Why Compatible cartridges could be a bad thing for our hobby. Long!

[lotuslee]

I think Compatible Ink Cartridges are more popular nowadays.

Because the price of them are acceptable,while the original ink cartridges are always of high price whick we can not afford if we do printing very often.

What's more,the quality of the compatible ink cartridge are as good as those original ones.

 

[ocular]

What's more,the quality of the compatible ink cartridge are as good as those original ones.

Not my experience.

Care to donate some of your cartridges to some of the community here for a fair assessment?

 

[lotuslee]

If I could,i really wish i could give it to you to have a try. Because ,you don't know the advatage of sth.unless you 've tried it.

So i hope that you can have a positive idea towards compatible ink cartridges.

Best wishes to all printer users!

 

[mikling]

Just spoke with someone who has picked up Epson's New printers like the R260. The new cartridges have a different chip. Current resetters cannot reset them. The have two extra contacts that the old chips didn't. So for now no resetters will work.

Second and more interesting is that there are two wires that lead to the inside of the cartridge itself.
The two possibilities that exist is that the wires are ink detectors, naturally. It is possible that after the class action lawsuit, Epson now allows the use of the cartidge to a lower level than before AND that once the cartridge gas been used beyond that point, it writes some permanent data to the chip similar to what Canon does. Canon probably use the prism, so that once the prism detects low ink, after some many nozzle firings, the data is written to the chip to nuke itself.

The above is speculation on my part at this point. Eventually reality will come to pass, meanwhile hang on to the old stuff. Apparently the waterprooof dyebase ink of Claria is when ONLY used with special papers, that's nothing new.

 

[mikling]

BTW, lotuslee, if you don't mind the small effort of refilling the originals, which for Canon and most current Epsons, the OEM carts are MUCH better overall. All the compatibles offer is convenience and nothing else. Don't get me started on the environment issue, compatibles encourage total wastefulness and are a scourge to the environment.

 

[videobruce]

A. I could care less about their profit and their stockholders. Both make too much as it is.
B. Just sell the printer for more and offer refills for less.
C. Stop pissing the customer off.

 

[hpnetserver]

Hum... I don't really see how compatibles encourage total wastefulness and a scourage to the environment. I know for sure some people keep on buying new cheap printers whenever their first set of OEM cartridges ran out of ink. It doesn't take a genius to see that it is cheaper to buy a new printer than buying a set of new OEM cartridges. As a reult many perfectly working printer become new found material for the landfill. Some of them may buy compatibles when threy found the price reasonable so they decide to save theirs from going to the landfill. The compatibles are actually saving the environment. It's more than just that just think of refilling. If not because of compatible ink refilling would be impossible. The number of empty cartridges saved from going to the landfill because of refilling can be a staggering number. It may be true that those compatibles that don't work may be a waste. But those that don't work would fail the competition in the market and be gone eventually. They don't present a threat to the environment, not as bad as OEM empty cartridges do.

 

[mikling]

Two ways... cheap disposables have always encouraged more wastefulness and it does not take too long to see this. Get really cheap compatibles and you end up wasting paper and ink and then toss the plastic non biodegradable cartridges to the landfill without reusing them. Why? they're so cheap why bother reusing them or even refilling them. Is that wastefulness? Like Neil Slade says, he used to refill but now it is not worth his while now because the effort required to refill is too much considering how cheap his compatibles are. So instead of refilling we have disposing. That's a bad thing for the environment because the cartridges he uses in his app are indeed very refillable and by choice he does not.

With the advent of chipped Canon we are seeing a resurgence of refilling cartridges. Yes, canon still gets their consumable business from their customer base but many who would have gone out and bought compatibles have now considered refilling as a way of saving money. So that is a good thing for the environment.

The marketing issue of Canon and others pricing their printers at less than consumables included proves one thing. What is it?... that very very few consumers would buy their printers at a high price if offered low priced consumables despite what so many say. Yes, there are the heavy printing users who say this but by and large consumers don't bite on this. Another proof...... look at the i9900 which is going on clearance now. At a recent photo show the price was dropped from 699 to 399 CAD and we did n't see people rushing for them. Their BCI-6 cartridges are the symbols of cheap compatibles, yet no lineups....... Why? that $400 price. Now look at an iP4200 going for a deal, look at the lineups. Three new sets of cartridges for the iP4200 and I can pay for the i9900...... that's a payback. Consumers don't think long term... HP knows it, Dell knows it, Canon knows it and the proof is also in politics. I want to save money NOW don't bother me with the details down the road.

 

[mikling]

Looks like my thoughts have come to pass in a stronger fashion than I had imagined when I first wrote this.

Epson has exercised their patent rights to be granted this. http://itc.epson.com/index.html

 

[Smile]

I also wanted to say that "It is now cheaper to buy a brand new ip4200 printer including ink than it is to buy a set of new ink cartridges. Better evidence of price gouging could not be found."

So that is a society problem not canon HP or any other company, if customers are allow themselves to be fooled then it's their problem, nobody forces you to buy any printer at all. Until that is understood it is a dead end.