Rip off?

I'm thinking of getting a new all-in-one printer for light domestic use.

I can get a HP F4580 for £41.90 inc delivery from Amazon.

Two 300XL ink cartridges for said machine cost about the same.

Is it me or is this the economics of the madhouse? Is the cost of ink cartridges kept artificially high?

It's the old give away the razor and make your money selling the blades concept.

You haven't touched on the worst of it either. There's a timer inside the cartridge that starts when you put it in. When the timer expires, the cartridge won't print even if there's ink left in it. Manufacturer says that feature has been added to make sure you don't ruin your printing experience with expired ink.

Rip-off? Yes indeed.

Originally posted by sbacat
It's the old [b]give away the razor and make your money selling the blades concept.

You haven't touched on the worst of it either. There's a timer inside the cartridge that starts when you put it in. When the timer expires, the cartridge won't print even if there's ink left in it. Manufacturer says that feature has been added to make sure you don't ruin your printing experience with expired ink.

Rip-off? Yes indeed.[/b]

Originally posted by Rene-Claude
You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding about the timer thing.

Originally posted by Rene-Claude
You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding about the timer thing.

Originally posted by Rene-Claude
I'm thinking of getting a new all-in-one printer for light domestic use.

I can get a HP F4580 for £41.90 inc delivery from Amazon.

Two 300XL ink cartridges for said machine cost about the same.

Is it me or is this the economics of the madhouse? Is the cost of ink cartridges kept artificially high?

Originally posted by adramforall
Best think to do is look at prices of replacement cartridges, and check how much ink you get in each. Then chose a printer based on overall cost.

Watch our when comparing prices for ink cartridges as many firms do the smaller fill cartidges which makes them appear cheaper so you need to watch out for that "scam" as well.

Sometimes it may be c ...[text shortened]... newer model rather than buy new ink. Thats the stupidity of this throwaway world we live in!!

Thinking gives you a headache, and frown lines.

I own a HP Laserjet 1018. Very small, plain and simply. It does not print colour - but the cartridge is now going for its 3rd year. Quality can't get much better than laser.

Of course, if you need it to fax/copy/print/scan and in colour, this won't do the trick.