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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..."

2 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. Region Locking by Elder+Entropist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So if they region lock it so we can't use the (same, but) cheaper cartridges from Eastern Europe and Asia, can we region lock it so they can't use the cheaper workers from Easter Europe and Asia?

  2. Re:Done to _gouge_ the customer better by lalleglad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, capitalism as such is not the issue here, and the definition is as follows:

    An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development occurs through the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

    So, a company has three major stakeholders (in no particular order):

    1. Owners for which the company should make a profit.
    2. Employees that should be taken care of so they can be efficient and make the company successful.
    3. Customers that should be take care of so they want to purchase the products or services from the company, so it can be successful.

    Xerox in this case seems to not fulfill #3. and for sure I will not purchase their products, or advice anyone else to do so.

    Actually, I think it should be unlawful to make a business case where the actual cost isn't reflected in the price, which could be like this region based split or like printer companies selling the printer device cheap and the ink or toner very expensive.

    At least the USA, Canada and EU should be able to make such rules as they have some concerns for the users and clout to enforce the rules.

    I hope, but I may be dreaming ...