Beacuse this newsgroup has proven itself to have the most intelligent
and resourceful posters in all of usenet, I thought I'd take a shot at
ranting a bit and asking a question here.

We rent a Neopost Model IJ25 postage meter for our office use, and they
are raping us when we need to replace the red inkjet cartridge which
prints the postage and our logo on everything we mail. I got a "low ink"
warning on the postage meter display yesterday and called to order
another cartridge. Last time, about 6 months ago, the price with
shipping was about $65, this time it was up to $85.

To add insult to injury, Neopost has arranged for their inkjet cartridge
to "run out" 6 months after the date it's installed, even if we only
printed postage on jsut a few envelopes during that time, and it also
"runs out" after a predetermined number of impressions, even though
there's plenty of ink left inside it.

I busted open the last dead cartridge and found what I expected inside,
a standard looking inkjet cartridge with HP's name and logo on it, along
with an IC chip which must be what's letting Neopost laugh all the way
to the bank at their customers' expense.

I've asked a few online sellers of inkjet cartridge refilling stuff
whether they can help, without any luck thus far.

Anyone here encountered this and figured out a way to get around it
without going back to licking postage stamps?

I thought there's fair trade laws in the US which keep manufacturers
from forcing their customers to buy supplies only from them and also
keep them from putting "poison pills" in stuff. But maybe I'm wrong
about that, and because the USPS is involved Neopost can argue that the
gummint is making them do it that way to make sure the imprints come out
nice and clear.

Neopost also stuck it to their customers the last time the postage rates
went up (January '06?). We had to pay them $100 to get a smart card to
stick in a slot and reprogram the weighing scale so it would calculate
the (new) correct postage. Those cards must have cost them less that
$3.00 each to make and mail out. What a windfall for them, Shoosh!

I've asked around and it appears that Pitney Bowes isn't much better in
that regard, they offer fair meter rental rates and then gouge their
customers for supplies which only they sell. Too bad, ten or fifteen
years ago the electromechanical Pitney Bowes meter we rented used ink
saturated felt rollers and metal "type". I could just paint some more
ink on those rollers when needed, using a bottle of red ink Pitney Bowes
sold me for less than $10, and which lasted us for many years.

End of rant on a rainy day...

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
"Life is like a sewer -- what you get out of it depends on what you put
into it."