Rating: 
Summary: Great Value
Review: I was looking for an inexpensive photo printer. I had taken thousands of digital photos and never printed any of them! I just dont have time to go to a printing place, or even to deal with a place like snapfish, which incidentally, seemed like it could get pretty expensive. So I decided to give this Epson a try based on all the great reviews and on Consumer Reports liking this Epson series. I am extremely pleased. Set up and installation was quick and easy. I print my pictures through windows XP explorer and it is as easy as can be. My pictures are beautiful! I am amazed that I can produce these photos at home! I have heard this printer can get expensive to maintain, as far as paper and the special ink, but it still seems worth it to not have to go to a store or deal with yet another internet company. I couldn't be more pleased.
Rating: 
Summary: My Epson Experience
Review: My Epson ExperienceLet me begin by saying that I have over ten years of experience with all things computer related. During that period I have worked in almost every aspect of computer support. I have personally cleaned out countless numbers of inkjet printers with q-tips distilled water and alcohol. I kept my own Epson 740 going for 5 years without too much difficulty. I only got rid of it because I had a client that was desperate for a printer that would accept a Mac serial port. Boy due I miss that Epson 740. I bought a C82 a little less than a year ago, after reading good reviews. I assumed it would be built at least as well as the Epson 740 I was using before. Even after ten months my C82 still appears in almost brand new shape inside and out. Heck, I've only used it about thirty times or so. I keep it inside of cabinet shielded from dust. Plus as a matter of standard practice, I turn off all inkjet printers as soon as I finish using them, and I always change ink cartridges as quickly as possible to prevent ink from drying out inside printers. So was I ever surprised when my printer stopped working. It had worked fine with the first set of cartridges I had installed. However, as soon as I changed cartridges the printer stopped working. I tried cleaning it at least fifty times, but it did nothing to improve the situation. So I did the natural thing and googled my problem. I was shocked by the sheer number of search results. After reading through the reviews at Amazon and the hundreds of messages at fixyourownprinter.com I've come to realize that Epson has built and continue to build a printer that is so poorly designed one must question their integrity as a company. To think that so many people would experience the same problem and that their only solution is to continue to send people refurbished printers until their warranty expires. Oh, and the part that will really get you, is that they require you to purchase and install a new set of four Epson branded ink cartridges to insure that your currently installed cartridges are not what is defective. So before you can even have your printer replaced you must invest at least sixty dollars on ink. Of course they offer to send you new ink with the replacement printer. Still to ask me to sink my time, energy, and sixty dollars into having my printer replaced with another one, which will simply get me right back to where I began. I mean really, the nerve. Is this what our present day world has come to? Have we set ourselves up so that these large corporations can totally take advantage of us in this way? Is there no recourse? Are there no standards of business ethics that they can be held accountable for? The experience has left me feeling unusually sad. Epson has made me realize just how much I am at the mercy of these large corporations. I mean, if you want to print, who else can you buy a printer from?
I know that even if Epson would own up to this, they would argue that they had to make the printers so cheaply to remain competitive. Without doing so they would go out of business tomorrow. We've heard all that before. Haven't we? Still though, this printer is made by someone in a Chinese factory. I know I'm going out on a limb here, but I would guess that that person is not well paid. Perhaps they are even exploited to some extent or at the very least we could guess that they are taken advantage of to some extent. Then as they role off the Chinese production line, Epson sends these defective printers all over the globe, wrapped up in fancy magazine advertisements. People like me buy the printer, use the ink, put in new ink, discover it no longer works, call Epson, ship the printer back to Epson, get the refurbished printer in the mail, and <repeat>. Once the warranty is up we move our broken printer into the garage for a year or so, and then throw it away. It all seems so pointless. Don't think me a luddite either. I love computers, printers, and gadgets as much as the next person. It's just that it disgusts me that I am forced to deal with a corporation that is not held to any kind of moral or ethical principles. As long as they are making money and growing we think of them as a good thing, without worrying about who they are taking advantage of. What are we doing here? How can we let Epson get away with this? Really! Well it's not difficult for me to say I will be boycotting all Epson products in the future. I mean I'm sort of doubtful of their quality anyways. Oh and I haven't even mentioned the very unhelpful tech support and customer service representatives that I called long distance at my own expense. What a waste! Really what a waste! Sincerely, - Mark Whitney -
Hollywood, CA P.S. I know the solution is to buy myself a do-it-yourself printer cleaning kit. If you google it you'll see that many companies sell them specifically for the Epson C80/C82. However, if you try to buy one you'll soon discover that they are all sold out, as I mentioned before I'm not the only one with this problem.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent printer
Review: My mohter got this printer for Christmas and she is very happy with it. It prints text quickly and accurately and and it prints graphics that are so clear that they appear to be from a printer that costs more than $100. The printer is quiet and aesthetically pleasing. The software that is included is easy to use and very helpful. If you are on a budget and want a printer that works great, I definitely recommend the Epson C 84.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Printer, but Watch the Ink Costs
Review: Overall, this is a good printer. It was breeze to install and start using. The print quality of text documents and spreadsheets is great and can be improved by changing the settings at the expense of using more ink. And this--the use and cost of ink--is one of the most important factors to consider with this as well as other ink-jet printers. Keep in mind that you are likely to spend much more on ink cartridges during the first year than the out of pocket cost of this printer. PC World (March 2004) estimated the black ink cost per page to be 6.4 cents. Assuming that you will print just 3 b/w pages per day, the ink will cost you $70.08 per year. If you also print high quality color photos, expect to spend even more. I've had this printer for about 6 weeks and have already used up 75% of the "high capacity" black ink cartridge. Please note that the USB cable is not included. This is not really an issue since you can buy it for only $6 also from amazon.com. I would recommend this printer for those who need to print something occasionaly and are not heavy users.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent photos, crisp text
Review: Photos - In the past, I used the Ophoto service to print digital photos - but not anymore. Ofoto did a good job, but this printer is just as good, or maybe better. No one can believe my photos don't come from film developed at a photo shop. I've printed 8x10s on this printer that look better than 35mm enlargements. (I use a Sony cyber shot 5 megapixel camera, which I also highly recommend) You must use the right paper (glossy photo paper) for quality photo prints. You can use regular paper to run off disposable type images (for the kids school projects etc..). When you use regular paper the images are still crisp, but they tend to fade in a few weeks
Text - I also have an HP laser printer. The text from the Epson is just as crisp.
There is a BIG drawback to this printer - the INK. The printer doesn't work at all when one color runs out. When the low ink (red) light comes on, you should check to see which color is running low. You can replace just the color that runs out, which is nice. But replacing all of the ink is more expensive than the printer! I paid $60 for the printer [...] and I just bought new ink for about $75! I only needed one color, but I figured I should buy them all at one time since 2 other colors were running low.
Overall, this is a great printer - but the ink is so expensive you need to watch that the kids don't "waste" it.
Rating:
Summary: Ink problems make this printer very expensive
Review: The quality of the print is not a problem; it's good. But it's not good enough to neutralize the expense and frustration caused by the requirement to replace ALL of the ink cartridges every time one runs out. When the cyan ink ran out, I tried to print in black only. It would not. I replaced the cyan ink, and it still would not print. It indicated it needed black. Back to the store, and I bought a whole set this time. After replacing black, it called for the other two. Finally, after replacing all, it printed again--in black only or in color. The ink was Epson ink. Epson Help just figured they all ran out together. Even the first time, I knew they wouldn't all run out, by coincidence, at exactly the same time. This has happened twice more now, and I am replacing the printer. It will be cheaper. I will not want to risk another Epson product, although I liked them a lot years ago.
Rating:
Summary: Great Printer, Low Price
Review: This is a great printer! It's very inexpensive; it doesn't use as much ink as my last ink jet; it's very quiet (for an ink jet); it prints photos very well; and with straight text it is very fast! Not much more you can ask from a $79 printer!
Rating: 
Summary: Ink Costs are way too HIGH
Review: This is a horrible buy! I have had this printer for less than a year and I have had to replace the ink cartridges monthly. If I do not get the double black cartridge, I have to replace the black cartridge every couple weeks. I do not do a lot of printing and I have yet to use it for photos. The cartridges run between $25 and $32 each and there are 4 different cartridges. I am going back to the HP, it may cost a little more on the start but the savings in ink are going to be worth it!!
Rating:
Summary: great quality, expensive ink
Review: This is an awesome printer for sure. I'm really happy to get this one under 80 bucks. I'm a student major in graphic design. You can see how picky I'm when shopping for a printer. After reading a bunch of review of printers, I think this is the one since c84 has much better dpi and great ink colors. The quality of prints are much better than what I get from Kinkos. Gosh! I'm so glad I don't need to go back to Kinko's for my school projects. The only turn-off is I found there are minor scraches on my prints especially when my prints have dark color background. Also, I noticed the c84 ink is quite hard to get and the price is at least 30% more espensive than other epson inks. I guess it's because it's durabrite ink which the color is truely much prettier than my old canon.
Rating:
Summary: Great little printer for the price
Review: This little guy has one of the highest resolutions available today, and yet you cant beat the price. Setup was a breeze on my Windows XP machine, but make sure you follow the directions (on an easy to follow chart) and dont rush to plug the printer into your computer right away. Win XP will detect the USB device the second you plug it in, so make sure you are ready when you do it. Print quality is very good. We purchased this primarily because we wanted to save some money and print our own wedding invitations, save the date cards and the like. It handled the card stock we used perfectly, and the quality was outstanding. Photos look very nice as well, but make sure you use high quality photo paper to achieve the maximum results. The CD ROM included has all the necessary software for installation, as well as Epson's own Film Factory for photos. If you have Abobe Album, Photoshop or other similar programs, I would recommend you use those instead as they do a little better job than the included Film Factory. My only complaint is that it does not include a USB cable, so that will set up back another $20.00 or so at your local computer store. But overall this is a great printer for the price.
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