Inkdepot.com.au - Ink and Toner Cartridges

We are very excited to share with you details of an Australian company, Cartridge Rescue, who is committed to help saving the environment. We were recently introduced to Cartridge Rescue by Greg, one of our loyal customers.

Cartridge Rescue reuses old printer ink cartridges and reassembles them into new cartridges and printer refills. This way Cartridge Rescue saves the environment by using the cartridge again rather than disposing it. In addition, energy isn’t wasted on unnecessarily ‘melting’ the printer cartridge down and remaking it into something else. Most ink cartridges can be reused many times over.

A great benefit of using Cartridge Rescue is that can organise for them to come to you to pick up your empty cartridges – at no cost! In addition to the positive environmental impact of reusing ink cartridges, Cartridge Rescue donates to charities such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service. They are also currently sponsoring Dani Samuels who is training to represent Australia in the Women’s Discus at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Ink Depot does not have any formal association with Cartridge Rescue but we thought they appear to be doing an admirable job in recycling printer ink cartridges. For more information about Cartridge Rescue please visit their website at www.cartridgerescue.com.au

Here are some interesting facts about printer cartridge recycling:

 

• Australians currently only recycle about 20% of printer cartridges – the rest go to landfill!

• Old printer cartridges do not readily degrade and have a devastating effect on our water ways.

• Most printer cartridges can be reused – the rest can be turned into something else – even the residual ink!

• It takes 20 times more energy to manufacture a new ink cartridge than to reuse one.

• A new cartridge uses up to 3 litres of oil in its production.

See our previous blog ‘Does recycling really help the environment’ for more information about your options for recycling.

Tags: environment, fax, green, ink cartridges, Inkjet, landfill, multifunction, photocopiers, planet ark, printers, recycled, recycling, rubbish, toner

Here are some great ideas to keep you or the kids busy over this festive season. You can make your own gifts, decorations and select from a wide range of children activities.  There are some fantastic websites that offer a huge diversity of Christmas projects - just type ‘free Christmas craft’ or something similar into your search engine.

Why not make your own:

Gift certificates

Christmas Dot to Dot and puzzles

Books - for example, Christmas songs, memories, photos

Word puzzles and word searches

Advent calendar

Festive letterhead, envelopes and stationery

Decorations

Gift tags

Christmas cards

Colouring pages

Festive Clip art

Mazes

Plus many more ……..

Here are a few websites to start you off (please note: we have no affiliation with these websites and cannot vouch for their appropriateness).

 http://www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/npprintables.html

 http://www.allcrafts.net/xmas.htm

 http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas

 http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas_puzzles.htm

 http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag74.html

Have a happy and safe festive season
- from the Team at Inkdepot.com.au

Tags: , cards, christmas printables, craft, ink cartridges, printer ink

It will come as no surprise that many technical printer problems seem beyond logic. But did you know that there are a lot of great tips and help available on the internet? Simply Googling a problem or going to the manufacturer’s web page can solve so many printing problems.

Recently one of our office printers was having trouble. It refused to print using the yellow cartridge. We tried many solutions including replacing the yellow cartridge several times! In addition, we ran the normal print nozzle cleaning program through the standard maintenance function on the actual printer. Nothing worked and we were considering replacing the printer.

However, one of our very cluey work colleagues Googled our problem and discovered an enormous number of handy hints to get the most out of your printer. She fixed our problem easily and quickly.

The printer was the Brother MFC 440CN. She Googled this model number with the words ‘won’t print yellow’. The solution gave instructions to access the ‘back office’ maintenance function usually only operated by printer technicians. All she had to do was run the following special cleaning mode:

Press ‘menu’ then ‘start/mono’, then ‘arrow-up’ four times. The printer then switched to maintenance mode (buttons flash). Then press ‘764′ (refresh ink tubes) ten press ‘763′ to run the power clean. After this all you need do is press ‘99′ to exit maintenance mode.

The printer is fixed and now prints perfectly using all colours.

So if you are having printing problems it might be wise to try trouble shooting it on the web. Just type in the model number and the problem to see what help is available. If that fails you can always try to look on the funny side and take the technical advice of the office cat:

Here are some great tips to make printing more economical:

1. Make ‘Draft quality’ your default print mode. This will save you both time and money.
2. Use compatible ink cartridges. These ink cartridges are usually as good as genuine branded ones but at a fraction of the price. Reputable sellers will guarantee the quality of compatible cartridges.
3. Many printers accept high yield cartridges. High yield cartridges are more expensive than normal yield but the cost per printed page can be significantly cheaper.
4. Buy the right printer! Many people get seduced by a great deal when they buy a printer and are then shocked at the cost of replacement ink cartridges. Always, find out how much printer consumables are before you make your printer purchase.
5. Be selective with your printing. Much ink is wasted with printing nonessential details. Just print what you need by using the cut and paste function when printing from websites, emails and other documents.
6. Print 2 pages per sheet (providing, of course, you can clearly read the output).
7. Buy from a reputable seller or supplier. We have found that shopping on-line is often a lot cheaper as on-line shops do not have the expensive overheads of retail outlets. Many on-line sellers help save you on postage too.
8. Be loyal to your supplier. Look for a supplier that gives you loyalty points each time you purchase. It is amazing how quickly these points add up and contribute to your $ savings.
9. Subscribe to your suppliers newsletter if they have one. Professional printer ink suppliers value communicating with their customers and often reward them with special incentives through their newsletter.
10. Get your friends involved. Many ink cartridge sellers reward customers who refer new customers. Alternatively, you can often buy in bulk and save money on both cartridges and postage.

In addition, in these tough economic times we are always looking for ways to save money.   This video will give you more ideas on saving money on printer ink:
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-save-money-on-printer-ink-6812/

Are you one of those who has never bought a single item online and is hesitant to even try? If so, then I understand where you’re coming from because I’ve once been there too.

I’m no mind reader but, based on how I felt before making my first online purchase, one of the reasons may be: “It’s not secure enough. I’ve heard so many horror stories about people not receiving their orders or, worse, having their credit card information stolen”. Over a hundred payments for products and services after, my perception of online transactions has changed.

Sure, fears of expectations not being met or not getting the product at all are not unfounded. Things like that do happen. But if you know where to look and know what kind of transactions to avoid, you’ll come out not only unscathed but rather extremely satisfied. While I’ve been disappointed at times in the past, the frequency of feeling that way has largely diminished over time.

In its place is the satisfaction from being able to choose, pay, and receive products from the comfort of my home.

In this day and age, some sites have numerous pictures (and even videos) of their products. That way, you’ll be able to make a wise, well-informed decision. In this regard, you might want to focus on sites that provide detailed information of their items.

Now let’s not forget about security. The most common method of payment is through credit cards. Make sure the merchant site is a reputable one. If possible, find one that’s based in your locality. If you’re in the US, look for a US-based site. If you’re in Australia, then an Australian-based site, and so on. That way, you can easily verify if they do exist. Best of all, they’re of course much cheaper.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email the site’s owner. Their email address and other contact information is usually found on the Contact Us page. There you’ll also most likely find the merchant’s PO Box or street address as well as their telephone number. They’ll be more than happy to answer your queries.

 As you can see, it will be easier for you to communicate with a local-based merchant.

 Although having a valid PO Box or street address and telephone numbers are indicative of a reputable organization, there are other ways of determining whether a website can be trusted or not. One is the Google Page Rank, another is the Alexa rating.

 When a site has a high Page Rank (PR), that means the site can be easily found in a Google search result. There are lots of online tools to determine a site’s page rank. Just enter “google page rank” into the search box. One such site is PRChecker.info. Just enter the site’s URL in the box provided and click the “Check PR” button.

Alexa ratings are opposite to PR’s. That is, the smaller the Alexa rating of a site, the higher its visitor traffic is. Head on to Alexa.com and enter the site’s URL in the box provided then click Get Info.

Knowing the Alexa rating and the PR of websites selling the same product will give you an idea which one is more popular and trusted by other buyers. Remember, HIGHER PR and LOWER Alexa rated sites generally have a higher number of visitors. This can usually mean buyers flock to these sites because their experience there was fulfilling.

When a website offers newsletters and there’s a possibility for you to transact with the site again in the future, get a subscription. Sometimes, these newsletters announce discounted deals and tidbits. It always pays to be informed.

Find time to participate in merchant-initiated surveys. They’ve been made specifically to let the merchant know how he can best serve you. So that the next time you get back for another transaction, you can enjoy a better buying experience.

So go ahead, all it takes is just one purchase to get the ball rolling.

Australians throw away more than 18 million printer cartridges every year! This means over 5,000 tonnes of  discarded rubbish ends up as unhealthy landfill. How can we stop this? I guess it requires us all to have a recycling mindset. You might find this easier if  you consider the insight environmental campaigner Anita Roddick brought to the issue of rubbish - to paraphrase her she said ‘we never throw things away we just put them somewhere else’. The unfortunate result of throwing away old ink cartridges is that they have the potential to contaminate waterways and the environment in general. We would like to encourage you to embrace the many Green Policies that responsible businesses embrace. For example at inkdepot.com.au we encourage our customers to place their old empty cartridges in Planet Ark cartridge recycling  bins found at many participating outlets http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/ . All types and brands of printer cartridges used in printers, photocopiers, multi-function centres and fax machines can be placed in the bin. All of the printer cartridges recycled by Planet Ark’s partner , Close the Loop^®, are done so with zero waste to landfill. To date the industry-funded Planet Ark program has recycled more than 4 million cartridges via 15,000 businesses and over 2,300 retail outlets.Watch this interesting video on how recycling ink cartridges can achieve great things.

So, yes recycling can help the environment in a very positive and long term way.

Tags: environment, fax, green, ink cartridges, Inkjet, landfill, multifunction, photocopiers, planet ark, printers, recycled, recycling, rubbish, toner

The versatility and accessibility of printers means that more and more people are enjoying the benefits of easy, effective and efficient printing. Whether you are printing for business purposes, happy snaps, craft, school work and so on it is important that you get a reliable and quality print outcome. There are two choices when it comes to selecting the type of printer cartridge – genuine or compatible. Genuine, brand name, cartridges are what are provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and usually placed at a premium price. Whilst, compatible cartridges are usually much cheaper but are generic or a ‘no name’ brand. Both types of cartridges are useful and have their benefits. The lower price of compatible cartridges makes printing more accessible to many users. Compatible cartridges are of high quality and are designed to work as well as original brand manufacturer cartridges. Unfortunately there are compatibles produced in some countries where the quality may not be up to standard. To safeguard ourselves against selling these types of products to our customers, we at Ink Depot only supply compatibles from the largest importers of compatibles in Australia. The brands we supply, (mainly Printrite and Q-Image), are probably the dominant compatible brands in Australia. Having said that, even quality compatibles are not fault free. Very occasionally, a compatible will not work with a specific printer because of a micro chip incompatibility. Even more rarely, a quality compatible cartridge can give less than satisfactory printing results.  To ensure our customers are protected in these instances, we offer a full warranty against defective cartridges, where you can elect to have your money refunded, or we replace your cartridge free of charge. Genuine cartridges are also popular with many customers. These cartridges have all of the benefits of normal branded products but do often cost a lot more. However, we are Ink Depot realise that some people do prefer the peace of mind in using a known brand. We sell all of the major ink cartridge brands including HP, Epson, Canon, Brother etc. To help create value to our customers we strive to offer ‘Higher Standards at Lower Prices’. Being an on-line store our everyday prices are very competitive however from time to time we have some great price specials. Check out our current great specials for yourself.

Web based retail businesses strive to make positive differences in the lives of their customer. For example at inkdepot.com.au we do this by selling our genuine and compatible printer ink and toner cartridges at low prices. By providing low prices and higher standards we attract a strong and loyal customer base.

To celebrate this loyalty we reward our customers each and every time they buy from us. This means that every time you shop at inkdepot.com.au you earn Shopping Points.So how do you get something for nothing? Just use your Shopping Points to contribute towards other printer cartridges from inkdepot.com.au or buy yourself a WISH!That’s right; your loyalty shopping points at inkdepot.com.au can be used to buy a Wish Gift card. The Wish Gift Cards can be spent at any participating Woolworths and Safeway Supermarkets including CALTEX WOOLWORTHS and CALTEX SAFEWAY. The Wish Gift cards can also be used at HomeShop, BIG W, Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith PowerHouse, Tandy, Woolworths Liquor, Safeway Liquor, BWS, or Dan Murphy’s stores.

Not surprisingly, in these tough economic times we have found the gift of Caltex Fuel a popular one!So why not maximise the purchase of your ink and toner products through inkdepot.com.au by treating yourself or someone else to a Wish.

By the way, we have some very savvy customers who have built their loyalty shopping points even more quickly by earning 500 bonus shopping points each time they refer a new customer to us – that’s equivalent to $5.00 in your loyalty bank.  It is as simple as that to earn free money!So, if you would like to work towards your choice of a reward just keep track of your loyalty shopping points each time your shop at inkdepot.com.au – it doesn’t cost you anything.

Tags: customer rewards, discount ink, gift cards, ink cartridges, loyalty points, petrol savings, printer ink, shopping points, toner, wish cards

Just very recently, HP announced the imminent release of its new Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web, basically a printer that connects to the World Wide Web. Despite it being a technological milestone of sorts, it didn’t stop some people from wondering out loud, “Now why would we want a printer like that?” Well, here’s why we think it’s something you would like to get your hands on.

Printing Web-stored pictures:
The rapid development of digital cameras and the emergence of online photo sharing sites have triggered a shooting frenzy among youngsters and hobbyists alike. With these two technologies, it’s so easy to shoot an image, upload it to Photobucket, Flickr, Fotki, Kodak Easy Share or what have you, and share them with your friends.

Well, that’s fine and dandy until some relatives or friends drop by to catch up on lost time. Before this digital age, people bonded by sharing albums pretty much like we share albums online except that they were done in the comfort of a couch or the floor. If you had 5 visitors coming over, then they were able to view 5 different albums - of course, looking at different sets of pictures at the same time.

Today, you might invite them all to crowd in front of a single computer screen. So you can go like, “You don’t have a good view? Don’t worry, I’ll just swing the screen in your direction from time to time.”. Unless of course you decide to ask each of them to bring their own notebooks and share files through Wi-Fi … Wow. “Don’t have a notebook? Buy one before coming over.”

 Then again, you could simply tell them, “Hey, I’ve got some pictures that I’d like you all to see. I’ve got an account on Flickr. You can all view them there when you get home… Don’t have an Internet connection yet? Just drop by the nearest Internet cafe … ah ok, so you’re using Shutterfly? It’s ok, I’ll just include your email address.”

 Now, tell me, where’s the fun there? Wouldn’t it have been better had you been able to share your pictures right then and there? Would you rather laugh alone in front of your computer screen than with your buddies?

 Hardcopies of your pictures are still indispensable. Sure, you can share images online to your online friends. It’s also best to store them there if you want to keep them safe and easily accessible whenever you need them. But there are still times when you should print a copy to store in albums in your home.

 With this printer, you simply navigate to the app that links to your online photo storage, select an image, and print. There’s no need to boot up your PC. With the quality of inks they sell these days, it’s easy to produce remarkably vivid pictures.

Maps and Calendars:

Are you planning on vacationing somewhere and need to bring a map along? How about a hard copy of a busy day’s itinerary? You’ll be delighted to know that HP has partnered with Google on this this project. Yup, that means Google Maps and Calendar will be easily accessible from customized applications on this printer, allowing you to print maps and schedules seamlessly.

News on paper:

 Do you already have one of those expensive e-book readers? If not, then you can still grab a hold of the latest news on the simple, familiar, and comfortable surface called PAPER. With the current USAToday-customized application, readers can print out monthly, weekly, or daily updates. They can even choose which topics should appear, e.g., sports, business, world, etc.

 Since this device allows for two-sided printing, it’s going to turn out to be quite economical.

Movie Tickets:

Through Fandango, people are already enjoying the benefits of online movie ticket purchases. As it teams up with HP, these purchases are made even simpler. Imagine being able to choose movies running on your local theater through the touch-screen on your printer. There’s even a preview feature where you can watch movie trailers.

Once you’ve selected, say “Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen”, you just need to print the ticket out, grab some popcorn, head straight to the movie ticket booth, and watch Megan Fox blow up some nasty robots … Oh, did I mention you don’t have to wait in line anymore?

Tags: , digital cameras, HP, online photo sharing, Photosmart Premium, print a photo, print an image, print maps, print movie ticket, print schedules, printer, Printing Web-stored pictures, TouchSmart Web

This month we have some extra specials for you. Check out some great prices below:
Genuine HP value twin pack - HP21/22  $45.95:
We have a great special this month on the HP21/22 twin pack. This is a genuine HP value pack that contains one black genuine and one colour genuine cartridge combo pack. We normally have this pack retailing at a very competitive price of $51.06 but for the month of June we have reduced the price to $45.95! These genuine cartridges are used for many HP printers including those listed below.  To see details of this special and our other monthly specials click the Monthly Specials link here

Compatible Printers for the HP21/22:
Deskjet 3920   Deskjet 3940   Deskjet D1360   Deskjet D2360   Deskjet F2180   Deskjet F2235   Deskjet F2275   Deskjet F2280   Deskjet F370   Deskjet F380   Deskjet F4185   Officejet 4355   Officejet 5610   PSC 1410

HP  (Compatible) Toner - Q6000 4pk Bundle  $297.39:
Compatible toner cartridges offer great value and for this month you can save over $50.00. Until the end of June we are offering you the HP Q6000 value 4 pack bundle at a very attractive price. The 4 pack bundle consists of 1 x Black, 1 x Cyan, 1 x Magenta and 1 x Yellow compatible cartridges. To see details of this special and our other monthly specials click the Monthly Specials link here:

These compatible HP Q6000 cartridges can be used in the following printers:
Colour Laserjet 1600   Colour Laserjet 2600N   Colour Laserjet 2605   Colour Laserjet CM1015   Colour Laserjet CM1017

Special purchase of the Genuine HP 6000A - Black toner  NOW $109.67! A great price for one of our popular genuine toner cartridges. To see details of this special and our other monthly specials click the Monthly Specials link here:

This genuine HP6000A black toner can be used with the following printers: 
Colour Laserjet 1600   Colour Laserjet 2600N   Colour Laserjet 2605   Colour Laserjet CM1015   Colour Laserjet CM1017

*No loyalty shopping points awarded for discounted products