Avoid Becoming a Victim of “Toner Pirates”

According to the National Office Products Association more than $50 million every year is pirated from innocent consumers. Due to fraudulent telemarketing practices, you may receive telephone calls from “toner pirates” offering you special prices on supplies. In the long run, these supplies can cost you more money than you think.

Just this week, one of our customers called and mentioned that a phone solicitor had contacted them offering a really high yield toner cartridge. They wanted to know if our cartridges had really high yields. We responded that our cartridges are always the highest yield version available and that we would like to send over our “CUSTOMER PROTECTION PACKAGE” for their review. This package includes the following important information about fraudulent telemarketers that will help you when deciding whether or not a caller is legitimate.

• How you can avoid becoming a victim
• 8 ways to spot a phone scam
• Who to contact if you suspect a phone scam
• How “Toner Pirates” operate
• Sample letter to revoke products received
• Do’s and Don’ts

Our customer read the package and followed its advice to check with the Better Business Bureau. Within an hour we received an email from our customer telling us “Thank You” for the information because they found out that the telephoning vendor had an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Always check with CRS Printek if you have any doubts when ordering your supplies. If you would like a copy of this package just email me at jkelly@crsprintek.com and type “CUSTOMER PROTECTION PACKAGE” in the subject line. We are here to help you get the most value out of your office printing equipment. ■

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You can calculate the cost per page yourself and compare the 2 toner cartridges. Just divide the cost of the cartridge by the page yield of the cartridge to get the cost per page (round the number to the nearest $0.001 or tenth of a cent for accurate comparisons). Or you can contact us at 972.881.9538, as we have this information at our fingertips. ■

It's taken more than five years, but now Microsoft has finally declared Vista done. The update to the ubiquitous Windows operating system is scheduled to be delivered to big businesses and to computer makers by the end of November, and consumers should start getting their hands on it in January. Expect to see a trickle, then a flood, of Vista-related software and hardware news as the industry adjusts to the changing landscape.

You may have noticed that all new laptops support only USB connections. This is in direct response to Vista and their lack of support for serial and parallel ports. All Vista system computers will be connected to printers via USB cables or wirelessly. So you may need to upgrade your printer if you upgrade to Vista. Call us at 972.881.9538, if you need more information on compatibilities. ■

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