Frequently Asked Questions

Both. Every product page clearly says Genuine or Compatible and lists the manufacturer (Brother, Canon, HP, Epson, Lexmark, Samsung, Kyocera, etc.). We never blur the line between the two.

Genuine cartridges are made by the printer manufacturer. Compatibles are third-party cartridges that we’ve quality-tested ourselves and that work in printers listed as compatible.

Your statutory rights under the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 are unaffected by your choice of cartridge. The CGA protects you against goods that are not of acceptable quality or fit for purpose, regardless of whether the cartridge is genuine or compatible.

On top of those rights, our compatible cartridges carry our own 12 months replacement guarantee — and if a compatible cartridge we sold ever damaged your printer (rare, but possible), the repair would be covered under that guarantee as well.

Three ways:

• Use the Printer Models tool on our home page — pick your brand and model and we’ll show every cartridge that fits.
• Type the cartridge code on your old box (e.g. “LC233”, “CN053AA”, “TN-2350”) into the search bar at the top.
• Email support@inkcartridges.co.nz with your printer model — we’ll send you a list with prices.

Try this first: remove the cartridge, power the printer off at the wall, wait 60 seconds, power back on, and reinsert. About 80% of “not recognised” problems are a chip-handshake glitch that this resets.

If it still won’t recognise the cartridge, email us with your printer model and the cartridge SKU on the box. We’ll either talk you through a firmware setting (some Brother and HP models need a specific menu sequence) or replace the cartridge under our compatible-cartridge guarantee.

Page yield is the manufacturer’s estimate of how many pages a cartridge will print at 5% coverage (roughly a normal letter or invoice). Real-world yield depends on what you’re printing — photos, dense colour, double-sided pages all use more ink. Use the page-yield number to compare cartridges, not as a guarantee.

Yes — see the Ribbons section. We hold the most-asked-for typewriter ribbons (Brother, Olivetti, Olympia, Panasonic, Sharp) plus current-production printer ribbons.

Auckland metro orders placed before 2pm on a business day are dispatched same-day. Then:

• Auckland urban: typically next working day.
• Rest of North Island: 1–3 working days.
• South Island: 2–4 working days.
• Rural addresses: add 1–2 working days for the rural delivery leg.

Full table on the Shipping & Delivery Policy.

Free on every order of $100 or more, anywhere in NZ. Below that, urban North Island starts at $7. The exact figure for your address shows at checkout.

No — NZ addresses only. Returns and warranty over the Tasman or to the Pacific Islands take longer than a cartridge is worth, and we’d rather refer you to a local supplier.

No. The price you see at checkout is the price you pay. We don’t add card surcharges, handling fees, processing fees, or fuel surcharges. The total is the total.

Every order ships from New Zealand on the NZ Post and Aramex courier networks. We’re a small NZ team running this business from an Auckland office, so transit times are the same as buying off any NZ shelf.

Auckland metro orders placed before 2pm on a business day are dispatched same-day; outside Auckland metro, dispatch is the next working day. A small number of low-velocity items add 1–2 working days; we flag this on the product page so there are no surprises. Customer support, returns, refunds, and warranty all run through us. See the Shipping & Delivery Policy for full detail.

Every order ships tracked. The tracking link arrives by email the moment the courier scans the parcel and is also visible inside your account at /account/orders.

Yes. The order confirmation email is a GST tax invoice — keep it for your records. Need a different format (e.g. on letterhead, with a PO number)? Reply to the email and we’ll resend.

Email a photo of the cartridge and a one-line description of what’s wrong to support@inkcartridges.co.nz. We’ll either replace it the same day (no waiting for the faulty one to come back) or refund you in full.

The Consumer Guarantees Act gives you these rights regardless of any time limit — there’s no “30-day window” on faulty goods. See the Refund & Return Policy.

Yes — within 30 days of delivery, with the factory seal intact and packaging undamaged, we refund the item price. You cover return shipping. No restocking fee.

Only if it’s faulty — see “What if my cartridge is faulty?” above. Ink and toner are consumables, so we can’t take an opened cartridge back as a change-of-mind return (we’d be passing a degraded cartridge on to the next customer, which isn’t fair).

12 months from the order date. If a compatible cartridge fails inside that window, we replace it free.

No. Guest checkout is fine. Signing up just means we save your delivery address, your printer list, and your favourites for next time.

Only what we need to run an ink shop: name, email, delivery address, phone, items ordered, and basic site analytics. We never sell or rent your data to anyone. Full detail in the Privacy Policy.

Email support@inkcartridges.co.nz with the subject “Privacy request”. We respond within 20 working days (usually much sooner) and delete everything we’re not legally required to keep — note Inland Revenue rules require us to retain order records for 7 years.