toad.social

0 posts0 participants0 posts today

Jonathan Kamens 86 47OK, I lied, one last post about my <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> printer saga: I wrote it up on my blog at <a href="https://blog.kamens.us/2025/04/27/buyer-beware-printronix-printers/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://blog.kamens.us/2025/04/27/buyer-beware-printronix-printers/</a>.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47This is hopefully the final update in the saga of my attempting to buy a good printer from <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> and instead getting an expensive but crappy printer… My credit card company just ruled in my favor on the credit dispute I filed after Printronix refused to reimbuse me for the shipping cost of the printer. So I am financially "whole" from the experience; my only loss is all the time I wasted trying to get their crappy printer to work. <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printers</a>

Jonathan Kamens 86 47Update on my <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> saga… Two weeks after the returned printer was delivered to Printronix, they finally refunded most of my money, but they refused to refund the original shipping charge. I emailed them and explained that would have been fine if my return had been over personal preference, but the printer was defective and they lied to me about its capabilities before I bought it. They ignored the email, so yesterday I filed a dispute with my credit card over the shipping charge. <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printers</a>

Jonathan Kamens 86 47It has taken <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> many weeks, but they have finally agreed to take back their buggy, insecure printer and refund my money. They sent me shipping labels today and FedEx is supposedly picking it up tomorrow. Just to recap, the two specific reasons I'm returning the printer are (a) it regularly drops off of the network and refuses to reconnect, and (b) they don't have any way to distribute firmware updates, so by definition it's not secure. <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printers</a> <a href="https://federate.social/tags/fail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#fail</a>

Jonathan Kamens 86 47<a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> tells me: * they can't do anything about the fact that their printer keeps disconnecting from my WiFi and failing to reconnect until I reboot; * there's no way to find out about firmware updates or install them, so security holes in the printer can't be patched; and * the stuff about mobile printing and firmware updates in the user guide is all lies, that stuff doesn't actually exist. I'm all done. I told them to take back the printer for a refund. Why are all <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printers</a> shit?

Jonathan Kamens 86 47Weeks after I sent to support several questions about my new <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> printer, I still haven't gotten back a substantive answer to any of them, except, "Nope, we're not going to distribute a Linux PCL PPD for this printer." *sigh* I just emailed them again and told them the lack of a firmware update process and the printer's inability to stay connected to the network are both material defects, and if they can't solve them then I want my money back. We'll see what they say. I'm not hopeful. 🤷

Jonathan Kamens 86 47I've encountered another issue with my new <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> <a href="https://federate.social/tags/LP654C" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LP654C</a> <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printer</a>, so severe that if they can't fix it I'm going to demand that they take back the printer and refund my money… Twice in the short time I've had it, it has spontaneously disconnected from the WiFi network, failed to reconnect automatically, and failed to reconnect when I told it to do so from the control panel. This is ridiculous. A printer which can't handle the simple task of staying on the network is grossly defective.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47I emailed <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> support today to ask 5 questions about my new <a href="https://federate.social/tags/LP654C" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LP654C</a> <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printer</a>. I received a response which literally did not answer a single question. The response was clearly indicative of the Dunning-Kruger Effect: the responding tech clearly did not understand my questions but didn't know that, so he just sent me bullshit, nonresponsive answers. I wrote back and asked him to escalate my questions to someone else. "I paid $1,400 for this printer, I expect better support than this."

Jonathan Kamens 86 47<a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> provides a "Monitoring Tool" for macOS and Windows which, among other things, can be used to monitor their web site for firmware updates for their <a href="https://federate.social/tags/LP654C" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LP654C</a> <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printer</a> and install them when they are available. There appears to be no documented, supported way to check for or install firmware updates from Linux.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47<a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> provides fast, full-featured PCL6 drivers for Windows and macOS for their <a href="https://federate.social/tags/LP654C" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LP654C</a> printer, but for Linux they provide a much slower PostScript driver instead. I was able to speed up printing on Linux dramatically by switching to the generic pxlcolor PCL6 driver in <a href="https://federate.social/tags/foomatic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#foomatic</a>, but since it's a generic driver it doesn't know about all of the printer's features. It's just laziness preventing them from releasing a full-featured PCL driver for Linux.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47Unlike most printers, which have "media type" and "media weight" as a single setting (i.e., when you specify the media type that indicates the weight as well), the <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> <a href="https://federate.social/tags/LP654C" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LP654C</a> <a href="https://federate.social/tags/printer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#printer</a> has separate settings for media type and weight. If you don't set the weight properly, the printer doesn't adhere to the page properly and you get big blotches and/or toner scattered all over the page. Separating the two settings is IMO a terrible design.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47OK, my <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a> LP654C <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printer</a> is set up. First impressions: 1/ It prints fine so far. 2/ It seems like a very solid printer. 3/ The toner cartridges are relatively small. Unlike my old HP printer which attached a separate little drum to every toner cartridge, the Printronix cartridges only have… toner in them. The drum is a separate consumable. I believe this also means lower per-page cost for this printer. 4/ The admin UIs for this printer are terrible. 🧵

Jonathan Kamens 86 47In fact, I could only find one printer manufacturer anywhere close to my price-point which claims to have a straight-paper path and advertises registration accuracy on all print media as one of its key features: <a href="https://federate.social/tags/Printronix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Printronix</a>. And that is why I will be accepting delivery of a Printronix LP654C printer from FedEx later today. 🧵

Recent searches

Search options

Administered by:

Server stats:

#printronix