Cartridge World

The service at this store was very good and the people were very nice, but alas, the store is now closed. I went there last week, and the place was empty.

These guys are great but EVERYONE SHOULD TAKE NOTE THAT THEIR PHONE NUMBER IS ACTUALLY: 312.419.0204

Since I’m unemployed and can’t use my office printer for all of my printing needs, I needed to replace the cartridge on my printer at home (after…oh…about 3 years of having an empty cartridge.) Office Max was going to charge me $ 40, but Cartridge World charged me $ 19. Pefecto for this budget-​ista!

I went to Cartridge World in the loop because it was near work and I could walk there on my lunch break. They also put ink in two of the three cartridges I brought in. That’s about all the positive words I can write about this place.
The down side of my experience at Cartridge World:
1. MISLEADING ADVERTISING: They advertised that you can get new printer ink cartridges (either fill yours while you wait or exchange your empty ones for recently refilled ones hanging on the wall). Awesome! Oh, but I brought Dell cartridges. They said of course they fill those… but it’ll take a few days and they don’t ever have them available on the wall to sell.
2. POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE: When I came back four days later they said they were only able to fill two of my three cartridges. I believe this was legit because the fella who explained it to me said that there’s some sponge in Dell cartridges, needs to be rehydrated, this one was too dry to salvage, blah blah blah. I don’t fault them there. But they said this was a common problem. It would have been nice to know that when I dropped them off.
3. POOR COMMUNICATION/​CUSTOMER SERVICEThe fella I dealt with on visit 1, over the phone, and visit 2 was a horrible customer service representative. I would put his name here, but I don’t know if that’s allowed. He babbled on and on and on, not getting to the point of anything until I directed the conversation to yes and no-​type answers. You know this type of poor communication: where you ask someone a question and they tell you relatively the same thing in five different ways as you slowly doze off.
4. PRICES AREN’T THAT GOOD: The prices aren’t nearly as good as the previous review said. My two cartridges cost $ 18.99 for b/​w and $ 20.99 for color. That is NOT nearly half of what it would cost for a brand new cartridge.
5. ON THE TECH CONTINUUM THESE FOLKS ARE STILL TAKING BABY STEPS: When I picked up my cartridges they didn’t know if I had paid for them at drop off (I couldn’t remember either). They actually did this record keeping on carbon paper!!! And even there they didn’t mark down any more than my name and phone number– their computer doesn’t keep records of sales either. I eventually had to call my credit card company to see if there had or had not been a charge to Cartridge World put on my card that week (there had not, so I paid then).
**ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES FOR PEOPLE OF ALL ABILITIES: Along with not being wheelchair accessible, as of July 2008 there’s a sign on the door telling you how hard it is to open and you might need to get help!
Bottom line: I wouldn’t waste my money or time at this location. Maybe the others are stellar, but this one certainly wasn’t.

I love cartridge world especially this location. The staff is friendly, the venue is clean and in a very convenient location– .5 block away from the state/​lake stop to the red/​green/​orange/​purple line.
bcus of cartridge world, you do not have to buy a new cartridge for your printer– something that can be very costly. nor do you have to refill your own cartridge with messy inks to save money. just bring your cartridge in with a little ink left and they will refill it for you for more than half the price of an original cartridge. the best thing about cartridge world is that after they refill your ink, they have EVERY kind of printer in the back to test it out, and attach a cartridge cover and seal it in a plastic bag so your cartridge won’t dry up on our city’s windiest days.