4 ms·

This is a lame strategy! What kind of people do this? What kind people pay employees to deceive the customers.

tdeck 4y ago
The kind that want to make a profit and see that doing this is profitable.
cortesoft 4y ago
The sad truth is that no printer company that doesn’t do this is going to be able to compete. HP and the like sell their printers at a loss, and consumers aren’t going to pay multiple X the cost of one of these types of printers to avoid the shenanigans. Any company who tries to price the printer itself at the appropriate cost isn’t going to sell enough.
- bogwog 4y ago
  Any source on that? I find it hard to believe that something as commonplace as a printer, a technology that has been around for so many decades, is hard to manufacture profitably. Maybe I'm wrong, since I have nothing to go by besides a gut feeling mixed with assumptions and a sprinkling of common sense, so I would love a source. The only scenario I can think of which makes sense to me is that making printers is a patent minefield, making it difficult/impossible for a competitor to come in and disrupt anything (plus it's not a very attractive industry anyways). There's probably also a lot of anti-competitive stuff going on too, like supplier contracts that prohibit working with other printer companies, etc.
  - can16358p 4y ago
    The problem isn't manufacturing. You can perfectly manufacture a great printer, but when HP and the like are selling printers at loss to make money off cartgridges, many consumers will simply buy the cheaper one: HP. Sure, you'll have some smarter customers who made their research and picked you, but it will probably not enough of a margin to compensate against a giant like HP.
  - cortesoft 4y ago
    It doesn’t matter how cheaply you make it, HP can make it just as cheaply… and then they will sell it for even less because they sell at a loss. You then have two printers, one selling for a lot more than the other but having all this ink shenanigans… and consumers will buy the ink shenanigans every time, because the sticker price is all that matters.

The kind that want to make a profit and see that doing this is profitable.

The sad truth is that no printer company that doesn’t do this is going to be able to compete. HP and the like sell their printers at a loss, and consumers aren’t going to pay multiple X the cost of one of these types of printers to avoid the shenanigans. Any company who tries to price the printer itself at the appropriate cost isn’t going to sell enough.

bogwog 4y ago
Any source on that? I find it hard to believe that something as commonplace as a printer, a technology that has been around for so many decades, is hard to manufacture profitably. Maybe I'm wrong, since I have nothing to go by besides a gut feeling mixed with assumptions and a sprinkling of common sense, so I would love a source. The only scenario I can think of which makes sense to me is that making printers is a patent minefield, making it difficult/impossible for a competitor to come in and disrupt anything (plus it's not a very attractive industry anyways). There's probably also a lot of anti-competitive stuff going on too, like supplier contracts that prohibit working with other printer companies, etc.
- can16358p 4y ago
  The problem isn't manufacturing. You can perfectly manufacture a great printer, but when HP and the like are selling printers at loss to make money off cartgridges, many consumers will simply buy the cheaper one: HP. Sure, you'll have some smarter customers who made their research and picked you, but it will probably not enough of a margin to compensate against a giant like HP.
- cortesoft 4y ago
  It doesn’t matter how cheaply you make it, HP can make it just as cheaply… and then they will sell it for even less because they sell at a loss. You then have two printers, one selling for a lot more than the other but having all this ink shenanigans… and consumers will buy the ink shenanigans every time, because the sticker price is all that matters.