A matter of printer prices

Dear Bob …

I don’t really need advice about this, but it’s an issue that gripes me, so I figured I’d pass it along so you could be annoyed about it too.

I own a color laser printer, and I’m running low on toner. I just priced replacement cartridges, and found that I’d save money by buying a new printer instead.

I’m not talking about a new and improved printer, either – I could understand it if the technology had improved and costs had dropped. I’m talking about the exact same printer. So I have a choice – I can spend more and use an older machine, or spend less and use a brand new one. Easy decision.

But the result is that I’ll be throwing away a perfectly good printer, contributing to the problem of bigger and bigger piles of garbage. And in this case, as is true of most technology, the garbage undoubtedly contains some nastily toxic stuff.

Does this strike you the same way it strikes me – that something here is seriously messed up?

– Garbageman

Dear Garbageman …

It sure does. This isn’t a new problem, but it seems to be getting worse, not better, and everything about it demonstrates that something in the printer marketplace is extremely messed up. I don’t know what it is, but I can make some guesses.

The first is that the people in the various printer manufacturers who are responsible for selling printers aren’t in the same box on the organizational chart as those responsible for selling consumables, like cartridges. I can’t believe the same group is making pricing decisions for both.

The second is more subtle. The company that sells my color laser printer provides free shipping of my spent toner cartridges back to their plant for proper disposal (or, I hope, proper recycling, but I don’t know). Those shipping costs have to be built into the cartridge price. They aren’t built into the price of the cartridges that are included when you buy the printer. The total isn’t enough to account for the difference, but it’s enough to tell part of the story.

My third guess is the most speculative. It’s that the printer companies are, like the airlines, trapped in a race to the bottom. Each has to price competitively with the others, so all price their printers at razor thin or negative margins, figuring that once you have their printer they’ll make up the difference in high-margin toner cartridge sales.

It’s a great theory, except that buyers like you are smart enough to compare prices.

That my guess. Yes, it’s absolutely ridiculous, and worse, it’s a game where everyone loses. That doesn’t mean I have any idea how to fix it, but I do have one suggestion for IT managers. When you negotiate volume printer purchases, negotiate toner cartridge prices at the same time so you don’t get trapped in the same dilemma.

They want your business, and unlike most technologies, there’s very little switching cost if you decide to move to a different manufacturer.

– Bob