Monday, December 29, 2008

Epson Printers, Fleecing Consumer Pockets. The Ink Gimmick.

Beware Of Epson Printers.
This is a very important piece of information that you should all be aware off. We were amazed that we fell for this cheap gimmick played by a reputed company like EPSON. It is sad that even an experienced I.T team like ours could fall for this gimmick. We purchased an Epson C110 printer and used it for a while, after a while the ink in the printer flagged low levels and we needed to add a new catridge. Nothing wrong so far as this was a normal thing to do. We went to the reputed I.T store where the Epson C110 was purchased from and requested for the ink catridges. The price was a whooping 45 U.S$ !!!! This was robbery since the new Epson C110 printer was purchased for a little over 100 U.S$.
As is the normal practice, we requested for a compatible set of catridges for the C110 printer. Printer users normally use this option as these catridges are very much cheaper than the Epron ink catridges brand. We were told that the ink catridges for the Epson C110 have an embedded chip that cannot be duplicated. As a result of this no other ink catridge manufacturer could make compatible catridges for the Epson C110 printer. This is downright robbery on the part of Epson and you can see a better explanation below.
In the normal course there is a price difference of 40% to 60% between compatible ink catridges and ink catridges sold by Epson. Regarding Epson's claim that compatibles are of inferior quality, we need to let the consumer decide price over quality. It is now known that Epson will start this chip insertion for ink catridges used in all Epson printers to come. So dear customers, it is time that we gave Epson the boot and stopped buying Epson printers.
Here are a few interesting facts that need to be analyzed:
(a) Mitsubishi makes CD drives, they however do not force consumers to buy only CD disks branded as Mistubishi.
(b) Kodak makes film and cameras, they do not force you to use Kodak film on Kodak cameras.
(c) Nikon sells high end cameras and lenses. There are any number of compatible lenses that can be fitted on Nikon cameras. These compatibles cost a fraction of what original Nikon lenses sell for.
(d) ASUS is one of the most popular manfucturers for PC computer mainboards and advanced graphic cards. They do not tie you to their product when assembling a computer by putting together componets from various brands.
Epson is cheating consumers by starting this trend. Thousands of buyers use compatible ink catrdiges each year and know what is good and bad for them. We don't need Epson to tell us what is good and then charge 1/3 the printer cost for the ink catridge. Please spread the word around at stay out of the clutches of this technological fraud.