Latest News

OCTOBER 2011

Print-Rite proudly announce their revolutionary patented toner cartridge technology. The world’s leader in the aftermarket printer consumables industry makes an innovative change in printer cartridge application systems by introducing groundbreaking compatible laser toner cartridges with its own patented technology. Print-Rite’s latest technological application in printer cartridges, the Smart Jump VP was recently announced, which gives rise to extra high page yielding printer cartridges, with better fusing, ultra-low toner waste and no backgrounding performance under extreme weather conditions, casting out the typical defects of aftermarket cartridges.

Jet Tec (the British inkjet brand we supply) have been awarded the Nordic Swan accreditation. The Nordic Swan certificate is an eco-labelling scheme that evaluates a laser product's impact on the environment throughout the whole lifecycle. It is awarded to products which meet high environmental requirements. The product is analysed from start to finish of its lifecycle. Other criteria include quality, health aspects and functionality. The Nordic Swan eco-label ensures that the Jet Tec remanufactured toners fulfil rigid environmental criteria.

SEPTEMBER 2011
Lexmark can AND HAS used upgrades that kill remanufactured cartridges. This year the Office of Fair Trading and the Trading Standards Institute confirmed they are investigating thousands of complaints that Lexmark has used upgrades that lock out third party remanufactured cartridges to those printers. End User customers previously happy with remanufactured cartridges were duped into accepting an upgrade over the internet that promised to "improve" printers however all it does is lock them into using ONLY original OEM Lexmark cartridges.End Users has found that the upgrade is irreversible and their printer will not work until all cartridges are original Lexmark cartridges. Consumers claim this is an anti-competitive and restrictive trade practice. BEWARE IT COULD EASILY HAPPY TO YOU SO SAY NO AL ANY UPGRADE ON ALL LEXMARK (DELL AND IBM EQUIVALENT) PRINTERS.

APRIL 2011
HP have announced two popular toner cartridges (CE285A & CE278A) are in very short supply in UK however this is good news for us as we have plenty of stock of quality remans available for customers to use at a fraction of the cost of genuine HP cartridges!

FEBRUARY 2011
ADVICE WARNING TO ALL SAMSUNG LASER OWNERS!!
DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING FROM THE SAMSUNG WEBSITE.
Any downloads from the Samsung website will allegedly re-write the firmware in your laser printer effectively stopping owners from using anything but genuine OEM products. You will no longer be able to use compatible or remanufactured toner cartridges or refill themself using bottles of toner powder and reset chips.
NEWS UPDATE! THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT UPGRADED CHIPS ON OUR PRINT-RITE COMPATIBLE TONER CARTRIDGES WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM MAY 2011 FOR THOSE CUSTOMERS UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO UPDATE THE FIRMWARE

We believe this, allegedly, is very unfair practice, which at the very least needs changing to warn the customer more specifically with what the download actually entails as it mentions nothing about effectively stopping any non-OEM toner cartridge already installed in the machine from working. It effectively stops customers from having a choice between which product to use and should as far as we are concerned be reported to Trading Standards for unfair practice.

NOVEMBER 2010
- Print-Rite has been honoured with the prestigious Hong Kong Corporate Citizenship Award 2010 (HKCCA) in the manufacturing section proving their leadership in the aftermarket printer consumable industry providing quality products and best services through continuous innovations.
- Following recent incidents with improvised explosive devices, the Secretary of State for Transport has issued a directive prohibiting the transportation by air of ink or toner cartridges, to any destination inside or outside the UK. This directive comes into effect immediately. To avoid any doubt, an ink or toner cartridge is defined as ‘a cartridge weighing more than 500g designed for use in printing equipment such as printers, photocopiers and fax machines’. If you are ordering from outside the UK please let us know BEFORE you order so we can make alternative arrangements for shipping

OCTOBER 2010
- National Internet Campaign to say NO!! Please remind your firends and business colleagues to say NO to UPGRADES offered by the OEMs printer firmware. Upgrades can be used by the OEMs to change the Firmware to BLOCK the REPLACEMENT CHIPS and COMPATIBLE CHIPS that we have worked so hard to develop for you! Luckily if you suddenly realise you can't use compatible products you are re-install the printer using the CD which came with the machine which should get you printing again!

JULY 2010
- We recently let you know that both Dell and Xerox had announced price increases across their entire range of OEM cartridges and now Epson have followed suit with their inks and toners. With a 15% increase on the price of multipacks, and a 3-5% increase on individual cartridges from the 1st of August, never have our compatible cartridges been so appealing.

JUNE 2010
- Print-Rite remains BEST BUY with the WHICH Magazine! Click here to see the original 2006 report. http://www.consumablecafe.co.uk/whichreport.pdf

APRIL 2010
- Microsoft stops all future support for the VISTA operating system which means that from now on the OS which hit manufacturers in late 2006 is left entirely at the mercy of hackers who might wish to exploit the now unsupported code. MAKE SURE IF YOU USE VISTA YOUR ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE IS FULLY UP TO DATE!
- Xerox releases some new machines like the Phaser 6121MFP BUT BUYERS BEWARE! The high capacity toners are half the size of previous models and are costing the same so Xerox is becoming VERY EXPENSIVE to run - i.e 4p a page to run compared to Oki's 1p a page to run!
- Royal Mail increases shipping costs above inflation yet again!

FEBRUARY 2010
- Consumable Cafe Ltd improves security and cutting fraud by complying with new National and International guidelines making sure we have protection in place to deter hackers and criminals. Cardholder data has always been now totally secure and we now comply with the PCI Security Standards Council which manages the security standards for the payment cards industry.

JANUARY 2010
- British companies forced to raise VAT rates back up to 17.5%. As always we will continue to strive to keep prices as low as possible!
A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS BOTH OLD AND NEW!!

NOVEMBER 2009
- Samsung releases new software updates to stop customers from refilling their toner cartridges and using reset chips - WE NOW ADVISE ALL CUSTOMERS TO STOP DOWNLOADING SAMSUNG PRINTER UPDATES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE AS IT IS UNFAIR PRACTICE AS IT FORCES CUSTOMERS TO BUY GENUINE TONER CARTRIDGES AND STOPS REFILLING!!

AUGUST 2009
- Print-Rite becomes the first company in the world to receive IECQ HSPM QC 080000 Certificate which relates to quality, product safety and sustainability. Print-Rite has always been a pioneer in the printer consumables industry in implementing green and product safety management stands through the certification of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 in 1998 and 2000 respectively.

JULY 2009
- Epson have announced that as of 1st August their pricing will increase YET AGAIN by around 8% - 9% as a result of Epson harmonising their pricing across Europe - YET ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO TRY OUR PRINT-RITE 86T COMPATIBLE CARTRIDGES WHICH HAS SEEN REDUCTIONS IN THEIR PRICES AND NOT INCREASES IN THEIR PRICES OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS!

APRIL 2009
- Epson and Canon have announced yet another increase on their inkjet. This time a 8.3% increase on all Euro inks as of May 1st 2009!

MARCH 2009
- All Mac users are recommended to update their machines with all new Epson Drivers available from http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/SupportIndex.jsp

FEBRUARY 2009
- Consumable Cafe launches new OEM section to website with over 5000 genuine manufactured products offering customers a greater choice and value for money
- The US$ has climbed in value since August '08 by over 30% against the UK£ Sterling - since many OEM pricing is internationally in US$ and Japanese Yen¥ then prices in the UK will continue to rise for many OEM products with 30% INCREASES EXPECTED THIS MONTH! Of course this offers great opportunities for switch-selling to our quality remanufactured or compatible ranges so not all bad news for our customers!
- WARNING TO CUSTOMERS BUYING NEW COLOUR LASERS - many reconditioning companies are struggling with more complex technology with several brands not being considered for recycling or compatibles meaning customers will be forced to buy just OEM products throughout the life of the printer!

JANUARY 2009
- HP announces yet another new packaging design for HP inkjet supplies. As a continuation of HP’s retail packaging strategy the company will be rolling out a new package design for its consumer inkjet and media supplies. It is intended that this will create an enhanced customer experience at retail. The new supplies packaging will complement existing HP inkjet printer packaging, which will help consumers better identify HP products and solutions at point of sale. The new packaging design will appear in shops starting in February 2009 and it will roll out to all consumer inkjet supplies until the end of Q4.
- BT announces that calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers are now free with BT although it does depend on your Calling Plan (free at the weekends with the Unlimited Weekend Plan; during the evening and at the weekend with the Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan and anytime with the Unlimited Anytime Plan).
- Consumable Cafe becomes the first company in the UK to start selling online the award winning Print-Rite 86T compatible cartridge with the full range becoming available from the 17th January 2009. These newly designed cartridges have recently won the GOLD AWARD of SIPO (The State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China), the highest patent award in China, which is also recognized by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The award is a confirmation of the revolutionary and outstanding design of 86T cartridge. It is not just a "foam-free" inkjet cartridge and proprietary ink formulas. The ink supply system, the chip and the ink formula are all the results of years of hard work by their R&D and production team, with customers benefiting from this technology breakthrough with larger ink volumes, lower costs per page and equally brilliant printing quality!

DECEMBER 2008
- Due to the weakening of the pound against the Euro and the dollar all the major Printer manufacturers have announced price increases for the UK consumer including: Oki 13.5% increase, Samsung 14% increase, Canon 6.5% to 11.5% on Ink, 5% average on Toner increase, Brother 3.9% increase, Tally 5% - 8% - Thankfully Consumable Cafe is able to offer REDUCED pricing on all our compatible and remanufactured ranges so there has never been a better time to move over to our high quality compatibles! Other good news (?) is that the Government has reduced the VAT rate to 15% however the bad news is that it is expected to shoot up to 22% at the beginning of 2011!

NOVEMBER 2008
- After 8 years of free shipping we've sadly been forced to add a small shipping cost to orders under £50 however unlike most other companies we promise to keep our shipping costs to an absolute minimum. Also if you spend more than £50 we'll continue to pay it for you SO THE PRICE YOU SEE IS THE PRICE YOU PAY

OCTOBER 2008
- Consumable Cafe has been chosen by Print-Rite to be one of the UK's main distributors of their revolutionary 86T compatible inkjet cartridge which will be available in the UK on 1st January 2009. The 86T is an exceptionally well-designed "foam- free" inkjet cartridge that will set it out above all the other competitors!

AUGUST 2008
- Another of Epson's strategy to stop customers from using compatibles includes bringing out different versions of cartridges chips for each new machine they release so newer machines will not work with first generation inkjets. Unfortunately this has led to many customers getting confused and has stopped many from being able to enjoy cheaper printing although the compatible industry is fighting back as fast as they can!
- Epson's new strategy to stop customers from using compatible inkjet cartridges include their driver update emails where any customer who updates the printer driver that came with the printer will stop all future use of compatible cartridges! ...THANKS EPSON!!

APRIL 2008
- Lexmark have released a number of printers which are only available at certain retailers. Unfortunately they have decided not to allow anyone but those retailers to sell the cartridges which means the prices of certain cartridges like the No.2 is being kept artificially high! Lets hope Trading Standards stops this kind of scam straight away as people are being forced to buy cartridges three times the price of what they should be!! OUR RECOMMENDATION - DON'T BUY ANY LEXMARK PRINTER WHICH TAKES THE NEW NO.2 CARTRIDGE!!

- Toner powders under development: Brother HL4040, Dell 3110, Dell 5100, Oki C5650-5950, C9650 printers & a Samsung mono polyester toner for newer faster printers (20+ ppm)

MARCH 2008:
- HP have given their print cartridges different colours to best describe what they are best for: BLUE = STANDARD PRINT CARTRIDGES = best value for moderate volumes of printing
GREEN = VALUE PRINT CARTRIDGES = best value for larger volumes of printing (5x more than blue)
RED = SPECIALITY PRINT CARTRIDGES = for speciality and advanced photo printing

- OKI launch new C5750 & C5950 high speed lasers
- Sony's BLU-RAY discs take over High Definition discs with the PS3 games consol remaining one of the best value blu-ray players to buy in the UK!