Dixon's cater for the "must buy now" category, not the well thought out purchase. People won't buy an SLR in Dixons, but they might buy a compact digital on the spur of th moment.
Keep in mind that digital SLRs are only really needed for those people who want a system that is interchangeable with film systems, though there is a side benefit of manual focusing and I imagine cool in the fact that you don't have to power a screen. For the most part a mirror and prism setup isn't really needed with digital cameras as the whole see what the lens thing can be done electronically. Lens interchangeability is super nice but I totally see SLRs as a good application to go back to a screw mount system, and heck put the apature in the camera rather than the lens as was done on the pentax 110 slr.
But all of this is academic as most people looking for a digital camera just want to take pretty snapshots and print them. So if they want to pay extra at Dixson's or any other retail shop that isn't worth their salt it's their loss.
Righto... you can buy inkjets that cost $2000/gal for a refill, $3000/gal to refill, typically $5000/gal to refill, and in some cases esp. those free printers from over $10,000/gal to refill. It doesn't sound so bad if you price it by the ml, but given you can get quality bulk ink for hundreds of dollars/gal there is something really wrong. Hell even low end lasers are not much better.
Now I can appreciate the fact that a lot of research goes into formatting inks and papers. This is understood and appreciated. But this being true why is it that Lyson and Mediastreet can get away with selling inks and papers; archival inks no less, for under $700/gal? Formulabs and Image Specialists make some excellent solutions as well in the sub $300/gal bracket. So why pay thousands of dollars for ink?
It's my hope that enough people will start buying 3rd party refill ink that the major manufacturers will start felling it. Really it shouldn't cost more than $50 to refill a typical inkjet, nor upwards of $70 to refill a photo inkjet.
Until such time as we get carts for under $5.00 per 20ml, I plan to refill manually. I want reasonable sized ink tanks with the option to go with external tanks. I want the choice to go bulk filling or convenient repackaged cartages. And if you're not going to give it to me then I'll buy that $100 printer and get it from that other guy, for under $1.50/20ml. I'll print till I'm blue in the face and the hands too. And when my printer breaks you're going to fix it under warranty... till it's up and I'm going to do it again, till you price your ink at reasonable levels and stop making throw away printers.
So, and I mean this with all due respect... Bite me HP, Bight me Epson, Bite me Canon, Bite me Brother and Lexmark... well go bite soemone else.
Not true. For low-volume printing, inkjets have a very nasty tendency to become seriously clogged. For most that means costly replacement. For Epson printers it means throwing the whole (expensive) unit away.
Clogged epsons are totally a great deal. You give up your printer for a week to the repair shop who kicks it, says it's broke, and you get a referbished one with free ink. Sell this and get some compatable ink, and continue on printing hoping your printer gets clogged. If you actually want a printer just get a pair, cycle in that replacement just as soon as the one you are using breaks, repeat as often as nessicary.
What's sad is people do this... and what's even more sad is selling off OEM epson and getting compatable pays for it self, or rather you get so much money from a 6 pack of epson ink that it keeps light users printing for three months. Save a little bit from each exchange and you get a new epson after the year is up and start the cycle all over again.
Comments like this are purely FUD on the part of the Linux/OSS crowd. Over 90% of the time, "broken windows" is due to faulty drivers or some obscure piece of hardware that was poorly supported to begin with.
This reminds me when my copy of win2k would crash and burn after installing SP4... always crash and burn. I did track down the problem to the panasonic kx-6500 driver... so for me it was either get rid of the printer and install sp4 or keep the printer and stay at sp3. But what I wonder about is what changed in sp4 that would cause a printer driver, a printer driver for crying out loud to bluescreen the system.
On the one hand you are right... it was a crappy driver on an obscure piece of hardware. But on the other.. worked just fine till sp4.
don't get me started on the driver package from the HP LJ 1012.
I've had my issues with winxp, but I think i've isolated most of my problems due to inadquate cooling or a lame power supply.
Before buying the printer I decided against Epson based on the fact that if the printer is not used for a few days (maybe a week or two) the print head can dry and cause extensive cleaning before it works properly.
That is the truth. What's worse is that gasket that gets knocked out of place that results in a printhead clog. Look in any 2nd hand shop and you'll see a slew of newish c86s and a varity of r200/r300/r320s... all of whom have either missing gaskets or waste stations that got knocked out of place. This is not to say I don't love the output from epsons... I find their color rendering to be spot on and further more looks more consistant on most media types without color tweeking. The downside as with my r200 was the extensive cleaning cycles, and we are talking filling up old starbucks cups of ink level cleaning cycles. From what I put into the printer it seemed 1/2 of it was totally wasted.
Also, Epson cartridges have a microchip that may cause the printer to stop operation when it decides the cartridge is empty, even if it is not.
I guess it "might" be cheaper to meter based on use rather than a mechanical meter in the cart, though the canon system seems pretty reliable of shinking light through a clear cart and if clear it's empty. The epson tanks with chips cut off at about 2ml to 4ml... out of 13ml. I could take 5 or 6 empties and make one full one.
Generally speaking going with refillable tanks on epsons is reccomended esp since they are so prone to clogging after a year you're probally going to need a new printer. Save your pennies and just get another one. Otherwise windex is your friend to clear clogged printheads.
What's worse is the printer wastes so much ink that a person like my self who printed on average one print a day gets a full diaper in less than 6 months. Fortunatly many of their printers have a trap door to access the waste tube which is connected to a pump that works when the pladen goes in reverse. And disassembly is such a major task your better off letting that printer ink loose in a bowl. Reset with the SSC utility, otherwise if your joe average user your stuck either paying $60 for a diaper replacement, or just a few bucks more for a new printer.
Canon users don't worry, the newest pixma the 4200 offers chips on their carts too.
The software works well enough for what is does, but apparently Logitec still has not heard of this new program called "Firefox." The internet buttons (home, forward, back, etc.) all work OK with Netrscape and IE, but do aboslutely nothing with Firefox.
Let me look at mine. This one is their lesser lx-500. Does the job but replaced the f row with round buttons I find annoying, and the home end are in the wrong spot, delete is double sized. Other than that they did a good job remaping the f-keys that most people don't use with the option of being hot keys. In that way they did a decent job.
Back and Forward work Home works, scroll wheel works. Search well brings up microsoft's search, zoom works only with the mouse scroll wheel not the keyboads. While I'm perfectly happy with the one back button, and won't turn on hot f keys... everything on here works.
I don't know what the moderator who marked this as a troll was thinking. Inkjets are a marketing gimmick (even if they weren't always). They have a significantly higher TCO than an equivalent laser printer, offset by the fact that they have a much lower capital investment cost.
Canon IP4000 $100 or so BCI-3e 25ml black pigment ink cost... $12.50/500p Cost per page about 2.5cents
To be fair head replacement is reccomended at about 10,000p or so (the offical number is 20000, 1/2 black 1/2 color there and abouts). $60ish or About 3 bucks extra per black cart if you print all black (or less than$1.00 extra per cart if you use the color equal to black).
$15.50/500p = 3.1c/page
Extra features-> slow duplex printing and CD printing (americans can buy a tray from partsnow.com).
HP 1012 $200 street Q2612A aka #12a toner cost $70 street ($100 list)/2000p 3.5c/page street price
There is a fuser too... but might as well get a new printer by *that* point.
My point... you have to be really really careful checking the TCO on that sub $300 laser. For $300 you could get three semi decent general purpose inkjets who's cost per page is lower than the laser.
Keep in mind that we assume lasers cost lest per page than inkjets... this is mostly true, but marketing knows this too... so they come out with lasers with lower yields that cost more.
If it isn't rated for industrial use, don't buy it.
If it's rated for industrial use, but it either doesn't have Linux drivers, or the Linux drivers aren't under an OSI-approved licence, don't buy it -- even if you don't want to use it with Linux today.
What about rated for industerial use and supporting postscript? Sure I know of many industerial printers that support post script via emulation... but mostly these printers are so large you won't notice a NT4.0 box under them acting like a print server.
Can you e-mail your files, or host them on some web space somewhere? If you want to show off some photos, try burning them onto a CD-R -- most DVD players will read CD-Rs of.jpg files and display them on the TV
The resolution on TVs is typicaly lower than that of computer monitors. Don't get me wrong, it's cool that you can pop in a DVD of.jpgs and watch them, but they will be limited in defination to what you TV can do, or limited in resolution to what your DVD-player can play.
Even if the person hasn't got a DVD player, you should be able to connect your DVD player to your VCR with a simple SCART to SCART cable
Ummm... don't have SCART cables in america. I know we suck! We have composite which sucks, S-video which is ok, component connectors which are basicly 3 rcas which are an a vast improvement, and a new fancy cable I think it's called HDMI or some such which is basicly Y/Pb/Pr same as three RCA cables... oh not to speak of DVI which is common on LCD projection screens. Granted I prefer SCART but we don't have it.
To jack in a DVD to a TV you have three basic choices.
1. Composite... Unless they are using very old TV which is very possible they likely have a Composite connector, one jack, simple cable.
2. S-video... They "might" have this, common on newer TVs.
3. Component.... Three RCA cables.... common on HDTV monitors and such unless they have HDMI only.
4. HDMI... more rare but used, can be adapted to three RCAs easily enough
5. DVI... more common on LCDs than tube based TVs.
Composite Sucks... S-video is nice unless you are pushing high resolutions, and anything beyond that no bugger has.
Plase do buy one with atleast seperate cartridges.minimum 4 CYM-Bk or if possible 7 CYM-RGB-Bk. Although they cost more, in the long run it will save you a lot on ink.
What's funny is on an epson for example, while you "could" buy seperate tanks, but if you replace them one at a time it's going to do a cleaning cycle that is at least 1ml of ink, out of a possible 13. In theory this isn't such a bad deal if you replace 6 carts you loose about 1/2 a tank of ink.... in my experence you replace 1 tank and the rest report as being empty and don't print.
I found it was more cost effective for me in the long run to replace many tanks at the same time.
And DON'T buy Lexmark. ever
Their higher end stuff isn't so bad, and their lower end stuff at least are likely to be supported under linux. I'm not a lexmark fan and avoid them when I can but there is an application for them.
7 CYM-RGB-Bk.
I don't know of a prosumer printer that offers RGB ink. I know the canon has Red and Green on their ip8500, and epson offers blue and red, but I don't know of a prosumer printer that offers RGB. Besides, this is mainly an issue if you are dealing with ultra small drop size. If you go with something like the epson r2400 you don't get red and blue but rather the usual CMYK and light cyan light Magenta.. and a larger drop size. Sure it sucks more ink than dedicated red and blue but the end result is better... as with the case of the r2400 and even the cheep ass r200/r300.
We had one floating around at work a while back that I fell in love with. It was undorkified (no extra buttons to launch email, etc.) and had a little joystick built-in (which is a lot better than having a separate wireless mouse, for a home-entertainment PC).
I have to admit I like the idea of a wireless keyboard with either a joystick, track pad, or a track ball onboard. Unfortunatly the only times I see this arangement are either in IR keyboards which while they do have a great range suck in terms of construction and have a narrow line of site, or even more rare the keyboards that cost a few hundrad dollars and are designed for presentation.
The ideal design for me would be a trackball placed far right, not so good for lefties I know but great for me. I've seen this on the compaq aero laptop and a couple of oddball NECs. I could live with a ball under the space bar, or heck even a trackpad would be nice.
I bought mine before they became bluetooth only. Totally normal layout for the f keys and home page up etc... extra buttons that actually are useful like volume and a scroll wheel and the other extra buttons that I don't use out of the way. Most important is the recharge base for the mouse... very very very handy.
Logitech has a couple of split wireless keyboards that look interesting too.. been keeping my eyes peeled for them.
Good keyboards There are plenty of good keyboards, Microsoft even makes some good ones. What they are asking for are those loud IBM keyboards that feel like the clumsy typewriters they were adapted from.
Microsoft makes some good ones? I've oned one MS natural and one MS natural elite, but both died due to the contacts wearing out.
While the IBM clicky keyboard (can't remember the model number off hand) might not be your bag IIRC they used metal on metal contacts basicly looking like tweesers inside the key hole.. where the pressing down action caused the contacts to meet and behold a key press is registered. Dec keyboards I believe are made in much the same way though i'd have to check mine... but you phone up support if you dumped coffee in your keyboard and they tell you to put it in a bucket full of soap and water and let dry, and most of the time the problem was resolved.
The current keyboard trend is circuit traces on one membrain, a seperator, and a membrain with a solid contact spot. They are cheap, easy to mass produce, and rub away after a couple of years. I mean it "nice" not having to spend $50 to $100 on a keyboard, but those who spent $50 to $100 on a keyboard likely have something that can still be used today.
There was a time when the keyboards were made by using a large PC board with basic contacts, with a flexable bubble material on top with a little metal contact. While these will eventually wear away, they don't do so nearly as quickly as plastic membrains.
It's getting more difficult to find keyboards without "extra features" (also called programmable buttons). And I've yet to find a quality wireless keyboard (radio) that is slim and lacking these "extra features".
Does anyone know of any slim, wireless keyboards?
Helps to search for cordless keyboards for some odd reason... they tend to be without cords not without wires. Don't ask me why.
I have seen wired keyboards with the home, end, page up/down etc. In fact they the default offering on the linspire box. 95ish keys or so.
But how slim do you want? If you just want a normal keyboard without extra features... the usual 105ish key keyboard. Logitech offers the cordless desktop express... like $20 on overstock.com. The last one I bought that was minimal I think was called their access keyboard. Mechanical mouse, tradtional keyboard plus 3 buttons for web/email/some other shit I can't remember cause I don't use them. Good, solid, long lasting, and great range.
If you want to spend $300 you've got the Gyration Ultra, and the diNovo someone alreay spoke of.
Just because someone is deaf doesn't mean they're stupid, and the vast majority of deaf folks have the same critical thinking skills that anyone else does.
The people using these service can hear, and use it to talk to hearing people, just via a terminal relay, and more recently via a terminal on the internet.
While i'm sure there is a record "somewhere" of all phone calls, from my understanding the relay operator doesn't have access to the IP address of the text user, and even if they did, chances are they are in a net cafe, phoning all over america *FOR FREE* using a native speaker as a relay.
Look, I agree with you that you should be able to return things if they don't work, if they are defective, if we didn't give you enough information before the sale to know for sure that it would meet your needs, etc. That's built into the price. However, if someone is abusing the system, then shame on them.
That's the thing... many retail stores allow returns for any reason, even if a product doesn't meet your needs.
For example I had to buy a new power supply. My old one that came with my case was a POS and apparently was causing my system to crash, a situation most here are empathic to. As you probally know, all the specs are not listed on the box, for example max amps per each volt line. While I knew I was in the market for something that was higher than 14amp @ 3.3v... bugger if I could find that on a box. And you know, even the better indy computer shops that are worth their salt are not going to know specifications that are not published... so my only resolve was to buy something and return it if it was a failure. I'd feel NO shame in that... not when I looked at the box, asked what they would reccomend, and took a chance. It's working out... but I went retail becuase I needed one today and wanted the option to take it back and get another one.
If you honestly believe that all salesmen are honest and rather than trying to qualify a customer would actually listen and make an unbiased reccomendation then there would be no need to return goods based on not meeting your needs. But my experence has been that most salesman in retail electronics stores only know what's on the box... and even if they are being honest are not going to know your tastes, your needs, nor your enviroment. And even then in many cases their honesty leaves MUCH to be desired.
So yes, shame on those jarheads who want the free rental. Double foofoo on them. But thanks to these ass munchs... thanks to them I know of stores that have decent return policies... and I shop there. Because not only are some things defective, but in the end specifications and facts can only tell you about the workings, reality may be different.
Even if that involves the perpetration of a crime?
Federal rules require them to make the calls and keep the contents strictly confidential, even if the relay operator suspects fraud.
What a sad, sorry loophole these relay operators are in if that's the case
You've said it.
This can't be right at all. No person or agency government or otherwise can ask another person to participate in a crime
They are not participating in a crime no more so than a telephone is participating in a crime. They are relaying words on a system that's designated to allow the deaf over terminals tty or otherwise. That is their job and fuction as designated by the FCC. They are not a person but a relay... they have NO legal accountability what so ever.
Is the post office participating in a crime when they deliver those 419 scam letters? Hell no.
Their job is to read what's on a screen and to type what they hear... and that is it.
As a doctor there is NO way I can hide behind patient confidentiality and allow harm to come to my patient or others. I _have_ to report it to authorities. I also have to attempt to warn the potential victim, believe it or not. Why should "privacy" permit a crime to occur? There's something wrong there.
Why should privacy permit a crime to occur? Because people have rights. What you would sugest would amount to a phone tap for all deaf users. It's generally believed that the deaf should have the same rights as anyone else... hince this wacky loop hole scammers are using. If I were to commit a crime and the only evidence was a an illegal phone tap.... well guess what... it's not admissible.
I would agree, something needs to be done... but at the same time people like your self have to realise that this is a system designed to give the deaf the same access to the telephone network as hearing users... with the same level of privacy.
But you are right "something" needs to be done... something that protects the spirit of the system but make it easier to report and blacklist fraudsters.
Wonderful business ethics your management team has. It's like me in my job. I get paid either way if you live or die, since it's the hospital that pays my salary, not you. So why should I care?
Have you ever thought of challenging your manager on this issue? You might be ignored, and you might be fired. Or you might be successful. But you will have done SOMETHING about it.
This I believe is the domain of the FCC... a manager would have absolutly no power or authority to regulate communications from Nigeria.
The problem is it's very ethical for relay operators to relay "all messages" without any feeling or emotions. They are not a participant nor is it their job to make valued judgements whether business dealings are scams or not. In fact it's their job dispach all messages without prejustice. It's a system for deaf users to communicate to hearing users with all the same expectations for privacy.
Now I agree that these scammers are exploiting the system, but I for one am at a loss for a resolution that wouldn't infringe on the rights of deaf users. This is something that should be bought to the attention of the FCC, but can not be done by the relay operators as they have a moral and ethical obligation to relay messages from terminals to hearing users without disclosing anything they over hear. I would love it if the operators were required to say "this is a phone call from Nigeria... beware".
No, actually it's because Toyota has all the hype in the world going for it. They aren't any better than similarly-priced American cars, but people like you keep hyping them, for no real reason.
I've raced many a corolla, years from 76 to 97 cross country from Vancouver to tijuana in 12 hours.. not including border crossings. In such races which are amature events stock imports always take the cake vs stock domestics. The domestics in a high speed endurance run tend to pop head gaskets, crack blocks, burn out bearings and generally don't make it. Oddly enough while I can say I was beaten by a 88 Celica all track turbo, that was simply because the final I-5 run is straight and it could pour it in to 150+mph, where I was stuck at 120.
My experence with toyota has always been consistantly good. While I can't say it's always been trouble free, even my old 1979 that I drove till the odo read 350,000 miles of which I drove 250,000 miles, no matter what the issue there was only one time the car never brought me home, and that was when my battery died and I couldn't get a jump.. and in that case I was a dumb ass and didn't replace the battery when it was needed.
Try putting the Tarus to the limit and see what happens:D.
Specifically, things like head and leg room, how well the doors/windows fit, conveniences like fold down/removable seats, readable instrument panel. etc. That's not the only place they out-match Japanese cars, but it's one place American cars are FAR ahead of Japanese cars.
I didn't misread that... I was remembering the details I noticed in American cars that were nice. Faux hardwood trim looks nice. I agree the speedo looks nice, the extra chrome looks nice. And split bench seats rather than bucket seats are nice. And noise level... got to admit the noise level in American cars is very very low. But I would never buy one. Nissan on the cheap, the sentra uses a timing chain which to me means one less thing to break. The new corollas i'm not sure about but those 1997s are totally acceptable. Suburus unfortunatly cost more esp since you can't get 2wd in america but those boxer engines are solid as rocks. While i'd love to see a hemi in a 4 cylinder, the last people I knew who made one was toyota in the early 80s... using the crystler design and eventually in the japanese market Yamaha heads.
If we can both agree that what he did had zero monetary impact on the retailer in question then I'll agree that what he did will I believe "renting" results in higher prices for the rest of us.
Ok, how much higher is it? If the item is factory referbished and not sold as an open box discount or even as an open box no discount, and trust me I bought many things that turned out to be an open box, does the cost involved in factory referbishment. I.e. is it a true loss that you can measure, a slight reduction in profits, or is the factory referb business (i.e. overstock.com) so large that it results in increased sales and less long term costs by not being required to honor the normal full price warranties.
I can't say the free-rental scam doesn't affect the bottom line, but would the loss be greater if they decided not to accept returns under certain conditions, like if they think your a jarhead? Who wants to shop somewhere where they assume you are a criminal. They have the freedom of choice to either have a liberal return policy, charge a restocking fee for non-defective goods, or be the nice guy and charge nothing... and in the end you have the choice to shop there or not. I don't agree in anyone who does the free-rental scam, but I will shop at any place that allows it.
But you also have the reberb market. For example I could spend $60ish for DWL-G120 usb wifi adapters with a 3 year warranty or spend $20ish for the referb and the 90day warranty. Last time around I bought the $20.00 ones. Did D-link loose $30.00 or did does offering the product at a lower price with a reduced warranty result in a profit? One the one hand they "might" have been able to make more money from me. But on the other hand they know for a fact I bought three at $20.00 each and don't have to replace it if they fail in a couple of years. This case scenero doesn't result in a higher price for me.
I work for a company that makes projectors. I have seen the numbers, and his doing that probably cost the manufacturer at least $250 because they have to pay to have the item shipped back, examined, re-packaged, and then sold at a discount as used.
Frankly, we could live without that kind of word of mouth advertising.
While I'm sure such things affect your bottom line, does it actually cost you $250 or result in an old around profit. What percent is $250 of each unit represents the sale value of the unit, and what percent is normally reserved for advertising. And how much would the bottom line be affected if people didn't feel safe impulse buying?
To me it seems like the retailers have made a choice not to charge that 10% restocking fee which is common among retail electronics stores for a reason. While that jack-ass who basically is renting equipment for free does result in work it's assumed that profits would be affected more greatly if they decided to go with restocking fee.
You see... these retailers get my business. I say "hey if that jack ass can go there to rent something for free... my ass is covered if I buy shit there". Like costco for example.
I can accept the fact that these jackasses are resulting in slightly higher prices to compensate for referbishment, or contribute by buying these factory referbished goods so it's not a total loss. I'll listen to the jack-ass's review of the freely-rented goods, and if revewed well buy it. I would not accept not being able to return things at all. I vote for the lesser of evils.
Well, if you're going to get a used Buick, get a Regal. Pretty nice car, quite reliable. When Buick discontinued it, the average reliability of the whole Buick lineup took a nice drop.
Had I known that 10 years ago, I would have told my father to buy them rather than two 1984 buick Century's. Both low milage sub 100,000... both decided to overheat one day even though the waterpump and everything was working and never drove another mile in their life. Got him a Camry after the last Buick died.
It's always the few scumbag 1% who wreck things for the rest of us.
What does this scumbag wreck for the rest of us? So the projector went out on a little trip to a wedding, got used and got returned. What are the odds that someone asked "where ever did you buy this".
While I don't agree with what this bloke did, the benifit is word of mouth advertising of the product and of the store's policy. If they have such a liberal return policy that they will accept a return after one day no questions asked then odds are I will shop there in the unlikely event that I get bum equipment, or equipment that doesn't meet my needs.
One day he got the idea to take these shrinkwrapped games back to the local Best Buy for store credit. He would then take the store credit and buy stuff he wanted, or stuff to sell on eBay. Best Buy's return policy said if you didn't have a receipt, all you needed was your ID to return the product for store credit.
I know some music shops have a liberal return policy. For my birthday I got a copy of Who - Who's Next which I really didn't want. I forget the name of the store but they said "it doesn't have to come from our store, so long as the bar code scans we'll give you credit for the full value of what we would charge for it".
I "imagine" one could if they had something resembling a good shrinkwrap machine and a decent photo printer totally take advantage of this system... and return and empty case but with something that looks rather like a spiffy CD label.
They need better item tracking through means that can't easily be forged. Such as, embedded serial numbers of various types or simply more competent employees to work the returns counter.
I noticed ordering stuff from newegg my rescript reflects not only the model number but the serial of the product i'm buying. Very smart and helped me establish in a few cases where I bought something, or rather if I bought it from newegg or not. And I imagine could be used in a retail store situation to help prevent bogus returns.
In the case of spendy watches, most have something resembling a serial number embedded on them. In the case of my gucci the serial is inside the rear cover.
I went to Future Shop last week to help a friend pick out a printer. After we grabbed the printer and brought it to the checkout, we noticed the barcode was missing. Turns out it was an open box return and whoever had returned it had cashed in the $50 rebate then returned the printer
I really can't understand how people can justify this to themselves.
In America "Future Shop" was known for putting customer returns back on the shelves, even ones that were returned as being faulty. I shopped there from time to time basicly looking for some odd ball parts... things that were not sold anymore, but many times more often than I could count I ended up with an open box return and faulty goods. While they did have a decent return policy, I would point out the goods were faulty... making sure to provide hard copy about my complaint. which I put inside the box. And much to my shock it would end up back on the shelf with my hard copy still inside the box.
I have less of an issue with barcode removed return goods. Even in cases where the the joker got the rebate and got their money back I'd rather this happen than refusing to take back goods with the barcode missing. I hate rebates so much i'm all for people who choose to exploit the system. I have more of an issue with places that take customer returns and fail to disclose they have been returned esp when they advertise a rebate and try to sell you something with the barcode removed.
In the last days of Future Shop in America I noticed that their open box returns were "finally" marked as such with a label that said "contents verified by a a+ certified tech". Not like this helped There were still discs missing, trivial parts missing, and sometimes the wrong product in the box.
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Dixon's cater for the "must buy now" category, not the well thought out purchase. People won't buy an SLR in Dixons, but they might buy a compact digital on the spur of th moment.
Keep in mind that digital SLRs are only really needed for those people who want a system that is interchangeable with film systems, though there is a side benefit of manual focusing and I imagine cool in the fact that you don't have to power a screen. For the most part a mirror and prism setup isn't really needed with digital cameras as the whole see what the lens thing can be done electronically. Lens interchangeability is super nice but I totally see SLRs as a good application to go back to a screw mount system, and heck put the apature in the camera rather than the lens as was done on the pentax 110 slr.
But all of this is academic as most people looking for a digital camera just want to take pretty snapshots and print them. So if they want to pay extra at Dixson's or any other retail shop that isn't worth their salt it's their loss.
Righto... you can buy inkjets that cost $2000/gal for a refill, $3000/gal to refill, typically $5000/gal to refill, and in some cases esp. those free printers from over $10,000/gal to refill. It doesn't sound so bad if you price it by the ml, but given you can get quality bulk ink for hundreds of dollars/gal there is something really wrong. Hell even low end lasers are not much better.
Now I can appreciate the fact that a lot of research goes into formatting inks and papers. This is understood and appreciated. But this being true why is it that Lyson and Mediastreet can get away with selling inks and papers; archival inks no less, for under $700/gal? Formulabs and Image Specialists make some excellent solutions as well in the sub $300/gal bracket. So why pay thousands of dollars for ink?
It's my hope that enough people will start buying 3rd party refill ink that the major manufacturers will start felling it. Really it shouldn't cost more than $50 to refill a typical inkjet, nor upwards of $70 to refill a photo inkjet.
Until such time as we get carts for under $5.00 per 20ml, I plan to refill manually. I want reasonable sized ink tanks with the option to go with external tanks. I want the choice to go bulk filling or convenient repackaged cartages. And if you're not going to give it to me then I'll buy that $100 printer and get it from that other guy, for under $1.50/20ml. I'll print till I'm blue in the face and the hands too. And when my printer breaks you're going to fix it under warranty... till it's up and I'm going to do it again, till you price your ink at reasonable levels and stop making throw away printers.
So, and I mean this with all due respect... Bite me HP, Bight me Epson, Bite me Canon, Bite me Brother and Lexmark... well go bite soemone else.
Not true. For low-volume printing, inkjets have a very nasty tendency to become seriously clogged. For most that means costly replacement. For Epson printers it means throwing the whole (expensive) unit away.
Clogged epsons are totally a great deal. You give up your printer for a week to the repair shop who kicks it, says it's broke, and you get a referbished one with free ink. Sell this and get some compatable ink, and continue on printing hoping your printer gets clogged. If you actually want a printer just get a pair, cycle in that replacement just as soon as the one you are using breaks, repeat as often as nessicary.
What's sad is people do this... and what's even more sad is selling off OEM epson and getting compatable pays for it self, or rather you get so much money from a 6 pack of epson ink that it keeps light users printing for three months. Save a little bit from each exchange and you get a new epson after the year is up and start the cycle all over again.
Comments like this are purely FUD on the part of the Linux/OSS crowd. Over 90% of the time, "broken windows" is due to faulty drivers or some obscure piece of hardware that was poorly supported to begin with.
This reminds me when my copy of win2k would crash and burn after installing SP4... always crash and burn. I did track down the problem to the panasonic kx-6500 driver... so for me it was either get rid of the printer and install sp4 or keep the printer and stay at sp3. But what I wonder about is what changed in sp4 that would cause a printer driver, a printer driver for crying out loud to bluescreen the system.
On the one hand you are right... it was a crappy driver on an obscure piece of hardware. But on the other.. worked just fine till sp4.
don't get me started on the driver package from the HP LJ 1012.
I've had my issues with winxp, but I think i've isolated most of my problems due to inadquate cooling or a lame power supply.
Before buying the printer I decided against Epson based on the fact that if the printer is not used for a few days (maybe a week or two) the print head can dry and cause extensive cleaning before it works properly.
That is the truth. What's worse is that gasket that gets knocked out of place that results in a printhead clog. Look in any 2nd hand shop and you'll see a slew of newish c86s and a varity of r200/r300/r320s... all of whom have either missing gaskets or waste stations that got knocked out of place. This is not to say I don't love the output from epsons... I find their color rendering to be spot on and further more looks more consistant on most media types without color tweeking. The downside as with my r200 was the extensive cleaning cycles, and we are talking filling up old starbucks cups of ink level cleaning cycles. From what I put into the printer it seemed 1/2 of it was totally wasted.
Also, Epson cartridges have a microchip that may cause the printer to stop operation when it decides the cartridge is empty, even if it is not.
I guess it "might" be cheaper to meter based on use rather than a mechanical meter in the cart, though the canon system seems pretty reliable of shinking light through a clear cart and if clear it's empty. The epson tanks with chips cut off at about 2ml to 4ml... out of 13ml. I could take 5 or 6 empties and make one full one.
Generally speaking going with refillable tanks on epsons is reccomended esp since they are so prone to clogging after a year you're probally going to need a new printer. Save your pennies and just get another one. Otherwise windex is your friend to clear clogged printheads.
What's worse is the printer wastes so much ink that a person like my self who printed on average one print a day gets a full diaper in less than 6 months. Fortunatly many of their printers have a trap door to access the waste tube which is connected to a pump that works when the pladen goes in reverse. And disassembly is such a major task your better off letting that printer ink loose in a bowl. Reset with the SSC utility, otherwise if your joe average user your stuck either paying $60 for a diaper replacement, or just a few bucks more for a new printer.
Canon users don't worry, the newest pixma the 4200 offers chips on their carts too.
The software works well enough for what is does, but apparently Logitec still has not heard of this new program called "Firefox." The internet buttons (home, forward, back, etc.) all work OK with Netrscape and IE, but do aboslutely nothing with Firefox.
Let me look at mine. This one is their lesser lx-500. Does the job but replaced the f row with round buttons I find annoying, and the home end are in the wrong spot, delete is double sized. Other than that they did a good job remaping the f-keys that most people don't use with the option of being hot keys. In that way they did a decent job.
Back and Forward work Home works, scroll wheel works. Search well brings up microsoft's search, zoom works only with the mouse scroll wheel not the keyboads. While I'm perfectly happy with the one back button, and won't turn on hot f keys... everything on here works.
I don't know what the moderator who marked this as a troll was thinking. Inkjets are a marketing gimmick (even if they weren't always). They have a significantly higher TCO than an equivalent laser printer, offset by the fact that they have a much lower capital investment cost.
Canon IP4000 $100 or so
BCI-3e 25ml black pigment ink cost... $12.50/500p
Cost per page about 2.5cents
To be fair head replacement is reccomended at about 10,000p or so (the offical number is 20000, 1/2 black 1/2 color there and abouts). $60ish or About 3 bucks extra per black cart if you print all black (or less than$1.00 extra per cart if you use the color equal to black).
$15.50/500p = 3.1c/page
Extra features-> slow duplex printing and CD printing (americans can buy a tray from partsnow.com).
HP 1012 $200 street
Q2612A aka #12a toner cost $70 street ($100 list)/2000p
3.5c/page street price
There is a fuser too... but might as well get a new printer by *that* point.
My point... you have to be really really careful checking the TCO on that sub $300 laser. For $300 you could get three semi decent general purpose inkjets who's cost per page is lower than the laser.
Keep in mind that we assume lasers cost lest per page than inkjets... this is mostly true, but marketing knows this too... so they come out with lasers with lower yields that cost more.
If it isn't rated for industrial use, don't buy it.
.jpg files and display them on the TV
.jpgs and watch them, but they will be limited in defination to what you TV can do, or limited in resolution to what your DVD-player can play.
If it's rated for industrial use, but it either doesn't have Linux drivers, or the Linux drivers aren't under an OSI-approved licence, don't buy it -- even if you don't want to use it with Linux today.
What about rated for industerial use and supporting postscript? Sure I know of many industerial printers that support post script via emulation... but mostly these printers are so large you won't notice a NT4.0 box under them acting like a print server.
Can you e-mail your files, or host them on some web space somewhere? If you want to show off some photos, try burning them onto a CD-R -- most DVD players will read CD-Rs of
The resolution on TVs is typicaly lower than that of computer monitors. Don't get me wrong, it's cool that you can pop in a DVD of
Even if the person hasn't got a DVD player, you should be able to connect your DVD player to your VCR with a simple SCART to SCART cable
Ummm... don't have SCART cables in america. I know we suck! We have composite which sucks, S-video which is ok, component connectors which are basicly 3 rcas which are an a vast improvement, and a new fancy cable I think it's called HDMI or some such which is basicly Y/Pb/Pr same as three RCA cables... oh not to speak of DVI which is common on LCD projection screens. Granted I prefer SCART but we don't have it.
To jack in a DVD to a TV you have three basic choices.
1. Composite... Unless they are using very old TV which is very possible they likely have a Composite connector, one jack, simple cable.
2. S-video... They "might" have this, common on newer TVs.
3. Component.... Three RCA cables.... common on HDTV monitors and such unless they have HDMI only.
4. HDMI... more rare but used, can be adapted to three RCAs easily enough
5. DVI... more common on LCDs than tube based TVs.
Composite Sucks... S-video is nice unless you are pushing high resolutions, and anything beyond that no bugger has.
So... just e-mail the pic.
Plase do buy one with atleast seperate cartridges.minimum 4 CYM-Bk or if possible 7 CYM-RGB-Bk. Although they cost more, in the long run it will save you a lot on ink.
What's funny is on an epson for example, while you "could" buy seperate tanks, but if you replace them one at a time it's going to do a cleaning cycle that is at least 1ml of ink, out of a possible 13. In theory this isn't such a bad deal if you replace 6 carts you loose about 1/2 a tank of ink.... in my experence you replace 1 tank and the rest report as being empty and don't print.
Now you can in theory replace a tank using the , without hitting the cleaning cycle, and do a manual clean on color or black. But if you replace a tank when the printer is off, i've observed a cleaning cycle.
I found it was more cost effective for me in the long run to replace many tanks at the same time.
And DON'T buy Lexmark. ever
Their higher end stuff isn't so bad, and their lower end stuff at least are likely to be supported under linux. I'm not a lexmark fan and avoid them when I can but there is an application for them.
7 CYM-RGB-Bk.
I don't know of a prosumer printer that offers RGB ink. I know the canon has Red and Green on their ip8500, and epson offers blue and red, but I don't know of a prosumer printer that offers RGB. Besides, this is mainly an issue if you are dealing with ultra small drop size. If you go with something like the epson r2400 you don't get red and blue but rather the usual CMYK and light cyan light Magenta.. and a larger drop size. Sure it sucks more ink than dedicated red and blue but the end result is better... as with the case of the r2400 and even the cheep ass r200/r300.
We had one floating around at work a while back that I fell in love with. It was undorkified (no extra buttons to launch email, etc.) and had a little joystick built-in (which is a lot better than having a separate wireless mouse, for a home-entertainment PC).
I have to admit I like the idea of a wireless keyboard with either a joystick, track pad, or a track ball onboard. Unfortunatly the only times I see this arangement are either in IR keyboards which while they do have a great range suck in terms of construction and have a narrow line of site, or even more rare the keyboards that cost a few hundrad dollars and are designed for presentation.
The ideal design for me would be a trackball placed far right, not so good for lefties I know but great for me. I've seen this on the compaq aero laptop and a couple of oddball NECs. I could live with a ball under the space bar, or heck even a trackpad would be nice.
what's your favorite keyboard?
s /US/EN,CRID=2158,CONTENTID=7153
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/detail
I bought mine before they became bluetooth only. Totally normal layout for the f keys and home page up etc... extra buttons that actually are useful like volume and a scroll wheel and the other extra buttons that I don't use out of the way. Most important is the recharge base for the mouse... very very very handy.
Logitech has a couple of split wireless keyboards that look interesting too.. been keeping my eyes peeled for them.
Good keyboards
There are plenty of good keyboards, Microsoft even makes some good ones. What they are asking for are those loud IBM keyboards that feel like the clumsy typewriters they were adapted from.
Microsoft makes some good ones? I've oned one MS natural and one MS natural elite, but both died due to the contacts wearing out.
While the IBM clicky keyboard (can't remember the model number off hand) might not be your bag IIRC they used metal on metal contacts basicly looking like tweesers inside the key hole.. where the pressing down action caused the contacts to meet and behold a key press is registered. Dec keyboards I believe are made in much the same way though i'd have to check mine... but you phone up support if you dumped coffee in your keyboard and they tell you to put it in a bucket full of soap and water and let dry, and most of the time the problem was resolved.
The current keyboard trend is circuit traces on one membrain, a seperator, and a membrain with a solid contact spot. They are cheap, easy to mass produce, and rub away after a couple of years. I mean it "nice" not having to spend $50 to $100 on a keyboard, but those who spent $50 to $100 on a keyboard likely have something that can still be used today.
There was a time when the keyboards were made by using a large PC board with basic contacts, with a flexable bubble material on top with a little metal contact. While these will eventually wear away, they don't do so nearly as quickly as plastic membrains.
It's getting more difficult to find keyboards without "extra features" (also called programmable buttons). And I've yet to find a quality wireless keyboard (radio) that is slim and lacking these "extra features".
Does anyone know of any slim, wireless keyboards?
Helps to search for cordless keyboards for some odd reason... they tend to be without cords not without wires. Don't ask me why.
I have seen wired keyboards with the home, end, page up/down etc. In fact they the default offering on the linspire box. 95ish keys or so.
But how slim do you want? If you just want a normal keyboard without extra features... the usual 105ish key keyboard. Logitech offers the cordless desktop express... like $20 on overstock.com. The last one I bought that was minimal I think was called their access keyboard. Mechanical mouse, tradtional keyboard plus 3 buttons for web/email/some other shit I can't remember cause I don't use them. Good, solid, long lasting, and great range.
If you want to spend $300 you've got the Gyration Ultra, and the diNovo someone alreay spoke of.
Just because someone is deaf doesn't mean they're stupid, and the vast majority of deaf folks have the same critical thinking skills that anyone else does.
The people using these service can hear, and use it to talk to hearing people, just via a terminal relay, and more recently via a terminal on the internet.
While i'm sure there is a record "somewhere" of all phone calls, from my understanding the relay operator doesn't have access to the IP address of the text user, and even if they did, chances are they are in a net cafe, phoning all over america *FOR FREE* using a native speaker as a relay.
Look, I agree with you that you should be able to return things if they don't work, if they are defective, if we didn't give you enough information before the sale to know for sure that it would meet your needs, etc. That's built into the price. However, if someone is abusing the system, then shame on them.
That's the thing... many retail stores allow returns for any reason, even if a product doesn't meet your needs.
For example I had to buy a new power supply. My old one that came with my case was a POS and apparently was causing my system to crash, a situation most here are empathic to. As you probally know, all the specs are not listed on the box, for example max amps per each volt line. While I knew I was in the market for something that was higher than 14amp @ 3.3v... bugger if I could find that on a box. And you know, even the better indy computer shops that are worth their salt are not going to know specifications that are not published... so my only resolve was to buy something and return it if it was a failure. I'd feel NO shame in that... not when I looked at the box, asked what they would reccomend, and took a chance. It's working out... but I went retail becuase I needed one today and wanted the option to take it back and get another one.
If you honestly believe that all salesmen are honest and rather than trying to qualify a customer would actually listen and make an unbiased reccomendation then there would be no need to return goods based on not meeting your needs. But my experence has been that most salesman in retail electronics stores only know what's on the box... and even if they are being honest are not going to know your tastes, your needs, nor your enviroment. And even then in many cases their honesty leaves MUCH to be desired.
So yes, shame on those jarheads who want the free rental. Double foofoo on them. But thanks to these ass munchs... thanks to them I know of stores that have decent return policies... and I shop there. Because not only are some things defective, but in the end specifications and facts can only tell you about the workings, reality may be different.
Even if that involves the perpetration of a crime?
Federal rules require them to make the calls and keep the contents strictly confidential, even if the relay operator suspects fraud.
What a sad, sorry loophole these relay operators are in if that's the case
You've said it.
This can't be right at all. No person or agency government or otherwise can ask another person to participate in a crime
They are not participating in a crime no more so than a telephone is participating in a crime. They are relaying words on a system that's designated to allow the deaf over terminals tty or otherwise. That is their job and fuction as designated by the FCC. They are not a person but a relay... they have NO legal accountability what so ever.
Is the post office participating in a crime when they deliver those 419 scam letters? Hell no.
Their job is to read what's on a screen and to type what they hear... and that is it.
As a doctor there is NO way I can hide behind patient confidentiality and allow harm to come to my patient or others. I _have_ to report it to authorities. I also have to attempt to warn the potential victim, believe it or not. Why should "privacy" permit a crime to occur? There's something wrong there.
Why should privacy permit a crime to occur? Because people have rights. What you would sugest would amount to a phone tap for all deaf users. It's generally believed that the deaf should have the same rights as anyone else... hince this wacky loop hole scammers are using. If I were to commit a crime and the only evidence was a an illegal phone tap.... well guess what... it's not admissible.
I would agree, something needs to be done... but at the same time people like your self have to realise that this is a system designed to give the deaf the same access to the telephone network as hearing users... with the same level of privacy.
But you are right "something" needs to be done... something that protects the spirit of the system but make it easier to report and blacklist fraudsters.
Wonderful business ethics your management team has. It's like me in my job. I get paid either way if you live or die, since it's the hospital that pays my salary, not you. So why should I care?
Have you ever thought of challenging your manager on this issue? You might be ignored, and you might be fired. Or you might be successful. But you will have done SOMETHING about it.
This I believe is the domain of the FCC... a manager would have absolutly no power or authority to regulate communications from Nigeria.
The problem is it's very ethical for relay operators to relay "all messages" without any feeling or emotions. They are not a participant nor is it their job to make valued judgements whether business dealings are scams or not. In fact it's their job dispach all messages without prejustice. It's a system for deaf users to communicate to hearing users with all the same expectations for privacy.
Now I agree that these scammers are exploiting the system, but I for one am at a loss for a resolution that wouldn't infringe on the rights of deaf users. This is something that should be bought to the attention of the FCC, but can not be done by the relay operators as they have a moral and ethical obligation to relay messages from terminals to hearing users without disclosing anything they over hear. I would love it if the operators were required to say "this is a phone call from Nigeria... beware".
No, actually it's because Toyota has all the hype in the world going for it. They aren't any better than similarly-priced American cars, but people like you keep hyping them, for no real reason.
:D.
I've raced many a corolla, years from 76 to 97 cross country from Vancouver to tijuana in 12 hours.. not including border crossings. In such races which are amature events stock imports always take the cake vs stock domestics. The domestics in a high speed endurance run tend to pop head gaskets, crack blocks, burn out bearings and generally don't make it. Oddly enough while I can say I was beaten by a 88 Celica all track turbo, that was simply because the final I-5 run is straight and it could pour it in to 150+mph, where I was stuck at 120.
My experence with toyota has always been consistantly good. While I can't say it's always been trouble free, even my old 1979 that I drove till the odo read 350,000 miles of which I drove 250,000 miles, no matter what the issue there was only one time the car never brought me home, and that was when my battery died and I couldn't get a jump.. and in that case I was a dumb ass and didn't replace the battery when it was needed.
Try putting the Tarus to the limit and see what happens
Specifically, things like head and leg room, how well the doors/windows fit, conveniences like fold down/removable seats, readable instrument panel. etc. That's not the only place they out-match Japanese cars, but it's one place
American cars are FAR ahead of Japanese cars.
I didn't misread that... I was remembering the details I noticed in American cars that were nice. Faux hardwood trim looks nice. I agree the speedo looks nice, the extra chrome looks nice. And split bench seats rather than bucket seats are nice. And noise level... got to admit the noise level in American cars is very very low. But I would never buy one. Nissan on the cheap, the sentra uses a timing chain which to me means one less thing to break. The new corollas i'm not sure about but those 1997s are totally acceptable. Suburus unfortunatly cost more esp since you can't get 2wd in america but those boxer engines are solid as rocks. While i'd love to see a hemi in a 4 cylinder, the last people I knew who made one was toyota in the early 80s... using the crystler design and eventually in the japanese market Yamaha heads.
If we can both agree that what he did had zero monetary impact on the retailer in question then I'll agree that what he did will I believe "renting" results in higher prices for the rest of us.
Ok, how much higher is it? If the item is factory referbished and not sold as an open box discount or even as an open box no discount, and trust me I bought many things that turned out to be an open box, does the cost involved in factory referbishment. I.e. is it a true loss that you can measure, a slight reduction in profits, or is the factory referb business (i.e. overstock.com) so large that it results in increased sales and less long term costs by not being required to honor the normal full price warranties.
I can't say the free-rental scam doesn't affect the bottom line, but would the loss be greater if they decided not to accept returns under certain conditions, like if they think your a jarhead? Who wants to shop somewhere where they assume you are a criminal. They have the freedom of choice to either have a liberal return policy, charge a restocking fee for non-defective goods, or be the nice guy and charge nothing... and in the end you have the choice to shop there or not. I don't agree in anyone who does the free-rental scam, but I will shop at any place that allows it.
But you also have the reberb market. For example I could spend $60ish for DWL-G120 usb wifi adapters with a 3 year warranty or spend $20ish for the referb and the 90day warranty. Last time around I bought the $20.00 ones. Did D-link loose $30.00 or did does offering the product at a lower price with a reduced warranty result in a profit? One the one hand they "might" have been able to make more money from me. But on the other hand they know for a fact I bought three at $20.00 each and don't have to replace it if they fail in a couple of years. This case scenero doesn't result in a higher price for me.
I work for a company that makes projectors. I have seen the numbers, and his doing that probably cost the manufacturer at least $250 because they have to pay to have the item shipped back, examined, re-packaged, and then sold at a discount as used.
Frankly, we could live without that kind of word of mouth advertising.
While I'm sure such things affect your bottom line, does it actually cost you $250 or result in an old around profit. What percent is $250 of each unit represents the sale value of the unit, and what percent is normally reserved for advertising. And how much would the bottom line be affected if people didn't feel safe impulse buying?
To me it seems like the retailers have made a choice not to charge that 10% restocking fee which is common among retail electronics stores for a reason. While that jack-ass who basically is renting equipment for free does result in work it's assumed that profits would be affected more greatly if they decided to go with restocking fee.
You see... these retailers get my business. I say "hey if that jack ass can go there to rent something for free... my ass is covered if I buy shit there". Like costco for example.
I can accept the fact that these jackasses are resulting in slightly higher prices to compensate for referbishment, or contribute by buying these factory referbished goods so it's not a total loss. I'll listen to the jack-ass's review of the freely-rented goods, and if revewed well buy it. I would not accept not being able to return things at all. I vote for the lesser of evils.
Well, if you're going to get a used Buick, get a Regal. Pretty nice car, quite reliable. When Buick discontinued it, the average reliability of the whole Buick lineup took a nice drop.
Had I known that 10 years ago, I would have told my father to buy them rather than two 1984 buick Century's. Both low milage sub 100,000... both decided to overheat one day even though the waterpump and everything was working and never drove another mile in their life. Got him a Camry after the last Buick died.
It's always the few scumbag 1% who wreck things for the rest of us.
What does this scumbag wreck for the rest of us? So the projector went out on a little trip to a wedding, got used and got returned. What are the odds that someone asked "where ever did you buy this".
While I don't agree with what this bloke did, the benifit is word of mouth advertising of the product and of the store's policy. If they have such a liberal return policy that they will accept a return after one day no questions asked then odds are I will shop there in the unlikely event that I get bum equipment, or equipment that doesn't meet my needs.
I don't see how what he did affects you at all.
One day he got the idea to take these shrinkwrapped games back to the local Best Buy for store credit. He would then take the store credit and buy stuff he wanted, or stuff to sell on eBay. Best Buy's return policy said if you didn't have a receipt, all you needed was your ID to return the product for store credit.
I know some music shops have a liberal return policy. For my birthday I got a copy of Who - Who's Next which I really didn't want. I forget the name of the store but they said "it doesn't have to come from our store, so long as the bar code scans we'll give you credit for the full value of what we would charge for it".
I "imagine" one could if they had something resembling a good shrinkwrap machine and a decent photo printer totally take advantage of this system... and return and empty case but with something that looks rather like a spiffy CD label.
They need better item tracking through means that can't easily be forged. Such as, embedded serial numbers of various types or simply more competent employees to work the returns counter.
I noticed ordering stuff from newegg my rescript reflects not only the model number but the serial of the product i'm buying. Very smart and helped me establish in a few cases where I bought something, or rather if I bought it from newegg or not. And I imagine could be used in a retail store situation to help prevent bogus returns.
In the case of spendy watches, most have something resembling a serial number embedded on them. In the case of my gucci the serial is inside the rear cover.
I went to Future Shop last week to help a friend pick out a printer. After we grabbed the printer and brought it to the checkout, we noticed the barcode was missing. Turns out it was an open box return and whoever had returned it had cashed in the $50 rebate then returned the printer
I really can't understand how people can justify this to themselves.
In America "Future Shop" was known for putting customer returns back on the shelves, even ones that were returned as being faulty. I shopped there from time to time basicly looking for some odd ball parts... things that were not sold anymore, but many times more often than I could count I ended up with an open box return and faulty goods. While they did have a decent return policy, I would point out the goods were faulty... making sure to provide hard copy about my complaint. which I put inside the box. And much to my shock it would end up back on the shelf with my hard copy still inside the box.
I have less of an issue with barcode removed return goods. Even in cases where the the joker got the rebate and got their money back I'd rather this happen than refusing to take back goods with the barcode missing. I hate rebates so much i'm all for people who choose to exploit the system. I have more of an issue with places that take customer returns and fail to disclose they have been returned esp when they advertise a rebate and try to sell you something with the barcode removed.
In the last days of Future Shop in America I noticed that their open box returns were "finally" marked as such with a label that said "contents verified by a a+ certified tech". Not like this helped There were still discs missing, trivial parts missing, and sometimes the wrong product in the box.