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Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

thesharklady.com

11–20 of 99 posts

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#11
post #3

It's not about greed as the article states… people are stupid. We overvalue short term savings and undervalue long term savings. When Apple let AT&T start to subsidize the iPhone the initial price dropped but the total cost over the lifetime of the phone was about the same or even a little higher. Sales went gangbusters! The media even went nuts reporting about how apple finally relented and responded to consumer pre…

People are stupid - but not all of them. Look at the comments around you :)

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#12
post #3

It's not about greed as the article states… people are stupid. We overvalue short term savings and undervalue long term savings. When Apple let AT&T start to subsidize the iPhone the initial price dropped but the total cost over the lifetime of the phone was about the same or even a little higher. Sales went gangbusters! The media even went nuts reporting about how apple finally relented and responded to consumer pre…

People are stupid - but not all of them. Look at the comments around you :)

Unfortunately collectively means that if you are the only one intelligent around stupid people, then your group is still considered stupid.

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#13
Great article.

The prices of printers and other electronic products are constantly dropping, so the companies need to make a buck in other ways

Just as a point of note; this isn't a new phenomena like that line appears to suggest. This has been their business model for a goodly number of years now. Any cash they make on the printers has been, for the most part, a bonus.

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#14
post #2

One of the best investments that I made about 7 years ago was to buy a black and white laser printer for home: http://www.okidata.com/mkt/downloads/B4250_B4350Series.pdf I paid about €250 for it (which then was thousands of pages (I'd guesstimate 5000 pages), it still hasn't run out of its initial toner cartridge, and the prices I've seen for when it does are about €25. With printers, as with much in the electronics…

Same here, Epson EPL-5800 for £150 about 8-9 years ago. Best investment ever. The toner is just about done, and I suspect that the drum is almost reaching its last few pages. I did replace the toner once in the past.

I'm just going to get another laser printer once its on its last legs.

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#15
post #6
post #3

It's not about greed as the article states… people are stupid. We overvalue short term savings and undervalue long term savings. When Apple let AT&T start to subsidize the iPhone the initial price dropped but the total cost over the lifetime of the phone was about the same or even a little higher. Sales went gangbusters! The media even went nuts reporting about how apple finally relented and responded to consumer pre…

The iPhone is a great example. People think I'm nuts when I say I bought the 3G for €500 (inc VAT, which I then claimed back). Why the hell would I pay that much? Oh, I say, because it's unlocked, I've only spent about €20 on data & calls so far (10 months), can swap the SIM out when abroad to avoid data roaming, and because the cheapest contract deal at the time worked out to a total of around €900 after the minimum…

one of my big gripes is (in the UK) all these FREE IPHONE! FREE LAPTOP! on a £30 - £40 / month contract. in small print: contract is 24 months. That's 960 quid. The laptop is a shitty bargain-basement dell that you get for £200. And on top of that you got data charges, 0845 numbers etc etc.

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are stupid - but not all of them. Look at the comments around you :)

Unfortunately collectively means that if you are the only one intelligent around stupid people, then your group is still considered stupid.

And they'll all be pointing out how stupid you are.

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#17
thesharklady was certainly bitter about ink prices, but why? She mentioned other choices - why get upset about it? HP marketing works great and good for them. BTW the cartridge matters lightyears more than the printer regarding print quality. The printer price is almost irrelevant. It only relates to durability/mtbf of the paper path. Its like razors vs blades.

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#18
Ok, I agree. So what are we to do? Refills are notoriously messy, and the quality is often so low, it's even unacceptable for my recipes. And knockoff cartridges suffer from similar outcomes and strange fates (one time a printer I had failed to even recognize it since the circuitry in the knockoff failed to identify itself properly)... How can we buy decent quality carts without paying these ripoff prices?

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#19
post #2

One of the best investments that I made about 7 years ago was to buy a black and white laser printer for home: http://www.okidata.com/mkt/downloads/B4250_B4350Series.pdf I paid about €250 for it (which then was thousands of pages (I'd guesstimate 5000 pages), it still hasn't run out of its initial toner cartridge, and the prices I've seen for when it does are about €25. With printers, as with much in the electronics…

I have a black and white laser too, a Brother. But even there do the cartridges not last long enough. I put a little tape over the 'eye' that 'reads' how full it is, and that gives me months of additional printing.

Re: Obviously, HP Thinks We Are Stupid

#20
post #2

One of the best investments that I made about 7 years ago was to buy a black and white laser printer for home: http://www.okidata.com/mkt/downloads/B4250_B4350Series.pdf I paid about €250 for it (which then was thousands of pages (I'd guesstimate 5000 pages), it still hasn't run out of its initial toner cartridge, and the prices I've seen for when it does are about €25. With printers, as with much in the electronics…

I have a Dell laser printer I bought off of woot.com for $99 years ago. Still on its initial toner cartridge. Still works 100% flawlessly. It plugs in via ethernet, uses zeroconf/Bonjour, and requires no drivers. I still can't believe what a ridiculously good deal it was.

Like some other commenters here, if I need a color print, I just walk down the street and have a professional printer do it for one or two dollars for a huge glossy or matte high-resolution print. If you do the math, it's cheaper to do this regardless of how much you print -- per page, a consumer inkjet is more expensive than a professional print, and looks worse. There is no point.

(I can even just send it online, and walk over and get it sometime later when it's already done.)

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