Woman sues Hewlett Packard

Whilst on the subject of internet and computer related stories in the news today this less alarming, but none the less annoying, item came to my notice.

An American woman is currently suing Hewlett Packard for allegedly programming the chips on their ink cartridge's to 'expire' at a certain date, regardless of whether they are empty.

The ink cartridge price situation has long been a bone of contention among those of us that use printers. While the cost of a printer is now minimal, in many instances the cost of running one can be as high as £1700 over the life of the machine!

The issue of an expiry date is a new one on me. I am well aware that the chips alert the user that the cartridge is 'empty' (not) long before it genuinely is and promote the changing of said cartridge way before it is necessary, but to shut it down and render it useless is not something I have experienced. On the rare occasion that I have used an original cartridge I have been able to print perfectly well for perhaps 20, A4 sized high quality prints after Epson's chip has told me it is no longer viable!!

The answer to this problem is simple and cost effective. A set of Epson original cartridges for my printer is over £50 so I don't buy them. Instead I purchase generic cartridges via the internet at the cost of £12 a set. Ok, so I render my guarantee (for what it's worth) invalid but compare the cost, it doesn't take a genius to see that the guarantee is in effect an extremely heavily priced piece of nonsense. Three sets of ink and you have a new printer...... and a pretty reasonable one at that. Here in the UK an acceptable every day model will only set you back about £40, less than one set of cartridges.......no contest, I'll take my chance, if it breaks, even at £250 I'm quids in and I'll buy another.