“Dear "CarlFL":

Wouldn't you know it, I sent out an email to our customers this morning right after checking our ratings and seeing we were sitting at a 9.88 out of 10 and included that stat in the email (only to now see that literally an hour later our "rolling averages" rating that is adjusted once/day dropped "precipitously" to a 9,86...)

Anyway, with that being said, thank you, so much, for the short and sweet review and your patronage.

Though it is very hard for me to do, I will make this reply similarly short, sweet and to the point.

Because of jillions of people around the globe just like you (we don't cater to gigundo corporations or government agencies), all of us here have roofs over our heads, food on the table, and gas in our vehicles.

We sincerely thank you for that (and implore you to contact us if there is anything that even makes you say, "Hmmmm...", because the only issues we can address are the ones you let us know about.)

Thank you, again,

John Galt - "TheRefillMan"”

“Dear "RoulJpla":

Thank you for your review and for your patronage. I really appreciate you taking the time to let others know about your experience (and every time I reply to one of our reviews, I vow to return the favor to other merchants who favorably impress me, as well).

I literally live for 5 star reviews (okay, I live for my wife, my family, etc., but 5 star reviews are really important, too...) and love seeing my products and my team delivering exactly that.

As I mentioned in a thank you note to another reviewer this morning, please keep in mind that we really, REALLY want to hear from you if there is every anything that even makes you say, "Hmmm..."

The only issues we can address, the only suggestions we can take to heart, the only problems we can correct or prevent in the future, are the ones we know about.

And, unlike 99.9% of the merchants in the world today who just don't seem to care about their customers, we try to never forget that literally everything we do in our daily lives (the food we eat, to the food in our pet's bowls, comes from all of you out there, one order at a time...

While some people might say that sounds corny, "corny" has allowed us to be here for 25+ years and we still look for ways to improve.

Thank you, again,

John Galt - "TheRefillMan"”

“Hello Itsclosed,

Thank you for your patronage with our company over these years. We love hearing from our long-term customers because it lets us know that we're doing something right :)

If you ever run into a problem or need a question answered, please don't hesitate to get in touch because we're here to help every step of the way.

Looking forward to hearing from you again.

From all of us at TonerRefillKits - Thank You!”

“Yassou Sachri,

(Did we say that right?)

Thank you for such wonderful words and feedback about your experience with our company. We're always delighted when we get to reach out to individuals around the world and now we can mark Greece on our list :)

The one thing that we wanted to do, from the get-go, was to ensure that our products were complete in their entirety which meant everything from the bottle to the instructions. We take great pride in the work that goes into each kit and it shows! We hope the process went as easy as it could be.

Thank you, again, and we'll be looking forward to serving you in the future!”

“Dear "RoyedWardHardwick":

Thank you, so much, for taking the time to review your purchase and for your ongoing patronage. Both are greatly appreciated.

I sincerely apologize for the non-working chips. Though I accept complete responsibility for everything we sell and everything we do, I cannot accept responsibility for the non-working chip (though, as you have seen, we always gladly instantly replace them) and here is the reason why...

(And, you might want to get comfy, because this is a lengthy reply to explain what is really going on in the chip "universe".)

The printer manufacturers have become so aggressive in their efforts to force their customers to buy only their name-brand supplies (at prices that average 2X our compatible cartridge prices and 3X our toner refill kit prices), they are now using high-tech means to do so.

This technology should be illegal (IMHO, and it has nothing to do with the fact we sell toner and it affects us and our bottom line, directly, but because it affects hundreds of millions of people around the world and costs those consumers billions of dollars by forcing them to replace their cartridges earlier than necessary and makes it harder and harder for them to find after market alternatives that work properly.)

The only chips our technology partners can make are ones that emulate what the "signature" of the OEM chips "look like" at the moment in time they were reverse-engineering that technology.

Until unsuspecting consumers "dare" to seek cheaper alternatives to the name-brand cartridges and supplies (and who isn't looking for cheaper sources of everything these days) most have no idea that the machine has a "spy" built into it that is watching what kind of supplies they are using.

When a cartridge is put into the machine, the machine has a sensor and circuitry that reads the chip's "signature" and is looking for particular information to be on that chip that has to match with what the machines "knows" that chip should return.

If the chip returns the proper information, the circuitry in the machine says, "Ah, yes, I can see this customer has been strong-armed into buying one of our official, name-brand, much higher priced, OEM products and I will now let them print... (hehe, hehe, hehe...)"

But, while the use of chips is greedy, anti-environment, anti-consumer (most cartridges have 10 - 30% of the toner or ink left in them when the chip stops them from printing, which means you spend 10 - 30% more for supplies since you are buying every one of them 10 - 30% earlier than necessary, which also means 10 - 30% more waste ends up in the landfill, which means 10 - 30% more natural resources are used than necessary...) here's what they printer manufacturers are now doing that is so "evil" (read on and let me know what would you call it?)..

Since the printer manufacturers are the only ones who know what their software/firmware in their machine is capable of doing, they have built into the software the ability to change what the chip's signature should look like, on the fly (meaning they can actually remotely trigger changes in their sensing platform so that non OEM chips which were working perfectly at the moment in time they were designed/produced can be rendered useless with those remote changes.

How do they implement those remote changes? Through the internet...

THROUGH THE INTERNET!!!

What they do is they have internet connectivity built into their drivers and those drivers "phone home". During that friendly "chat", new software is downloaded to your machine (without you knowing any of this is going on, at all) and new "approved" signatures are loaded into your machine.

Since the aftermarket chip manufacturers had no way of knowing when/if/what new signatures would arrive, they had no way to reverse engineer them.

The way the OEM chips/cartridges continue to work is that they have proprietary software in them that re-writes their signature on the fly to match the new signatures the machine will accept as "real".

(Though they now how to do it, the aftermarket chip manufacturers can't include this same software in their chips lest they risk lawsuits from the manufacturers for copying the manufacturers code which is patented/copyrighted - I can't make this stuff up, this is how bad they want to make certain you are forced to buy their much more expensive products.)

So, that is why I cannot accept responsibility for the problem (again, we will gladly accept responsibility for chips that need to be replaced, the costs to do so and will continue to do so), because that is exactly what the printer manufacturers want to have happen.

Think about this... it costs us money every time this happens and we gladly make the replacements, at no charge. We also answer our phones live from 8am - 8pm M - F, we offer live technical support during the same hours, we call to thank you for your business on every order you place, and we offer a "no time limit, no fine print" guarantee, and we do all of that with revenue that is 1/3 - 1/2 of what the OEM makes on every cartridge.

And yet, who unfairly gets the 4 stars (instead of the 5 stars our entire business model has been built to deliver for 25+ years now)?

We do...

I didn't mean to vent on you (and I hope you didn't misinterpret this as me venting at you), but can you imagine the hue and cry there would be if the auto manufacturers did this with headlights, oil filters, air filters, tires, etc. (forcing them to be "turned off" via the use of some artificial device so you had to replace them when there was still life left in them)?

It would be front page news and headlines on the evening news.

Don't think it could happen?

It is happening right now, and it is happening to you and millions of other people (just not with your car, but with your printer...)

Thank you, again, for the on-going patronage and for your review (and if you have made it all the way through this novelette, I would love for you to reconsider the 4 star rating...)

If I may be of further assistance, at any time, let me know,

John Galt - "TheRefillMan"”

“Hi KansasCity,

We're glad we could be of excellent service to you and please let us know when they come off the shelves and go into action - we're a phone call (or email) away so don't be afraid to get in touch if you have additional questions - we're here to help you every step of the way.

Thank you and all the best!

- The team at TonerRefillKits”

“Hello, Marc:

Thank you, so much, for the review and the patronage.

I live for 5 star reviews and even a 4 star review is a HUGE black eye in my opinion (and "le merde" hits the fan when we get anything less than a 5!)

I accept full responsibility for your dissatisfaction and will do whatever it takes to restore your faith in our company and our customer service.

I SINCERELY apologize for the lack of response to your tech support inquiry (we are available live from 8am - 8pm ET and even around the globe most people can usually find a time to get us live rather than having to use the forms.)

Can you contact me personally (at my personal email address, "JGalt@TonerRefillKits.com") because I want to know more details about this issue (we did recently move our entire organization over to Google Apps for Business and did have some issues with the receipt of email on less frequently used email accounts (the issue was, like a dope, I forgot to specify to have those email addresses migrated simply because they do get so little use they were "out of sight, out of mind"...)

Again, I take full responsibility for the problem you experienced and look forward to hearing from you.

John Galt - "TheRefillMan"”

“Hello, "TPond":

Thank you for the patronage and for taking the time to review your experience with our products and our customer service.

I sincerely apologize for the problem you had with the reset chips. As you know (and had reiterated during your discussions with us about the issue), everything we offer is backed by our six-word guarantee:

"No time limit, no fine-print!"

I will tell you that chips are the bane of our existence and that is exactly what the "friendly, caring, customer-oriented, environmentally-devoted" (sarcasm alert!!!) at the printer manufacturers use them...

Their goal is to use any method they can to make companies like ours (whether offering complete cartridges like our ReChargX compatibles, or our ReChargX toner refill kits) have to jump through hoops to make certain we can bring your cost of printing down as much as possible.

What kills me is that these sorts of "cartridge killer" devices are even legal in the first place.

Think about this, can you imagine the outrage if somehow the automakers were in "cahoots" with the gas companies and they put some sort of chip on your car that made you buy gas when 10 - 30% of the gas remained in the tank, make you get an oil change whether your oil was perfectly fine or not, make you replace light bulbs because the chip turned the lights out because they had been used the number of hours the chip was programmed to allow them to be on?

The outrage would be HUGE!!!

Why isn't there the same outrage with artificial cartridge-killing devices that force consumers to replace their toner or inkjet cartridges before they are truly empty (industry states show an average of 10 - 30% of the actual consumable is usually left in the cartridge when it is deemed "empty" by the chip or counting device)?

In fact, until customers like you find companies like ours (that sell DIY toner refill kits), they aren't even aware of the existence of cartridge killer chips and that this sort of "BS" is taking place.

I know what word I use when discussing what making customers buy something 10 - 30% sooner than they need to and denying them the right to use the consumable they paid for until it is truly empty...

Beyond strong-arming customers into spending 10 - 30% more than they have to on toner (every time they buy it!), those artificial cartridge-killing devices also mean 10 - 30% more printer consumable waste goes to the landfills and 10 - 30% more precious natural resources are consumed on cartridges bought before they are needed.

As if all of that doesn't make my blood boil, can you also imagine the outrage if the automakers put a chip on any of their "consumables" (air filter, tires, oil filter, bulbs, etc.) so the perfectly good, much lower priced alternative products from manufacturers other than them were not "recognized" when you dared to try to save your hard earned money?

Think about this, as well... We charge an average 50 - 70% less than the printer manufacturers do for their name-brand consumables, offer free shipping over $54, answer our phones LIVE from 8am - 8pm M - F (ET) and they don't (despite the fact they are charging 2 - 3 times more than we do).

And, we offer a six word, "No time limit, no fine-print" guarantee and they offer nothing near the same.

I apologize for "going off the deep end" in response to your short, polite review and the mention of the issue you had with chips, but I wish there was something I could do to let every person with a printer know they, their wallets, our dwindling landfill space and our precious natural resources are being abused by these chips and reset devices.

Okay, one last thing....

Have you ever had a "you need to update your firmware/software/driver" message regarding your printer?

The overwhelming majority of the time the primary purpose for that update is that they are loading new, proprietary chip encryption software into your printer so if you had dared to use a less expensive alternative it will attempt to render that chip's cartridge unusable (so you will get mad at that alternative vendor thinking they did something "wrong" and go back to paying 2 - 3 times more than you want to avoid the "hassle").

Again, I apologize for this "tome", but this is really, really an abusive practice.

If I may be of further assistance (or if you want to contact me directly), please do so: JGalt@TonerRefillKits.com)

Thank you, again, for your patronage and your review.

John Galt - "TheRefillMan"”