about five to seven seconds until the error clears.

If you don’t have a Resume button on your printer, press down and hold the Stop or Cancel button instead. Hold down the button until the printer stops flashing its “Alarm” LED or the error message stops.

At this point your printer should get back to normal operations. But if it doesn’t, your monitor taskbar, at the bottom of your screen, should have a new printer message calling your attention. You’d see a message like the one in the screenshot below:

It reads,

“The ink cartridge has been installed or replaced. If the printout contains misaligned lined or is not satisfactory after the installation or replacement, refer to the user’s guide and carry out the print head alignment.”

Click “OK,” and you’re done!

Remember that you’d repeat this steps for each of your ink tank as your printer registers them as “empty.” You can’t disable ink monitors for inks not registered as finished.

You may use Canon ink-chip resetters instead if your printer model has a chip resetter in the market for sale. If you choose to use an ink resetter, make sure to get your printer’s exact match.

Disabling Ink Monitors for Other Printers

Image Credit: Creative Commons

If you just refilled your ink cartridge or just want to keep using the old cartridge (if it still has ink in it). Insert your cartridge and make sure it clicks into place.

Your printer’s ink monitor will show en error message. The message would warn you about the risk of using an ink cartridge that had been empty before. Ignore that message.

Select “Yes” to indicate that you want to use that refilled cartridge. Like in most cases, your printer software might ask the question a second time.

Now use your printer as normal. The electronic chip has been disabled so that you can use your ink cartridge without restrictions.

 

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