Historically, people saw printers as a necessities for any home computer setup. Now, however, fewer and fewer people are making a place for one in their home, with studies consistently showing declines in printer sales over the past few years.
There are a few reasons for this switch. First, many things that previously required printing are now available online. For example, everywhere from movie theaters to airports now allows for e-ticketing that lets customers simply download a ticket to their phone rather than print it.
Second, people are just fed up with printers, specifically, the cost of printer ink. For example, one internet user said they went to the store to buy some replacement ink for their printer, only to discover that her color ink and black ink cartridges were $103.99 and $59.99, respectively. Another simply identified the ink-buying process as a “scam.”
If you still have a printer and find that it says it’s running out of ink, there may be a way around it, as TikTok user @ibc.suitecheeks revealed in a video with over 36,000 views.
Are printers honest about their ink levels?
In her video, the TikToker says she’s had a specific Brother printer for about 6 years, and so far, she’s been very satisfied with it.
However, the printer recently began showing an error message saying that she needed to replace the toner cartridge. While she tried to continue printing anyway by pulling out the cartridge, shaking it, then reinstalling it, it still showed the error message and would not print.
“So, I decided to try the University of YouTube to see if there was a way I could clear out those error codes to print the rest of the paper,” she explains. “Sure enough, there was a great guy on there who showed me through a couple of steps on how to go ahead and clear that out, and then I was able to finish my print job.”
Being able to clear the error and continue the print job didn’t exactly surprise the TikToker. What did surprise her was just how long the printer lasted after the error message was cleared.
“Guess how many pages I was able to print after I cleared out that error code and did not replace the cartridge. Go ahead, guess,” she states. “2,000. Four reams of paper I was able to print after I cleared out that error code and didn’t replace the cartridge.”
Do printers lie about their ink or toner levels?
Printers lying about how much ink they have in them is a common complaint on the internet. Everyone from forum users to Redditors is griping about how their printers appear to be lying about how much ink they have within them.
Others have made similar claims to the TikToker, claiming they were able to print out hundreds of pages even when their printer warned that it was “low on ink.” In fact, HP was even sued for this alleged practice back in 2010. The case was later settled.
If one finds themselves in a similar situation to the TikToker, it may be worth it to explore options to override the error message. To do this, one can simply look up “override low ink warning” and the name of the specific model of their printer.
@ibc.suitecheeks Corporate waste and greed continues. If you have a printer you’ll want to figure out how to clear the “replace toner” code before you actually do #scam #corporategreed ♬ original sound – SuiteCheeks
Commenters share their thoughts
In the comments section, users noted the absurdity of the TikToker’s situation, with many claiming to have similar experiences.
“The painful part is Brother is the least bad printer company,” wrote a user.
“I ran my samsung printer for 18 months while the cartridge reported 1%,” added another.
“I still don’t understand why a printer needs to tell you to replace the cartridge and not just a low ink warning,” offered a third. “Keep printing until it’s out!”
“I have about 5 of these printers and I do this all the time,” detailed a further TikToker. “I literally print until I run so low on toner that the print quality is poor and them i change it.”
The Daily Dot reached out @ibc.suitecheeks via TikTok comment and Brother via email.
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