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California man alleges $100 million agreement on ink sales

A California man filed suit against printer manufacturer HP and office-supply retailer Staples Inc. in federal court on Monday, alleging the two companies broke antitrust law in a price-fixing collaboration on ink cartridge sales.

Ranjit Bedi of Pacific Palisades, California accused HP of approaching Staples Inc. in 2006 with at least $100 million in “market development funds” and incentives, in exchange for an agreement to stop selling third-party HP-compatible ink cartridges. According to the lawsuit, Staples then used HP’s exclusivity to raise prices on the HP cartridges it offered.

Staples is the largest retailer of aftermarket ink in the United States, with profits from HP-compatible ink sales exceeding $300 million in 2006. Of that total, $75 million came from the sale of third party ink.

Bedi called the agreement a “naked restraint on trade” that prevented customers from purchasing “lower-priced and/or higher-quality” HP-compatible cartridges from third parties, which he claims disappeared off of Staples’ shelves around December 2006. Staples and HP are supposed to be competitors in ink sales, reads the complaint, and such an agreement reflects a “conspiracy to stop competing.”

The suit claims that the HP-Staples agreement violates the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act, which prohibits anticompetitive behavior. It seeks unspecified damages as well as an injunction that terminates the agreement and restores third-party ink cartridges to Staples’ shelves.

At the time of this writing, the Staples-HP agreement appears to still be in effect. Staples’ Ink and Toner website does not list Staples-branded HP-compatible ink, and searches for specific HP models yields only HP-branded ink. While the lawsuit only applies itself to inkjet cartridges, toner appears to be affected as well as searches for common HP Laserjet printers yield similar results.

Printer companies are notorious for protecting their interests when it comes to ink cartridges. Epson sued third-party inkjet cartridge manufacturers in early 2006 and won an preliminary ITC ruling against 24 third-party manufacturers earlier this year.

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Good, we need ink competition
By joemoedee on 12/19/2007 6:40:56 AM , Rating: 3
I own an HP printer, the price for HP ink is ridiculous. Many times you can buy a new printer for the price of replacing the cartridges! For me to get HP Black and Color cartridges, it's ~$62.00.

This is akin to Honda creating gas, and forcing everyone to buy "Honda Gas" because it's of "higher quality".

I would rather pay a reasonable price for a printer and for ink, than a cheap price for a printer, and an outrageous price for the ink. (The former is Kodak's pricing model, I believe.)

I really hope this changes their pricing scheme.




RE: Good, we need ink competition
By zombiexl on 12/19/2007 6:56:43 AM , Rating: 2
$62 is cheap, i just paid almost $80 for color and bw for my old HP.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By intogamer on 12/19/2007 7:02:56 AM , Rating: 2
Yet... the big corporations are pissed off at 3rd party inks.

Unless I have 24" HQ wide printer, $80 is ridiculous.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Oregonian2 on 12/19/2007 2:35:57 PM , Rating: 2
The whole concept of the article's subject seems to be a crock or I'm misunderstanding it (certainly could be the case).

Staples seems to be claimed the ONLY possible distributor of THIRD PARTY inks, and due to their payoff by HP they aren't sold anymore. LOL. Everybody and their cousin sells third party inks. Deals of who sells them is between the seller and those third parties. I don't think a distributor goes to HP to get permission to sell foobar brand inks made in an Asian factory somewhere. Nor do they go to Staples for permission.

But then, I've Canon printers so maybe it's just me who isn't forced to go to Staples to buy ink.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By pomaikai on 12/19/2007 2:51:06 PM , Rating: 3
They are saying that HP paid staples to stop selling ink from third parties. Thats like Apple paying walmart to stop selling third party accessories for the IPOD.

The part I dont get is price fixing. Who cares if staples raised there prices. price fixing is where companies in an area get together and decide to raise there prices for no reason. The consumer in that area has no choice but to pay the higher price. price fixing does not occur with a single distributor.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Oregonian2 on 12/20/2007 7:14:00 PM , Rating: 2
Hard to believe. Especially for the numbers stated. Having Staples stop selling third party inks would make an insignificant dent in the amount of third party ink sold. Too many alternative suppliers.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By euclidean on 12/19/2007 1:49:10 PM , Rating: 2
Find a cartridge world...i just spent $30 total for both BW & Color cartridges when they would normally cost $70+.

Also, even though your 2 ink cartridges cost about the same as buying your printer again...the 2 new cartridges have about 3 times the amount of ink as the cartridges that come with the printer do.


By DragonMaster0 on 12/19/2007 9:57:47 PM , Rating: 2
That's the price of one black cartridge in my old OfficeJet 725. (3 refills cost $10. The cartridge was refilled at least 4 times, and the head doesn't show any signs of over-use.)


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By mushi799 on 12/19/2007 7:01:11 AM , Rating: 2
buy canon


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By intogamer on 12/19/2007 7:03:56 AM , Rating: 2
The six-ink cartridge system? Those are $9.99 each separate cartridge I believe.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By spluurfg on 12/20/2007 8:49:38 AM , Rating: 2
My Epson has 8 ink tanks, which sell for about $15USD each retail, or £13GBP each in the UK. Granted it's photo ink, but jeebus, it hurts to buy a whole new set. It makes printing 4x6 totally uneconomical -- I only get cost savings when printing 8x10 or larger.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By xsilver on 12/19/2007 7:35:50 AM , Rating: 5
bzzzt

laser ftw


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By fic2 on 12/19/2007 11:30:28 AM , Rating: 2
I have been trying to get my sister to get a laser printer for years now. They spend more in buying ink in one year than it would cost them to buy a decent laser. And, of course, most of it is B&W things for school.

Personally I have been using laser printers for about 7 years.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By TomCorelis (blog) on 12/19/2007 1:38:36 PM , Rating: 2
Seconded... toner will last a lot longer than regular ink cartridges. It's still more expensive but far less frequent of a purchase, and it doesn't clog like inkjet. Personally, I can't stand inkjet low-quality printouts, they just look so sloppy.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Samus on 12/20/2007 3:55:06 AM , Rating: 2
If you can justify spending $300+ on a color laser printer, it will pay for itself in savings over ink-based printers in its first 5000 pages.

Most ink printers average 500/pages per cart @ 5% page coverage. Refills are a mess, and often times the nozels are clogged or worn out upon depletion. Some HP cartridge lines have a deactivation chip on the cartridge electronics; refill is not optional, cart is only OEM recyclable. Average ink cartridge price: $30 (large, 4ml chamber capacity, ~500 pages)

All laser printers average 3000-5000 pages per toner fill (often refillable 2-3 times before drum is worn, or easily modable to continue printing even after the toner cart 'thinks' its empty. Average toner price: $70 (3000-page unit)

Do the math.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By mindless1 on 12/21/2007 8:47:39 AM , Rating: 2
Not all lasers have 3000-5000K pages per cartridge. Some cheap B&W still have 3K pages but some only 2K now, and quite a few color lasers don't have 3-5K pages.

I suggest not getting a 3000 page cartridge capacity printer, because often the higher price of aprinter that holds more toner is closely proportional to the additional toner that comes with it. In other words for about the same total cost of ownership including cost per page on the first round of cartridges, you get a better printer out of the deal, then by the 2nd cartridge the larger printer is already saving money.

Also, larger lasers tend to make far better inkjet substitutes as they're better at phtorealistic output. Even if it's only a B&W laser, most of the lowest end B&W aren't very good at greyscale, tend to produce banding or insufficient midtone shades.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By djcameron on 12/19/2007 10:26:55 AM , Rating: 2
Don't buy Canon... The new 8-series ink is a huge rip-off, just like HP... just like Epson... just like Lexmark! My two year old Canon printer uses 5 cartridges, they don't have much ink in them, and they coost about $60 or $70 to replace.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Mitch101 on 12/19/2007 10:50:11 AM , Rating: 2
I think the new Canon's ink carts are chipped. I still use a 4000 and refill the carts because of price gouging by the printer companies. Some places get the ink from the same company as the big printer companies so there is no difference in the quality.

What I dont like.
Running a cleaning ink colors isn't done individually but as all colors wasting other ink colors instead of just the one that needs cleaning. 12 cleanings usually gets it going again but how much of the other colors did I waste on the single color that needed cleaning?

I believe Kodak was coming out with a line of printers with reasonably priced ink carts. No more ink ripoffs. I too am looking for something with larger ink carts next time around.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By pomaikai on 12/19/2007 3:00:02 PM , Rating: 2
I just got a kodak printer and the kodak black & color combo is under $23. The quality is good enough for me. I have made a few 4x6 photos with good photo quality. So far I like it. Only time will tell how it holds up.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By AlexWade on 12/19/2007 8:11:27 AM , Rating: 5
My Brother black and white laser printer costs $80 for the toner, which gets about 100,000 prints. Dollar for dollar, Brother is the cheapest way to print. They aren't part of the ink cartel.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By omnicronx on 12/19/2007 9:31:07 AM , Rating: 2
I agree with you, I have 2 brother laser printers and they work great. They were cheap to begin with, and the cartridges are much cheaper too.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By MADAOO7 on 12/19/2007 1:55:45 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
which gets about 100,000 prints


You need to remove a zero there, and divide by two. There isn't a consumer laser printer on the market that gets even remotely to 100,000 prints. I have the Brother HL-2040 and a normal toner yields about 3500-5000 prints max. It's still way cheaper than any inkjet. I know my HP 5850 used to get about 300 pages max and like 20-30 pages in color. Atrocious.....


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Samus on 12/20/2007 4:04:05 AM , Rating: 2
Brother only makes two capacity of toner among all lines of their laser products.

For example, most popular, the TN-430 unit, is good for UP TO 3,000 pages @ 5% coverage.

The large capacity varient, the TN-460 unit, is good for, you guessed it, UP TO 6,000 pages @ 5% coverage.

Realistically, you will yeild 2,500 pages and 5,000 pages, respectively.

Brother toner is, however, extremely easily to refill, and refill kits that can refill TWICE are in the $10-$20 range. I've had great success with them. Buy from a reputable source like an office supply vendor with an eBay store and decent feedback. You will be treated like a king as the kits include great directions, neccessary tools (drill bit, plug) and even a pair or two of gloves. I've seen kits that are shipped in a stratigically designed box that you can use as the refill workbench, so you have the toner contained if some spills during funneling.

It's worth mentioning Brother (and many other) printers often include a starter toner, which is the standard yeild cartridge filled to half-capacity, or 1,000-1,500 pages.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By mindless1 on 12/21/2007 8:51:59 AM , Rating: 2
Some makes, for example samsung, don't just ship all their starter cartridge partially full, the toner hopper is actually of smaller capacity than on the retail cartridge. You can take the starter cart apart to refill but you'll scarcely get more toner into it.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By TomZ on 12/19/2007 9:07:40 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
I own an HP printer, the price for HP ink is ridiculous. Many times you can buy a new printer for the price of replacing the cartridges! For me to get HP Black and Color cartridges, it's ~$62.00.

The problem seems to be that most consumers don't think to check the cost of the consumables prior to purchase of the printer. People should be smart and check both ink and paper costs before buying a particular make and model.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Quiescent on 12/19/2007 9:35:59 AM , Rating: 2
Why bother buying the paper from the same brand your printer is from? It's all paper in the end. Get some cheap brand. Now for ink, I can understand. In general, I just hate printers period. They always have some difficult issue wrong with them. My dad went through two printers that weren't working right until we finally settled for a less-than-stellar Lexmark printer. It gets the job done for our business, at a slow rate, but it gets the job done.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By TomZ on 12/19/07, Rating: 0
RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Quiescent on 12/19/2007 10:16:24 AM , Rating: 2
You still don't have to go with the same brand. I think deviantart prints on fujifilm paper.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By TomZ on 12/19/2007 1:21:44 PM , Rating: 1
In my experience, on my HP inkjets I get the best photo prints using HP paper. And the paper cost is not a problem either, since I usually get it from one of the big office supply stores and stock up when they run their "buy one get one free" promos. The net cost is less than the cheaper brands anyway.

I haven't tried Epson or Canon, so I don't know if that would be any different.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By AlexWade on 12/19/2007 1:11:39 PM , Rating: 2
On regular prints, paper is irrelevant. On photo prints, paper means everything. Epson and HP use different inks. Epson uses a piezo crystal that changes shape when it is energized. So, Epson printers squirt the ink out. HP printers heat the ink so that it boils and bubbles out (thus, a bubble jet). Both look great, but both require different kinds of ink. Of the two, Epson is better because it dries quicker and, according to Consumer Reports, the photo prints last much longer. My mom tried using generic photo paper with her Epson printer, and the print quality was terrible. The photo quality is second to none when using Epson paper.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Quiescent on 12/20/2007 6:46:10 AM , Rating: 2
Perhaps that's why we were having so much trouble with the Epson printer. We print on a type of plasticy film that we apply to the back of crystals. It happened to be that our epson printer was printing spotty, but the HP one was doing just fine. However, we had to find a printer that feeds through the top, because there is a plastic layer protecting the plastic film from being scratched up that the HP printer kept on eating because of how it printed.

I would expect the reason the HP printer worked was because of the temperature of the ink. And that's probably why the lexmark printer works?


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Christopher1 on 12/19/2007 9:12:13 AM , Rating: 1
I hate to point this out, but the $350 dollars I am going to pay today for an HP PSC Photosmart printer that has wireless built-in IS a reasonable price. I also added up how much ink would cost for the thing (I don't use it very much), and it comes to about 50 dollars in total for ink that isn't those 'teaser' ink cartridges, 80 dollars if I decide to spring for a 'photo' cartridge.

Personally, I find that VERY reasonable for ink, considering that I only have to replace the ink cartridges MAYBE once or twice a year since I don't use my printer very much anymore (I am e-mailing and texting everything important now and doing all my complaints for services and other things online).

However, if HP IS fixing the prices by artifically making stores not carry generic inks..... they should be slapped with a BIG old fine for that, of at least 20 million dollars, with that amount reimbursed to their customers.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By mindless1 on 12/21/2007 9:04:31 AM , Rating: 2
Have you any prior experience using this printer? If not, it is not necessarily safe to assume you can extend the life of a cartridge by that much merely due to low printing volume. Open carts have a shelf life.

That ink cost seems good relative to some branded inks, but then it's already $400 for printer and ink for such a low print rate that you might as well have your pictures done at a photomart, drugstore, etc (I mean digital printouts still). If the convenience means this much to you, then you may also want to think about always having a spare cartridge on hand as it's not at all convenient to go to print after a few months only to find there's no ink coming out or the printer rejects it.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By 306maxi on 12/19/2007 9:44:08 AM , Rating: 2
It's also worth pointing out that new printers ofter come with cartridges that aren't actually full. Staples are a ripoff anyway. We have an MP500 at home which gets used frequently and has 5 different cartridges and it's quite cheap to run. If you shop around online for genuine ink it's not really that expensive. Plus a lot of the cheap ink out there can damage your printer despite what they want to tell you....


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By mmntech on 12/19/2007 10:24:35 AM , Rating: 2
That's why I own a laser printer. The toner costs a little more but lasts a lot longer. I print a lot of documents and I ditched my ink jet ages ago due to the cost of ink. HPs laser printers are not bad actually. Canon are good too.

There's a show on the Discovery Channel called "How'd They Do That". One episode showed how HP makes ink cartridges. Supposedly, the ink is a special formula and regular third party ink would clog the injector.
It's been long known that ink prices are a scam. They make all their money on it. That's why they can sell the printers for $50.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By 306maxi on 12/20/2007 9:27:55 AM , Rating: 2
To a certain extent that's true. If you buy a recycled cartridge you don't know how many times it's already been recycled and the quality of the ink and so on. My g/f's BJ-200x or something similar got killed by some cheap ink. Always used genuine ink but used two non-genuine carteidges and it printed out strange colours and now gives a printer head error. Cleaned it with an alcohol swab but it's dead as a doornail. Same with laser printers. 95% of the callouts we had for spilt toner in the printer was to do with non-genuine toner. It may cost a lot but you will generally get the best results with genuine consumables.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By mindless1 on 12/21/2007 9:15:49 AM , Rating: 2
I'd have to disagree about the toner, it does not matter much at all so long as it's technically compatible, which includes the melting temp and general composition. I have refilled every laser I've owned and at work for many years.

More often the problem with split toner is either poor remanufacturing process or reusing a cartridge without replacing the seals on it.

Maybe you mean an entire generic cartridge though, I am literally talking about the toner inside the cartridge. Often, you can get quality remanufactured cartridges which reuse the original casing only replacing wear items. Sometimes a low-ball vendor will try to keep using the same drum too long so it's best to find a dealer with quality checks of the output. Otherwise, in use the non-genuine (non-OEM) laser cartridges have served us very well over several different brands of printer, there could be no gain at all using the OEM cartridge.

With the color lasers we found it important to buy from the same source as the slight variations in density effected the color blending ratio. That is trickier to manage when all colors are separate, as they aren't all running out at the same time, but either way it can be corrected in modern printer's drivers. Going back a bit in time, drivers weren't as fancy as they are now.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By JoshuaBuss on 12/19/2007 11:53:20 AM , Rating: 1
heh. i paid $20 for 13 black cartridges and 7 color ink cartridges for my canon i470d.

buy generic, buy in bulk, spend less than a dollar per cartridge :)

and no, they're not too small.. i just printed 20 4x6 photos with just one new color and black cartridge and they're still registering as 'almost full' according to the canon software :)


By masher2 (blog) on 12/19/2007 1:24:30 PM , Rating: 3
> "I own an HP printer, the price for HP ink is ridiculous. Many times you can buy a new printer for the price of replacing the cartridges!"

That's because HP intentionally underprices the printer, to get you to purchase it. They then make their profits on aftermarket sales. It's a business model similar to that used by electric razors or game consoles.

In any case, there is no such thing as "price fixing" between a vendor and its supplier. Vertical market exclusivity arrangements are both natural, legal, and (in many cases) to be desired. If you don't like the fact that Staples doesn't carry third-party inks, shop elsewhere. There's plenty of competition in the office supply market segment.


RE: Good, we need ink competition
By Gholam on 12/19/2007 1:51:39 PM , Rating: 3
Inkjet printers with reasonably priced ink cost an arm and a leg. HP Business Inkjet 2800dtn is $999 on their website. The black cartridge is $35 and rated for 1750 pages though.


stay away from HP printers
By stilltrying on 12/19/2007 8:30:03 AM , Rating: 2
I once was sent an email where it states that ink on a per ounce basis is more expensive than GOLD. can you believe that. Imagine a gallon of ink and what it would cost. $10000 or more. give me a break! quit buying hp printers and the problem is solved at least for one of the companies. they are all WAY overpriced but HP is the worst offender. i know some of the charge is for the little circuit board thing a ma jiggy but $80 for a bw and color cartridge is ridiculous. good luck to the plaintiff you are doing us all a favor




RE: stay away from HP printers
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 12/19/2007 9:14:02 AM , Rating: 3
I find the HP Laser printers to be fairly reasonable. I won't buy an inkjet, it's far more economical to go laser.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By 306maxi on 12/19/2007 9:53:56 AM , Rating: 1
Problem with that is that it's very hard for people to justify the initial outlay for a laser even if is cheaper to run plus there's the fact that most people are scared to do anything more than simply change a toner or a cartridge. Ask them to change a roller or a fuser and from my experience most users will just freak out. The other problem for a lot of people is the fact that dollar for dollar ink printing is better for photos which is what a lot of people use printers for these days.

I used to love playing around with the wax thermal printers at my old work. They were horrendously expensive to run but the results were worth it imho.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By PandaBear on 12/19/2007 1:12:51 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, we used to use wax thermal to make transparency for PCB mask in the lab. Laser has these little holes in between that ruins the quality of our photo resist.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By mindless1 on 12/21/2007 9:20:25 AM , Rating: 2
It sounds like you might need a different transparency sheet or a printer with different toner formulation. Many of the color lasers are now a more waxy formula, but either type may work best on a transparency that is slightly matte finished.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By djc208 on 12/19/2007 1:14:28 PM , Rating: 2
Most of the personal or small business lasers are only about $50~100 more than a decent ink jet. Many have all the replacable elements in the same cartridge so you don't have multiple components to change or keep around, and even then the color lasers here at work have about 6 different parts but they're all stupid simple to change.

I got over trying to do a lot of photo prints at home, the dedicated photo printer or even better your local Wal-Mart/Walgreens etc. photo dept does a nicer job for pennies per print. No special paper or ink, long drying times, or strange settings to worry about. There software even makes it fairly easy to do simple photo manipulations before you submit. I don't print many photos but when I do this is easier for me than messing around with my inkjet.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By 306maxi on 12/20/2007 9:32:03 AM , Rating: 2
I agree but most people are stupid and will see that it costs 50-100 dollars more now rather than realising that in time it'll be much cheaper to go with a laser.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By mindless1 on 12/21/2007 9:26:19 AM , Rating: 2
but it doesn't cost 50-100 more now, at least not for a black and white you can often find the entry level models down around $40-50 with a rebate, at least under $80 without but on sale.

Drums and toner reclaimation bins are usually in the (toner) cartridge of these smaller printers, but the fuser is not. They don't necessarily need to be easily user replaced though, for as little as the printers cost they can just be thrown out when they break, which is usually already several years elapsed unless the printer's duty cycle was too low for the expected workload, which is a rate pretty hard to exceed when using for personal uses instead of business use.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By frobizzle on 12/19/2007 2:12:42 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Problem with that is that it's very hard for people to justify the initial outlay for a laser even if is cheaper to run

Home laser printers have come down significantly in price. While not as cheap as the ink jet printers, the monochrome ones are definitely affordable.

quote:
most people are scared to do anything more than simply change a toner or a cartridge. Ask them to change a roller or a fuser and from my experience most users will just freak out.

I think it has been a while since you have owned (or even used?) a home laser printer. The toner is usually sold as part of the "Print Cartridge" This usually contains toner, a new photorecptor drum, cleaner and waste toner cartridge. It is like a fast partial rebuild of the printer each time it is replaced (which isn't often!) Changing fusers on most of these beasts is not generally a task meant for the home user to do and in most cases, the fuser is fairly robust and will not need replacing.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By 306maxi on 12/20/2007 9:23:36 AM , Rating: 2
I didn't say that I was scared. I merely stated that end users who aren't confident in doing it. In my last job we used to have a company who would pay about AU$150 for us to come out and put toner cartridges in their printers. Case in point of people just being a bit scared of laser printers even though they're really no more complicated to deal with than ink printers unless something goes wrong.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By Christopher1 on 12/19/07, Rating: 0
RE: stay away from HP printers
By Spivonious on 12/19/2007 9:21:18 AM , Rating: 2
I think he meant just gold by itself, without the labor costs of making it into a necklace.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By lennylim on 12/19/2007 9:15:58 AM , Rating: 2
Well, I don't know about gold, but per volume it cost more than human blood. Not that I ever tried to buy or sell blood, they don't have it on Amazon.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/hp-ink-cost...

If the figures in that chart is correct, 1 gallon of ink, extracted from printer cartridges, will cost $2687. If ink is the same density as alcohol it costs $410 per lb. That's about 1/32 the cost of gold by weight. Different cartridges may give different results, but not by this order of magnitude.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By BladeVenom on 12/19/2007 9:31:36 AM , Rating: 2
The latest article I read said, "HP ink-jet printers can be as much as $8,000 per gallon."

A printer that can print with gold might just be worth it.


RE: stay away from HP printers
By teckytech9 on 12/19/2007 2:58:43 PM , Rating: 2
It is no secret that HP's ink is overpriced and its ingredient is its best kept secret. At approx. $8000 per gallon, it is probably the most expensive liquid on the planet.

I have stopped using my HP Inkjet printer and switched to laser printer/toner instead. If I need a color picture printed out, I take it to a local photo shop for printing.
The large photo processing machinery they have does a much better job in delivering the prints and is more economical too.


So hot.....wha....ink?
By Trogdor on 12/19/2007 9:12:11 AM , Rating: 1
Wait, this article is about ink? ... Getting sued you say, is that girl in the picture Sue? mmmm Sue, naked restraint!

Dear god, where is my mind today. I request a bigger picture. These Sue allegations need to be looked at in finer detail.




RE: So hot.....wha....ink?
By noxipoo on 12/19/2007 10:50:08 AM , Rating: 2
everyone get back on topic! bigger version of the pic please!


quite fond of HP
By UMUJU on 12/19/2007 2:21:12 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not too sure what all the facts are in this matter, but I bought my printer because of the economics. I bought the Photosmart AIO 3210xi that uses the HP-02 cartridge, and I can buy a full set of ink cartridges and 150 sheets of 4x6 photo paper for $36. Not to mention HP's heat delivery system reduces the risk of dried up cartridges. There's nothing worse than buying a $50-$60 cartridge and having it dry up in a couple months (blast you Canon!).




What comes arond goes around
By pomaikai on 12/19/2007 2:42:02 PM , Rating: 2
I have always been a supporter of HP printers because I have never had a problem. With the current price of ink I have just left HP for kodak. The kodak printer actually came with a full-size color and black cartridges full of ink. Not some sample size cartidges like other brands supply. I chunked a $600 HP fax/copier/printer that needed heads and ink that would run about $200. At under $10 for black and under $15 for color all I can say is so long HP. The Kodak prints 4x6 photos with good enough quality for me. I didnt notice a difference between HP 4x6 and Kodak 4x6 quality.




from an employee
By jss0831 on 12/19/2007 5:44:21 PM , Rating: 2
BTW this idiot that is sueing needs to get his facts straight. I work for staples managment nad we didn't stop selling generic brand because we were paid. We made alot of money off the generic brand(in the millions) We stopped selling because HP approched us and told us that we could either pull all of the Hp generic brand or they would pull all HP branded merch. out off staples, because we were underselling them too much. and our pricing is not set by us it is set by them our markup is the same it only increases when they charge us more. and also to inform you we give out $3.00 coupons for used hp carts yet we only recieve $0.01 (one penny) for each




What about Kodak's AIOs?
By DragonMaster0 on 12/19/2007 9:53:14 PM , Rating: 2
Only about $25 worth of cartridges in these...

The problem is that they don't have any printers with Ethernet or Wi-Fi capability.

And last time I checked with them, they weren't interested in releasing a printer with network at all. 'Cause yes, their tech support actually answers to your questions! Their support is MUUUUUUCH better than the experience I had with HP(canned answers) and Epson(no replies) so far. And their support was very helpful even if I still haven't got any products from them. (For a few subjects like : Printer cost $30 more in Canada than US while the dollar was worth the same, they forwarded the concern and since, the price was adjusted) I should get a 5500 this month.

I never had any issues with Canon products and never touched a Lexmark so I don't know about their support compared to others though.




So?
By Komrade Chaos on 12/20/2007 1:25:03 AM , Rating: 2
I've worked at Staples since before they stopped selling third party HP ink.
Yes, the prices for HP ink has gone up, but so has the cost-to-store prices.
What I really hate is people who ask why we no longer carry staples brand HP ink. Like somehow I, the underpaid sales person is personally responsible for conspiring with HP to only sell their brand of ink.

If the cost of ink is really hurting you, buy a laser printer. If you're the average consumer who doesn't print that much, you're not affected by ink prices. But if you're a business or someone who does a lot of printing, you should already have a laser.

God damn retail sucks.




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