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HP Must Defend Half-Empty "Economy" Ink Cartridges

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the false-economy-that-is dept.

An Anonymous Coward excerpts this short Detroit News story, which begins "PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co. must defend the sale of half-full ink cartridges with its printers after a Minnesota appellate court reinstated a lawsuit against the world's largest maker of printers. Three Minnesota women claim that the company doesn't reveal that the 'economy cartridges' installed on new printers are only half full of ink." The cost of refills is why I've given up on inkjet printers entirely (for now) -- guess which division of HP made more money than the other four combined?

17 of 580 comments (clear)

  1. Price comparison by kpansky · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cost of new black ink cartridge for my printer: $40

    Cost of laser printer with toner on eBay: $50

    Maybe they should just sell disposable printers instead.

    --

    --Kevin
    1. Re:Price comparison by fo0bar · · Score: 3, Funny

      Shipping cost of laser printer with toner on eBay: $75

    2. Re:Price comparison by Merry_B.Buck · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe they should just sell disposable printers instead.
      No, I think the next step will be free printers and ink cartridges, but a large Doubleclick ad is printed in the middle of each document.

    3. Re:Price comparison by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I have one of those printers. Bought it because it was cheaper then an ink cartridge for my lexmark, and cheaper then having kinko's print addresses on 100 envelopes. Used it 'till it was out of ink, and now it sits in a box. Some day I'll throw it out. Oh well.

      (It was $29 right before christmas, cable included)

  2. Made more money? by SpamJunkie · · Score: 4, Funny

    guess which division of HP made more money than the other four combined?

    Compaq?

  3. Pessimists by finny · · Score: 5, Funny

    See, some people only see the negative. I see the ink cartritge as half full.

    1. Re:Pessimists by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 5, Funny
      Others, pragmatists such as myself, would say the cartridge is too big.

      --
      "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  4. Economical on Slashdot too by Skevin · · Score: 5, Funny

    HP Must Defend Half-Empty "Economy" Ink Cartidges

    Apparently. These "cartidges" also seem to have half as many R's.

    --
    "Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
  5. Re:It is explained in the small print. by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Funny

    Come on, be fair. Deceptive packaging is just that - packaging designed to give a false impression. People who bought based on this false impression have been defrauded. The cartridges are not "economy", as they are falsely represented.

    Companies have been doing this with laser printers too - the first toner cartridge is less than half full, always.

    Mind you, this reminds me of the ongoing fight I'm having with a coffee maker who sold me 2 12-cup coffee makers that make only 6 8-ounce cups. Nothing in the fine print, nothing in the packaging, nothing in the manual.

    We'll see who blinks first - or whether I'm going to have to take them to small claims court.

  6. Re:Why do people bother with inkjets? by bravehamster · · Score: 5, Funny
    Actually, about 60% of the stuff I print is in color, i.e. my digital photos. Altered, of course, to show my fabulous vacation with Heidi Klum. You can see my need for full vibrant colors.

    --
    ---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
  7. Re:Marketing Innovation... Wow.. by huckda · · Score: 2, Funny

    The last 3 cars I've bought were all filled with gas when I bought them...

    You must have haggled quite a bit to piss them off so much that they wouldn't even fill your gas tank :0

    --
    "Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
  8. Re:HP has always made the money on the refill by jkr0605 · · Score: 3, Funny

    This study is a pretty amusing look into exactly how much each page of inkjet-ed printing costs you.

  9. Is everyone forgetting by ^chuck^ · · Score: 3, Funny

    The joys and savings of cost of a dot-matrix. Not to mention the fact that there are pages out there designed specifically to create music while you print (for the speakerless/soundcardless of us out there).

    --

    Lemure, wtf! Don't you mean Lemur?
  10. the dog factor by spoot · · Score: 2, Funny

    I had just stocked up on about 30 carts for my epson 740 that I bought from a friend (along with a revision a imac) for a hundred bucks. The day the package arrived from "ink cars are us", I had taken the printer down from the shelf and while answering the phone in the next room, my dog pissed on the printer. I took it as a sign from God. I threw out the printer, Gave the carts to the x wife (let her have the karma) and bought an Ethernet laser the next day.

  11. Re:Why do people bother with inkjets? by eyeball · · Score: 2, Funny

    oops, i meant pictures of my pussy.

    --

    _______
    2B1ASK1
  12. Dot Matrix Forever!!!! by SHEENmaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    My panasonic dot matrix has never quit.

    I just shove in a $2 cartride, and type:

    cat /dev/hda >> /dev/lp0

    It is as simple as that.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  13. Re:more expensive than gold by spektr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Remove the cheap solvent, and, by weight, inkjet ink is more expensive than gold.

    Yeah. Even if you printed counterfeit money with an inkjet, you *still* couldn't afford its cartridges!