In article ,
Jeff Wisnia wrote:

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

It's "inkjet printer syndrome" taken to the next level - Practically
give away the printer, then charge out the wazzoo for the consumables
(cartridges) that only *YOU* sell. It's a great scam. And unfortunately
for "Joe You And Me", there's not a damn thing that can be done about
it, legally or otherwise, aside from donig the "just say no" thing. You
wanna gripe about the prices/fairness/etc? Go for it. Just be prepared
to be completely ignored by the folks setting the policies, charging the
prices, etc. I'll do everything but give you a written guarantee that
you'll get *EXACTLY* nowhere. One of the benefits of having a monopoly,
doncha know... "Don't like it? Tough! Suck it up anyway, 'cause you
don't have a choice! Now give us your money and shut up."

As for the "poison pill" chip in the cartridge, you're going to be
stonewalled with "Quality assurance" rhetoric along the lines of "USPS
specifies that the image *MUST* appear like so, *OR ELSE*, and we refuse
to take any chances!"

So you ask "why's it still full of ink, but refusing to print 6 months
later?"

"Because if the cartridge is that old, it's likely empty, or worse,
likely to wreck the image! We're not taking any chances! Don't like
that? Tough. Give us your money and shut up."

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd for more info