Mr. & Mrs. Faux Fix-It
Get ready to not pin this post to your DIY boards! Prepare to be underwhelmed!
I fixed first: our printer has been broken since September. When I finally unpacked it after our summer move and plugged in, it printed exactly one document and then decided it didn't want to work anymore. Even though I have it set to just print in grayscale with black ink, it would only keep flashing "cyan empty" & "magenta near empty". Would that seriously make the whole printer unresponsive?! Surely not, right? Esp. since it printed that one B&W document just fine. Why not keep on pressing random buttons for four months trying to wake it up first... And only then finally break down and price out ink on Amazon. (It's an ancient-but-very-nice Brother model with the most expensive ink ever. I didn't want to invest big bucks in a possibly futile gamble here.) I ended up getting a great "add on item" price deal, and since we were already ordering our fridge's water filter, the ink was a steal... except they shipped the wrong model cartridges. After Sunday afternoon playing tag with Amazon customer service, they made it right (& then some) and by Tuesday, I had the right ink in hand. Would this cheapo, knock-off ink really make the whole printer suddenly whip into action and truly work? Actually, yep. I fixed the printer with new ink. No more emailing everything we need to JB at work for him to print there & lug home! #rockstar
JB fixed next: when the kids & I came home late from Christmas travels three weeks ago, JB told me he had some bad news - the dishwasher was broken. It absolutely would not turn on. Not even a tiny squeak of power. In a glorious display of procrastination, I decided not to bother the lady who owns the house about it, yet, until we had some additional reason to contact her, b/c #1) she's not even here - she's in Florida; and while she is attentive, she's Chinese, her English is painfully difficult to understand, and the local handyman she has (whom we've already had over once & could barely communicate with) is a pain to schedule. Plus, #2) I handwash all my dishes first, anyway; I pretty much just use the dishwasher to sterilize things, (it's the *ONE* cleaning thing I truly care to do! :-D) so going w/o the dishwasher was kind of no big deal for a while. (It may be the only kitchen convenience I could do w/o. :-P) Last night while standing at the sink, JB flipped a switch behind our family line-up of Tervis tumblers by mistake - meaning to run the disposal...and suddenly starting up the dishwasher. Yep: after 3+ weeks, he fixed the dishwasher by flipping the other switch.
If only all fix-its were that easy... :-P
Which also leads me to think: Great goodness! We have been leasing (b/c of all of our quick transfers, so we wouldn't get stuck in a home we couldn't sell; sold our last in 2009) for so long now, we really need to get our brains back into home repair mode, if we're going to buy here in the next year or two! :-D Shoot, we used to be so handy...and now look at what constitutes a household triumph?! ;-)
I fixed first: our printer has been broken since September. When I finally unpacked it after our summer move and plugged in, it printed exactly one document and then decided it didn't want to work anymore. Even though I have it set to just print in grayscale with black ink, it would only keep flashing "cyan empty" & "magenta near empty". Would that seriously make the whole printer unresponsive?! Surely not, right? Esp. since it printed that one B&W document just fine. Why not keep on pressing random buttons for four months trying to wake it up first... And only then finally break down and price out ink on Amazon. (It's an ancient-but-very-nice Brother model with the most expensive ink ever. I didn't want to invest big bucks in a possibly futile gamble here.) I ended up getting a great "add on item" price deal, and since we were already ordering our fridge's water filter, the ink was a steal... except they shipped the wrong model cartridges. After Sunday afternoon playing tag with Amazon customer service, they made it right (& then some) and by Tuesday, I had the right ink in hand. Would this cheapo, knock-off ink really make the whole printer suddenly whip into action and truly work? Actually, yep. I fixed the printer with new ink. No more emailing everything we need to JB at work for him to print there & lug home! #rockstar
JB fixed next: when the kids & I came home late from Christmas travels three weeks ago, JB told me he had some bad news - the dishwasher was broken. It absolutely would not turn on. Not even a tiny squeak of power. In a glorious display of procrastination, I decided not to bother the lady who owns the house about it, yet, until we had some additional reason to contact her, b/c #1) she's not even here - she's in Florida; and while she is attentive, she's Chinese, her English is painfully difficult to understand, and the local handyman she has (whom we've already had over once & could barely communicate with) is a pain to schedule. Plus, #2) I handwash all my dishes first, anyway; I pretty much just use the dishwasher to sterilize things, (it's the *ONE* cleaning thing I truly care to do! :-D) so going w/o the dishwasher was kind of no big deal for a while. (It may be the only kitchen convenience I could do w/o. :-P) Last night while standing at the sink, JB flipped a switch behind our family line-up of Tervis tumblers by mistake - meaning to run the disposal...and suddenly starting up the dishwasher. Yep: after 3+ weeks, he fixed the dishwasher by flipping the other switch.
If only all fix-its were that easy... :-P
Which also leads me to think: Great goodness! We have been leasing (b/c of all of our quick transfers, so we wouldn't get stuck in a home we couldn't sell; sold our last in 2009) for so long now, we really need to get our brains back into home repair mode, if we're going to buy here in the next year or two! :-D Shoot, we used to be so handy...and now look at what constitutes a household triumph?! ;-)
What brother ink cartridges do you use? I have a bag full of them for a printer we don't use anymore...some are even unopened and still with the target sale price sticker on them. If they work for you, I would be glad to ship them to you. I just can't bring myself to throw away that much expensive ink.
ReplyDeleteI was wrong! It's not a Brother. Sorry for the false hope!
ReplyDeleteAwww, THANK YOU! You are SO SWEET to check!!! I actually ended up getting 3 sets of all the ink it takes for $4.96 on Amazon! When I needed just black last year, it was a miracle for me to find just one black cartridge for $30! :-P
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