4 ms·

I think a fine compromise would be simply disclosing the expected lifetime of the wear parts when you purchase the printer. Epson could say "the lifetime of the

I think a fine compromise would be simply disclosing the expected lifetime of the wear parts when you purchase the printer. Epson could say "the lifetime of the ink pads is around 100,000 pages" (or whatever).

blendergeek 4y ago
The outrage is not that Epson doesn't make it easy to replace the part. The outrage is that Epson printers (might?) have a secret page counter and the printers kill themselves after a certain number of pages whether or not the ink pads still work. Even if the user replaces the ink pads, the printer will still refuse to work because the counter is used up. This sort of behavior is unethical, user hostile, and should be criminal.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  > This sort of behavior is unethical, user hostile, and should be criminal. Yes it is, and yes it should be. But even if it isn't criminal, it is just begging for a class-action lawsuit.
- MikePlacid 4y ago
  Outrage directed at something marked with “(might?)” seems to me extremely counter-productive.
  - blendergeek 4y ago
    I added the might, not because I am unsure if the counter exists (it defintiely seems to), but because Epson won't aknowledge its existence.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  There is likely no way to detect how full the ink pad is though. A counter does make perfect sense but it should be legally required to allow the user to replace the pad and reset the counter. Most service alerts are based on usage counters. But all of this is very specific and complex so there isn’t enough demand for laws to mandate such things.
  - chii 4y ago
    there's room for the law to mandate disclosure of any built-in expiry mechanism - e.g., # of pages printed before printer stops working. I think the problem is with the fact that this is just not disclosed properly, before a purchase decision is made, as it's not apparent that such a expiry mechanism can exist!
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Even if it was disclosed I don’t think it would help users all that much. There is already too much info to take in. The problem is that a printer is just not worth that much so buyers would rather just get whatever seems good and if it breaks in a few years they get a new one. People don’t have time to audit part lifetimes and compare the market when buying a $200 printer.
      - chii 4y ago
        but it would help - those user would have a way to do comparisons, even if _some_ users don't care (in which case, this doesnt affect them).
      - jjk166 4y ago
        > Even if it was disclosed I don’t think it would help users all that much. There is already too much info to take in. But it definitely wouldn't harm them, so even if the expected benefit is small it's still net positive. Whether it is worth their time to evaluate the market should be the customer's decision to make.

blendergeek 4y ago

The outrage is not that Epson doesn't make it easy to replace the part. The outrage is that Epson printers (might?) have a secret page counter and the printers kill themselves after a certain number of pages whether or not the ink pads still work. Even if the user replaces the ink pads, the printer will still refuse to work because the counter is used up. This sort of behavior is unethical, user hostile, and should be criminal.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
> This sort of behavior is unethical, user hostile, and should be criminal. Yes it is, and yes it should be. But even if it isn't criminal, it is just begging for a class-action lawsuit.
MikePlacid 4y ago
Outrage directed at something marked with “(might?)” seems to me extremely counter-productive.
- blendergeek 4y ago
  I added the might, not because I am unsure if the counter exists (it defintiely seems to), but because Epson won't aknowledge its existence.
Gigachad 4y ago
There is likely no way to detect how full the ink pad is though. A counter does make perfect sense but it should be legally required to allow the user to replace the pad and reset the counter. Most service alerts are based on usage counters. But all of this is very specific and complex so there isn’t enough demand for laws to mandate such things.
- chii 4y ago
  there's room for the law to mandate disclosure of any built-in expiry mechanism - e.g., # of pages printed before printer stops working. I think the problem is with the fact that this is just not disclosed properly, before a purchase decision is made, as it's not apparent that such a expiry mechanism can exist!
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    Even if it was disclosed I don’t think it would help users all that much. There is already too much info to take in. The problem is that a printer is just not worth that much so buyers would rather just get whatever seems good and if it breaks in a few years they get a new one. People don’t have time to audit part lifetimes and compare the market when buying a $200 printer.
    - chii 4y ago
      but it would help - those user would have a way to do comparisons, even if _some_ users don't care (in which case, this doesnt affect them).
    - jjk166 4y ago
      > Even if it was disclosed I don’t think it would help users all that much. There is already too much info to take in. But it definitely wouldn't harm them, so even if the expected benefit is small it's still net positive. Whether it is worth their time to evaluate the market should be the customer's decision to make.