FAQs

Inksaver a division of Linktex (Pty) Ltd, is South Africa’s leading online printer cartridge store. We’ve been selling original and compatible ink and toners since 2009. In order to improve our service offering to you, we have expanded our range of products to Office Stationery, Breakroom, and Cleaning Products. Convenience is now a click away from your doorstep.

We pride ourselves on offering value for money on a wide range of printer cartridges and printing consumables. We stock a wide range of high-quality compatible printer ink and toner cartridges and our ordering process is simple, safe and fast. All our printer cartridges are 100% guaranteed to work in the printers they were designed for.

Our range of compatible printer ink and toner cartridges are placed on the market at a lower price than the original manufacturer printer cartridges. Therefore, we can sell our cartridges at such low prices and save our customers up to 70% on their toner and ink cartridges.

You can contact our customer support team via email at help@inksaver.co.za or telephone on 087 550 0202. Our customer support hours are Mondays-Thursdays from 09:00-16:00 and Fridays from 09:00-15:00. We would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. OEMs such as HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Samsung and OKI are the companies that manufacture your printers. These manufacturers all manufacture a range of brand-specific printer ink and toner cartridges for their printers.

We sell a wide variety of original and compatible printer cartridges for all major printer brands.

A compatible printer cartridge is either remanufactured (an original cartridge that has been repaired and refilled) or a newly built generic cartridge. These are usually made by what are known as third-party manufacturers. Original printer cartridges are made by the manufacturers that make your printer and are branded with the OEM’s brand.

No, this is a common misconception. Major printer manufacturers sell printers at or below cost. They make their profits from selling their own branded printer cartridges. Previously, when you bought your expensive new printer you had no choice but to buy a branded printer cartridge after you ran out of ink or toner. By using compatible printer cartridges, you are cutting into the manufacturer's primary source of profit. Because of this, a manufacturer will threaten to void your warranty if you use compatible toner cartridges or ink cartridges. They are simply trying to protect their own interests anyway they can. It is however strictly ILLEGAL for them to do so.

 

Manufacturers CANNOT VOID YOUR PRINTER WARRANTY simply for using compatible toner cartridges or ink cartridges unless they can prove that the compatible printer cartridge damaged the printer. There is no reason not to use compatible printer ink or toner cartridges. They work and will SAVE YOU MONEY.

No, most reported issues can be solved at home, for example, by running a printhead cleaning cycle, wiping the chip to ensure it is clean, and making sure that the ink cartridge or toner cartridge is mounted correctly in the printer. If you need more help, please contact us.

Yes, you will get at least the same number of printed pages from a compatible ink cartridge or toner cartridge as the same equivalent original printer cartridge. Some of our customers have reported that our compatible printer cartridges actually print more pages than the equivalent original printer ink or toner cartridge.

All printer cartridges we sell, originals and compatibles, have a 12-month shelf life if unopened.

The printhead is the part of the ink cartridge or the printer that applies the ink onto the paper and the ink cartridge is essentially a container for the ink. For many HP and Lexmark inkjet printers, the printhead is also part of the ink cartridge and sold as a single unit. For other printers (e.g. Epson and Brother inkjet printers) the printhead and the ink cartridge are sold separately.

The drum unit and the toner cartridge are sometimes two separate units. The toner cartridge contains the toner powder that the printer uses, and the drum unit is the coated drum (or sometimes the belt) which takes the image as a charge from the laser, picks up the toner powder and then transfers it onto the paper. Usually if the drum unit is sold separately from the toner cartridge, the drum unit will have a longer lifecycle than the toner cartridge. If this is the case, please check your printer's manual for recommended replacement schedules. For more information on the difference between toner cartridges and drum units, please read What Is The Difference Between a Toner Cartridge and a Drum Unit?

On our home page, select your printer brand, then your printer series and then finally your printer model from the drop down menu in the blue box. When you have chosen your printer, you will get a list of the original and compatible printer ink or toner cartridges that are designed to work in your printer along with pricing and other technical information. Alternatively, you can enter your printer model number or cartridge code in the keyword search box on our home page or navigate to your printer brand’s page and search according to printer model or printer cartridge code.

Visa credit cards

MasterCard credit cards

EFT Bank Transfers

You can select the appropriate payment method after you have clicked on the checkout button. On our secure checkout page, you will be asked for your shipping, billing and payment details.

Our site is secured by Thawte SSL to ensure the privacy and security of your information.

When purchasing using your credit card, your payment is managed by our payment processing partner MyGate in accordance with the highest security standards. We do not store any of your credit card details on our site. For more information, please read our Privacy Policy.

Our site is secured by Thawte SSL to ensure the privacy and security of your information. If you select EFT as the payment method and have completed the ordering process, you will get an email with your order number, our banking details, and a reference number you can use when completing your EFT payment.

The first step in returning an item is to request a Return Authorisation (RA) number by filling out our online Return Request Form. Return requests cannot be initiated by calling our customer support team. You will receive an email with the RA number and return shipping instructions within 1 business day. If your return is not approved, you will receive an email with additional questions to clarify the request.

For more information about returns and our Lifetime 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, please read our Returns Policy.

If you need more help, please contact us.

Yes, we can. When you get to the second step of our ordering process, where you fill in your customer details, you can choose to order as a company or as an individual. If you choose to order as a company, you will be able to enter your VAT number. If you do not provide us with your VAT number, we will not be able to add it to your invoice.

We deliver to any address in South Africa and a delivery fee of R75 (including VAT) is charged for every order, no matter how big or small. Orders over R450 receive free delivery.

We aim to dispatch all orders to our national couriers on the same day they are placed. However, in the case of EFT payments, we will only ship an order once payment has reflected in our account. Customers will usually receive their orders within 2-4 business days from the date of dispatch. You will receive an email from us with your tracking number once your order has been handed over to the courier.

There is an option to select your shipping address on our secure checkout page and you may choose any street address in South Africa for your order to be delivered.

We allow for order collections from our Cape Town warehouse situated at 10 Searle Street, Woodstock, Cape Town 7925.

Firstly, check that the ink cartridge is compatible with your printer. Check that the cartridge codes are the same on your old ink cartridges and your new ink cartridge. Check that you’ve put the ink cartridge in the correct slot in the printer and that it has clicked into place.

Occasionally, the ink cartridge does not make proper contact with the printer and the printer can’t read it correctly. This could be because the protective packaging has not been removed or that the copper contacts are dirty.

If the copper contacts are dirty, please do the following:

• Remove the ink cartridge from the printer.
• Turn the printer off completely.
• Run a dry, lint free cloth or a tissue over the copper contacts on the front of the ink cartridge. Be careful not to touch these with your hands. Turn the printer on.
• Re-install the ink cartridge.

Please note, this error is not the same as a “low ink” or “empty cartridge” error. For more information, please read Getting Your Printer to Register a New Printer Cartridge.

If the printer still does not print correctly and the ink cartridge has not been left unused for a long period of time, then it is likely that the ink cartridge is defective. Please refer to our Returns Policy for more information on how to return a product.

If you need more help, please contact us.

In this case, you may need to reset your printer.

Please follow these steps:

• Turn off the printer, with the ink cartridge installed.
• Unplug the printer from its power source for 2 minutes.
• Plug the printer back in and switch it on.
• If you receive a warning, asking if you wish to continue using a non-OEM cartridge, click YES or press OK and continue printing.

If this does not stop the error message or the flashing light, the ink cartridge is likely to be defective. Please refer to our Returns Policy for more information on how to return a product.

If you need more help, please contact us.

If you notice that the ink level displays a message saying, “low ink” or “empty cartridge” DO NOT be alarmed. This is very common with remanufactured ink cartridges.

Your printer will not read the ink levels on a remanufactured ink cartridge correctly as it does not recognise the ink cartridge as new. There is, unfortunately, no way to reset this level, but the message can be bypassed easily when necessary and will not affect your printing performance.

Please bear in mind that the printer and printer software have no way of measuring how much ink is physically in an ink cartridge and the ink levels that are displayed are only an ESTIMATE of how much ink may remain in the ink cartridge.

To continue printing, press OK to continue through any printer prompts to allow the printer to continue printing. For step-by-step instructions on how to bypass this message for your brand of printer, please read How To Bypass the Low Ink Warning On Your Inkjet Printer.

It is virtually impossible for you to receive an empty ink cartridge from Inksaver as every ink cartridge is weighed before being packaged and shipped to us.

If the printhead is inside the printer (Epson, Brother, Canon, some Lexmark) and you are getting low quality printouts, you will have to run a printhead cleaning cycle. Your printer’s software should have an option to run a printhead cleaning cycle. This will most likely solve any problems you have. If the initial clean doesn’t help, try running a few more (2-3) at least 30 minutes apart.

If the printer is still printing badly and hasn’t been left unused for a long time, chances are that one of the cartridges is defective. Please see our Returns Policy for more information on how to return a defective product.

If the printhead is part of the cartridge (HP, some Lexmark, some Canon), these cartridges integrate all the technology needed to transfer ink to paper. The printhead on these ink cartridges will be clearly visible. If you are using one of these printers and getting low quality printouts, you will have to run a printhead cleaning cycle. Your printer’s software should have an option to run a printhead cleaning cycle. This will most likely solve any problems you have.

If this doesn’t help, please follow these steps:

• Remove the cartridge from the printer and stand it on a hot, wet cloth or piece of kitchen towel with the printhead touching the cloth.
• Leave for 30-60 seconds. This should remove any ink blocking the nozzles.
• Reinstall the cartridge and run another printhead cleaning cycle. This should solve the problem.

If the cartridge still does not print correctly and you haven’t left the printer unused for a long time, the cartridge may be defective. Please see our Returns Policy for more information on how to return a defective product.

About 99% of ink cartridges are foam-based and therefore do not leak into the printer. It is physically impossible for a foam-based ink cartridge to leak as the foam holds the ink and requires the printer to draw the ink out. The ink that you notice in your printer is most likely from frequently turning your printer on and off, ink cartridge replacement, alignment, or automatic printhead cleaning cycles.

The printhead cleaning cycles force ink out of the ink cartridge to clean the printhead. Over time, the waste ink reservoir (the area under the printer which is covered by thick cardboard or foam) fills with this ink and needs to be cleaned or the printer will need to be replaced. This often happens if the printer is turned on and off every day or is a high usage printer.

Some Canon printers will literally shut down if this tray is too full.

Please check that the model number on the ink cartridge or toner cartridge is similar to the one you removed from your printer.

Occasionally, compatible cartridges will come with a slightly different code to the one you have been using. This could be due to several reasons, either:

• The cartridge that you used has been discontinued and replaced with a newer cartridge that is still compatible with your machine.
• You have been sent a cartridge that is of higher capacity than the cartridge you were previously using; or
• The model number on the box is the compatible manufacturer's code rather than the original manufacturer's code.

If you still have doubts as to whether you have the correct cartridge, please contact us.

Some printer cartridges are universal and often used in many different printer models, and you may find that your printer model is not listed on the printer cartridge box. Also, bear in mind there are new printer models being released all the time and unfortunately the packaging is not always updated with all these new printer models on it.

If you are at all in any doubt, please contact our customer support team before opening the printer cartridge's packaging.

The number of pages a printer cartridge prints depends on what type of document you are printing. Remember, photos, web pages and graphics will end up using a significant amount of ink or toner. The stated yield for ink cartridges and toner cartridges is based on documents where 5%-page coverage has been printed. ISO/IEC19752 lays out guidelines for testing page yield and all cartridge manufacturers must test to this standardized method. For more information, please read What Does 5% Coverage Mean?

An example of 5% coverage?