Recently work had a problem involving the Lexmark X125 fax/copier/printer/scanner/telephone.

We mainly use it for faxing and it replaced an old fax-paper fax. A few years ago I suggested getting a plain-paper fax machine. Before this my boss had never heard of a plain-paper fax.

Anyway, the interface started displaying “ADD RIGHT CART.“. We could receive faxes but they could not print. We changed the current black & white cartridge with another one. The problem remained. I remembered a similar problem we experienced previously. On that occasion I followed the instructions from the support website and the machine fixed itself. This time, the problem remained, even after the 3rd and 4th attempts to fix it. For a short time we even resorted to using an ancient, last resort, fax machine.

Sevil telephoned Lexmark support in Istanbul. They suggested we should try with a new cartridge. The next morning Serkan brings a new cartridge and, wham, bam, thank you mam, the fax printer is operational again!

You may ask, where is the conspiracy in this?

The conspiracy is a new, genuine Lexmark X125 cartridge costs 50,000,000 TL whereas an unofficial cartridge refill is 5 times cheaper. What a fraud! I do not know how the fax machine differentiates between the cartridges. I do bet Lexmark spent time and $$$ ensuring the machine did differentiate.

The conclusion: printers and other ink consumers are not designed to be sold at great profit. It is the ink cartridges where the money comes from!