I hate the Printer Cartridge Scam
Posted by Rod in TechBiz at 3:20 pm on Friday, 2 May 2008
I hate
- buying printer cartridges.
- their razor and razor blades model which means that the cartridge you get with the printer lasts the shorter of 10 pages or 10 days.
- that Dick Smith never has the cartridge numbers you need even though you just brought the printer from them a month ago.
- you have to remember those stupid numbers
- the numbers they give you don’t match the numbers on the cartridges at the shop
- the shelf order in the shop makes no sense
- that each manufacturer has their own cartridge format
That feels better.
blog
Buy them online from Computer Food (https://www.consumables.co.nz/default.asp) or Corporate Consumables (http://www.corpcons.co.nz/).
I have no affiliation with either, other than being happier ordering from them than trying brick and mortar places.
Not to mention the constant change in actual printers from the same manufacturer, i.e. they develop a new model to use a completely different cartridge about every 6 months… for some reason the cartridge technology for all previous iterations was not a good enough design to be reused. (hmm, planned obsolescence?)
AARGH
amen.
Absolutely agree, bought a cheap HP printer for my kids. Thought I’d be smart (knowing that the they come with little ink) and bought a spare set of cartridges…They cost more than the printer!. Then then the printer companies wonder why people go and get cartridges refilled rather buy theirs. Buyer beware - a cheap printer is usually offset by high running costs!
Yeah, the trick is to buy a printer when they’re on special, use the ink it comes with then sell it on TradeMe and buy a new printer - often works out cheaper than buying the cartridges and you rarely have to worry about hardware problems.
But it would make so much more sense to make the printers more expensive and reduce the cost of cartridges. Thank god cars don’t run on printer ink!
I totally agree. I’ve had just about as many printers as ink cartridges, and now I just print stuff at work.
At work, our colour laser printer seems to have an infinite quantity of toner. I think its lasted something like 2 years for nearly 20 people.
I think the answer will be when the $2000-3000 colour laser printer commoditizes.
That might be a while… where’s the incentive for the printer companies to do much about it?
Oh, and aren’t we supposed to be automating everything, obsoleting the printer, and being sustainable? :P
Rod, with your accounts on Xero with emailed invoices and your business plans on PlanHQ why do you even need to print ;-) Seriously I find that I print less and less these days and buy printer cartridges maybe twice a year.
@ Sigurd Magnusson
I suspect there was a service man coming and refilling your printer coz all large copy-centre type printers come on per-click basis. It’s actually a clever business model: pay a small amount upfront, print as much as you want, pay per page or just pay a monthly fee if you print too little. Still, the ink manufacturer wins.
What price for a simple USB inkwell??
I have a small colour laser (HP 2605dn) with duplex printing. A set of cartridges costs a significant portion of the cost of the printer itself but lasts for ages (2000+ pages). Currently printing costs are running at about 3c for b/w page and 10c for col. This seems good value and the printer has been totally reliable.
Maybe we need a “Printer2.0″ thats free for distribution, built using ‘Ruby on Recyclable Plastic’ can be copied for all your friends and is marketed via word of mouth (not sold in shops).
To print, we could send a tweet on Twitter to a SaaS model printer app called ‘Pwintr’ that interfaces with the printer via a Bluetooth dongle plugged into a pc.
Only problem is we’d need a cheaper source of paper as random Pwintr Tweeters would send short messages to the printer like “Going to mums house” and “I’m bored - yum, a biscuit”
I smashed up my Epson inkjet printer on the balcony with a cricket bat after two cycles of rip-off refills costing 75% of the cost of the printer.
That felt pretty good, as did pictures of the destroyed electronics.
I have since bought a laser, not going back to the inkjet scam, I’m sorry.
Oh, and guess how long it took before needing to refill the inkjet? All of a month and a half.
Running for 4 months on the laser now.
Hmmm I’m about to buy (recommended by consumer.org) a Canon Pixma IP4500 Inkjet. The running costs didn’t seem too bad… Tell me to run away now if I need to…
Laser’s may not be the cheapest.
We’ve got a HP OfficeJet Pro L7580 All-in-One Printer for our small office. Its a $500 LAN-based high performance copier/fax/scanner/and inkjet colour printer that claims to be cheaper per page than laser printers. I haven’t done the maths but it certainly is v. economical, fast, and works well.
Interestingly, we moved office recently and it didn’t work after the shift. I phoned the HP helpline and they couriered a replacement and took the dead one away under the hardware warrantee - no cost, no questions. Cant complain about that!
Yes try computerfood.co.nz for printer consumables - very competitive prices and they offer refills and 3rd party alternatives.
On lazer printers…
We simply buy a new printer when the toner runs out. It’s cheaper…
I use Cartridge World for the refurbished cartridges, they are cheaper, the guy is knowledgable about printer cartridges, and it makes me feel like I’m contributing something to the environment (or contributing something less to the environment as the case may be)
I’ve given up on cartridge guzzling printers in my office.. now use PhotoFactory supplied CIS (Continuous Ink System) Epson Stylus CX5900 multifunction 4 colour inkjet. Comes with retro fitted CIS unit (4x 100ml externally attached bottles/tanks. Replacement ink $43/100ml bottle, easy to refill using syringe or small funnel)
See http://photofactory.co.nz/economical_inkjet_printer.htm (page needs updating)
–Tim