Inkcessories : Hell in a handbasket??

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Up until today I would have had no hesitation in recommending Inkcessories.com for stuff like Canon printheads but a recent experience coupled with some research I did in the past hour or so, has left me a little uneasy as to he quality of service of late.

First off I ordered in 6 printheads recently for a couple of Canon type systems and whilst the heads seem to be working pretty well I was struck by the fact that international shipping was charged at $65 for the 6 heads and yet the postage charge on the box was just over $19. Add to that it took them a week before they even actually shipped the darned thing. So whilst I was paying courier rates I was getting cheap, slip shod service.


Then I took a look on ebay and noticed that they're recently quit listing anything in their ebay store and it wasn't until I check feedback that I realised why.
http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=inkcess&v=70

My first thought was WTF?!... It certainly doesn't look good and whilst I can at least be happy that my own stuff arrived and in relatively good condition I do wonder just what's happened.



Last thing... Before I found out about the ebay side of things I was looking at buying in a couple of printheads to replace a couple that have suffered from my poor CIS design... Unfortunately they're different from the ones I already had in so I started thinking about whether to get more than one or two and then make it more worthwhile by flogging the spares on ebay myself if I didn't need them. If nought else it'd help cover the postage.

Well if you go play with the incessories shopping cart system you quickly realise that something is definitely nor right with whoever set this website up. For example, you can get 2 printheads on international shipping for $20US, but if you double the quantity to four you have to pay $45US... Erm, pardon?! Then if you start using the checkout but decide you want to adjust the quantities you get a slightly different shopping basket that gives you different figures for USPS international which mysteriously double when you go back through the checkout process again.

To say this website is fubar is putting it nicely.


The irony in all of this is that up until now I've been pretty happy but this smacks of a business owner who's just let things slide and if they don't sort this stuff out they're going to be losing business hand over fist. Frankly, I would steer clear for a while until this resolves itself... Oh and if anyone happens to be in the USA and fancies trying the 800 number please feel free. I'd like to know if they even answer the phone because I can't access 800 numbers from the UK.

Jus thought I'd let people know about this anyways... not great. :/
 

on30trainman

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Interesting comments - I see they have disappeared from E-Bay it seems. The one item I ordered from them, on their E-Bay site, over a year ago - printhead for ip4000 - came within a few days. I still get emails from the Inkcessories store with various offers, mostly for filled cartridges. They had one last September that included 10% off all printheads - should have picked up spares for my ip4000 and ip6000D at that time since their delivery was still very good. Something bad must have happened for such a rash of poor feedback recently. Hope they clean up their act soon.
 

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Yeah.. I've been using them for the past year too... Only about 3 transactions and generally they're ok but things like the shipping costs and the recent rash of negatives make me wonder if there's something bad happening at home.

Communication has never been all that great with them though. I've written emails with general queries and never had a response but I'm hoping to get some kind of answer soon having used their contact us form...

As you said, here's hoping they get their act back together soon.
 

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Besides looking at eBay Feedback, sometimes http://www.resellerratings.com/ can be useful. Enter business name in the section entitled "Store Ratings".

Inkaccessories.com is listed on ResellerRating.com but the user reviews are over a year old and therefore of dubious usefulness.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I had a whopper with Meritline.com and will never buy from them again.
 

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My experience of one printhead from them about a year ago was very good. Sounds like their service has deteriorated. I did check out Canon prices at that time and Canon was charging more than inkcessories. Not so when I checked last month for a friend who needed a new printhead for his ip5000. Canon had by far the best price.
 

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Websnail, I just check the prices of a few items for the iP4200 printer from Canon. There service over the phone is the abosolute best. Here are the prices I got including shipping to Norhtern Calif.

Printhead = $33.49, total including shipping was $41,87
Lower Paper tray = $13.86
Access Door = $6.42

I have ordered other parts before and combined shipping and they didn't increase the charge for shipping unless the other part was a lot heavier.

In the past year I have ordered many of the older printheads for the i560, i850, MP730, etc. and they typically have been about $35 including shipping. All I know is that if I want a part, Canon always has it, and I've not found a place that can sell it cheaper.

They all have to buy their parts from Canon, unless they are refurbishing the parts themselves. Things that I have purchased from them include, Printheads, Purge units, MP730 Paper feed Asm, timing strips, drive belts, Input paper trays, output paper trays, and complete refurbished printers and multifuntion units.
 

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Trigger 37 said:
Websnail, I just check the prices of a few items for the iP4200 printer from Canon. There service over the phone is the abosolute best. Here are the prices I got including shipping to Norhtern Calif.

Printhead = $33.49, total including shipping was $41,87
Lower Paper tray = $13.86
Access Door = $6.42

I have ordered other parts before and combined shipping and they didn't increase the charge for shipping unless the other part was a lot heavier.

In the past year I have ordered many of the older printheads for the i560, i850, MP730, etc. and they typically have been about $35 including shipping. All I know is that if I want a part, Canon always has it, and I've not found a place that can sell it cheaper.

They all have to buy their parts from Canon, unless they are refurbishing the parts themselves. Things that I have purchased from them include, Printheads, Purge units, MP730 Paper feed Asm, timing strips, drive belts, Input paper trays, output paper trays, and complete refurbished printers and multifuntion units.
That's interesting.. Over here in the UK they charge closer to 45 for a printhead and that's through their repair and refurbishment contractor because there's no real Canon presence over here that I know of.

That said I think I'll try calling Canon direct and see if things have changed at all.

I may be asking a kindly soul to do some purchasing in the US and then shipping them over at this rate :)
 

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Just to confirm... You cannot buy Canon printheads direct here in the UK. The only sources are the authorised repair centres such as CRC or Electroversal and they charge quite a bit for theirs although CRC aren't as expensive as I found Electroversal were a year ago.
 

stratman

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Just called Canon and told a printhead for my MP830 would be to Ohio

New: $34.69 + $6 ground shipping

Refurbished: $17.25 + $6 ground shipping

It appears Canon does have reasonable prices on parts, at least to my location.

*Who would buy a Refurbished Printhead?*
 

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stratman said:
Just called Canon and told a printhead for my MP830 would be to Ohio

New: $34.69 + $6 ground shipping

Refurbished: $17.25 + $6 ground shipping

It appears Canon does have reasonable prices on parts, at least to my location.

*Who would buy a Refurbished Printhead?*
WTF?! In the UK we're talking 35 + shipping which is near enough double with the exchange rate...

Don't suppose you want to do some shopping for me now do you? :D
 
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