I tried a couple 'dirt cheap' cartridges before and the print quality was rather poor. So I decided to try 123Inkjets given their products were significantly more expensive than many discount inkjet competitors, presuming I stood a better chance of getting more if I paid more (i.e. you get what you pay for).
I purchased 1 each black and color Lexmark compatible (remanufactured) cartridge #12A1980/70 for Lexmark 3200 Printer.
After printing about 5 pages I noticed some ink spatter and smearing that was minor at first. After printing 5 more pages it was real bad, so I remove the black tank and it was leaking badly, slinging ink all over inside the printer as the cartriges moved back and forth. I spent about an hour cleaning ink out of my printer.
The color cartridge never worked at all. I used the print head cleaning utility about 5 times then tried to coax ink out using a damp paper towel to wipe the print head. Nothing.
Customer Service was fairly good, no hassle exchange, but the replacements were hardly better. The black cartridge began to leak again after about 40 pages, although it didn't leak nearly as bad as the first had. The color cartridge produced minor banding that never went away even after extensive cleaning. Printing numerous test pages showed that some of the nozzles were plugged or dead, nothing brought them back.
The color cartridge required head cleaning if the printer was idle for only 24 hours, I presume from ink drying and clogging. I used more ink printing head cleaning test sheets than printing my stuff.
After buying a new Epson printer, on the recommendation of a friend I tried Tyler Martin's USA Brand ink cartridges. I was suspicious because their prices were lower than 123Inkjets.
WOW! Good print results, I highly recommend the USA Brand from TylerMartin.com
Usually, you get what you pay for, but not from 123Inkjets.
This review was modified by its author, tcsenter, on
12/30/04 5:23 PM.