Can You Say Hermetically Sealed?

Plugging in...

We all love color, don't we? Or are you one of the growing contingent with the FOC problem? What the FOC, you ask? Fear. Of. Color. Well, color ink jet printers are currently the best selling printers on the planet. The manufacturers practically give the printers away, knowing they'll be making oodles of money on their one consumable: ink cartridges.

Ink. Comes in a box. In the box is a cartridge either shrink wrapped, or wrapped in foil. These packages are hermetically sealed. Big 50 cent word here. Means air tight. Air tight for a reason. The reason? Ink cartridges dry out. Poof, ink evaporates like water droplets in the sunshine.

Why is the Tutor talking about such a boring topic as hermetically sealed packaging? BECAUSE a recent client ran out of ink, installed a new ink cartridge and continued to receive an out of ink message. How is this possible, the client wanted to know in utter frustration?

The client had purchased the ink cartridge several months prior. Took the cartridge completely out of the packaging and left it on a shelf in their office so they would:

1) know where it was and
2) have it ready to install

since opening some packaging these days requires a bowie knife or a saw!

Guess what happened on the way to the printer? All the ink dried up in the opened cartridge. All of it. What a waste of $35.00 for the cartridge, and the Tutor's not saying any time is ever wasted when she's on-site with a client, but heck, the Tutor had to charge for the time spent sorting out the client's behavior. Rather, ahem, the ink problem. We all now know the ink had no problem what-so-ever, don't we?

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, is the ink still in the original packaging, and is it turned on?

Unplugged