I am now tired of the international business.

[mikling]

I have lost a lot of money selling to international customers and this is the story.

Early this year someone claims that somehow I was responsible for not having his inks arriving in Singapore. Three times I asked if he had the correct address. Then he comes around here and finds a way to emabrass me to get his money back. Now what can I do if someone gives me a bad address and it gets lost in the shuffle of the postal system. What can I personally do when a complaint is lodged and they don't admit to their mistake.....Poilicy by Paypal is I lose money because they did not receive their goods irregardless of the system. What happens is that a month later a package shows up and in Canada, you pay to get good back. Well the package indicates insufficient address and is undeliverable...exactly the address submitted was used to ship. Guess who the scoundrel was.

Next December same thing happens. Someone puts in wrong address and immediately see that it is their mistake. They lodge a parcel not received and they get all their money back and I have already paid for shipping and pay again to get the package back.

Same December some bloke in Mexico. USPS takes his package and it goes into the system and it cannot be located within 2 weeks. This could be lost in customs. Well it ends up in Iceland and you simply have to wait for USPS to redirect. So get this, a claim is lodged. Somehow he wants me to go to Iceland and redirect the package. USPS takes their time to get the package to him. Meanwhile he gets his $240 back from Paypal and then next couple days he receives his shipment. I'm out shipping and the goods and he gets free ink and resetters for his Pro-10. Nice. Thank you USPS.

Then today some bloke gets exactly what he ordered and then demands that I ship to him some free plugs and other stuff because he feels that he wants it and if I don't he is going to lodge a claim against me and I that I gave him bad customer service.

I can't take this abuse anymore. I'm already bleeding from Image Specialists/STS scr_wup with their DYE magenta inks going back to sometime since 2013. Only now this surfacing because I took the time to dig into it this January. It's already February 2015 and I still have not had a good night's sleep yet for this year (2015). Think Image Specialist/ STS has a conclusive answer to the ink scr_wup? Well if you're reading this, I will have some WJ6121 and WJ6120 replacements in short time. WJ6053 and WJ6061 is also affected as well. Nobody is sure of what the exact cause is but there is some admission to possible problems due to chemistry but no explainable answer to the mother of clogs except that I have finally uncovered what could be causing it in some situations. It does not look chemistry related. It appears microbilogical and should not be there in normal cases. It appears to be a biocide resistant fungus/algae. Think superbugs.

For the understanding and thoughtful customers, thanks for your patience and understanding. This is a trying time for me.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I can sympathize with you, I had been working for some time in logistics for a major electronics company, shipments can go wrong, even worse than what you describe including robbery of courier cars, funny adresses and lots of fraud attempts with commercial customers, it can go worse with those, and for your type of deliveries nobody would pay for an escrow service. At the end we had a special internal investigation service to check and validate addresses of new customers via Internet/phonebooks , zip code listings etc, we got orders entered like from Mr. Chubachev in Almaty - nothing more............and you ask yourself whether that place is the real center of the world and everybody should know that guy....

A major part of the ink solvent are glycoles, and that's pretty good nutrition for fungus, so an ink formula
should contain fungicides. They may have been omitted whatever. Fungus in inks is a barely known problem for people refilling, buying larger quantities for a bargain and keeping that at home for an extended time. It may colalgulate but as well develop fungus inside when you open such bottles frequently - nothing is sterile in this area. Ink bottles should be marked with something like 'use within xx months once opened and store at a cool and dry place.'

 

[turbguy]

You are going to have to limit your exposure somehow. Ship internationally by a more reliable service, and restrict shipping to some countries.

You should be able to use documentaion of the "bloke's demand" for extra parts as material evidence of extortion being abetted by Paypal. Period. Their Lawyers know what to do. That Paypal user should lose his membership!

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

'reliable service' - the TNT, Fedex UPS DHL's etc do a pretty good job most of the time, but if something goes wrong then even Murphy would scratch his head and ask himself how that could happen sometimes, and then customers are playing their games as well. It's all about the additional int'l business and whether it is paying off at the bottom line.

 

[3dogs]

I have lost a lot of money selling to international customers and this is the story.

Early this year someone claims that somehow I was responsible for not having his inks arriving in Singapore. Three times I asked if he had the correct address. Then he comes around here and finds a way to emabrass me to get his money back. Now what can I do if someone gives me a bad address and it gets lost in the shuffle of the postal system. What can I personally do when a complaint is lodged and they don't admit to their mistake.....Poilicy by Paypal is I lose money because they did not receive their goods irregardless of the system. What happens is that a month later a package shows up and in Canada, you pay to get good back. Well the package indicates insufficient address and is undeliverable...exactly the address submitted was used to ship. Guess who the scoundrel was.

Next December same thing happens. Someone puts in wrong address and immediately see that it is their mistake. They lodge a parcel not received and they get all their money back and I have already paid for shipping and pay again to get the package back.

Same December some bloke in Mexico. USPS takes his package and it goes into the system and it cannot be located within 2 weeks. This could be lost in customs. Well it ends up in Iceland and you simply have to wait for USPS to redirect. So get this, a claim is lodged. Somehow he wants me to go to Iceland and redirect the package. USPS takes their time to get the package to him. Meanwhile he gets his $240 back from Paypal and then next couple days he receives his shipment. I'm out shipping and the goods and he gets free ink and resetters for his Pro-10. Nice. Thank you USPS.

Then today some bloke gets exactly what he ordered and then demands that I ship to him some free plugs and other stuff because he feels that he wants it and if I don't he is going to lodge a claim against me and I that I gave him bad customer service.

I can't take this abuse anymore. I'm already bleeding from Image Specialists/STS scr_wup with their DYE magenta inks going back to sometime since 2013. Only now this surfacing because I took the time to dig into it this January. It's already February 2015 and I still have not had a good night's sleep yet for this year (2015). Think Image Specialist/ STS has a conclusive answer to the ink scr_wup? Well if you're reading this, I will have some WJ6121 and WJ6120 replacements in short time. WJ6053 and WJ6061 is also affected as well. Nobody is sure of what the exact cause is but there is some admission to possible problems due to chemistry but no explainable answer to the mother of clogs except that I have finally uncovered what could be causing it in some situations. It does not look chemistry related. It appears microbilogical and should not be there in normal cases. It appears to be a biocide resistant fungus/algae. Think superbugs.View attachment 2422 View attachment 2423

For the understanding and thoughtful customers, thanks for your patience and understanding. This is a trying time for me.

@mikling
Sympathy + I had a Fishing Tackle shop for six years. Closed up, sold all the stock and fittings then put up butchers paper on the window, next morning, purchased a slab of beer cans, consumed the beer and threw the empty aluminium cans at customers knocking on the glass 'cos they knew I was in there still. Six years dealing with the "public" was enough for me.......never again.........ever.

Crikey! superbugs in other than Medical.........what HAVE we unleashed by misusing antibiotics?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

It's not even that much about antibiotics - multiresistant bacteria etc - just think about yeast - it's ubiquitous, and glycoles are chemically not far away from glucose - pretty easy calories for about everything around us, and you know pretty well, that at least once in a while yeast is doing something good - the alcohol in your beer you consumed on the departure from your business...........

 

[mikling]

I can sympathize with you, I had been working for some time in logistics for a major electronics company, shipments can go wrong, even worse than what you describe including robbery of courier cars, funny adresses and lots of fraud attempts with commercial customers, it can go worse with those, and for your type of deliveries nobody would pay for an escrow service. At the end we had a special internal investigation service to check and validate addresses of new customers via Internet/phonebooks , zip code listings etc, we got orders entered like from Mr. Chubachev in Almaty - nothing more............and you ask yourself whether that place is the real center of the world and everybody should know that guy....

A major part of the ink solvent are glycoles, and that's pretty good nutrition for fungus, so an ink formula
should contain fungicides. They may have been omitted whatever. Fungus in inks is a barely known problem for people refilling, buying larger quantities for a bargain and keeping that at home for an extended time. It may colalgulate but as well develop fungus inside when you open such bottles frequently - nothing is sterile in this area. Ink bottles should be marked with something like 'use within xx months once opened and store at a cool and dry place.'

Biocides have always been part of the ink mix and the biocide used in the previous 14 years either is no longer effective with this particular strain or some strain has evolved. I have been in contention with 5 phDs about this for over a month now. Oh yeah, the dye supplier says it is chemistry related, the biocide supplier says that too much is being used. None of these proposals support the fact that the some of the inks had been in production for over 10 years with no problems with chemistry...and why now...and only in flareups not a whole batch. I don't make the stuff and the formula is top secret so I am only getting tidbits as a purchaser. And I am finding it better than the big buck lab.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

' only in flareups not a whole batch' - that makes it even more difficult - is it customer related ? Could it be temperature related ? Are you rebottling ? Are those bottles clean ? Some fungicides , their concentration is just good enough to prevent spores to sprout, but once they start growing they are not so effective anymore. So it's like chasing some resistant bacteria without much possibility to check and investigate on the trail to the customer and there over time. The formula for the ink may be the same over a long time, but something may have changed, a supplier for the raw material, for the solvents, changes in the process equipment, you would have to get some biological detectives into the investigation, but since that is not at all health related the cost will be much too high for this type of product I guess.

 

[mikling]

' only in flareups not a whole batch' - that makes it even more difficult - is it customer related ? Could it be temperature related ? Are you rebottling ? Are those bottles clean ? Some fungicides , their concentration is just good enough to prevent spores to sprout, but once they start growing they are not so effective anymore. So it's like chasing some resistant bacteria without much possibility to check and investigate on the trail to the customer and there over time. The formula for the ink may be the same over a long time, but something may have changed, a supplier for the raw material, for the solvents, changes in the process equipment, you would have to get some biological detectives into the investigation, but since that is not at all health related the cost will be much too high for this type of product I guess.

Well I purchase and reship and it is only in occasional samples even at the gallon level! So if you sample into a batch of say 60 gallons you can easily come up empty with nothing BUT a gallon or two might carry the spore. It is only in certain colors and inks containing one of multiple dyes. My early guess is that the source is at the dye and this one dye. Evidence points to this.
The problem is that only chemists are employed by ink mfrs. Chemists only see chemical issues and don't recognize microbial things. Life is too short to argue with pHDs.

The source is not at my location as I finally found one sample in sealed bottles from the supplier. They test their stock and they come up empty! So my issue raised fell on deaf ears.

You are one of the few who understand how difficult this situation is. I welcome and appreciate your opinion as even without biological training I think I figured out what the problem really was....the chemists found some instabilities in the inks in certain situations but could not explain what was presented but stick with the chemical hypothesesis.

Many don't appreciate the complexity of chasing out the real problem. When nature acts up out of the blue what do you do? What can you do> and you will not see this issue for a long time till it pops up. Initially all the characteristics of the perfect ink tests fine and even when the spores have grown, I suspect it tests fine till it grows and grows.

As some know already, the quickest solution for me is to switch suppliers of the inks involved hoping that the new supplier does not get dye from the same source or connected sources. Yes, i wondered how much bilogical directives would cost the mfr.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Oh, I had been in QC (no inks), where I needed some investigative talent, and I know that lots of things are possible - much more than Murphy ever could come up with....o.k., let's close the ink issue and I hope your problems are solved with the new supplier and you can run your business.