Key Factors to Choosing the Best OEM Printer Toner & Ink Cartridge Supplier
In this era of e-commerce, the barriers to entry to sell anything has been lowered to the minimum, and this includes printer cartridges. This gave rise to many unscrupulous cartridge supplier who have minimal to zero product knowledge pedaling cheap and low-quality products that resulted in whole lot of issues. This consequentially resulted in a bad reputation for the whole industry. These sellers do not plan to stay for the long haul and their main goal is mainly to make a quick profit and when issues cropped up, they will be missing in action.
Amid a plethora of printer ink, printer toner and label cartridge suppliers how do you choose the most reliable one? Many will firstly look at the price but be very wary, as the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”
Let us list out the few key factors to consider before entrusting your hard-earned monies to anyone of them including us!
Experience
Firstly, you have to consider the number of years of experience this supplier has been in the industry. Have they only recently started to sell printer consumable products? One way to reliably check is from the number of products this seller has. A new seller with no intention to stay for the long haul will only target and sell popular best-selling products to make a quick profit out of it. More so, as they are new and only in for the short term, they will not spend the money and effort to rent a warehouse to stock up that many SKUs for the customer.
An experienced supplier has great networks to the most reliable and technically advanced factories with less than 1% defect rate. Furthermore, they are able to effectively and promptly diagnose any possible issues and provide a solution to you in a short span of time. This will keep your work disruption to the minimal. Adding on, they are able to achieve economies of scale operationally to provide the most competitive and reasonable price to the consumer (of course, there will always be suppliers undercutting each other in terms of price but do be wary of the product quality, after sales support and the promised warranty you will get)
At theinksupply, we have a decade of experience in the industry working with the best factories around the world, stock up more than 1,000 SKUs to cater to our customers varied needs and requirements and we are constantly increasing our SKU count. We aim to be a one stop shop for all your printing consumable needs
Service
Secondly, service in the printer cartridge aftermarket industry is of utmost importance. Does your supplier make a successful sale to you and when in need of technical help, disappears into thin air or reply to you only after more than a week and go missing again?
In the aftermarket industry especially in electronics, it is important to have timely and effective technical assistance, especially in the case of office usage. You would not want a hoard of colleagues complaining and waiting for you to repair a disrupted printer or at home, you have a pile of school materials waiting to print for your child for exam revision.
In an ideal supplier, he must be able to provide timely, pro-active and effective technical assistance. At theinksupply, we strive to reply to all your technical enquiries with 24 working hours.
Reputation
Have you heard of this company before? If yes, keep investigating further by reading up on INDEPENDENT review sources who have been customers to the company. Independent refers to mass market e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10. These platforms are not in any way influence by the merchants and customers are free to express your opinions. (do note that negative opinions will inevitably surface as it is impossible to please everyone 😊)
On a side note, please be highly wary of Google ratings. The reason is because anyone (even fake accounts or non-customers) can leave a rating. To be very fair to the merchant, feedback should only be left by properly verified customers as they have experienced the product and service themselves.
A 90% and above ratings score should be a safe bet. However, do note, this factor should be looked at in conjunction with the other factors.
Warranty
How many months of product warranty is your supplier giving you? This is important to guarantee that the product bought is working and also a signal of product confidence from the supplier. For the aftermarket industry, this is even more pertinent as issues like chip upgrade do happen every now and then. An experience supplier will be able to effectively deal with it and confidently provide a reasonable warranty period to ensure that the product is working perfectly.
Product Range
Does your supplier only sell popular ink cartridge and printer toner products? Does their shop sell everything and anything from ink cartridges to toilet rolls? This is a signal of a lack of specialization and hence product knowledge (jack of all trades, master of none). In turn, it translates into poor technical support and product quality. It can be inferred that they may only be there for the short haul and warranty maybe in question down the road when you really need it.
Business Integrity
Does the business portray integrity? Is the supplier willing to honour their promises of the product warranty? If after product evaluation, proven that their products are faulty, are they happy and prompt in making a replacement or even process a 100% refund? Or when it comes to such issues, dozens of emails and calls are to no avail? These are key indicators of a company conducting business with integrity.
In the aftermarket for printer ink, toner and label business, there are bound to be some level of defects, it is important that the business honours what it claims in its advertisements.
Price
We place this as the last factor (as a +1 in the subject title) not because it is unimportant. On the other hand, we think this is one of the most important factors around. However, price cannot be the main determinant. We believe price needs to be highly competitive, reasonable and at the same time, consider the supplier’s reputation, experience, expertise, and business integrity.
These other factors are equally important. A good supplier will always not be the lowest priced supplier because it takes resources to maintain an eco-system surrounding a premium quality product and after service. There will always be a supplier who will try to undercut the other but the product quality, post sales service and business integrity is a big risk factor.
Conclusion
We would argue that a reliable supplier is not what it claims in advertisements. However, it is really the actions that gains the trust of consumers, regardless of how tough or dire the consequences are to the business. We would rate business integrity first followed by experience then price
At theinksupply, we have been in this business for 10 years serving big and small local businesses. We honour what we put out to customers and have the relevant expertise to service any technical needs that arise in a prompt and effective manner. We now stock more than 1,000 SKUs and we are constantly expanding our range to better serve as a one stop shop for all our valued consumers. We are here to partner you in your printing journey 😊
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