The Printer Subscriptions Rip-Off

Most Printers Are A Total Rip-Off

Most of us have a printer and it’s no secret that the industry has no qualms about protecting proprietary ink cartridges to the detriment of consumers worldwide. The term rip-off doesn’t even come close to the truth when you consider that, per litre, printer ink is around 20 times more expensive than a litre of  Dom Perignon Vintage 2003 Champagne. And, when you can pick up an HP Deskjet 3755 for $70 and two original HP replacement cartridges for $50, doesn’t that make you wonder who’s getting ripped off?

You Will Subscribe!

HP CEO, Enrique Lores, recently spoke about the company’s subscription plan, leaving most of us in no doubt that very soon we won’t actually own anything, certainly not our printers.

Every time a customer buys a printer, it’s an investment for us and if this customer doesn’t print enough or doesn’t use our supplies, it’s a bad investment…

He then went on to say that he wanted the subscription model to be extended to every product that HP builds, including PCs and laptops, but don’t forget that if you don’t consume enough, HP considers you to be a bad investment. According to some reports, HP Instant Ink hiked its US monthly prices by 50% last year and a further 33% this year, when US inflation in December 2023 was 3.4% annually and in 2024 is only 3.1%. Who’s screwing who?

But then the subscription model is nothing new and many other printer manufacturers run similar schemes and from a business model and cashflow perspective, it makes perfect sense, just like insurance does. You may never use it, or use it occasionally, but it’s there when you need it. However, most companies rely on our apathy and the hassle involved in cancelling a subscription, especially if it’s less than $5 per month. You wouldn’t really notice that would you?

I Dislike Printers With A Vengeance!

Oddly enough, I remember my first printer – an Epson dot matrix colour printer – which I bought back in 1990. It was a novelty and I even managed to use it to print letters and envelope labels for mailshots in my fledgling business. It was a daunting task and most of my time was spent setting up margins, spacing and all the other parameters necessary for perfect presentation. Later, I moved on to a laser printer and also to numerous inkjets from both Epson and HP, which is when I decided that printers were a gift from Beelzebub.

As of today, we have four printers in our household – one Epson laser, one HP laser, one Epson inkjet, and an HP inkjet – but I very rarely print anything. Most of my work is done digitally by email or messaging with invoices being sent as .pdf. However, the paperless office is still a long way off and my wife, who is an accountant, still prints an enormous amount on her HP laser due to the nature of the job.

When Printers Stop Responding

Oh boy, when printers stop working with that amber warning light winking incessantly at you, it’s enough to make you weep, or even better, to fling the damn thing from the nearest tall building. My customers used to ask me to fix their printers, but after almost carrying out hara-kiri on myself, I now turn down such generous requests or refer them to known masochists. A few years ago I bought an Epson multi-function SX425W printer in the UK for about $30, not realising that the print cartridges would not be available in Argentina because most printers are made for specific markets and are not universal, much like DVDs, streaming services and all other geo-pricing rip-offs. The above picture is a bit of a joke because, having exhausted the cartridges years ago, I cannot proceed to the main menu or anywhere else. Fortunately, I can scan with this printer which is all I ever use it for nowadays, especially since a pack of four new cartridges would cost me about $80, which instead would buy me several bottles of premium beer – a much more satisfying investment!

Alternative Laser Toners

Since original HP and Epson toners can cost up to $200 in Argentina, the obvious route is to buy alternatives at around $12 a pop, bearing in mind that the original chip should always be transferred to every new (alternative) toner installed.

The above is a timely reminder of what can happen in the event of a firmware update and if possible, I always avoid installing all the crapware that both HP and Epson want us to install.

Conclusion

You may have gathered by now that printers are my bête noire, much like coat hangers, shower curtains, and untameable black bin liners. But more than that, the subscription model, as succinctly outlined in Jim’s article More & More Software Vendors Moving To Annual Subscriptions means that we consumers will end up owning nothing and are being held to ransom by greedy corporations that have little interest in customer loyalty, except to extract as much money out of us as possible.

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