Thursday, October 21, 2021

I Won't Be Buying a Canon Printer

Our 10-year-old Epson Artisan inkjet printer has finally reached the end of its life, at least as a printer. I had the printer cleaned at a local shop a few months ago, but a few weeks after that, the printing went wonky again. Fortunately, I have a Brother laser printer, which keeps trundling on and on, but I can no longer print in colour.

The scanner still works fine. It's a good thing I don't have a recent Canon printer though, as newer Canon inkjet printers won't work, even as a scanner, if the ink runs out. Canon is now being sued over this reprehensible behaviour.  

 Canon, best known for manufacturing camera equipment and printers for business and home users, is being sued for not allowing customers to use the scan or fax functions in multi-function devices if the ink runs out on numerous printer models. David Leacraft filed a class action lawsuit against Canon USA, alleging the company engaged in deceptive marketing and unjust enrichment practices.

Leacraft decided to file the lawsuit upon discovering a Pixma MG2522 printer he purchased, advertised as an "all-in-one" machine, would not function as a scanner when ink cartridges are either low or empty. Moreover, faxing capabilities would not work when certain printers ran out of ink as well.

Of course, ink is not required to perform scanning or faxing documents, so the complaint stresses these features should function regardless of ink levels. As such, the lawsuit, which involves more than 100 class members, seeks at least $5,000,000 in awards.

I had considered buying a Canon all-in-one printer/scanner to replace the Epson, but now I'm certainly glad I didn't. 

If you have any recommendations for an inkjet all-in-one unit, please leave a comment. My needs are fairly basic. I want to be able to print colour photos up to 8x10 size and to be able scan and copy. If it can scan 35 mm slides, that would be a bonus. Cost needs to be under $400 CDN. 

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