Lexmark C530dn user reviews

0.5 stars

"Con-job 530dn" on April 3, 2008 by BK_inAZ

Pros: Decent output- but certainly not great!

Cons: Junk, fraud & SUPER EXPENSIVE TO OPERATE

Summary: Lexmark, CNet, PC Mag- all rate the included cartridges at 1,500 pages at about 5% coverage (normal). I found that ALL of my cartridges began to run out of toner at less than 300 pages (all reporting low), with 6% or 7% coverage. I made numerous calls to tech support until finally someone told me that the included cartridges actually hold 40% of the reported 1,500 pages worth. I have documented my experience and their statements, by the way. Over half of my printing before the toner reported as "Low" was experimentation to try to get color pages to look decent, since their tech support is useless.

When told the actual capacity- I was speechlesss- and asked to talk to a supervisor. I asked him how a consumer was supposed to know about the actual cartridge capacity so as to make an informed purchasing decision. He didn't have a real answer- of course- their fraudlent practice is inefensible.

I had to make numerous tech support calls for various paper-handling issues (and I am using standard paper weigths and sizes). As mentioned, their support is nearly worthless. If your time is worth anything, consider that cost of operating this, in addition to the cost of supplies.

I had my attorney send a letter to Lexmark's corporate headquarters, and got a call from someone who agreed to send me brand-new regular cartridges. They tried to convince me that the tech was wrong, and that the toner sensors were bad. But in all four cartridges? That's stretching credulity!

I will never buy anything with a Lexmark brand name again! It's just not worth it. I am baffled as to how they could get so many Editors Choice awards for this line of printers. So from now on I will rely on user reviews exclusively. I wish these had been here when I was doing my research!

Updated on Dec 23, 2008

Evidently, if you run the print jobs continuously, you might find that the cartridge capacity is better. It seems that the printer is wasting toner during its many times daily calibration cycles- even if you don't use it for a couple of weeks, the toner supply will be depleted, and the WASTE TONER BOX, which is a costly periodic replacement item will fill up. So turn it off it you're not going to use it for awhile. Or, even better- get rid of it. I am going to get a Brother MFC-9840CDW, which seems to perform better, with more features, and a lower operating cost. I have had a Brother workgroup laser printer with duplexer for about 7 years, and a B/W MFC, and have never been disappointed.

1.0 stars

"Complex failures, Terrible Support" on October 20, 2007 by mlarnes

Pros: Seems cheap

Cons: Complex failures, Terrible Support

Summary: Specifications and value cannot be faulted, BUT.

1. Mine just doesn't work any more! (See specifics below)
2. Lexmark support ignore their emails, and on the costly phone support promise to call you back and never do.
3. The box says LexOnSite support - Good luck getting it!
4. My 1.5k black toner is "nearly empty" after 0.5k of 4% coverage.
5. As with other printers, the 21ppm (if I remember right) is once it gets going, but I have to wait anything up to 5 minutes for the first page. B&W is faster though.

A few specifics ....
Initially, I succeeded getting this printer to churn out a few pages of colour, then something changed. Complex colour pages started printing out as a single line error "PDF Error 11 : PostScript Error: LIMITCHECK, or more recently still "PDF Error 10 : PostScript Error: IOERROR". Sometimes nothing would print at all. Invariably, the printed claimed to be busy for 5 minutes until it just stopped or printed the text line.
I have reset the printer, and completely reset my own MacOS X "Print System" and nothing has got any better. Lexmark have given up answering their email after making a couple of suggestions 'for idiots' not far short of "is it turned on at the wall?". I got a lot more help working with a Mac Forum on further trials, but nothing has worked, and the printer is basically £300 worth of garbage to me now, and I shall have to contend with Lexmark/their reseller for a refund.

1.5 stars

"DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER!!!!" on October 18, 2007 by uptownsites

Pros: Clear text

Cons: print quality terrible on anything but plain paper

Summary: This printer will only print on plain paper. Do not waste money on glossy or cardstock of any weight. When printing on anything other than plain paper it will print little gray fuzzies in the normally blank areas of the page. AND sometimes it prints those fuzzies even on plain paper!! And if the repairman says you need a new black toner and you do indeed put that in then it will print a bit better but will start printing a double image halfway through.

1.0 stars

"Always gray backgrounds" on October 15, 2007 by utronix

Pros: Cheap (in many ways;-)

Cons: Gray background, prints not straight on the papers, noise

Summary: My printer printed a light gray tone all over the pages. Tried all Lexmars "solutions" without success. Got the printer replaced. The new one also prints gray backgrounds. Not as bas as the first but still to bad for printing our broschures!
We cant use it because of this!

The paper feed is not really good, the printing is not straight on the paper.

Once or twice an hour the printer starts and runs for half a minute with noise, annoying.

If printing booklets a frame is added to each page. This looks bad, especially as the page is not straight on the paper.