My Printer Is Out To Get ME!

Well.... my printer at work has been acting up lately. Is that really new? Printers have been known to be stubborn, stop working at the MOST atrocious time ever, gives you a million error messages, and have ½ of them you have no clue what they mean. One of my favorites (sarcasm here…) is when it tells you there is a paper jam – when you can’t find the invisible paper jam…..because in reality – there is NOT one.



My printer is a Portuguese speaking printer (from day one) and thank goodness Google Translate was invented. I even have tried uninstalling and re-installing the software – choosing ENGLISH as my language and WA LA! It STILL speaks Portuguese! I have learned to recognize some of the words, especially when changing my printing preferences – say from 8.5 x11 to legal size paper or from color to just black and white. Also I have learned to recognize when it gives me the printing messages like – magenta toner estiver baixo, substitua em breve.   It means order magenta toner.  Easy right?! LOL

But last week it flashed the message – order belt. WTH???? High maintenance son of a B…….. Do people replace belts in printers? So I went to the handy manual and on the second page was a list of parts with part numbers to order. Sweet! And sure enough under the category “Other Consumables” (other consumables?!?! My printer is a carnivore?!?! EKKK!!!!!)

And there it was – transfer belt part #43363401. Cool. I went to Google and tried googling the part number to order the part online…….. but couldn’t find it. I found a part that was only one number off that matched my printer model number – C5500 and looked just like the part I pulled out of my printer. It’s HUGE for a belt! And costs a butt load! $200!!!!!!! Holy crap!

Was it cheaper to buy another printer – maybe an English speaking one??? Nope. (Sad face) They start at $500. Yikes! Plus I had 3 toners in the supply cabinet for the current Portuguese speaking one. (Magenta, yellow, and black.)

So after the boss okayed the belt being placed on his credit card, I ordered my big hunk of plastic; got a confirmation email that my order was being received and processed. 4 days later I get an email that my belt is out of stock. (BUT when I ordered the part, the website stated they had 2 left! Didn’t know transfer belts were SO popular in February….) The belt was out of stock until March 26!!!!

WTH?!?!?!    The current belt in the printer better last that long!!! That is after I just printed 1,000 page report for work that was due by the end of this month and who knows all what I need to print until then.

So….. at the moment; when I print something I feel like I’m playing Russian roulette. Will it print, have an imaginary paper jam, or die? Yeah if it prints, swear words if it has an imaginary paper jam, and if it dies? I’ll just go on a mini vacation??? That sounds good to me! =o)

Happy Printing Everyone! If not... Happy Killing Your Printer! =o) LOL