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I have a client that insisted on a Lexmark Forms printer for their specialty software. I can’t blame them, really, the software was made to work with certain forms printers, and the 2580 model was one of them. Against my suggestion to try a different brand, they had me order two brand new Lexmark 2580 Forms printers. The first one installed and worked perfectly, the second, not so much.

The second printer would print only faintly and left entire bands of ink out when it was printing. I tried the known-good ink ribbon from the other printer but it did the same thing. I printed dozens of pages and no improvement was noticed

I called Lexmark’s tech support number from their website. Unfortunately, the “tech support dispatcher” as they are called by Lexmark could hardly speak English, and evidently understood even less. No one on throughout this call was any better. I told them the model of printer I had and what it was doing. I got transferred to a guy named Mark. Mark asked what problem my inkjet printer was having. I explained that it was a forms printer, not an inkjet. He said “oh, you have the wrong department” and proceeded to give me a phone number and then transferred me to the correct department, but not really.

The guy’s name that answered was Ralph. Ralph asked what model of printer I had and what problem I was having. I explained it all again to Ralph. Ralph asked if I was trying to print color or black. I informed Ralph that form printers only print black. He then asked me to take the ink cartridge out of my printer and turn it upside down for a few seconds. I stopped him there and yet again explained I had a 2580 dot-matrix FORMS PRINTER. He finally understood and transferred me back to the first lady, who transferred me to another guy coincidentally named Mark.

Mark insisted he was not the Mark I had talked to prior and he seemed to understand I had a dot matrix forms printer. After asking me the same troubleshooting questions several times, he put me on hold for several minutes. This was interesting as well. I got to listen to the WindowsXP initial setup music* for about five minutes. After a few more questions, he finally agreed to replace my printer. Lexmark is supposedly sending that in a few days…if it doesn’t end up in Timbuktu. We’ll see…

 UPDATE: I did receive the new replacement printer, installed it and it worked right away.

*If you don’t understand what I mean, do the following in WindowsXP

• Click Start, Run
• Enter “C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma” in the blank.
• Click OK

You’ll hear the oobe (out of the box experience) music in your speakers.