Printer ink rip off.(Again)

[historian]

Has anyone caught the artical on printer ink in the Daily Mail of the 5/3/2013?
The artical is quite long but interesting.
One quote from the makers was that "...because printers are now more efficiant that they use less ink" In fact rhe amount of ink in the cartriges over the last decade has fallen from 10ml to 4/5ml. It mentioned that a cartridge costing £13 and containing a measly 4ml of ink. It works out that one litre of the stuff would come to £3,000!!
I know that this theme has been aired over and over again,but do the makers of the ink really think people are stupid when they come out with the above statement that printers are getting more efficiant,there fore less ink.But of course costing the same or,more likely,much more.Do you not think that these large printer manufacturers should listen to it`s customers?
historian

 

[muckshifter]

... do the makers of the ink really think people are stupid

yep ... and they right most of the time.

 

[crazylegs]

Yes its a joke
I hate printer manufacturers with a vengeance, They are real daylight robbers as are the middlemen too that take their cut, string em all up I say..

 

[historian]

yep ... and they right most of the time.

Not all the time, Mucks, surely. People want to use their printers without feeling rip off. The thing is that the makers of ink know that they have a captive market,and of course they are taking advantage of it.So the only thing to do is to use recon` ones`...I don`t think so. I tried them on one of my printers,they ruined the print head.
historian

 

[floppybootstomp]

Answer me this then - what choice do we have?

Do more expensive colour laser printers work out more economical? I don't know.

What printing methods do commercial printers use?

The implantation of chips within the cartridge itself that rejects refilled cartridges is a despicable form of DRM. They are getting rich on our misery.

As far as I can tell, most economical form of printing is a good mono laser printer, which obviously won't meet everybody's needs.

'Over a barrel' is the expression that comes to mind.

 

[Anon_F]

'Over a barrel' is the expression that comes to mind.

Yup.
The trouble is it's a bit like fuel for a car, you need it & those that make it can charge £££.
And the makers of the ink make it more difficult to buy from local ink replacement places due to the little magnetic strip on some cartridges.

My epson may be a great printer but it will not except anything but new high price cartridges, the recycled ones can be full of ink but the magnetic strip on them keeps telling the printer that the ink is low!!!

If you want to make money in life, run an oil or ink company!!!

 

[historian]

We have no choise but I still dont think that makes us idiots. The only thing to do is to try and get a governament dept` involved,like the office of fair trading.Maybe if all printer users got in contact with that office, via e-mail or tweet, asking for some thing to be done,of at least looked into and to give consumers a better deal.
historian

 

[Taffycat]

We have no choise but I still dont think that makes us idiots. The only thing to do is to try and get a governament dept` involved,like the office of fair trading.Maybe if all printer users got in contact with that office, via e-mail or tweet, asking for some thing to be done,of at least looked into and to give consumers a better deal.
historian

No, we're hardly idiots, imho most of us are just being "cornered" into spending a lot, for very little. (Although I daresay printer companies would argue about the "research and technology" that goes into the manufacture of their inks...) I usually buy brand-specific inks for my particular printer, but the coloured cartridges either dry-up or run out extremely quickly.

In the past, I gave cheapies a try, but ugh, quickly ditched them, because the quality was quite poor. They had a strong, unpleasant smell, for one thing, and left a greasy, inky residue behind on the innermost bits of the printer itself. Compared to the printer-specific originals, the print quality (particularly photos) was not nearly so good either.

Regarding your idea to get a government department involved - perhaps an e-petition would start the ball rolling? I don't think anyone has started one for ink-prices yet, (looked just now) but anyone can start one. The website is here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ I'm guessing you might get quite a few signatures.

 

[crazylegs]

Go on Historian you can do the business in starting the "Great Ink price ripoff" petition I'll sign it!