MARKETPRO COMPUTER SHOW CUSTOMERS BEWARE: PARAMOUNT 2000 SCAM.
I went to the show in Ft Laughterdale Florida yesterday, and found a nice Compaq printer there for a decent price. I knew the printer was no longer being sold in retail outlets but did not really care because it is a Lexmark clone and Lexmarks are everywhere. Anyway, it was an IJ600, and it was being sold for 29.99.
Not a great price, but hey I needed a printer with a real printer port. One of the things that I liked about this printer as well was that it had both the color and Black ink cartridges included. Normally at this price, you would only get one or the other. I buy the unit, take it home and prepare to install it on a machine that I built for a couple of orphan kids. Imagine my suprise when I found NO CARTRIDGES in the printer!
I grab my reciept and drive 23 miles back to the show, pay my 5 bucks for a 15 minute pass...and go in to return the printer. The woman who I flag down at the PARAMOUNT 2000 counter comes over and I explain my problem. She says "Why, NONE of our printers are sold with cartridges, that is how we can sell them so cheap!" I reply, "Cheap? These printers are no longer in production! This is a reasonable price, not cheap! Besides, it says right here on the box, 'One color and one black cartridge INCLUDED."
This does not faze her. She just shrugs and says "well, I must not have taken care of you, because if I did, I would have told you that these have no cartridges." I ask for my money back, and they refuse, saying that they stamped my reciept ALL SALES FINAL.
So, PARAMOUNT 2000 policy is: DON'T tell them you are not getting what you pay for, and DON'T tell them you cannot get your money back until AFTER you get the reciept.
SCAM!!!
Now, I have to wait for ink carts to be shipped to me--and the 30 dollar printer suddenly costs me 70 bucks.
Remember to steer clear of these scam artists the next time you go to the Computer show.