$8,000 a gallon ink leads to lawsuit

[Sonsie]

$8,000-per-gallon printer ink leads to antitrust lawsuit

A Boston man has filed a class-action lawsuit accusing hardware maker HP and office supply retailer Staples of colluding to inflate the price of printer ink cartridges in violation of federal antitrust law. According to the suit, HP allegedly paid Staples $100 million to refrain from selling inexpensive third-party ink cartridges, although the suit doesn't make it clear how plaintiff Ranjit Bedi arrived at that figure.

For most printer companies, ink is the bread and butter of their business. The price of ink for HP ink-jet printers can be as much as $8,000 per gallon, a figure that makes gas-pump price gouging look tame. HP is currently the dominant company in the printing market, and a considerable portion of the company's profits come from ink.​

Adding insult to injury, most printers are lying, filthy ink thieves, according to a recent study, misreporting that they are low on ink when they are not.

A new study says that on average, more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink.​

 

[AK-74me]

I always thought that printer ink was one of the biggest rip offs too, I do not throw them away however until they actually stop printing well.

 

[Sonsie]

I always thought that printer ink was one of the biggest rip offs too, I do not throw them away however until they actually stop printing well.

I do that with the printer I use for documents but my high end HP photo printer pops up annoying messages constantly and demands new cartridges. I know they are chipped too because it informs me I've used a "genuine HP cartrige" once installed. What a ripoff.....

 

[czygvtwkr]

supermediastore.com

Really cheap ink and it works fine.

 

[Sonsie]

supermediastore.com

Really cheap ink and it works fine.

Think it has the same promised archival quality that HP promises? I would buy it in a heartbeat if I was sure. I've never seen a comparison. Another thing, the article mentions a chip in the HP cartridges, my new printer recognizes that. I'd assume it would still operate, I bet they say it invalidates the warranty though. I'm too lazy to check though

 

[joedancer]

I always thought that printer ink was one of the biggest rip offs too, I do not throw them away however until they actually stop printing well.

Why throw them away at all. You can recycle them at Staples and get $3 for each one (in the form of a coupon). Not much, but it is better than nothing.

 

[Dymphna]

Why throw them away at all. You can recycle them at Staples and get $3 for each one (in the form of a coupon). Not much, but it is better than nothing.

They don't take a lot of brands anymore.



How many ounces of ink are there in a typical ink cartridge? For my little printer, a Canon, cartridges cost about $12 a piece, but there's only about an ounce in it.

My mother was saying that at work they use gallon sized bottles of ink in the printer that cost thousands of dollars each.

 

[dn0121]

its simple really, just be smart when you buy a printer. dont get a HP. do research and you find good printers that don't have chips in the ink.

 

[RadioPatrol]

Staples takes the ones with the Print Head as part of the Cartridge ....

You could drink Crystahl Champagne for what Ink Costs

the best value are the printers with 4 or 6 separate color ctgs not a 4 or 6 in one color ....

and my HP 1610 All in one Photo Printer is pretty good it only nags occasionally as it gets low, but lets me me keep on printing till the ink runs dry, unlike my old Epson Photo 700 which used some "software" function to estimate when i was out ....... and then would refuse to print so I pulled the cartridge and put it back in usually getting several doz if not hundred pages more depending on what I was Printing

 

[Sonsie]

PC World has a 7 page in-depth article about using 3rd party inks that was interesting.

Cheap Ink: Will It Cost You?

Buying replacement ink from a third-party vendor can save you big bucks. But will you pay with lousy-looking prints that fade in no time? We did months of testing to find out.​