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Lexmark Recalls 40,000 Laser Printers

Posted by timothy on from the save-your-toner dept.

ack154 writes "An electrical shock hazard has caused Lexmark to recall about 39,400 laser printers. The printers were sold under the nameplates of Lexmark, IBM, and Dell. From the article: "The recalled printers include Lexmark E232, E232t, E330, E332n, E332tn; IBM Infoprint 1412, 1412n; Dell 1700 and 1700n." Contact information is provided in the article in order to get your free replacement."

7 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Is that just electrical shock... by jkrise · · Score: 1, Insightful

    or is Lexmark implementing a no-refilled-toner circuit on the sly in the replacement printers? They're known for some sharp practices with their inkjet series of printers, aren't they?

    -

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:Is that just electrical shock... by Tuvai · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sharp practices maybe, but product recalls are almost always a grave embarrassment for any company.
      Watching your stocks take a sharp fall and your reputation dented is far too steep a price to pay for squeezing some extra cash out of a few thousand customers, there's machiavelian and then there's stupid.

  2. What matters is how mistakes are handled by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From the article: "Lexmark shares were down $3.24, or 3.8 percent, to $82.86, in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange"

    I find it weird that people (or stockholders) would react so negatively to news like this. Making millions of consumer electronic items, there will always be some mistakes made. What matters is not that shit happens, but how it is handled.

    Ofcourse it would be nice if products were perfect, but I don't regard a manufacturer any worse because of a mishap like this. If they handle such a recall in a painless and professional way, that would more likely boost my confidence in them. Problems like this are often very minor things, and say nothing about the overall quality of their product.

    I would think worse (and less likely buy something) of a company that tries to look good, sweep problems under the rug, and pretend nothing happened.

  3. why stop there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    they should recall ALL lexmark printers. I've yet to see one that was worth using.

  4. Re:Hee Hee by fuzzix · · Score: 2, Insightful
    As for legacy drivers. Why should Dell be obligated to provide Driver support for Operating Systems they don't sell and haven't sold for years? Dell never sold printers at the same time it sold Windows 98. Most people do not "just" buy a Dell Printer, they buy it with a system purchase.
    Lastly, the support information for the printer and basic information available on the website clearly states which Operating Systems the printer can use. Note further down the page on the right under Compatibility .. where is says, Compatible only with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
    I never said this guy was the brightest spark - even if he read the minimum specs he probably wouldn't know if his machine met them. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you work for Dell... I just get the feeling, is all. Following from that assumption I would guess you have dealt with Dell customers. Had any who have known what's going on and what to do right off the bat? No? That's probably why the support guys have that script - easier to assume they've tried nothing.

    The reason I was stunned by the situation is that Lexmark offer a Win9x driver for what is essentially exactly the same hardware. It wouldn't cost Dell a lot to include a "legacy" driver on their CD and they might sell a few more printers. They already have driver code to work with! Small changes required! Hell, I might have tried it myself if I had known enough about WinDriver hacking...

    The fact that printers are offered individually means people are buying them. I guess at least 10% of people are still using Win9x. That's 10% of a potential customer base cut right out. I know Dell aren't obliged to supply a legacy driver, but not doing so seems to me to be a bit silly given the effort required.
  5. HP must be rejoicing by Donny+Smith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Great news for HP - they must be laughing their asses off!

    This is interesting news in relation to HP vs. Dell (Lexmark, that is) printer war.

    Dell wants to screw up HP by selling directly cheap(er) printers that are supposedly as good as HP's. Well, that's obviously not entirely true.

    HP laser printers aren't cheap, but they're good.
    The question is can Dell find a supplier that can equal HP in quality and newest technology?

  6. Product Safety Problem by lcsjk · · Score: 2, Insightful
    As a product safety engineer, one of my jobs was working with UL/CSA/VDE/CE and the ISO-1950 worldwide requirement. Most likely, this recall is a result of not meeting that ISO-1950 or other product safety requirement. If you don't meet the requirement and someone gets hurt, the company is liable, and in some countries, (Germany I believe- at one time) a visiting manager is considered responsible and can be jailed until the issue is resolved. (Gets your attention if you are a manager.) Lexmark can put a new printer on the market without passing these tests, but if there is an accident they can be sued for everything they have. A small change in manufacturing process or a part change for cost reduction can result in an unanticipated failure and be the reason for a large recall. Most likely there will never be a problem, but companies cannot afford to take chances. Also, if they have applied the safety logo (UL/CE etc.), they are responsible for keeping the product safe, i.e., meeting the safety requirements.

    At my old company we said, "If the product was not tested, lawsuits could run us out of business. If we pass tests and someone does something stupid and gets hurt, then the courts will not award the person more than $100,000.