Forget about Epson

Today I had a client with a new Epson all-in-one with the ability to print on CDs directly. They also have a wireless network with an AirPort Express that you can plug the printer into and print from anywhere on the network. It mostly works, but the client said the colors are not as good as her previous printer. This is bad news because Epson used to have the best color, even as their tech support went to hell.

Well, it's still in hell, at least India, and they were incapable of solving a problem with their super-simple CD/DVD printing program. It uses a non-standard print dialog box, and there is no way to change the printer! This is important, because there has to be two drivers: one for USB direct and one for wireless. Choose the wrong one and the print will fail with a "Can't find the printer" message.

It was like pulling fingernails to get the level 1 tech to even understand the problem: Everything worked correctly; it could print in all programs BUT their CD printer. After an hour battle and finally getting switched to a Level 2 tech, I still could not get satisfaction because he had no answers why the print window worked like it did. At best, we got the thing to default to wireless printing. The only choice they offered was to deinstall everything and give up on wireless printing entirely - create one print driver for USB and nothing else and maybe the CD printer would respect that.

Scanning won't work wirelessly because Epson can't write good software (like HP, even worse) yet I know it's possible because both the Canon and Brother all-in-ones do support wireless or network scanning.

I have been recommending against Epsons for a few years now, and this is just another reason to keep it up.