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I once read that printer ink was more expensive than rocket fuel. I believe it. Shopping around a few office supplies sites for a popular HP cartridge the HP 49 cartridge to be precise I discovered that this market leader was retailing anywhere from £31.00 - £33.00 quite a lot of money for a tank of ink containing 23ml of fluid. We dig deep into our pockets without even a whimper to satisfy little Sophie's urge to paint pictures with a printer instead of a brush the price of progress we consol ourselves.
We moan aloud though when we turn on the TV to the morning news and are informed that petrol has risen to over £1.00 a litre and another few pence now added seemingly daily "is there no end to this robbery" we sigh, oblivious to the fact that our pockets were looted for a container of ink the cost of which would have half filled our car tanks. Now though not content with daylight robbery the print cartridge manufacturers have resorted to stealth to further plunder our meagre resources.
Laser print, a toner dust instead of ink has become increasingly popular. These printers once mainly favoured by the business community have now become affordable to the ordinary guy on the street. Possible only because the actual printer is sold at a loss by the manufacturers. Before you ring their praises allow me to explain for there is a method in their madness.
The cartridges in the printer you've just purchased are known as starter cartridges they're only half full and in some cases less than that. When they're empty which will be quicker than you think, it'll cost you more than the price of the printer to replace them. What's more laser cartridges are big cartridges they hold a lot of toner and print several thousand pages, too many for the manufacturers liking for they stop the cartridge before its empty. The cartridges are in my opinion deliberately and some would say maliciously curtailed in their performance.
The cartridge is tripped through the use of a special electronic chip. This little fellow informs the printer when a certain number of pages have been printed after which it renders the cartridge useless by stopping the printer dead, even though there is still toner remaining that will allow the cartridge to print hundreds of pages more. The questions that need to be asked are, is this extortion and should it be permitted? Some would say that the practice of chipping cartridges is long overdue investigation by the office of fair trading or some other government body that can ensure that the ordinary consumer is protected against sharp practice.
