No print no help

Question

wow, I just had a remarkable conversation with an apple person, who was just so unhelpful that I find it shocking. I've simply never had a customer service call with apple like this before. Not once did I raise my voice or say anything rude. I just expressed frustration that when I've called before and a person couldn't figure out the issue, they tried to be helpful or pass me on to someone else who could. she just refused and the whole time spoke to me as I was around eight. When I said to her that for the first time I can remember I hope that the call was being listened to by apple so someone could hear the way she was addressing me, she hung up the phone!
anyway, here's my problem. maybe someone has an idea. I have a mac mini that is wirelessly connected to an airport extreme. my brother mfc 8840D is plugged into the extreme. Up until last week, I could print fine, but suddenly it stopped doing so. I had made no changes to the system.
I called Brother. they had me disconnect the computer and printer (I also connected the printer directly to the usb on the mini, it printed fine), then reconnect. it still didn't work. we deleted the printers, re added them. still didn't work. sometimes, I get a message that says after I try to print something, "printed 26 percent" but then the printer just pauses. finally, the brother guy said look, it clearly is a driver issue. but that is not our driver. that is apple's driver, you have to call them.
Ok, so I called apple. I got this woman in their wireless department. she listened to my explanation and basically said, we can't help you. If it connects directly to the mac and it works, then it's a problem with the brother driver. that is not our driver. that is brother's driver that we just put on the leopard disk. call brother. clearly, the wireless aspect of their driver has been corrupted." I told her that brother said it was apple's fault, and couldn't she perhaps understand my frustration at being caught in between. she said basically that it wasn't her job to worry about these things, that the wireless aspect of the brother driver had gotten corrupted." I said I just reinstalled it a half hour ago from the leopard disk.
and basically that's when I said (in a nice voice) that perhaps she could connect me to another department or anyone who might be more helpful and she refused.
sorry to vent. I really came here for help. I just can't remember being so frustrated with apple.

Answer 1

hi and thank you for responding!
1. HP Color LaserJet 3500
2. The printer is connected to my imac via USB
3. After installing Tiger...I noticed all of my print jobs stopped and I
unplugged the power cable, all usb connections (only mouse, keyboard & printer) and reconnected them
researched 'troubleshooting' areas in manuals and apple online,
deleted and reset the printer about 12x
reinstalled hp driver from original cd
still nothing...so deleted printer again...downloaded from hp website latest driver (which was the original) - nothing
was advised by other mac forums to check my CUPS log??? did that and posted info, but received no response (There are too many of us out there trying how to figure out how to get our printers working again LOL).
I am not technilogically advanced enough to decipher code and fix this on my own, nor can afford to pay Apple or HP for additional support and just want to let you know that I appreciate you even responding.
This has been a difficult and frustrating adventure and I am just worn through.