Last week, I made a 22″x33″ print of one my recent canyon images. When I was reviewing the print, I noticed some over saturated reds along the horizon, and a spot from sensor dust. I can’t help to feel but a little bit defeated when I need to redo a large print. I suppose I could have caught the dust spot and reds while I was proofing the image on my monitor, but some things you don’t see until you see. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks looking at a 10″x15″ print of the same image, and never noticed those two issues until I made the bigger print. Especially the dust spot. After you notice a dust spot in an image, it just glares at you.
I made adjustments on the image yesterday and send it off to my printer, a 24″ HP Z3100. The print gets about a third of the way through, and stops. Ugh, I’ll have to redo the print again. The printer’s display informs me that one of the ink cartridges, the Gloss Enhancer, is faulty. Not empty, but faulty. The cartridge is still under warranty, so I call HP support.
HP’s automated answering system asks me what product I’m using and puts me on hold for awhile. I get transferred to a real person, and she promptly asks me, “What product are you calling about?” Why is it that every answering system for any company I call asks for up front information and when you finally talk to a real person, the first thing they ask is what you’ve already told the robo voice? Every time.
Anyways, I provide my information: Name, address, phone, email, printer serial number, printer model number. This takes a few minutes and then I’m put on hold. I’m transferred to the DesignJet printers division. I give all my information again, another five minutes. It takes five minutes because I have to repeat and spell out each word multiple times. And then, I finally get to explain why I called. ”I’ve got a faulty gloss enhancer ink cartridge”, I say. “It’s under warrenty, can you send me a new one?” “Sure”, she says, and asks for more info. She asks for the letter on the cartridge. It’s an E, which stands for Gloss Enhancer. “Are you sure”, she asks? She asks me two more times to tell her the letter on the cartridge. “E”, I say. “It’s the Gloss Enhancer.” Hmm, she ponders. She’s stumped. I’m bewildered. I’m talking to the tech support within the DesignJet printer division of HP, and they don’t recognize the name of the ink cartridge that goes into their product. She says she needs to find some more information and puts me on hold for a couple of minutes. I’m listen to the pleasant hold music. She returns to the phone and says, “Ahh, you need the Gloss Enhancer cartridge.” Yes, I say. “I need the Gloss Enhancer cartridge.”
She says they’ll ship it to me, but she doesn’t know when it will ship. She’ll send me an email. That was some twenty hours ago, and I haven’t received the email. I have two exhibits coming up and need the printer working – working soon would be good. So, I went to an online merchant and placed an order.
Ah well. At least I didn’t have to fight to convince them that the faulty cartridge fell under warranty.
Update: I just got a FedEx package. It’s the Gloss Enhancer ink cartridge, overnighted from HP. Nice. No email notice though.
