I'm boycotting KODAK!

From this...
To this...

As soon as my Easy Share camera bites it, I will NEVER, as long as I live, own another KODAK product!!! Strong opening statement, I know, but let me now explain WHY...

Last year, for my birthday, DH takes me to Office Depot for a new printer. I wanted several things from my new one, after having suffered at the hands of DELL for sticking me with a crappy, POS Lexmark for 4yrs. I wanted: (1) good print quality, (2) something that printed fast, (3) ink that lasted through more than 3 print jobs, (4) inexpensive ink replacements, (5) a company that stands behind their product. I honestly thought that I was going to get that with the new line of KODAK printers. After all, KODAK has been around for nearly 100 years, they offer good customer service (on their cameras anyway - my Easy Share has not given me one lick of trouble {knocking on wood here}). I should have known...

I should have known when I was offered the demo model because the stores within 30miles were all out.

I should have known when it took me 11 hours to get the firmware installed from the internet.

I should have known by October of 2007, when they had to replace the first printhead after only printing on the machine for a month.

But NO! I stuck it out, like an idiot! I chalked it up to me maybe not knowing how to install the new printer. Then I chalked it up to maybe it being a demo, the public wore out the first printhead. And so there I sat, in my she-cave on the 15th of August...just 3 weeks away from the one year mark on owning this little gem.

I hit print, it goes through just like everything's fine, but when I look at the paper, all 12 pages to be exact, there's no text & half of the colors are gone. What the?!? That can't be...I just replaced the color cartridge last night, because the warning light said it was low on ink. I ran the print job again (only 1 page). Same thing, but only more color was missing from the images. So I go online to the KODAK website to do some troubleshooting. Took three hours & they have me jumping through all kinds of hoops.

The entire time I was online troubleshooting, I:
1) installed the new firmware update (took 1/2 hour even on my high speed cable connection - I feel bad for folks on dial-up with this problem!)
2) checked my cartridges to see if they were installed correctly (twice)
3) pulled & reinstalled the printhead (three times)
4) ran a demo print (twice)
5) performed a printhead cleaning (twice)
6) ran a calibration (three times)

None of those things worked & the troubleshooting steps suggested that I may have a bad printhead. GREAT! Two bad printheads in less than a year -- not good odds. So I link over to customer service & fire off an e-mail. Next morning I have a reply & this gal is wanting me to perform all the steps from the night before AGAIN. Are you serious?

I replied that I'd already done these things several times, I wasn't going to do it again & that KODAK had 2 options - they could: (a) go ahead & send me ANOTHER printhead, even though I think 2 in less than a year is stupid or (b) refund my money so I could buy a Canon, Epson, or HP that would be more reliable. I felt that 2 printheads in a year told me that I had a lemon & would not continue to go through this. I wait 3 days...no reply from this gal. Suffice it to say that by now, I'm a little more than irritated.

2pm on the 19th...I start calling KODAK's customer service for printers (each product has its own customer service # - I'm now assuming it's due to the massive volume of calls they receive on their garbage that they sell). Screw fixing the problem, I want my money back! I have this guy, that I can barely understand because his English is so crappy, telling me that he needs to patch me over to the Assistance Team for a refund & can I hold? Sure.

If I'm lyin, I'm dyin, 35 minutes of sitting on hold, the SAME guy picks up & I can hear him say, "She's still on there!" then the line goes dead. Little Pakistani B@*%!#D hung up on me!!! {grr!} {this would probably make great material for Jeff Dunham & Walter!}

So I call AGAIN, sit on hold waiting for an "available agent"...5 minutes later I finally get one & he tells me that he can't help, there's no such thing as an Assistance Team & that I need to talk to Technical Support. So I sit on hold for another 15 mintues while he throws me to them, and finally after 10 minutes of explanations & discussions later, they're telling me that I need Online Ordering Assistance because they're the only ones that can issue refunds for purchases & gives me their number (no they can't patch me through, sorry).

I call Online Assistance & they want an order #, even though I've just finished explaining less than 2 minutes ago that I bought it in September 2007. They really don't pay attention, do they? So I say it AGAIN...I already have the product in my posssession, it's failing from the same problem as in October of last year & I just want to return the unit & get my money back.

His answer: "We don't do that. You need to call Technical Support."
I say, "I don't want Technical Support. They told me to call YOU for a refund of my purchase. They didn't even offer to help me fix the darn printhead!"
He says, "We don't do that."
I say, "You mean you don't give refunds there."
He says, "No. We don't give refunds at all. You need to take it back to the store where you bought it."

Well CRAP!!! So here I sit, madder than a wet hornet, 4 phone calls & over two hours of my time WASTED, ready to reach through the phone & wring someone's friggin worthless neck, only to be told to take it to the store. FINE! God help the idiot at Office Depot that answers & tells me there's nothing they can do!!!

I call Office Depot & ask for a manger. I tell the assistant mgr my lengthy, horrible tale. They take some information from me & told me that they'd call me right back. Ten minutes later the store manager calls back & says that he tried talking to the extended warranty company & I was right...till the day after my birthday the extended warranty won't take effect & I really needed to call KODAK. BUT...knowing how my experience had already gone with them, they weren't going to make me take that route (thank GOD!). So my heroes at OD told me to bring in my old KODAK printer, the CD with my extended warranty on it, & an idea of what I want my printer to do for me.

By the time I was done, I walked out with a Hewlitt Packard OFFICE inkjet printer, the black one pictured up top here (straight across trade because the new one was on sale!), an extra black ink cartridge, and another 2yr extended warranty for $96. He even told me that Office Depot (Corporate) quit carrying the KODAK printer for stores to sell, because KODAK wouldn't back up their product with the dealers. How pathetic is that?!?

For those that I might have inadvertently talked into buying a KODAK printer over the last year...I'm deeply sorry & I sincerely hope that yours works for at least 4 yrs and isn't a LEMON like mine was!

Thanks for reading my rant. I'll be back to crafting later this weekend after I spend a few days doing some much-needed filing & getting rid of these mounds of paper -- I'm determined to see my carpeting by Sunday! (LOL)