Lexmark Phones Back: The Conversation

The Story So Far:

• A friend tips me off about yellow dots on color lasers
• I gather some evidence and send Lexmark an email
• I follow their testing procedure and send in my results
• I am escalated to higher-level support, and I mail in a package of evidence.
  

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Lexmark left a message on my phone yesterday saying that they had some questions about the printouts that I included in the package I mailed to them. I phoned them back to clarify some details.

I made some notes throughout the call but I couldn't keep up with everything. Here were some of the questions, answers and comments:

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Lexmark: I see the printouts you included, the magenta dots that show up when you swap toner cartridges is not normal. It must be a photoconductor issue that is causing the dots.

Brahm: I tested every combination of swapping the yellow and magenta photoconductor units and toner cartridges, and the dots show up every time (and in different colors, when the toner cartriges are swapped).

L: It must be a photoconductor issue.

B: All four of my photoconductor units can produce the dots, are you saying that all four of my photoconductor units are defective?

L: They must be. We'll ship you another set of photoconductor units by tomorrow and hopefully that will fix the issue [confirms address].

B: You think we'll see the dots disappear?

L: Yes.

B: Okay, thanks for your time. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Near the start of the call, my customer support rep also made a mumbly-grumbly comment about "counterfeiting dots" that I couldn't really understand. He was talking fast and loud but muffled, and I think he basically blew off my entire letter about tracking dots and privacy issues, and was focused on finding a generic tech-support solution. My impression from him was that he thinks the dots shouldn't be happening.

COLE'S NOTES VERSION: Lexmark denies tracking dots exist for tracking, blames faulty hardware; ships four new photoconductor units at no charge to rectify problem. But will it rectify the problem???

Tune in once I get the new photoconductor units to find out.