Epson America Inc warranty charge,customer runaround,bad warranty,broken when i got it Long Beach California

I purchased an Epson printer from Office Max and took it home. It did not work so I called support. They told me to clean the printheads, and then said I had to go buy new ink cartridges to test with, and to call back. I did so and they made me do the same thing, clean the printheads. I was then told I had a hardware failure and I mustr fulfill the warranty. This, on a new printer!

They told me I needed the receipt, and because I am an Office Max rewards customer I assumed my receipt would be in my account at Office Max. Wrong! Epson would not deal with me until I got proof of purchase, because somehow the printer was not registered with them, even though I filled out the registration card.

I called Office Max, the managers were WONDERFUL, got me the proof of purchase printed out and offered to do the return. 

I called Epson back and they told me to email some numbers to a special address. I waited for two days and finally got a call from a woman who told me I had to PAY THEM $160 to have a new printer sent, and then they would supposedly refund the money to my account once they recieved the old printer. 

Mind you, I have already lost about $90 replacing the ink cartridges and having to go to Fedex to print every little thing my business needed. Completely unacceptable.I did not have $160 to spare as it is the Holiday season! This is BS....any company I have ever dealt with in electronics just SENDS you the product and then has you return it. Taking down a CC number for reference is one thing - but CHARGING IT? I am not going to wait til payday, I needed my printer replaced YESTERDAY.

I will be returning it to Office Max and never touching Epson products again.

All of the associates were snide and couldn't speak proper English.