Sixty-Five Percent of Ink Jet Refill Kit Users Dissatisfied with Refill Life Span

Refill behavior and experiences revealed in new Lyra Research report.

NEWTONVILLE, MA (PRWEB) February 28, 2004 --In a recent survey of more than 150 U.S ink jet refill kit users, Lyra Research found that respondents were generally unhappy with the life of the cartridge after the refilling process compared with the life of OEM ink jet cartridges. Sixty-five percent of respondents said that refill kits' cartridge life was worse or much worse than that of OEM ink cartridges, while just 8 percent said refill kits were much better or better than OEM cartridges in this respect (see figure). The results of the survey are published in a new report, Ink Jet Refill Kits: The User Experience.

Ink Jet Refill Kits: The User Experience profiles the demographics of users who purchase refill kits and measures levels of user satisfaction with various attributes of the refilling experience, including ease of the refilling process, cleanliness of the refilling process, black and color print quality after refilling, cartridge life and reliability after refilling, overall refill kit quality, and overall value for the price of the refill kit. In addition, the report measures user satisfaction with the refilling experience compared with their experiences using OEM ink cartridges.

"We were surprised to find that the majority of respondents, almost 59 percent, told us they thought black refill kit print quality was about the same as that of comparable OEM ink cartridges," said John Mc Intyre, Lyra's vice president of custom research and author of the report. He noted that the report found that Epson printer owners were the most satisfied with refill kits' black print quality, while Canon printer owners were the least satisfied with this attribute.

The report is divided into four major sections: Key Findings; The Basics: Who Is Using Refill Kits?; The Refilling Experience; and Ink Jet Refill Kits versus OEM Ink Cartridges. Notes on survey fielding, data collection, and recruiting and a copy of the survey questionnaire are found in appendixes. This research report features 24 figures and is priced at just $219 in North America and $235 outside North America. It can be ordered online at www.lyra.com or by calling Melissa Turner, Lyra telesales representative, at 617-454-2612.