Fear of Using the Printer

November 12, 2006, 12:00AM. By Jane Mundy

Oceanside, CA"If I went to a client's home - say I would teach them a new way of printing on their computer, heaven forbid I would ask them to print something because I always got the same answer: 'Do I have to?'

They don't want to use their ink jet printer because it uses up so much ink," says Kathy Johnson.

It may be environmentally correct to print less, but it seems absurd to replace Ink Jet cartridges so often. They don't seem to have much of a shelf-life.

"I also tell my clients to ignore the pop-up window on your computer screen that says your ink is low," says Kathy. "Just click the box that says 'don't remind me again'. These warnings are crazy because in reality, the cartridges are half-full when you are told that it needs to be replaced."

Kathy should know; she builds computers for a living. And she was spending so much money replacing ink jet cartridges that she bought the ink and some rubber gloves and refilled them herself. "It wasn't just with one computer printer either," she says. "I was spending quite a lot of money for my color printer and the black and white printer and I wasn't even producing a lot of graphics -approximately every few months I had to spend $45 on the color cartridge and about $25 for the black - I knew this wasn't right."

"I talked to some people that had different kinds of computers and inquired to see if there was something wrong with mine or was it the norm, maybe my settings were wrong. But everybody I talked to seemed to be having the same problem - whether they were printing graphics or documents. In fact some people didn't want to print at all unless it was absolutely necessary - they had a fear of using the printer because they would have to replace the cartridge sooner than later.

I thought it was strange - a couple of my clients had new computers and printers, so it had nothing to do with older parts. In fact, I got a lot more print out of the older toners than these new cartridges. I know all about the memory chips in these new cartridges - I am ready to take mine out if I only knew where it was. I also told my neighbor Vanessa about the pop-up screen that says your ink is low; I told her to just disregard it and see how much ink is left - it will amaze you. Vanessa was replacing her cartridge every time the window came up. In fact she kept a few cartridges and never got around to throwing them away. 'Give them to me and I will show you how much more ink you can use,' I said. She was amazed.

I figure that HP and a few other printer companies owe me about one year's worth of ink. It is a shame how much money people have lost. We should have the option to decide for ourselves when the cartridge needs replacing. It seems sneaky and it bothers me that these big corporations intentionally rip you off.