Heaven forbid you or I ever win the lottery. There wouldn't be a pair of shoes or handbag in the land that was safe!

I'm currently saving like the clappers so I can act all posh when I'm in the States and just pick a handbag I like, just like the rich folk do, and not worry about the cost. I certainly don't want to act all "redneck" do I ?

One certainly does not want to act all 'redneck' does one? You go girl and be the 'rich folk' for a day!

Gucci are calling.....

over the years i've had, CANON, EPSON, LEXMARK, and finally wakened up and chose HP. the PSC range that HP make are superb, you can use them "stand alone " , you can do photocopys without having to switch your PC on. HP software that comes with the printers can be a bit over the top, but you don't need to install it, just install the basic drivers. i installed all the software on the first HP i got and was shocked at the amount of disc space it took up , over 45,000 files. ( ridiculous, most folks won't need all that info in my opinion ).

vicki, get yourself a refill kit for the black cartridge. refill your old HP cart and see how you get on. if you do, after refilling, wrap the cartridge tightly in cling film, paying particular attention to the printhead, make sure it's well sealed, then it wont dry out.

I sent an email to IJT complaining about their dried out cartridges. This was the response I got:
Sorry to hear you are experiencing problems with your purchase. We would recommend that all cartridges are stored in an upright position as they would be in the printer and not used for at least 12 hours before use. If you are still having problems please stand the cartridge upright in 1/4" of hot tap water for 5 minutes and then wipe dry and reinsert into the printer.
I've told them I'm not happy with their "solution" especially as one sentence in particular doesn't make any sense at all, and that I wish to return the whole order.
Am I doing the right thing, do you think?

the reason they're telling you to soak them is that the carts will draw the water up through the print-heads. i think it's a cop-out on their part, they should have sealed the print-heads with cling wrap or cellophane to stop them drying out. explain this to them, and ask for a refund !!

'Twasn't just the ink consumption/price that put me off HP - the little motor that operates the paper feed packed in before the printer was 3 months old!

The HP replaced an Epson SC740 which was s/h, but had worked perfectly until a dog ran over it ( ). It was never quite the same after that, even when I had it fixed.

The end result is that I trust Epson (the dog incident was not their fault!) and I don't trust HP (although their brown sauce is OK).

Snorri