(Credit: Dealer Support)
An article written for Dealer Support by Louise Unsworth, Brother UK’s Business Unit Manager, warns of the risks involved in using counterfeit or third-party products.
She explains that “up to £2.5 billion ($3.5 billion/€2.8 billion) worth of counterfeit imaging supplies including toners, ink cartridges and ribbons are infiltrating the global supply chain”, creating a “false economy” which has “wide-ranging negative effects.”
She describes third-party toner as being a particularly high-risk item, “as it can inflict damage to the drum and the fuser.” It can cost up to £100 ($140/€113) to replace a faulty drum, while to exchange a fuser can be almost as pricey as purchasing a whole new printer.
Unsworth explains that it isn’t only the cost of replacing hardware which can cause problems; the downtime involved in replacing ineffective third-party products “could have a far greater impact upon overall business productivity”, which can in turn have a detrimental effect on the business’ bottom line.
In the article, she also states that OEM products “will work better than counterfeit or third-party alternatives”, and asserts that the use of “genuine supplies” is crucial to “ensuring the printer performs to its maximum potential across a range of media and delivers on its promise.”
Unsworth goes on to explain that the “risk and uncertainty” associated with using third-party supplies is “significant”, and cites the fact that Brother “has a specific recipe per printer as different fusers melt toner at various temperatures.” Therefore, third-party supplies are unlikely to work effectually as they will not have been designed to work with that particular temperature.
The article concludes with a description of Brother’s “The Incompatibles” campaign, which “is designed to highlight the common problems with print as a result of using third-party supplies”, and explains that the campaign is “based on research that compared Brother Genuine Supplies to third party products.”
