HP cracks down on cartridge refill industry

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A Lexmark story

Having only owned one HP printer that actually took down the OS (WinME, so not entirely unexpected) ... I can only really share a Lexmark tale of woe. I had to replace two cartridges - black and colour. Going to Wal-Mart, I saved $10 by buying a NEW Lexmark printer that came WITH BOTH CARTRIDGES!! Now, how the h#!! can two refil cartridges cost MORE than those same two cartridges WITH the printer hardware/software/packaging??? Tell me it isn't a ripoff!!

Of course, since then, I went back to Canon printers that have REASONABLY priced ink. Then I still by the generic refills since they work the same as the "official" ink wells ... at half the price.

As far as my printer now goes, it's generally unused. Short of printing out a document/web page, it actually became about 7 cents a print CHEAPER for me to upload my photos to Wal-Mart.com and pick up the photo prints at the store than to buy photo paper and feed ink through the printer.

The printer companies are their own worst enemies. They take a hit on the hardware to charge through the teeth for their ink. Sounds remarkably like Microsoft's XBox strategy ... take massive losses on the hardware to gouge the snot out of folks for the games. Sorry, can't justify ANY game being worth a hundred bucks. I don't care how cool it looks.

Posted by: Henaway   Posted on: 10/21/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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