Epson Stylus CX4200 Inkjet Printer

The printing only works when ALL the ink cartridges have ink - including pages that only require black ink. Here is how I found out: I just got a great deal on black ink for the Epson CX5400 that was clearence priced at Staples. I even bought an extra cartridge. After installing the black ink and then trying to print out a text document, I found out that the Epson company wasnt going to let me print text (black ink only) documents unless I also buy the cyan and magenta ink cartridges too. What a screw over! So I threw the Epson Stylus CX5400 in the garbage and will NEVER buy from Epson again.

This is a good printer/scanner when its working properly and you have ink. Its user friendly too. My first one quit working all of the sudden for no reason. It wouldnt produce any ink. My second one is starting to die as well and I just bought it this year (although it was used). The ink is pretty expensive too and it wont work unless you have ALL the colors.

I have purchased a number of Epson printers over the years, but this one will be the last one I buy. I bought this printer because it had different carts for the inks rather then having a single color cart and a B/W cart like my prior printers. I figured this would make it more economical to print, but it actually made it more expensive! The cost of operating this printer has been very high, the ink carts (original Epson) have failed if I dont replace ALL of them at the same time! To add insult to the injury, the printer will refuse to print in B/W if there is no color ink. You cant even make a B/W photocopy even though there is a dedicated B/W copy button. This printer is nothing but a piece of junk and I imagine that all recent printers from Epson are the same.

Wonderful!

Hi guys, I just got one of these printers for juts a few bucks. There are a few workarounds to the black and white printing issue. This may be helpful for those who have this printer. Heres a free program that will trick the printer into thinking it has a never-ending supply of ink: [...] Theres also an extensive blog post with solutions here: [...]

I have owned this printer for approximately 7 years. It has been very dependable and makes great copies. The only draw back is that it will not print black and white copies if any of the color cartridges are empty. This is because each time it prints, even in black and white, a tiny amount of color ink is used to prevent the nozzles from becoming clogged. Just a minor problem; I made sure I had replacement cartridges on hand. I would recommend this printer for the home office.

Below is the message which my boyfriend sent to their customer support. I am certain you can figure out the problem. I am incredibly offended by your ink policy regarding the Epson Stylus CX4200. In particular, I want to print a black and white text document, but am unable to do so without replacing my color cartridges. Not only that, but when I try to print, your Epson Status Monitor 3 pops up and reminds me that I dont have color ink, and wouldnt I like to buy some? When I visit your FAQ, and try to figure out how to explain to my printer that it doesnt need color ink in order to print my black and white document, the FAQ tells me that yes, I do. And wouldnt I like to buy some ink? No. I do not want to buy more color ink. I want to print my document. You do _not_ need color ink for this purpose. I find it overwhelmingly insulting to imagine a meeting where this policy was arrived at. Clearly someone must have suggested letting the printer print black and white documents without color cartridges, and the response must have been instead, we could really rip our customers off! Why any company would be willing to anger their customers so much is beyond me. I cannot imagine myself buying Epson products in the future. I am certainly _not_ going to buy color ink cartridges just so I can print my black and white documents. Im simply going to sit here and reflect at how incredibly stupid and insulting your current policy is.

Recently my low ink light went on in the middle of a project. I was not too disappointed - in fact I felt a bit smug because I had just purchased a half dozen black ink cartridges at a good price over the internet! So I changed cartridges and went on to continue my project. But the ink light was still on! I took out the cartridge, shook it, reinserted it over and over. I went to the Epson website to get a new driver. The new driver allowed me to see my ink status. The black cartridge was full, but the color was empty! In fact all 3 of the colored cartridges had suddenly become empty! How could this be? Im WAY too cheap to ever use color! I inserted my new black cartridges into the colored slots. No luck. Total loss. Trash can time. I will NEVER buy from Epson again.

Owned it about 1 year and made about 50-100 prints in that time. Then it stopped printing, saying cyan ink was out. Bought a new cartridge, same problem. Called tech support; thats where you repeat the online troubleshooting page you just finished doing, but in case youre really dumb, they read it to you. Bottom line, its a hardware problem, so they give you the phone number to the closest repair facility...of course, they give the FAX number. Then they bring you to their loyalty page. Loyalty is a TWO way affair...it requires Epson to make a good product so Ill buy another product. Im sure Ill be lining up to make another Epson product purchase...NOT!

I just opened this product and am already irritated with it. Epson did not include a USB cable with the printer! Had I known this, I would not have bought this printer. What a hassle.