Brother

Refresh is Brother's page-based ink subscription. Instead of buying cartridges, you pick a monthly plan sized to how much you print, and Brother ships Genuine ink before you run out. The company advertises savings of up to 50% versus buying cartridges at retail for heavier users.

Plans roll over unused pages up to a cap and can be paused or cancelled without a contract or cancellation fee. The catch is that it only pays off if your plan roughly matches your real print volume; a light printer on a large plan overpays, while a heavy printer on a tiny plan burns through the allowance and pays overage.

Separate from Refresh, Brother's free EZ Auto Reordering re-ships supplies automatically and has advertised free shipping on orders over $20, well below the $49.99 threshold that applies to ordinary direct purchases. For a small-office printer that's a meaningful difference on frequent, low-dollar ink runs.

Brother has historically given a $20-off-$100 code for signing up to its email list, which suits a hardware purchase or a bulk toner order more than a single cartridge. Separately, activating a Refresh subscription on certain plans has come with a promotional account credit, effectively lowering the first months of ink.

These are two different levers: the email code is a one-time discount on an order, while the activation credit is tied to committing to the subscription. Deciding which to use depends on whether you're buying a machine now or planning to print steadily for years.

Buy direct and you typically get a 30-day window to return a printer that isn't right or arrives defective. The condition is strict: the item must come back in its original box with all packing materials, manuals, accessories, the UPC, and the packing slip. Missing pieces can trigger a restocking fee of around 15%, so keep the packaging until you're sure the machine is a keeper.