1355cnw warranty issues

I bought my 1355cnw at buy.com in Dec. 2011.  This was a new unit.  When I enter the service tag on Dell's website, the warranty shows as having started in Aug. 2011.  How is this possible?

Furthermore, when I called customer support to resolve an issue, they asked me to undergo a "transfer of ownership" procedure to transfer ownership to me or otherwise they cannot provide me warranty service.  I am baffled by this; I bought the printer new - how can there be another owner?  This ownership transfer will take up to 3 weeks, during which I will not have a fully functioning printer.

The printer issue is that the printer keeps telling me to replace the Cyan cartridge, even after replacing it with a new Dell-branded cartridge.  Seems like the sensor is faulty.  B&W printing works OK.

Any advice/help on these issues would be greatly appreciated.