fight the printer ink scam

I’ve just thrown out a printer. Well I didn’t throw it out exactly. I gave it to a friend who mends and reconditions computers and the like.

It wasn’t old. It wasn’t worn. It was working…after a fashion. I suppose I should have sold it on eBay or something but it made me so angry I just gave it away.

Why did I do such a naughty thing? Because it made me angry. Really annoyed.

It was the bleedin’ printer cartridges that did it. It was a colour printer (bad idea to start with – in offices very few people really need a colour printer – b/w is much more sensible) and it refused to work if just one of the cartridges wasn’t completely full.

Aargh! Seriously, the number of times it went ‘cartridge empty, cartridge empty’ when it was half full at least, makes me irritated just to think about it.

I just couldn’t make the damn thing work when it went into that mode. Very irritating.

This whole printer ink thing is one big scam. It’s so easy to get sucked into it to. You see a printer for £30. It sounds too good to be true but it’s a good make so you go with it. Then you find that the printer cartridge runs out after a week or so and you need a mortgage to get another one!

I do tend to get reconditioned cartridges (you can even make money recycling cartridges) and I used to get refill packs as well but they are a bit fiddly to use (I’ll drip the stuff down my arm usually). But really printer companies should be upfront about the costs and we need to get savvier about our office supplies. We need to look at the total cost not just the upfront cost.

That’s why I’m pleased that Kodak, at least, is being upfront about their ink costs and making sure that they are sensibly priced. I don’t have a Kodak printer (I don’t have a colour printer anymore either) but I hope their policy will rub off on other printer manufacturers. Their latest press release says:

“Over 60% of Brits have an inkjet printer at home, and despite printer ink being the second biggest bugbear in the rip-off list, 76% did not realise that they could save up to £75 year on ink cartridges. Kodak has the lowest ink replacement costs of any printer manufacturer.”

I should think so too – the last thing we want is to be saddled with expensive cartridge replacements year after year. Let’s fight the printer ink scam.

15 Responses to “Fight the printer ink scam”

angry says:

March 23, 2012 at 5:53 pm

SIMPLE – EPSON ARE A OPERATING A CRIMINAL RACKET. STAY CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY OR YOU WILL RUE THE DAY.

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Ken McKeating says:

February 7, 2012 at 4:47 pm

I have a few Epson inkjet printers, primarily used for photo printing! One particular model is fairly efficient with ink & although several years old (used throughout college & uni) it usually prints without trouble.

I quickly learnt that reconditioned or cheaper versions of ink effected the prints & printer in ways that official stuff didn’t, sometimes causing trouble with the printheads & overall print quality; a result I have stuck to the official Epson brand.

I would expect prices to have varied over the years, particularly if of a less popular/used model – however I often find that rather than the ink I use causing a rip-off it is the stores that sell the ink that hike up the prices. Of course I speak only personally of my own & family printers, An Example: recently someone rather mistakenly brought a refill of four cartridges for £49 for my printer from a popular high-street store – go online & you can find the same ink in various places for as little as £22inc P&P

I think it’s important to find a printer that works well for the job you need it for & that it is as efficient as possible; searching online to see how others have responded to using the printer, also checking to see where you can buy reputable inks. Boycott the places & printers & even maybe brands that charge extortionate amounts & maybe they’ll get the picture!

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shree says:

December 12, 2011 at 8:53 am

I had a similiar problem with my HP.The inks all have to be full or say ‘not empty’ in order for the printer to work.If one of them is empty the printer will not work.Its frustrating and the inks cost 41 pounds for a set.I think they are rip offs.HP needs to sort this.I intend to give this one away too.Any takers?

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- Sherry Knight says:
  
  January 31, 2012 at 3:31 pm
  
  Are you annoyed by the price of printer ink? If so then please get in touch.
  The BBC are making a programme about this very thing and we’d love to hear your comments.
  If you would like to talk in more detail about it then please get in touch via sherry.knight@bbc.co.uk.
  Many thanks
  
  Reply
  - Mike Jarvis says:
    
    February 27, 2012 at 11:57 pm
    
    Hii Sherry, Yes I would like to talk to you about this, as it’s nothing more than theft if you can’t use the ink that you buy, because the printer is saying the cartridge is empty when it
    actually still has loads of ink still in it..!
    
    Reply
Rob says:

May 3, 2011 at 2:24 pm

I’ve just had to throw out an Epson injkjet after only 14 months. The cartridges were costing a fortune so I swapped to cheaper “compatible” ones which was a false economy because most of the time my printer wouldn’t recognise them. Now, I only buy “original” cartridges online. I find Euroffice give good discounts and I get an additional 7% discount in cashback and free delivery

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- Ashley says:
  
  May 25, 2011 at 12:08 pm
  
  I have had my HP printer for over 4 years. I stopped purchasing expensive cartridges from High Street retailers. I now buy HP printer cartridges from a a vending machine. Although the print quality is not as good sometimes. It’s good enough for me. Make sure you get good advice from printing shops, before purchasing cartridges, because some companies try and stop you using cheaper cartidges on the printer.
  
  Reply
John Rosenberg says:

December 18, 2010 at 4:01 pm

Completely agree that printer ink is a rip off price, but watch for false savings (gained from 1st hand experience)
- don’t just compare cartridge prices, check the VOLUME you get for the price. The the £6 cartridge looks cheap against the £14 one but you may get up to 4 times as much ink in the ‘expensive one’ so it would be much better value (a common scam).
- always get a printer with a separate black cartridge, as that will be the most used. My Canon i1800 also has the feature of the col cartridge being able to create ‘black’ in an emergency should the black cartridge run out.
- cheap refills look tempting and for text I’ve had no probs. However, for colour photos, cheap ink can fade far quicker than some guranteed brands (mine went a nasty puse green). My Epson R2400 hi quality photo printer ink is guranteed against fading for 80yrs!! This will of course not unreasonably be subject to clause small print re ‘direct sunlight’ etc etc, but have to say that 5yrs old pics on the wall are still good as new. My refill prints averaged 2 years before getting gangrenous. Good luck one ‘n all!

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ron says:

December 14, 2010 at 9:41 pm

I buy my ink cartridges at the local market
epson r 300 compatibles at £6 a full set just as good as epson

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Robert Catton says:

December 14, 2010 at 9:23 pm

I use re-fill packages for my canon MX 310 printer. I have just used a colour re-fill and found it easy to use, but I would recommend using latex gloves.

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peter english says:

December 14, 2010 at 6:54 pm

thanks.will give it a go maybe

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peter english says:

December 14, 2010 at 6:51 pm

problem is with my epsom printer. have tried replacement etc with worthless guarantees but they don’t work effectively. i need colour for photos. will probably give kodak a chance but understand their printers are not a1.

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Jack Rogerson says:

December 14, 2010 at 4:37 pm

Hi Jasmine,
First of all, please allow me to wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Now, the ink scandal.
I too am sick to death of printers. I had an old HP, which resorted to printing in B/W only.
It then developed a fault. I fiddled with several ink cartridges, tried filling them etc, and suddenly it started working. Magically, it no longer detects empty cartridges.Although it only prints in B/W, it works fine, I can refill the cartridges, and should last a long time.
I then bought a brand new Epson Colour Printer. It worked really well, for about 2 weeks. Then, when I wanted to print in B/W, it wouldn’t allow me to do so, because the YELLOW ink was empty.
OK, I went and bought some new cartridges, all worked fine.
I then didn’t use it for about 2 weeks, and when I tried to use it again, the black ink was very intermittent. I cleaned the cartridge, using the printer software,and it did work, but now the ink is half empty.
I have only printed about 4 pages of text, and already it has used about £5 worth of ink.
What a rip-off.
I always complain to the ink retailers, about, how ink now costs about £40,000 a gallon (and you thought petrol was expensive)
I agree we should fight the Ink Rip-Off, but how??
Yours Faithfully
Jack

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Zoya says:

December 14, 2010 at 2:17 pm

Why not get one that lets you set up Greyscale only (black and white) printing through Preferences in the print window dialogue, and then all you need to keep changing is the black ink cartridge? And you can switch to colour temporarily for any document you like. I believe Canon have that option on the ones that have separate cartridges rather than combined ones. Plus, Canon cartridges are probably the cheapest both branded and non-branded. Often supermarkets do their own brand of a particular cartridge in a multipack and they are way cheaper still. Before buying a printer, it might be a good idea to quickly research the costs of cartridges for that particular model and base your choice on the results.

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- angry says:
  
  March 23, 2012 at 6:05 pm
  
  no. my canon printers are the same as my epsons. THEY ALL ARE DOING THIS SCAM!!! We need govt action to stop this criminal fraud going on.
  
  Reply