A shortage of computer chips has forced Canon to come clean and admit their warnings about counterfeit ink cartridges aren’t that serious. Now they have to tell customers to ignore those warnings and keep on printing.
For a long time printer makers have tried all manner of tricks to convince customers to only buy their expensive brand-name ink or toner supplies. They say that cheaper third-party products are lower quality, might harm the printer, be infected with viruses, fade your curtains or any other scary excuse the companies can think of.
Of course, the main reason for all this hokum is that printer manufacturers make a lot of profit from their overpriced consumables.
Ink and toner cartridges often come with a little computer chip which provides information to the printer about the type of ink, current level and some special code to identify it as an original extra from the print maker. If the printer doesn’t see that special coding, there are warnings about ‘counterfeit’ or non-standard items.
At worse, the printer won’t work with the off-brand cartridge, a stunt that HP tried back in 2016. They backpedaled with an entry in the Corporate Obfuscation Hall of Fame.
Canon has been caught by the global chip shortage and can’t supply ink or toner with the necessary identification chip. So they’ve been forced to sell unchipped cartridges and tell customers to ignore the warnings! Oh the irony.
Canon warnings include:
- A non-Canon cartridge or cartridge with the wrong item number may be inserted.
- A cartridge that is not a Canon product may be inserted.
Some other features, most importantly ink level notices won’t work either.
According to Canon only some imageRUNNER ADVANCE and imageRUNNER printers are affected. All the details of Canon backpedalling are here.
For everyone, Canon user or not, it’s a timely reminder to take those scare stories about counterfeit supplies with a large pinch of salt.
