Sweet Merciful Jesus!! Aren't there laws against this?

[Blue_Mood]

I recently got an HP Envy 4500 cheaply from Costco. I love this little printer (especially the fact that it’s wireless - no need to connect to the computer). When the ink ran out I joined a relatively new programme: ink by the month. I’m billed one flat fee per month, and never have to buy a cartridge again.

HP Instant Ink

The cartridge tracks when ink is running low, and sends a new one automatically. I pay £3.49 per month, with an allowance of 100 pages, but for lower volume users there’s an option of £1.99 per month for 50 pages. I haven’t looked but I would imagine there’s a similar scheme in the US. I’m very happy with it so far: stress-free printing!

[Orwell]

Kodak no longer makes consumer inkjet printers, so apparently their model didn’t work. I have a Lexmark inkjet that uses very cheap black ink, but Lexmark is also out of the printer business, so it didn’t work for them, either. Apparently, the only profitable way is to sell cheap printers and expensive ink.

FWIW, I haven’t been satisfied with refilling cartridges, either doing it myself or having one of those ink refill stores do it. I look for the cheapest price on new, genuine OEM ink at Staples, Sam’s Club, Amazon and ebay and buy the cheapest I can find.

And, no, there should not be a law. Let the market work.

[Leaffan]

@Stuffy

It get’s worse. Spend a little more and get a Laser.

I do believe that’s Mangetout in that video.

[Dogzilla]

I find it’s actually less expensive and more convenient to simply put stuff I want to print on a thumb drive and hand it over to the lady at Staples and have her output it for me. It’s usually pennies per page, maybe a full whopping dollar for 4-color. I ended up giving away my printer because I just stopped using it for this reason (ink costs outta hand).

[Mangetout]

@Leaffan

I do believe that’s Mangetout in that video.

It’s me. I still get a lot of ‘interesting’ feedback on that video, including:

“You’re lying - you poured oil in there or something”
“My printer doesn’t do that, so you are wrong about everything”
“You’re an idiot, how else is it supposed to clean the jets?”
“This isn’t a secret, and I hate you for pretending that it is”
“You’ve only described the problem - if you don’t provide a solution, you are the worst human alive”

For years after filming that, I used an inkjet printer with refillable cartridges, which was very cheap to run, but not very reliable as it would still dry up and produce patchy output.
I recently switched up to a colour laser, and it has been pretty awesome and solidly reliable.

[Pedro]

@Mangetout

It’s me. I still get a lot of ‘interesting’ feedback on that video, including:

“You’re lying - you poured oil in there or something”
“My printer doesn’t do that, so you are wrong about everything”
“You’re an idiot, how else is it supposed to clean the jets?”
“This isn’t a secret, and I hate you for pretending that it is”
“You’ve only described the problem - if you don’t provide a solution, you are the worst human alive”

I hit four out of five. Not bad.

Just kidding, your video is cool and your accent is melodious. Good job.

By the way, awesome post about project management somewhere. It was probably basic stuff to you but it really help me to focus on some scope issues. I never found it again to do a proper thanks. So thanks!

End of hijack, no need for a room.

[Ludovic]

@Smapti

Just wait until you find out how much a gallon of saffron will run you.

Saffron is mad expensive, and quite rightly.

[Acsenray]

@That_Don_Guy

Also, I believe printer companies believe in the old Schick marketing strategy; give away the razors (printers) and make the money on the blades (ink). There are some cases where it is actually cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink for an older one.

@lisiate

King Camp Gillettehas a lot to answer for.

(Although that cite suggests he only popularized an already existing business model.)

As Lisiate says, it’s known as the Gillette strategy, although Schick and no doubt many other companies have used it before and since.

[snowmaster]

@Ludovic

Saffron is mad expensive, and quite rightly.

Do they call you MelloYellow? Well Played.

[Ale]

@davidm

My complaint is that because I don’t print often the cartridges always seem to clog or dry out or something before I use them up, so I often end up getting a handful of pages per each expensive cartridge. I’ve stopped buying ink altogether and go to a Fedex/Kinkos (or whatever they’re called these days) for the rare occasions when I require a hard copy of something.

I can imagine the current business model for home printers failing as more and more people require fewer and fewer physical printouts, unless they can make cartridges that won’t dry out as quickly and manage to somehow make money from them.

I know that some big high volume printers (like in business offices) use blocks of colored “wax” (I’m not sure exactly what the substance is) that is melted and sprayed on the paper. As far as I know these should work until they run out regardless of age. But these printers are supplied via different business models. The one I’m familiar with is that you don’t own the printer and you pay so much per page (and maybe some set minimum per month) and are supplied with ink as needed.

That kind of pricing, pay per page and get new ink as needed, probably wouldn’t be profitable in the consumer market.

Regarding the clogging of the print head and cleaning process, I’ve had a couple printers with after market ink tanks (get two years or so of ink for 12 bucks). They add a dump tank for the head cleaning ink to drain into so on thing I noticed with them is that the cleaning process uses much more ink that one would suppose, perhaps half a milliliter or more each time.
So if you use the printer irregularly (like I do) and need to do head cleaning every time you use it, maybe up to half the ludicrously expensive ink goes to waste.