Regular readers will know that I have a 'thing' about the printer consumables industry.
If you're not a regular reader, here is my opinion in a nutshell:
I resent paying $60 a pop for what amounts to a teaspoon and a half of ink.
I resent that cartidges are microchipped so they can't be refilled.
I resent that those chipped cartridges show as empty when they're not.
I resent that most printers won't let you print black text even though there's plenty of black ink left just because one of the color cartridges are empty.
I resent the 'recycling' program where they expect us to mail back (often only half) empty cartridges so they can refill them and re-sell them.
Well today I discovered a new thing to get annoyed about...and this one pissed me off so much I damn near shit my pants.
When I got my first inkjet printer it had an option to self-clean the print heads. In the year and a half I had that printer I had to run the cleaning program twice.
My current printer, a Brother MFC 210C, cleans itself damn near every time I try to print something...and that 9 times out of 10 that 'cleaning process' uses more ink than the actual printout. It doesn't need cleaning...but that's not the point. The money for the printer industry is in the ink... so anything that means we have to get screwed on ridiculous ink prices more often is a great deal for them.
Well, today, I was up and awake and at my desk (with the computer off) at a time I'm normally sleeping. Suddenly, I hear my printer spring to life.
I look over, yes it's turned off...and going into a 'cleaning cycle'. Then, just when I'm getting pissed off that my printer is using ink for absolutely no reason while it's off... it suddenly starts beeping.
I look over and the screen on the front of it says "Magenta Empty : Replace Cartridge"
I haven't used the printer in about 3 or 4 weeks, and the last time I printed something I checked the ink level. Magenta was at about 1/4 full.
Yep, even when I don't use it. Even when the fucking thing's turned off, it still uses ink.
So, just to do the math, the black cartidge costs $40, the three color cartidges cost $25 each. That's $115 dollars total. It's using a quarter of all that ink every month whether I use it or not.
Basically, I'm paying more per month for printer ink (even when I'm not actually printing anything) than I am for my internet connection.
Well, that's it. Once this ink runs out, I'm not buying any more for this printer. Brother, you can suck my balls.
When this ink runs out, Walmart sells printers for about $20 including ink. When that ink runs out, I won't be paying a hundred dollars or more for replacement cartridges....I'll just buy the same model printer, take the ink out of the box and chuck the printer away.
Sure, it's incredibly wasteful, but I'm tired of getting screwed.
3 comments:
I've got two printers... one is an HP 712 deskjet... the first model that was considered "photo quality." It's roughly 10 years old and still does a great job for day-to-day printing.
My other printer is a Lexmark, which I purchased shortly after marrying Mrs. Ozzy. I only use it to print high quality stuff like photos.
I'm fortunate that the deskjet will let me use black and white when there's no color ink (and vice-versa), and I can use refilled cartridges on both printers. I wholly endorse both of them, despite the fact that you can't buy the 712 anymore.
Unplug it when it's not in use.....I have yet to see one that will do ANYTHING while it's unplugged.
That's a great plan, sweetie...but can you guess what it does when it's first plugged in?
Yup, goes into a cleaning cycle that lasts 5 times as long as the regular one.
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