Printer Ink Source and similar businesses in the printer cartridge refilling industry are based on a simple assumption: Many people would rather pay $15 to $19 for a refilled cartridge than $25, $30 or more for a brand new one.
At his business, Mike Scanes makes sure he always has a number of the most popular printer cartridges refilled and ready to be purchased without any waiting time.
Customers also can drop off their empty cartridges and pick them up after they’ve been refilled. Most cartridges can be refilled half a dozen times before being thrown away.
Scanes keeps an inventory of more than 100 different inks specially made for printer cartridges. Once he refills a cartridge by hand, he puts a special clip and tape on the cartridge to prevent it from leaking out ink.
He then tries it out in one of his test printers, and that test sheet is included with the refilled cartridge to show the customer that it works.
Still, there is a failure rate of about 2 percent with refilled cartridges, Scanes said. When that happens, he replaces the dud cartridge at no extra cost.
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