Cruel bastards
I used to work as a programmer for a major PC/Printer/Server company (you might know it, it shares a name with a certain brand of sauce).

I found out that the guys who write the code for the drivers for the printers, some of their time is solely devoted to ensuring the printer uses as much ink as possible per page. This to ensure more of their ink is purchased (printer ink being one of the most expensive resources in the world, apparently, since it costs about $1000 per barrel [as in, oil drum]).

Bastards.
(tyrellsOwl, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 10:39, 17 replies)

Really?
I used to work for Xerox, in product development, and we used to spend all of our time trying to make the printers use as little ‘ink’ as possible (while maintaining print quality). What with ‘cost per page’ and 'pages per cartridge' being important selling points and are independently tested by various consumer organisations.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Mon 11 Jul 2011, 10:58, closed)

Xerox sauce is OK on bangers.
But it ruins a bacon buttie.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:01, closed)

Not everyone is as wholesome as you ;)
(tyrellsOwl, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:59, closed)

I love Epson Sauce.
But the rest of this story is codswallop.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:00, closed)

( The Mock Turtle ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:23, closed)

I have one of those saucy printers
They now seem to try to use as little as possible, while not caring about the print quality. You can sometimes barely read what it has printed!

After this shitty printer and a shitty laptop (where I was refused a refund because it was older than 6 weeks, but only because it took them more than 6 weeks to figure out what the problem was!), I'll be avoiding them in the future.
(anonymousreality tickled your fancy on, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 12:17, closed)

You seem surprised.
Gillette is not in the business of selling razors. Nor is HP (or, indeed, any other "printer" company) in the business of selling printers.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 12:41, closed)

Well I already kind of knew that; its not hard to work out when you see that it is almost cost-effective to buy a new printer each time you run out of ink. I guess it just never hit home like it did when I found this out.
(tyrellsOwl, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 12:49, closed)

I've heard that many printers ship with "junior" toner cartridges, which don't have as much toner as their bigger-brother refills, so I wonder if buying a replacement toner cartridge instead of a new printer is actually worthwhile. I've never experimented to find out the truth of this; I print so little that the printer usually jams from dust and oil in the cogs and rubber pickups before the toner runs out. And yes, I've been too lazy to buy a maintenance kit and replace those parts; I've bought a new printer each time.

My first printer did 6ppm and cost me just over a hundred quid. My current printer does 20ppm and set me back fifty.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 12:56, closed)

Yes, the cartridges they provide free with the printer are almost always a smaller version of the replacement ones.
(tyrellsOwl, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 14:30, closed)

Actually have another story from the same company.

We, like many big companies, have an employee purchase scheme/scam where you can order company products at a reduced (not reduced) price.
A coworker wants to order one of the top-of-the-range laptops. He notices that the 19" is cheaper than the 17". Someone had screwed up the pricing and swapped the two. Bargain!

It arrives, no questions are asked. However, the screen has a stuck pixel. Coworker complains, and they tell him they will replace it with a new one. New laptop is delivered. Old laptop is not collected. Old laptop sits under his desk for 3 months.
Old laptop is bought by a friend of mine for 1/10th of the price.
Once again, bargain!
(tyrellsOwl, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 12:52, closed)

I really didn't think you'd be able to out-dull the first HP story.

( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Mon 11 Jul 2011, 12:58, closed)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This
www.b3ta.com/questions/dodgyworkethics/post1273641
( The Mock Turtle ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 13:02, closed)

yes
(tyrellsOwl, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 14:31, closed)

I'm going to worship him like a GOD.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 14:38, closed)

How do gods worship?

( flake has nothing against your right leg, Tue 12 Jul 2011, 0:10, closed)

Ink is a multi billion pound industry
Why would it be any different?
( zulu eh?, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 23:31, closed)