****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Ok, so you probably already know, if you're paying the EXORBITANT high price of genuine Epson Dura-brite OEM ink carts, there's a darn good reason - they are worth the price! They are real ink, not DYE which smudges and washes out with a single drop of water. And, they won't clog, leak or otherwise totally ruin your printer. I give the Epson OEM Dura-brite inks a 5 star rating.That said: BEWARE OF FRAUDS - and there are a LOT of them on amazon.If they're selling open packages (just the ink carts no box) they're frauds. You have no way to know if the opened package carts are expired old dried up worthless junk, if they're counterfeits (and yes, there are a LOT of genuine-looking counterfeits out there) or if they're the starter pack ink carts that only have about 1.5ml of ink, instead of the full amount (5ml, I believe) that the OEM product has.Yes, inks are ridiculously high priced. Don't ask me why. All of the manufacturers have us by the short & curlies if we want professional quality ink. I used to use the refills, but, that was for things like printing out recipes, where I didn't care if the ink washed away. Now, I've been printing a lot of images, and I want them to last. With the durabrite inks, these images will not fade away from sunlight, or wash out from moisture.I think my next printer is going to be a laser printer.While I am happy with my order that was made in November, I was alarmed when I tried to order another set last week. (I do a lot of printing) I found that the price had increased by ten bucks and was no longer Prime eligible. It was also being sold by a different company. Today I logged in and found that the price had dropped more than fifteen bucks- and is now being sold by a third company... and still not Prime eligible. I find it really misleading that Amazon sells this product- but has orders filled by random companies that change regularly.That is probably the reason why so many reviews on this site differ so much. Some sellers may be selling inferior or knock-off products, while other sellers seem to be genuine Epson items. Which company are reliable and which ones are fly-by-night operations?Curious- I looked at the cartridges that I purchased on Amazon last month that are in my printer- and compared them with Epson cartridges that I purchased at a local retailer (I was uneasy about ordering again through Amazon). The ones I got from the retailer were made in the USA. The ones from Amazon were made in Indonesia. It is quite possible that Epson produces cartridges in both the USA and in Indonesia- as the ones from Amazon seem to be working just fine.That said- I find it troubling that I really don't know who I'm buying them from when I buy them from Amazon.had mixed in cartridges. will not work with printer.Epson ink is always superior to after-market knock-offs. Like the next person, I hate paying more for it, but it's just worth it. Every other brand I've tried (and I've tried many) are bad in many ways: some will clog up within a week of use, others will never actually print the colors they're supposed to, and I've had many that needed "cleaning" straight out of the box -- which uses up half the ink to start with. I've also ordered some in bulk where only one of the dozen I bought even worked at all (fortunately for me, they refunded me - but the hassle really set me back productively).So, even thought the price seems higher, you are saving money and headache by getting the proper ink for the job!In the 3 decades that I have been using Epson printers, I have had, at most, one "OEM" (Epson) cartridge that went bad... and Epson was immediately helpful in getting me a replacement.The Amazon order site says that these "68s" are compatible with an Epson NX415 so I ordered them. When I put them in they can't be read. In reality, only 69s and 88s work for multi-color. But 69, 88 or 68 works for Black.I like Epson cartridges because they are problem free. I've tried multiple brands of non-Epson replacements and invariablly I run into issues and end up wasting some ink cartridges because of incompatability.The good news is that I was able to return and get a refund.Epson DURABrite T068520 Ultra 68 High-capacity is a multipack of cyan, yellow and magenta cartridges, but the factory box packaging was missing. As a result I have no idea if these are old inks or not since only the factory packaging has that information on it. These inks were SOLD BY "Pioneer Marketing Products" and fulfilled by Amazon. Amazon offered to adjust the price so I decided to keep the inks in the hope they are relative fresh, but in the future I will only purchase Epson inks SOLD BY and fulfilled by Amazon since I've no problems in the past receiving Epson inks in their factory packaging when both sold and fulfilled by Amazon. The inks are 5-stars but because of the missing factory packaging and, therefore, missing date code, I rated it 4-starsThis was bought to print photos, a huge mistake. Quality was awful, horizontal lines on the prints, and expensive cartridges made this a terrible buy.It is expensive, but I am not ready to get a new printerShipped with great expiry dateAfter first day of use, my printhead seemed to be slightly clogged, so I decided to flush it out. After reinserting the Black cartridge, the printer refused to recognize the new cartridge. $40.00 wasted!!!works fineGood quality and price.merci
