Printer Ink, It's a SCAM

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[MakeSushi]

it is outrageous, someone needs to sue the printer companies

[TheAstyanii]

I worked with HP, and got to see the sheer depths of depravity when it comes to screwing the customer.
1. They have one of the harshest cartridge ID systems, to the point that each cartridge knows the batch it was made from. The reason for this is so the printer can reject single-cartridge replacements, forcing the customer to replace them all.
2. They have multiple layers of detection to ensure the cartridge was never unsealed. The printers immediately break the seal on cartridges as a part of entering them, and it also knows if part of it has been peeled open because a customer attempted to open a secondary entry point. They do this to screw people that misaligned the cartridge or attempted to refill it.
3. They have detectors that err on the side of caution when determining ink levels. They use this to shut down the printer until new cartridges are added, which is to intentionally waste ink and force the customer to replace them all.
4. They have been "enhancing" your black ink with cyan, and there is no option to stop it. They do this to intentionally waste one of the smaller cartridges to force the customer to replace them all.
5. They intentionally slash quality assurance for cartridges. This means the IDs and detectors can randomly fail, which they've programmed to always deny access. This is because some people don't return faulty cartridges, which means they get a double sale.
6. This system creates a lot of ink-filled trash. Not only is the plastic going to last a few centuries, but the ink is highly toxic and has been proven to poison groundwater if allowed to seep. They know this is happening, and are simply trying to keep quiet to not draw attention to it.

There's a lot of other ways they're hurting their customers, but I'll keep it to the ink side of things. If an Epson actually lets you refill the cartridges, I recommend shouting it from the mountaintops, because I was led to believe the printer industry had a gentleman's agreement amongst each other to keep ink artificially scarce by any means necessary.

[chriskanemeier]

The breaking point for me was going in to buy a replacement cartridge and seeing that a brand new printer was cheaper than a cartridge.

[FuriousGamng]

When I was small (5 years old), my father gifted me a printer to print out my favorite pictures and work on something. A few days later, the ink ran out, so he bought an ink cartridge and gave me the cartridge to put it by myself using a manual. The cartridge felt very lightweight to me, so I opened it out of curiosity and found the same thing as shown in the video. It almost had nothing in it. I didn't let my father know about the cartridge I broke, but I asked him, "How long do these cartridges last?" He replied, "Maybe a week or two depending on what you print." I took him to show the broken cartridge and the amount of color it had inside of it. I got grounded for a week 😂. A few days later, I heard my father telling his friend that these printers and their cartridges were made to scam people that's why cartridges feel very light and they have nothing inside them. He took all the credit for himself for finding it out 😂😂😂

[Froggy]

As somebody who has worked in a Walmart photo department and told people often that cartridges were scammy, this level of scam even surprised me.

[DolphinTalesPersonal]

Also to mention, if you’re not using the printer often enough, the cartridge will dry out. So you still have to continuously buy new ones if you’re printing a little or a lot

[leokimvideo]

Nothing new here, the scam of these printer inks has been around for 30 odd years.

[mugz]

I've had the Epson eco print for about 3 years now and still haven't gone through original ink and it's working great... Love it.

[mrnobodyjo]

After nearly $200 dollars of ink, over a year, I could only printed 15 pages. It's infuriating that it would dry up in less than 2 weeks. Yes, this sbould be giant lawsuit to stop these criminals.

[aaronbritt]

The chip on the cartridge also counts the number of pages printed and tells the printer not to print any more when it estimates you're out of ink. This is why sometimes your printer says you're out but you're still getting sharp, clean printing and other times, you get faded printing before it tells you you're out. More often than not, your printer will lock out and tell you to replace the cartridge before it's even empty.

[kiyan]

I sell printers in a retail electronics store. I always thought printer cartridges were a scam and guided my customers to laser printers. Glad that my suspicions were confirmed.

[nobreaugusto]

Can’t Europe intervene here, this is getting out of control

[catgray]

OMG! We should do a nationwide class action suit against printer companies, because that is totally unacceptable.

[artidox__]

I used to work at Staples and customers would REGULARLY ask why their cartridges get used up so quickly. We almost always had to default to "Well, it could have dried up if it was too hot or you wren't using your printer enough." since we weren't allowed to directly tell them that there's really not a lot of ink.

[richtygart]

I was shocked when I moved to Thailand and walked into a computer shop and found that you can buy gallons of ink for your printer for a couple dollars and you could buy conversion kits that would run tubes into your printer from huge containers that you pour the ink from the gallon into. It made me furious that I was paying $50 for a tiny HP cartridge back in America.

[yt]

Bought my Epson Eco-Tank and love it! I only print once in a blue moon and the ink is still full and working fine after months not printing. Best printer ever after a laser printer. Never going back to Canon and HP again.

[RobAndersonMagic]

These companies need to be held accountable. Why are so many companies continually ripping off their customers and trying to bleed them dry?

[idogonen]

Deciding to buy a laser-jet printer was one of the smartest thing's we've ever done. We bought an HP one at least 6 or seven years ago and had to replace the toner ONCE a few months ago. ONCE. We don't print tons, but we use it quite regularly, so it was totally worth it!

[oboealto]

What Epson did was brilliant. They struggled to beat HP and Canon in their own game, so they started a new game! In a rare corporate move, they understood what we consumers need, and agreed to earn less per customer, in order to gain a ridiculous number of loyal customers. I switched to Eco-Tank this year and I'm not going back.

[SewingBoxDesigns]

I keep my printer off the internet, so it can't tell the mother ship I've been refilling the cartridges myself! 😁