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It’s not often that I tell folks NOT to buy something, but I don’t like seeing people get ripped off. Whatever you do, don’t buy any Hewlett Packard (HP) printers or multifunction devices that use the #21 or #92 black ink cartridges (unfortunately many of their current under $100.00 products use these cartridges). The #21 and #92 black cartridges contain only 5ml of ink…that’s not even a thimble full! The costs per page for printers using these cartridges are astronomical.

Here’s the real deal: HP and Lexmark seem to be in a battle to see who can get the printer cost to virtually nothing, but they are trying to make up the revenue they lose on hardware with the consumable supplies for their low cost machines. I recently spoke with someone who used eight HP #21 ink cartridges to print out a medium size mailing list! Lexmark is just as guilty as HP, and the cost per page figures for low end Lexmark ink jet products are also absurdly high.

While I’m on a roll: Canon and Epson seem to think that the only thing anyone wants to use their printer for is to print photos, and they’ve made virtually all of their ink jet products specialized photo printers. They apparently don’t realize that people have figured out it’s cheaper to use some of the online photo developers (or WalMart) than it is to print your own photos.

My advice: if you can’t afford to get a printer in the $100.00 or more price range, then try to find an older model on eBay or somewhere. And if color isn’t absolutely necessary, you can buy a low end laser printer for $120.00 or so, and ultimately save hundreds of dollars over the life of the printer by not using high priced ink. And whatever you do, if you buy a Dell computer, tell them to keep the “free” printer, since the only source for ink is from Dell themselves and you’ll have to wait 3-5 days to receive it or pay $19.95 overnight shipping.

The following graph appears on www.printerdb.com, which is a good source of information for obtaining cost per page and total cost of ownership figures on various types of equipment.







Pretty mind-boggling that you could end up spending over $2000.00 in consumable supplies to feed a $40.00 printer, eh? In my next article I'll expose the high/low capacity cartridge scam. So many rip-offs, so little time.....

C. Martin

Comments? please email: cm at aopoffice dot com.

Note: The above article originally appeared in a newsletter that we recently mailed out. We had numerous positive comments from customers who said that they appreciated this sort of practical, honest information, so we decided to post it as a web ad for wider distribution.

Want to tell HP how you feel about their rip-off tactics? Click here and give the HP Board of Directors a piece of your mind. Or cut and paste this article into the form. I would love to hear from them.