I think we probably got our money's worth out of it, especially since (if I recall correctly) that it was a freebie that came with the computer. Never mind that it probably cost us a quarter for ink every time we printed a page that we could actually use. Most sheets that come out of a printer are a waste because
- something went wrong and
- your printed the wrong thing, or
- it came out too small, or
- too large, or it
- printed all 17 pages when you only wanted page 7, or
- it was a test page because it was being stupid, or
- you tried to print when you knew you were low on ink and one cartridge ran out in the middle of the page.
We have had the old printer for at least ten years, which is beyond ancient in terms of today's technology. Dell quit selling cartridges for it a few years ago. Since then I've had to resort to fly-by-night outfits on Ebay. That's not really fair, making a disparaging remark like that, the cartridges I got that way all worked, and were probably cheaper than what Dell used to charge. Well, until this one, but I don't think it was the cartridges fault. I think it was just the printer's time to roll over and go to printer heaven.
The new printer is wireless, which means I don't need a printer cable, though it still needs a power cable. It also means I had to root around for the password for our wireless router. Fortunately I knew where I could find it as I had to go through this same rigamarole a few weeks ago for another piece of electronic crap, er, gizmo.
The new printer is also a scanner, like most printers are these days, which might come in handy. Or it might just lead to wasting hours trying to accomplish something that could be done in five minutes with a pen and a stamp.
Old printer on top of boxes from new one.
Then there's:
- the little bits that come with the printer, like the owners manual, and quick setup poster, and the CD. Now admittedly, if you are buying these things in lots of ten thousand, the price per item is pretty low, but we are still talking nickels, not pennies.
- shipping, shipping across the ocean in a container with ten thousand of his (or is it her?) fellow printers, and shipping from the warehouse to my door, which is probably a hundred times more expensive.
- warehousing, which means unpacking the container and putting the boxes on shelves in the warehouse.
- interest on the money used to build the printer until it is sold.
I wonder how long it will be before printers come pre-packaged with a lifetime supply of paper, ink and power. Set the package that Fed-Ex delivered on your desk. Don't bother unpacking, the package is the printer. Do some hocus pocus to get your computer to talk to your new printer, and then print until it dies. Unpack the new one that arrived this morning, because the old printer knew it was about to die and automatically ordered it's replacement. Consume, consumer, consume!
1 comment:
Like you, I was pleased to not have to replace a printer until after its 10th birthday - with an all-in-one HP DeskJet F2210 that cost $24 in 2009. However, Hunky Husband just replaced his HP LaserJet 4M that had already celebrated its 20th birthday (working great with his old computer but didn't play nicely with his new computer) with an all-in-one HP LaserJet Pro400.
You and I probably won't have 20 years with our latest purchases, eh? (Of course, at age 76, I don't expect to get to celebrate it if my printer lasts to 2029!)
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