Multi-Function Machines That Say Their Ink is Empty When It’s Not and Won’t Function Until the Ink is Replaced
Fazio | Micheletti LLP is prosecuting a class action in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against Brother International Corporation (USA) on behalf of all owners of Brother Multi-Function Center (“MFC”) devices, which use inordinate amounts of ink and have an inordinate propensity to stop functioning for no apparent reason.
Brother markets the MFC devices as superior to competitors' machines that use a single ink cartridge, seemingly because the MFC's four-cartridge design saves consumers money by allowing them to replace only the cartridges they actually use.
Yet the technology Brother has used in the MFC machines appears to cause consumers to purchase ink cartridges when they don't actually need to replace them -- or should not have to replace them because they haven't used them to print or copy.
For example, the machines indicate that the ink cartridges are low and need replacement when they do not. Moreover, the machines blend color ink with black ink, thereby depleting the color cartridges even when printing exclusively in black and white. In addition, the self-cleaning “feature” of the MFC machines actually depletes the ink in all four inkjet cartridges, even if none of them is being used.
Brother also discourages the purchase of less expensive inkjet cartridges manufactured by third parties by warning the consumer that they will damage the machines, and by voiding the warranty if a consumer decides to buy a cartridge from a company other than Brother. Moreover, when the print heads have failed -- causing the machine to cease functioning and display an “Error 41” message -- owner have complained that Brother has blamed the failure on them, claiming that their use of third-party inkjet cartridges made the print heads fail.
Faced with large numbers of complaints, Brother has extended the warranty to cover “Error 41” failures in some cases, but only on a small number of MFC machines and only for a few additional months of coverage.
If you have experienced problems with a Brother MFC inkjet machine like those described above and would like to provide information about your experience or would like to participate in a legal action to obtain reimbursement and other remedies from Brother, please contact us by clicking here.
