Planet Green Makes Remanufacturing the Lexmark Inkjet Easy
By Jamie Hamilton
You may already
know that Planet Green remanufactures HP, Lexmark, and Canon inkjet
cartridges. But, did you see their new “Press Ins” filters for
remanufacturing the Lexmark Black Cartridge at the Recharger
World Expo?
Lexmark
Press Ins
Remanufacturing
a Lexmark black inkjet has never been an easy feat. When the
cartridge is exhausted the ink solidifies in a reservoir beneath the
filter, and rinsing and flushing the filter itself produces
inconsistent quality. The Press In is an all-in-one filter and
reservoir unit that replaces the original filter in the Lexmark
cartridge so that it can be remanufactured.
To get started,
remanufacturers would remove the old filter, gaining access to the
reservoir so that the tar-like ink beginning to coagulate can be
cleaned out. Now you don’t have to guess whether the reservoir area
is clean or not—you can see with your own eyes and visually inspect
that it is clean. After cleaning out the reservoir and clearing all
nozzles, a Press In is installed to replace the old filter and the
cartridge can be refilled with ink.
“Everyone at the
show was really fascinated,” says Sean Levi, CEO of Planet Green.
“We partnered with R & R Services to create the Press Ins. We expect
it to be a tremendous success.”
Quality Inkjets
Planet Green
offers resellers 35 SKUs of quality Lexmark, HP and Canon inkjets.
They do blind-drop ships, same-day ship, and have a 100%
satisfaction guarantee. There is no minimum order with Planet Green,
but quantity price breaks are available; see www.pginkjets.com
for pricing and cartridge availability. When placing an order with
Planet Green, your product will arrive in a four-color, glossy box
that gives the cartridge specifications but does not mention the
name Planet Green.
For a limited
time, Planet Green is also offering new customers a 2-for-1
deal. The company is so confident in the quality of its cartridges
that if a defective cartridge ever turns up it will be replaced with
two. New customers have until Dec. 31 to sign up for this 2-for-1
program.
“With the bad
reputation of quality in the remanufactured inkjet, distributors and
wholesalers should realize that--in the long run--buying a quality
cartridge will eliminate a lot of future problems and allow their
businesses to grow,” Levi says.
Quality Customer Service
When you call
Planet Green, there is no automated voice answering system to
contend with. You speak to a real customer service representative
that is interested in you and how to help your business grow. Planet
Green employees work as a team to service your needs and are
educated in the remanufacturing process to answer your questions.
“We love to get
to know our customers,” Levi says. “There are no designated
positions here—no one is just designated to pick up the phone. If I
hear the phone ring, I’ll pick it up. We are here to work as a
team.”
Since they have
no designated positions, office employees at Planet Green are often
asked to spend time in the remanufacturing area so that they can
gain a better knowledge of the process and answer customers’
questions on ink or how a cartridge is packaged.
Planet Green
develops a close relationship with its customers so that they can
get feedback on how their product is working in the field. “We care
about quality. Customer feedback is very important to our
remanufacturing process as well as all the supplies that we put into
it,” said Levi.
Levi says when
his company gets a complaint about a cartridge, he doesn’t take
chances—the whole line is pulled to look at why there has been a
problem so that it never happens again. “Why would you continue to
sell a product if there has been a complaint?” he says. “That just
leads to more problems. We want to fix a problem as soon as it
happens.”
“Our philosophy
is to be very honest and straight forward with our customers,” Levi
adds. “If something is back-ordered, we will say so right away. We
don’t want to waste your time or upset your customer by not giving
you the whole story.”
Starting Planet
Green
Sean Levi was
selling imaging supplies as a partner in Universal Data Products in
1995 when he realized that the quality of remanufactured cartridges
was not adequate. They were getting a lot of returns, and Levi
started dissecting them to find out why.
He researched
how the cartridges worked and decided that the only way any company
would succeed in the industry was to have full control of the
process and the quality. From there he proposed to his partners at
Universal Data Products that they should go into remanufacturing the
cartridges themselves.
The partners
weren’t interested, so he separated from them and opened Planet
Green on Jan. 1, 2000.
“There is so
much work that needs to go into producing a quality remanufactured
inkjet cartridge—the research and everything that is involved is
endless and limitless,” Levi says.
“I’m glad I went
into the inkjet,” he adds, “because people are wanting something
that is compact, that they can put on their desk at home. With
large, bulky laser printers you can’t really do that.”
He rented a
small unit in Chatsworth to begin his one-man operation of refilling
the inkjets at night and selling and delivering during the day.
Sixteen-hour days and longer were a normal work schedule for the
first year, but then business started to expand and he hired a sales
person.
Then in January
2001, they had a break-in. Computers and machines were stolen along
with important files and documents. “Every thing they took was very
valuable—it was almost like starting over,” he recalls.
But when
Recharger Magazine heard about the story and printed a feature
on what had happened to Planet Green, companies came together and
helped resurrect Levi’s company.
There was no
looking back for Planet Green after they got their footing again;
they’ve more than doubled in size every year since. Now located in
Canoga Park, Calif., Levi’s company has 40 employees and
remanufactures around 60,000 inkjet cartridges a month that are then
sold across the U.S. and Canada.
by Jamie Hamilton— in
addition to writing business profiles in ENX, Jamie writes and
designs ads, brochures, catalogs, newsletters, and technical manuals
for companies in the imaging industry. She can be contacted at:
Tel/ Fax 502-896-1051 or e-mail her at:
jamiewriter@hotmail.com.
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