Sending/Receiving a Printer By Courier/Post ?

[The Hat]

If you’re planning on receiving or sending a printer by way of courier or post then here are a few thing to do or not to do as in my case.

It only takes one carless bump, knock or drop on its end, and with the weight of the print head and cartridges still installed inside, it can dislodge the carriage holder from its moorings over the parking station and cause havoc.

Please remember to remove the cartridges and print head from the printer and pack them separately and place them safely inside the box, Quote: “Canon advises to transport the printer for repair with all cartridges installed ? “ O’ do they now…

click to enlarge. (The EXTRA Labelling didn't help)

Here’s my story:..

I purchased a 9500 printer on the European mainland six months ago with the enormous and 100 % help of @palombian and he even packet it EXTRA extremely well despite it being in its original packing and box when he got it.

When the printer arrived my end and out of the box I turned it on and got the orange/blue flashing lights syndrome and the printer didn’t move a millimetre, Ops x 10 times.

So I removed the top cover to find the print head had moved just enough to smash the locking clip out of its position and take the side of the purge unit with it, it also dislodged the head from the carriage holder, bending the electrical pins inside which of course killed the head into the bargain.


I was able to retrieve all of the missing parts after some digging and removal of the purge unit, and was able to glue them back in place adding a steel bar as an axel to support the locking clip in place and while I had the purge unit out of the machine I fitted an external waste Potty tank too.

Again @palombian came to my rescue by claiming through his courier insurance sufficient funds to adequately cover a new print head and that covers the whole story, O’ and the printer works just like new now.

A very big thanks to Palombian once again..

 

[Harvey]

My opinion is that cartridges and printhead must be packed separately. Once I bought off Ebay a Canon MP610 with genuine cartridges installed, they leaked and all hell broke loose, you can imagine all of the ink mess. Remember that liquids leak on an airplane.

There must be a reason why Canon ships their printers with printhead not installed, maybe during trasnportation if installed on a rough road the vibrations might create some static in the printhead PCB by frictioning of the PCB contacts and the ones in the carriage.

Short stoy is the ink leakage damaged the printer electronics, when I first powered it on without knowing of the ink spill, U052 error was displayed, then I cleaned all of the ink, powered it on it suddenly turned off, then it never turned off again, and then it became a printhead slayer, later on its death came. Now it´s collecting dust, ants in the scanner, and remorse of getting that brick all the way through Nicaragua from the US.

 

[The Hat]

I am sorry you had such bad luck with getting your printer, sometimes these thing happen..

 

[PeterBJ]

Both the service manuals for MP610 and Pro-9500 mk II have this instruction for shipping:

4. MACHINE TRANSPORTATION
This section describes the procedures for transporting the machine for returning after repair, etc.

1) In the service mode, press the ON/OFF button to finish the mode, and confirm that the paper lifting plate of the rear tray is raised.

2) Keep the print head and ink tanks installed in the carriage. See Caution 1 below.

3) Turn off the machine to securely lock the carriage in the home position. (When the machine is turned off, the carriage is automatically locked in place.) See Caution 2 below.

If the print head must be removed from the machine and transported alone, attach the protective cap (used when the packing was
opened) to the print head (to protect the print head face from damage due to shocks).

(1) If the print head is removed from the machine and left alone by itself, ink (the pigment-based black ink in particular) is likely to dry. For this reason, keep the print head installed in the machine even during transportation.

(2) Securely lock the carriage in the home position, to prevent the carriage from moving and applying stress to
the carriage flexible cable, or causing ink leakage, during transportation.

So it looks to me like Palombian followed the instruction. But a new printer is shipped without the print head in place. This is OK as the print head is in a sealed bag and filled with a conservation fluid. Also the cartridges are factory sealed and will not leak. Furthermore the print head carriage is secured in place using some packaging material.

@The Hat I'm impressed by your repair. Which adhesive did you use?

 

[The Hat]

@PeterBJ Unfortunately I didn’t have any Araldite Adhesive left so I had to get EVO-STIK (twin tube) rapid metal resin to do the job that’s the one that dries is 15 minutes once mixed.

There’s no reason why this repair shouldn’t hold but if it doesn’t then I know what to use next time..

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Boy, the voice of (bad) experience, eh? Me, too.

I had an extra iP4300 printer, decided to sell it on eBay. Completed auctions showed I should most likely reap about $70 for it. Oops, about $40. Not too happy. I shipped it using a box and all the packing - and more - that I had successfully received an iP4500 in. I sent it USPS Parcel Post, I did not insure it because I had already "lost" so much money.

Well, it get to California, and it doesn't work. The woman who bought it was wonderful. She was willing to try anything I suggested and to wait days to see if we could get it going. Eventually I had to refund the money AND shipping. So, I was out a perfectly good printer AND $70 or so dollars. I still hurt when I think of it.

I'm of the mind Canon is: Leave the head and carts in. Of course new printers come with them not in! Why would they? New parts, put them in. But once you remove cartridges, the likelihood of leaking greatly increases. And now the head isn't sitting on it's nice little moist resting place, but in (presumably) plastic bag, perhaps partially drying in shipment.

When Canon ships a new printer, there is a block of foam that prevents the head from moving to the right. Duplicate that, with whatever. Perhaps stuff a bunch of paper towels over the carts to catch leaks, if any.

When I've bought used printers, I've asked the sellers to do this and I've never had an issue.

 

[Harvey]

Paul, now I know I am not the only one with bad experiences. My humble opinion is to go only the safe route, it is just a seconds to remove the carts and pack them in a ziploc bag, shrouded in paper towels, plain paper or whatever you want.

Airborne liquids are prone to leak from their containers, also remember the cartridges have some pressure inside, when they are in such atmospheric pressure variation they tend to leak if they are not factory sealed. If ground shipping is used like UPS or FedEx you won´t experience any problems, USPS will likely move their cargo by air, this is something important to consider when someone returns printers for service or money back, or even selling printers.

Lesson learned is always asked the sellers to remove the cartridges and package them separately, just to be sure you wont have any issues.​

 

[websnail]

Thinking about this logically there's a few reasons for asking punters to retain the printhead and cartridges in situ.

1. It protects the printhead and the cartridges from drying out (although that's about all).
2. Numerous errors are found with the printhead locked in position so customer can't do a lot to remove anything anyway

So, if that's the case then it'd seem prudent to, if not locked in, to do the routine with the ziplock bag, apply clips or tape (or both) to protect the cartridges from leaking and pack the printer like it was a priceless ming vase.


But I digress because what I really wanted to do was rant about the complete muppets who sell an old printer via eBay or whatever and then ship the ruddy thing in a box, minus ANY protection. My all time favourite was an R200 sent with absolutely no packing material. When it arrived the courier very carefully put it down, got my signature and ran (literally!). When I opened the box it was more accurately described as "printer parts"... Smashed to pieces!

Then there was the PX710 that was sent in a box filled with nozzle tests and colour test prints that had been ripped in half and stuffed back in the box. Presumably to show me how much paper and ink they had wasted ignoring my instructions. Protection afforded by the paper? Absolute zero. They hadn't even scrunched it up and I strongly suspect the extra kilos of weight from the paper actually encouraged dropping and increased damage.

Oh I could go on and on... and on... and according to my wife I usually do, so I'll stop.

 

[The Hat]

This seems to me to be far more common than anyone would ever believe, it’s no wonder that Epson/Canon are laughing at us all…

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Paul, now I know I am not the only one with bad experiences. My humble opinion is to go only the safe route, it is just a seconds to remove the carts and pack them in a ziploc bag, shrouded in paper towels, plain paper or whatever you want.

Airborne liquids are prone to leak from their containers, also remember the cartridges have some pressure inside, when they are in such atmospheric pressure variation they tend to leak if they are not factory sealed. If ground shipping is used like UPS or FedEx you won´t experience any problems, USPS will likely move their cargo by air, this is something important to consider when someone returns printers for service or money back, or even selling printers.

Lesson learned is always asked the sellers to remove the cartridges and package them separately, just to be sure you wont have any issues.​

As they say, YMMV. I have not interest in used cartridges, generally. I absolutely don't want any head to start drying out. Keeping cartridges in the head prevents that.

Back around the Canon S800 days, one could remove the head with the cartridges locked in place. This was really handy for refilling them; no leaks, etc. I don't recall what subsequent printer I bought that has the current "pull the carts before you pull the head" design, but it's definitely a step backward for refillers.

Oh, well, no use crying over spilt photo magenta....