Chosen Solution
I am thinking of taking the loss and buying toner for this, but am not sure. I purchased this C3224 used on eBay and the seller said it had toner but didn’t guarantee the life it had left, if any. It shipped with the return starters, so I don’t think there’s much life if any left in the set. My gut feeling is someone seen the cost and dumped the machine cheap. But I don’t know because of the black toner. It was damaged in transit.
I will admit, I DID ask the seller to remove them, they didn’t do it by their own free will. I have had problems before here, as @jayeff knows from my last Lexmark saga (Lexmark CS417dn Do these Lexmarks have an “override out” mode?). They did honor it which is amazing by eBay standards and it did save the printer :-). Should I mention this to the seller or just take the hit and buy a new black?
I’m letting it go. The toner wasn’t lifetime guaranteed (I had a look at the counter, and it only has 1,337 pages; I think it was probably sold due to non-use, or unwanted surplus), and the CMY set is at 20% life. The CMY all says “Starter return program”, so I’m inclined to believe it has never had another set installed. I basically need a new set of toners anyway; I’ve NEVER, EVER seen a “starter” toner on a used laser end well, or at least it’s been refilled and has way more pages on it then I know that toner can do (I’ve seen this on an HP 80A where the chip was virgin, but the waste toner was heavier than I know it should be). The seller removed it, which prevented the printer from being trashed like the CS417dn. I took most of the inspection photos in the bathroom, because yes, I use it as a “toner quarantine” area since you don’t exactly live in there. A few bits of black toner won’t harm anything.
