Amazon suspends printer ink cartridge shipments over coronavirus

The shipments of printers, ink cartridges, and related products ground to a halt at Amazon as the e-commerce giant started responding to the worsening coronavirus pandemic. While the company usually fulfilled cartridge refills in a matter of days, it has now deprioritized virtually all offerings in the segment. A mere search for “cartridges” on Amazon now yields just a long list of products and services that are mostly delayed for weeks, indefinitely unavailable, or – in a best-case scenario – promise to ship in about a month.

Toners, paper, and printers pushed to the sidelines

Not even a Prime subscription will do you any good if you need a printer refill right now seeing how the said service tier only applies to orders handled by Amazon itself. The firm’s resources are entirely focused on much more essential goods such as necessities and protective masks for the time being. While we’ve already seen some innovative printing tech applications in COVID-19 relief efforts around the world, those are hardly reason enough for products like traditional toner ink to be anywhere near Amazon’s current priority list.

Printer users hard-pressed for their fix of the most overpriced liquid known to mankind are consequently left with little choice but to roll the dice on some random reseller. It’s not like those are hard to come by on Amazon but be aware that additional delays are possible. Speaking in more straightforward terms, there’s little to no chance you’ll receive any printer cartridge shipment until April. HP refills appear to be in a better situation than most in this regard, as many suppliers claim they can have products like this HP 63 2-Pack delivered in about a week’s time, both in the U.S. and Europe.

The actual printers are unsurprisingly in a less enviable position as most don’t even have any shipping date estimates attached to their listings, whereas printing paper is somewhere in the middle, likely to arrive within two to three weeks if you order it today. It’s to be assumed this state of affairs will continue for at least several more months, with the coronavirus crisis still seeing no end in sight.