About 3 years ago I needed a color printer. I still had my first black & white Hewlett-Packard, which I had bought in 1996, but I wanted to upgrade to color, and the prices had come way down since I bought it. (It's still functioning today as my backup printer at work, btw.) I figured I'd save money and buy an inexpensive Epson printer (about 80.00). The damned thing started giving me trouble after about a year, and I don't even use it that heavily. It was clunky, and half the time I had to print more than once before the page came out right! I never was able to successfully adjust the alignment. I had invested quite a bit in ink cartridges (which are expensive) that I had yet to use, so I bought another Epson, figuring that the first one had been a lemon, or perhaps I had not maintained it properly. The second one started misbehaving just like the first one after about a year. I bit the bullet and bought a Hewlett-Packard (around 130.00 I think) and it has been completely dependable and trouble-free. And it prints smoothly and accurately.
Don't buy an Epson!