The Printers / Printers Ink Scam [RESOLVED]

[Chim]

Alright, we all already know the situation with printers and printer ink and their cost is a big scam.  They sell printers for cheap ... then stick it to you big time with the ink cartridges when you run out.

I have a curiosity that I wanted to check out with you guys as to your experience with y'all's printers.

I just barely bought an Epson XP-330 printer recently.  Before that, I hadn't had any printer in ages.  Before that, the only printers I had dealt with were Epson printers whereby for the color aspect, ONE cartridge included all 3 colors.  So, whether you ran out of only 1 of those colors ... BAMM!  Now your entire color ink cartridge was declared OUT and you could no longer print.

With my new Epson XP330 printer on the other hand, it is the first printer that I deal with that has 3 separate cartridges for the 3 different colors.  At first I thought that was great.  However, now I am very suspicious.  After very quickly running out of Black ink after very little printing, my ink levels indicator very suspiciously and conveniently indicates that ALL 3 of my color cartridges are ALL 3 at EXACTLY half full.  REALLY?  All 3 just by chance at exactly the same level?  It's not like I sat there printing out nothing but Test Color Bars of the 3 colors so that all 3 cartridges would get used up at EXACTLY the same level.

What the flipping blazes in the world of scams is going on?  Is this what I'm supposed to expect?  Are my 3 color cartridges going to conveniently all 3 run out at the same time no matter what I print?  I know the 3 different colors are combined to create the many different colors that are printed.  But I am having trouble believing that just by chance all 3 have so far been used up in exact amounts and are all 3 at half full.  I would have thought the odds of all 3 colors levels being exactly the same at this point would be highly unlikely.

Can anyone confirm that separate color ink cartridges do get used up at different levels?  I mean, I did see at Walmart that they do sell the different color cartridges individually as well as in a set.  I had hoped not to have to buy the friggin' set all the time.

[mchain]

Chim,

Sometimes it is good to have a rant.   

New printers, as shipped, seem to have ink cartridges filled to less than 1/2 full.  Doesn't matte(r) what brand either.

It's up to the consumer to buy the full cartridges and not expect to get full versions with a new printer.

https://www.cartridgeworld.com/main/; http://www.pcworld.com/article/221626/cartridge_world_remanufactured_ink_cartridges.html (this thrown in for comparison, and yes, article is over six years old)

Another way of looking at the near-empty inkjet cartridges:  If you never sold that particular printer, you'd be out that much ink you could've sold elsewhere, if you shipped with full cartridges.

HP 950C, got for free, and still works today.  Leseee, that works out to 20 years!

[Chim]

Ahhhhhhh!  Whew!  That's certainly a relief, mchain.  That certainly explains things ... the seemingly SQUAT for printing amount before I ran out of Black ink.  About all I recall having printed out was some experimental tests with envelopes so that I could figure out the settings and envelope positions when printing envelopes with MS Word.  And a couple of other test printouts of some Docs and simplistic illustrations and such.  Like I said, basically SQUAT and suddenly when I wanted to print out a real envelope today I am informed that the Black ink cartridge is running low and if I wanted the printer to combine the colors to create a composite Black.

So yeah, what you say makes sense.  The "All 3 at Half" status that the 3 color cartridges are at right now is no doubt the level at which they were shipped.  And the Black cartridge must have been at half as well or less when shipped.  So hopefully I sure get more printing amount out of this new, presumably FULL Black cartridge that I just installed today.

As to buying and using non-genuine Epson ink cartridges?  Nnnnggg, nope!  I'm not gonna do that again.  On the last printer that I had (an Epson), I tried some cartridges from Staples.  They leaked, made a mess and I believe didn't print very well.

Annnnd as to my ranty mood / mode?    Well, let's just say that due to being right now in the middle of a TireGate / Lug NutGate mess nightmare experience at Discount Tire ... I AM in a rabid, seeing red mood right now.

But ............ that's Off Topic, so ------ Thanks for the heads up on the NON-Full print ink cartridges at shipping heads up, mchain.

[mchain]

NP and you're welcome.

[Off Topic:]  Discount Tire?  Ugh!  Once went to get two tires, sales said four, no, I need two, no four, no two, it's four, ok, goodbye.  Got my two tires somewhere else.
Soo, if you felt ripped, ok I can see that.  Been there done that.

[DavidR]

As mentioned, printers of all brands come with very little ink in a new printer.

If the Black runs out first, very likely indeed, then some printers won't print and some will. For those that do continue, they use the three colours to produce black and that will exhaust the three colours much quicker. For many this will have the effect of all three colour cartridges running out around the same time.

I used to use Epson inkjet printers almost exclusively then on to Cannon as they were early adopters of the multi (4) individual cartridges, not 1 black and 1 colour cartridge.  At one point I needed an A3 printer and that was pretty expensive at the time, when a new OS came out 'XP' (ha, ha, new OS) I needed a new printer driver for XP and HP said they weren't going to produce one, a still working and expensive A3 printer redundant. From that point and to this day I haven't purchased 'anything' from HP.

The next scam was the introduction of chips in the cartridges to check that you were using proprietary ink cartridges in your printer to stop you buying third party ink cartridges. But then the 3rd party cartridges were able to use chips in their cartridges.

My current inkjet printer is an Epson Stylus Office BX635FWD Printer, Copier, Scanner and Fax. It is a good printer and I have been using 3rd party ink cartridges almost exclusively from when the original cartridges ran out. On occasion one of the 3rd party printers just don't want to play, not recognised by the printer, but that isn't very often.

So as you can see there are plenty of rip-offs to go around.

[Chim]

Yeah, David, I immediately caught on to that scam about "Do you want to combine the colors to create composite Black?"  I immediately thought, "Yeah, I see where this is going.  I'll wind up with all 3 color cartridges running out at the same time."  But, that one time the other day I was forced to let it do that because after wasting time at Discount Tire trying to get a screwup fixed, I got back home with only about half an hour before the last pickup at the mailbox at the post office.  I didn't have time to read the instructions on how to replace the cartridge at that instant.

I got curious as to how much the extra ink (XL) Black cartridge would cost vs. the $12.97 of the regular size cartridge there at Walmart.  Wwwww WHOA!  $30.00!  Zoits!  The entire printer itself cost only $48.88.

[DavidR]

There used to be some printers even with three colour cartridges, when the Black ran out it wouldn't bloody print at all. This forced you to purchase a new black cartridge. I believe the thinking was, I (the user) might as well order/purchase the colour ones now as well rather than later and incur another delivery charge.

I think HP and Cannon had the most expensive cartridges overall, more so if purchased at a retail outlet, but I though Walmart was meant to be a discount store .

With the exception of my HP A3 printer and possibly the Epson one I'm using now, a set of inkjet cartridges was more expensive than the printer. This really is where the printer companies hope to make their profit.

[Eddy]

About the profit they make on "original" cartridges...
Printer ink and especially those "brand" ones are a lot more expensive than Channel nr. 5 or a decent Champagne.

Some printers are even sold below the cost price.
Those manufacturers are making money with the ink and paper they are selling.

I remember the printers with a ribbon.
I always "refilled" them with "India ink" (aka Chinese ink).
Ofcourse when the ribbon was really worn out, it had to be replaced but you could "re-ink" then about 25 times at a cost of USD 0,10 while a new ribbon was costing about USD 20.

Fact is that brands are making up to 5000% profit on the ink they are selling.