Customer Reviews

Epson Stylus CX4200 Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

Below is the message which my boyfriend sent to their customer support. I am certain you can figure out the problem.

I am incredibly offended by your ink policy regarding the Epson Stylus CX4200. In particular, I want to print a black and white text document, but am unable to do so without replacing my color cartridges. Not only that, but when I try to print, your Epson Status Monitor 3 pops up and reminds me that I don't have color ink, and wouldn't I like to buy some? When I visit your FAQ, and try to figure out how to explain to my printer that it doesn't need color ink in order to print my black and white document, the FAQ tells me that yes, I do. And wouldn't I like to buy some ink?

No. I do not want to buy more color ink. I want to print my document. You do _not_ need color ink for this purpose.

I find it overwhelmingly insulting to imagine a meeting where this policy was arrived at. Clearly someone must have suggested letting the printer print black and white documents without color cartridges, and the response must have been "instead, we could really rip our customers off!" Why any company would be willing to anger their customers so much is beyond me. I cannot imagine myself buying Epson products in the future. I am certainly _not_ going to buy color ink cartridges just so I can print my black and white documents. I'm simply going to sit here and reflect at how incredibly stupid and insulting your current policy is.

We were very pleased with our CX4200 through the first set of ink cartridges. It was easy to use, the print quality on text was good, the print quality on graphics was good. It installed without a hitch and worked with all of our programs. The scanner worked well. We were happy.

But then after about 250 pages, it quit loading paper. It thought it was loading paper, as it continued to "print" by spraying ink inside of the printer. I tried different kinds of paper to no avail. We were using high quality HP paper too, not some generic low-grade stuff. Not one sheet ever got through it again.

I think it is a fantastic machine. I previously owned a more expensive epson photo printer with the 5-color ink tank and it was much slower and had all sorts of issues such as nozzle drying. I don't print every day and the inks in my cx4200 have never dried or clogged. Furthermore, they last forever--it has been 6 months since I purchased this printer and only now is my black ink cartridge showing a low level while my color tanks are more than halfway full. The individual ink tanks are a great plus for saving money. It's worth mentioning that the printer feels nice and solid and isn't glossy or cheap looking. I've seen other comparable all-in-ones which are much bulkier or seem to have flimsy buttons and tacky coloring. The dark grey color of this epson is professional looking and simple.

The standalone photo copying is awesome and very quick. Using photo paper, the copies are good enough to send to friends or family or to make postcards or greeting cards. The fully-automated scanning works like a charm and it identifies whether you are scanning a photo or document all on its own. I recently figured out I can create a .pdf document within minutes with the Epson scanning software, without having to upgrade my Adobe Acrobat reader.

I use both a laptop running XP professional and an iMac G5 and can switch back and forth from PC to Mac with no problems. I would definitely buy this again and would recommend it to my friends. Best of all, if you buy this printer in combination with a digital camera, you get [...] back via mail-in [...] making the price very affordable.

The 4200 is slow printing, but reasonable in type appearance. Color is good. Seems OK so far. Replacement Ink cartridges are expensive.

Just got one of these puppies, and have been using it to print my tax forms, and copy my Tax software/printer rebate parapernalia. Very pleased so far with the quality of the output and the ease of use.

The b/w and color single sheet copy features are very easy to use - just put your item on the scanner glass and hit either the b/w or color copy button - it is that easy.

One issue I should mention, on my WinXP machine, after I installed the drivers and other software and when my computer came back up after I was instructed to reboot, it didn't recognize the new USB printer device at first... I ended up powering down my system, unplugging the USB connection, and then after I rebooted my system, I plugged in the printer's USB connection, and the system recognized the new USB device, and the rest of the printer install went smoothly.

There are two problems with this printer and the other Epson CX models. First, the printer will not operate if any ink cartridge is empty. If the black cartridge is full, and any other cartridge is empty it will not operate even if you want to print in black only.

Second, these models have a tendency to clog from ink residue if you don't run cleaning cycles after each use, which exhaust your ink supply. This is a complete waste of ink and an expensive maintenance issue.

I, too, am incredibly aggravated that I cannot print with only black ink. I ran out of blue ink but all my other inks are full, and I just want to print a black & white document. The printer won't print at all even though I checked the various "print only black" printer options.

Have had this printer for about a year, scanner works great, printer worked great. Until now.

Now it says the color cartridges are out and refuses to print in black & white without the color cartridges. Except the color cartridges aren't actually out. They're about halfway full. Wonderful.

Will never buy from Epson again.

Last year I purchased an Epson Stylus CX5000 printer and I've been disappointed with it since day one.

About two sets of ink cartridges in, I vowed to never use it again. Recently, I guess I had forgotten about my vow and I thought I'd give it another try. This meant purchasing new ink cartridges. This printer won't let you print even if only one cartridge is detected to be low. I installed the new cartridges and by the time I went through all the diagnostics and so-called alignment, nozzle cleaning, etc., the printer software popped up a message saying I was low on ink again. Low on ink with the very colors I had just replaced. Needless to say, I'm fuming. If ink cartridges cost what they are worth, which is probably around fifty cents, I might not be so mad. After all, it would only mean stocking up on the stupid things. But when I purchased these, the cost was outrageous.

Also, why doesn't epson provide the customer with a recycling packet that can be mailed back to them for used print cartridges (free of charge). On the packet it says to dispose of them properly. What does that mean? At the rate these things get used up, what's this doing to our landfills? What kind of toxic chemicals are inside these things? My recycling company doesn't take ink cartridges. I'm tempted to package all the used ones and mail them back to the epson and let them deal with it. They'll probaby just throw them in the trash and I'll be out the shipping cost.

The more I work with computer-related products, the more I believe the world was just fine without all this garbage and life was also less expensive. Sorry for getting philosophical on you.

And no, I not buying another brand. This one will go to the recycling center and I'll get by without a printer. I'm sure they all find a way to gouge you.

Good luck!


By the way, the one-star rating I gave this was only because I couldn't give it no stars. There should be a negative scale to rate this product. One star implies the product has some value.

I don't know what to say - but I've bought Epson printers in the past and have good fortune with them. This one however - as other reviewers stated needs all 4 colors to be filled for it to work at all. You can only buy the cartridges from Epson now since they sued all the after marketers. A typcial price for all four colors cost over $50 now. I would not even by this printer dirt cheap - I plan to throw mine away and get another brand.