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Regionally Encoded Toner Cartridges 'to Serve Customers Better'

Posted by timothy on from the for-your-convenience-we-have-glued-your-face-to-your-hand dept.

sandbagger writes: The latest attempt to create artificial scarcity comes from Xerox, according to the editors at TechDirt, who cite German sources: "Xerox uses region coding on their toner cartridges AND locks the printer to the first type used. So if you use a North America cartridge you can't use the cheaper Eastern Europe cartridges. The printer's display doesn't show this, nor does the hotline know about it. When c't reached out to Xerox, the marketing drone claimed, this was done to serve the customer better..."

7 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. Seems logical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Otherwise you would end up printing in PAL instead of NTSC.

    1. Re:Seems logical by bkmoore · · Score: 5, Funny

      Otherwise you would end up printing in PAL instead of NTSC.

      The page size would be DIN A4 instead of Letter.
      The resolution would be in DPM instead of DPI.
      The printer would get 30 days paid vacation off per year from first use instead of five vacation days for the first year, two additional days per year until maximum 10 days off.
      The printer might print on the left side of the page.
      American words such as "color", "trash", "apartment", "cop", or "truck" might be printed as "colour", "rubbish", "flat", "bobby", and "lory"

      Thanks XEROX from saving us from all this confusion.

    2. Re:Seems logical by TWX · · Score: 5, Funny

      Trust me, with my experience with modern Xerox products, they already get too many 30 day vacations.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  2. Re:Done to _gouge_ the customer better by idontgno · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your edit makes the market-bot's statement more objectively true, but from the company's perspective, the customer's number one problem is that they haven't given the company enough money yet.

    They're just helping their unfortunate customers with their money-infestation problem.

    "We'll just take that nasty revenue off your hands."

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  3. Its a Cook Book!!! by random+coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "To Server Customers Better"
    Its a cook book!

  4. Re:Can't we just stop printing? by by+(1706743) · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I was staying in Europe for a few weeks (I'm from the USA) I had to wire some money over to the landlord. So I opened the PDF form from my (American) credit union, filled in the details, pasted in a signature and sent it back. "Sorry sir, but we are unable to accept an electronic copy; please print out the form, sign it, and then scan+email or fax it over."

    So of course I just opened the document in GIMP, rotated it slightly, added some noise, turned down the contrast and sent it back. Landlord was happy, credit union was happy, and all I had to do was forge my own documents...

  5. Re:Done to _gouge_ the customer better by bigfoottoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like somebody has been messing with your stapler!