Your Toner Is No Good Here: Region-Coding Ink Cartridges... For The Customers
from the all-ink-must-provide-proof-of-citizenship.-that-is-all. dept
Everyone likes buying stuff with a bunch of built-in restrictions, right? The things we "own" often remain the property of the manufacturers, at least in part. That's the trade-off we never asked for -- one pushed on us by everyone from movie studios to makers of high-end cat litter boxes and coffee brewers. DRM prevents backup copies. Proprietary packets brick functions until manufacturer-approved refills are in place.
Here's another bit of ridiculousness, via Techdirt reader techflaws. German news outlet c't Magazin is reporting that Xerox printers are going further than the normal restrictions we've become accustomed to. For years, printer companies have made sure users' printers won't run without every single slot being filled with approved cartridges. This includes such stupidity as disabling every function (including non-ink-related functions like scanning) in all-in-one printers until the printer is fed.
Xerox is going further. Not only do you need to refill the ink, but you have to fill it with local ink. techflaws paraphrases the paywalled, German-language article.
Xerox uses region coding on their toner catridges AND locks the printer to the first type used. So if you use an NA (North America) catridge you can't use the cheaper DMO (Eastern Europe) anymore. The printer's display does NOT show this, nor does the hotline know about it. When c't reached out to Xerox, the marketing drone claimed, this was done to serve the customer better, I kid you not.Ah, the old "serve the customer better by limiting his/her options," as seen everywhere DRM/DRM-esque restrictions are applied.
But while c't Magazin has only recently stumbled across this issue of region-locked ink cartridges, it's by no means a new issue. Techflaws also points to a 2011 forum post by a user who ran into this problem with his Xerox printer.
I have seen hundreds of posts regarding the rejection of ink based on the location of purchase. I asume that Xerox does this to prevent the purchase of ink not manufactured by them. However - forcing a client to pay for a service for a snippet that needs to be installed in order to use the printer is ABSURD.So, it appears that if you attempt to forcefeed a Xerox printer not-from-around-here ink, it will potentially brick the device. At that point, you're forced to ask for a Xerox rep to drop by and unlock your purchased printer for you. Here's another confirmation of Xerox's "locals only" ink limitations.
I changed from HP to Xerox because I thought it was a trusted name. I have instead learned that in the process of trying to protect against counterfeit - it is the paying customer that will get a non-functioning printer - with no help unless you are willing to pay for the printer to work as it should have to begin with.
As I live in the UK my ink blocks are for the European market. If I purchase from ebay, ink blocks for the USA or Asian market and insert them into my printer, the printer will stop with a contact your engineer code on the LCD. The printer is now unusable.The rate charged to the person in the forum post quoted above was $596/hour. There's no missing decimal point there. Sure, it's only 10 minutes of work, but it's $60 being shelled out by a paying customer just so his printer will go back to printing. The only thing actually "broken" is Xerox's business model.
This person notes they switched from HP to Xerox because the latter was supposedly more trustworthy. Apparently not. Printers aren't a business. They're a racket. HP is no better than Xerox. It too will lock your printer to a certain region to ensure you
If dates are anything to go by, HP likely pioneered the bullshit that is region-locked ink. This is from a 2005 Slashdot post. (The internal link to the Wall Street Journal is dead, so it has been omitted.)
Looks like the printer cartridge manufacturers will be borrowing techniques from Hollywood. HP introduced region coding for some of the newest printers sold in Europe. HP's US location and US dollar sliding lead to the situation, where cartridge prices in Europe are significantly higher than those in the States. In the Wall Street Journal article HP representative in Europe claims the company doesn't make any money off regional coding for cartridges, and that consumers will win once the US dollar rises over Euro.Unbelievably, the rep says customers will "win" if an aspect HP can't control (currency exchange rates) happens to shift in the customers' favor. Why not just say consumers will be better off if those scratch tickets are winners? Or if the housing market rebounds and brings the residence housing the HP printer back into the black?
How much have consumers "won" since 2005?
In January of 2005 (when the post appeared at Slashdot), the exchange rate was 1.312 ($$ to Euros). A decade later, the exchange rate is 1.162. The dollar has gotten stronger, but this change is unlikely to have any appreciable effect on the price of "European" ink (wtf even is that, HP, Xerox, et al -- ink is ink). Thanks for the investment tip, HP PR.
Nearly every major printer manufacturer is in on the scam. HP saw an opportunity to increase incremental sales and staked out this territory in 2004. This brave new world of customer-screwing was followed by Lexmark, Canon, Epson and Xerox -- none of which saw anything wrong with illogically restricting ink cartridges to certain regions.
Region coding for DVDs and videogames makes a certain amount of sense, provided you're willing to make a small logic buy-in on windowed releases. But ink? It's not like Australians need to wait six weeks for HP to cut loose ink cartridges so as not to sabotage the US release. The only reason to do this is to tie paying customers into the most expensive ink and toner. This lock-in is cemented by many printers' refusal to recognize third-party replacement cartridges and/or allow refills of existing manufacturer cartridges.
The excuses made for this mercenary behavior would be hilarious if they weren't so transparently dismissive of customers. Every flowery ode to customers' best interests by PR flacks boils down to nothing more than, "Fuck 'em. It's not like they have a choice."
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Filed Under: drm, ink cartridges, region coding, toner
Companies: canon, epson, hp, lexmark, xerox
Reader Comments
The First Word
“No, No, No.
Regional ink markets just make good sense.Ink sold in Iowa, for instance, can be sold as 'corn-based'. Markup: 25%.
Ink sold in Nebraska can be sold as 'pigshit-based'. Markup: 32%.
Ink sold in India can be backfilled with mercury and other cost-effective fillers and sold as 'Murican!' Markup: 13%.
Zip code based micro-regions are important in areas like Washington, D.C. Ink destined for the DOJ requires the thick 'Redacto-Blend'. Markup: 325%, while ink going to Congress requires the much thinner 'printed-on-a-tissue-of-lies' blend. Markup: 600%.
Yes, ink markets are important, not only for specific customer needs, or "customer needs hahahaha", but for the much more relevant 'where-are-we-going-to-get-the-money-for-our-Caribbean-conferences' requirements.
Ink: because the world runs on chumps not knowing any better.
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Not trying to be snarky with that comment, but in terms of safety, using parts with different voltage requirements should not even "seem" like an option.
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The voltage thing ceased to be an issue 20 years ago,
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Believe me it's still very real today.
As an example if the fuser is driven from the mains voltage (because running from DC would be inefficient for a heating element) then it will be voltage dependent.
Yes switchmode DC supplies are great but variable input voltage types are not always that efficient or even possible for high current applications.
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If confusion or accidental supply of the wrong part is your concern, there are ways to differential the components, from suing different names/part numbers of manufacturing them in such a way that a part from one region literally won't fit into a printer from a different region.
But, leave the region locking bullshit out of it. That's only ever used for one real purpose - forcing people to buy a higher-priced local version rather than being able to shop around.
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*differentiate
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...not to give them any ideas, of course.
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Re: Region Locks
2) insurance auto and medical
3) e cigarettes
4) cell phones (sort of already in place)
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This sounds like a trade issue...
/sarc (...or not)
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Re: This sounds like a trade issue...
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Only bright spot to this
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Re: Only bright spot to this
House on fire? Here, try this flamethrower.
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No, No, No.
Ink sold in Iowa, for instance, can be sold as 'corn-based'. Markup: 25%.
Ink sold in Nebraska can be sold as 'pigshit-based'. Markup: 32%.
Ink sold in India can be backfilled with mercury and other cost-effective fillers and sold as 'Murican!' Markup: 13%.
Zip code based micro-regions are important in areas like Washington, D.C. Ink destined for the DOJ requires the thick 'Redacto-Blend'. Markup: 325%, while ink going to Congress requires the much thinner 'printed-on-a-tissue-of-lies' blend. Markup: 600%.
Yes, ink markets are important, not only for specific customer needs, or "customer needs hahahaha", but for the much more relevant 'where-are-we-going-to-get-the-money-for-our-Caribbean-conferences' requirements.
Ink: because the world runs on chumps not knowing any better.
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Re: No, No, No.
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Generic
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I'll find a way
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Re: I'll find a way
My partner is currently studying her masters, and we print more than a thousand pages a year, much of it double-sided. Toner is the only thing keeping that even vaguely feasible. Not to mention printing faster and quieter than inkjets.
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Re: Re: I'll find a way
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FTFY, Tim. After all, sex and gender aren't binary.
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Yup, "him/her/it" should cover everyone. Maybe "h*2/it" (or "h2it" for the new milennium).
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:-)
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Seriously, your comment reads akin to "They aren't hackers... they don't assemble furniture at all!"
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Said by someone who is neither genderfluid nor intersex (out of the many examples), and thus needs to check their fucking privilege. Everyone has the right to be included, chump, even you.
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This is how you lose credibility even with those ostensibly on your side. WTF do those words even mean? It sounds like you're talking about shapeshifters and green skinned aliens.
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Intersex: The mathematical method of intersection between male and female genetics.
Since gender is determined by a select number of genes on the Y chromosome (unless specific genetic damage has caused those specific genes to migrate to the X chromosome in the XY pair of the father), I would suggest that those who are genderfluid are abnormal specimens since they have the ability to change their genetic makeup dynamically and may not actually be human at all. If they aren't human then there are two possiblilities: either they are not from this planet or have been constructed in a laboratory somewhere (most likely military).
Let's see how long it takes for the fools to not see the sarcasm in the above.
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What type is it? I would love to have an easily refillable printer. I stopped buying ink cartridges several years ago. I was spending $60 to buy them locally and only getting about 70% of the estimated output.
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Epson has ECO tank printers
They are spendy but.....
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That's what makes it an Organic LED display!
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They're Killing The Free Press
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FTFY, Mason. ;)
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This is the sort of thing that gives capitalism a bad name
But those wheels of karma can turn slow.
The solution of course is to buy somebody else's printers.
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Re: This is the sort of thing that gives capitalism a bad name
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Good News...I think
The Epson Eco Tank printers will sell at a higher initial price, which one hopes is profitable for Epson, and in return (ostensibly) will have much more affordable ink.
Epson claims the ink tanks will hold 20 times the quantity the normal cartridges hold, and will be cheaply refillable by just pouring in more ink from a bottle.
Basically, it is a printer that eschews the "razor and blade" business model that we see in the above story by Tim, in favor of a more straightforward business model.
But, let's see if reality matches marketing. The printers are set to sell in September.
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The screwed up thing is that setting was off when I found it, yet a replacement printer (refurbished, of course) still refused to use the ink cartridges from the one that the print head died in on the grounds of being "protected". So she was stuck with the puny starter cartridges that came with the refurbished replacement.
Gee, thanks HP!
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Automobiles will be next
south of the border.
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While we're at it, why don't we stop the racket ...
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Re: While we're at it, why don't we stop the racket ...
You know that's why Stallman started Gnu? He wanted to add functionality to a printer driver but was refused the code to do so. I hope that printer driver writer's happy having complete control over his now long obsolete code.
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Xerox service rates
$416 for the first half hour
$76 for each additional 15 minutes
So I think it'll cost you $416 to get your printer unlocked. (New printer time.)
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This will stop when ...
I know several people who wait for inexpensive printers to go on sale at the big box stores. They will buy 2 or 3. WHen they run out of ink, they take the printer to be recycled (or better yet, take it to a charity for a tax deduction). They pull one of the 'extra' printers out of the box and start using it. If done properly, they have a new printer two or three times a year. And it STILL costs them less than buying full cartridges!
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So a 10 year old story is news?
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And then Techdirt read their story.
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http://www.pyrobrit.co.uk/wordpress/2013/05/printers-beating-the-greedy-manufacturer/
it's all there
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I suspect you can't win this one. I'll bet I could buy four fully loaded, obsolete for Windows(TM) but perfect for Linux, towers or pizza box or laptop computers for the price you paid for that smartphone, and even more if we consider the monthly payments to your provider. They wouldn't be gaming rigs, but they'd suffice otherwise.
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I paid C$80 for my second hand HP Pavilion g4 laptop (64 bit AMD A4-3300M, 4 GHz). Lemme do the math ... 3 Gb HD, 5 Gb RAM. It was about five years old when I bought it. I've seen newer (than that) pizza box PCs selling loaded second hand for ca. C$120.
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What part of "obsolete for Windows(TM) but perfect for Linux" says "brand new" to you? Care to roll again?
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me 2
If I owned a Xerox I would be requesting a refund before the unadvertised 'feature' bricks it.
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Cost Effective Alternatives
Better for humanity, too.
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Holding manufacturers to a higher standard than they deserve
"The only reason to do this is to tie paying customers into the most expensive ink and toner."
This is a gross over simplification - for example it ignores the losses these companies make from end users with toner inclusive contracts that sell their 'spare' toners on sites like eBay at inflated prices.
As the price of printer hardware falls the cost of toner has to go up or there will be no incentive to stay in the industry. Office printers are a commodity product at this point..
Companies like Microsoft can sell the hardware like the Xbox at a loss as they have other more lucrative revenue streams. Ricoh, Canon & Xerox - not so much.
QUOTE
"This lock-in is cemented by many printers' refusal to recognize third-party replacement cartridges and/or allow refills of existing manufacturer cartridges."
Third party toner cartridges are not produced to the same level of quality as originals - even by the major companies themselves. This is not an industry myth, i've seen it many times. Most recently with Xerox brand 'HP Compatible' colour toners that were utter garbage. Switch back to HP originals - print quality improved and service calls instantly reduced.
Like it or not printers are complex machines, they run better with quality parts inside. I could run my car on chip fat for a while but it won't do it much good - pretty sure it's illegal too. Running a printer on cheap 'off brand' toner is just asking for trouble.
These companies are trying to make money, that's why they exist. They follow these practices to protect their profits, to limit the support call burden caused by inferior parts and to protect their customers from a bad user experience.
Restricting toners is not a plot cooked up to rip off end users. Try buying legit toners from a legit reseller, you'll pay a little more - but you get support and will never end up spending cash on toners that are incompatible with your device.
Or buy cheap - buy twice........ and have cause moan about it online.
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Re: Holding manufacturers to a higher standard than they deserve
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Re: Holding manufacturers to a higher standard than they deserve
And why are they even able to do so in the first place? Hint, hint!
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Re: Holding manufacturers to a higher standard than they deserve
At one time, ink prices (to the consumer) made the commodity far more valuable than gold of the same weight. Printer companies will make the ink at a price point that will generate the profits they desire. Since the customer base is a captive market, they can charge what they want.
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Re: Holding manufacturers to a higher standard than they deserve
Only the first part of that quote is in any way accurate. Why? Because cheap knock-off parts made in China equals 'quality' parts made in China with cheap knock-off components by unscrupulous factory owners seeking extra profits. That's why nothing lasts like it used to: outsourcing syndrome. If printer manufacturers really wanted to limit the support call burden caused by inferior parts and protect their customers from a bad user experience, they don't need to lock out unofficial components, they instead need to bring manufacturing to the place where the parts are being sold and give customers the quality they're paying for. Simples!
BTW, running a car on cooking oil won't automatically wreck your engine nor is it illegal as long as all relevant taxes are paid. Care to try again?
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Follow up
You don't have to like it, and - guess what- you don't have to buy Xerox.
What my post was trying to get at is there are more reasons to do it than purely to shaft end users.
I'm a copier tech. All my customers lease machines with supply contracts that include legit toner. This issue will never affect them and they are the majority of Xerox's customers globally.
If I buy a cheap Xerox printer with no contract they are looking to make money on supplies not the device. So they have to control the supply.
I don't see why the author of this post and various commenters expect Xerox to make it easy for people to work around this.
They COULD sell you a machine and let you run any parts you like- but they'd have to charge a higher price for the hardware. That means fewer sales, less market share and no control over quality or reliability.
I can't imagine anyone at a Xerox board meeting suggesting that as a business model.
Sheogorath - fair cop on the veg oil analogy it's legal I UK I didn't realise. Doesn't mean it'll convince me it's a better way to run my car though.
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Re: Follow up
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Unfair Trading
To get action, of course, many people must complain to trading standards officers. An online petition might be the answer.
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Re: Unfair Trading
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So which models actually affected- just 2??
Anyone have and evidence of this affecting other models? Any facts?
Seems to me that a factory reset and installation of approved toner would solve the problem if you had it. I get that this lock in is in some ways 'unfair'. But the assumption being repeated in this thread is that all toner is made the same - this is incorrect.
The xeroxgraphic process used in laser/led printers generally uses 4 components - toner, imaging drum, transfer belt and fuser. If you put knock off toner with a different melting point in your printer it won't fuse the toner to the paper. If the particle density of the toner differs from that expected by imaging drum you'll get sucky image quality.
Add to that all toner is either pre or post mixed with a 'developer' agent to give it static charge. If this differs from manufacture specs quality suffers.
Given all that - the expectation that we should be able to use any toner with any printer is just wishful thinking.
Xerox shouldn't region lock toners, it's a jerk move. They should make 2 types - contract only and non contract and they should work in any part of world. But in my opinion you should only expect to use a 6605 toner from Xerox in their machines. As a repair tech I don't want to have to face off with a customer who chose to cheap out on toner, has issues and now expects me to fix the damage at the cost of my time and parts.
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Re: So which models actually affected- just 2??
I'm sure everyone would agree with that, but it's a strawman argument - nobody has that expectation.
The point of this discussion is that people expect that Xerox official toner should work in Xerox printers, which isn't the case and is resulting in printers being disabled.
So... you can either pay a Xerox technician to come and fix your printer, or you can pay Xerox for more official toner - that hopefully won't disable your printer this time - and lose all of your printer settings and have to spend time reconfiguring it. I can't imagine why people would think this is 'unfair'.
This is the generic medicine argument.
People would like to be able to use third-party toner that is designed for their specific printer. If Xerox wanted to be awesome about it, they could release detailed specifications for the requirements for the toner for each of its printers, but let customers know that they'll be on the hook for any repairs from using third-party toner, and that there are no guarantees of quality when using third-party toner.
Then let the market decide - if some brand of third-party toner is cheaper and has a reputation of just as good quality and not breaking the printer, then Xerox has incentive to try to do better. Crappy third-party knockoffs won't get repeat business after people have to pay to get their printers fixed.
Thanks for your perspective, and I get that having to deal with other peoples' senses of entitlement sucks, but historically it has never been best business practice to tell your customers that they're using your product wrong. Put the business first and continue to be mediocre, or put the customer first and be awesome - that is (a vastly oversimplified version of) the choice in front of every business.
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DRM
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Re: DRM
Ostensibly, taxation buys you services the gov't provides (police protection, legal protection, military defence, ...). The other kind of DRM protects (again ostensibly) the rights of others wrt stuff you legally own, which makes no sense to me. If I own it legally (the seller has been compensated and willingly relinquished ownership to me), why does someone else get to tell me how I can use it? Apparently, I don't own it. "May I have my money back please?" No, you already broke the shrink wrap.
Now all you can do is boycott. "Fool me once, ..."
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Action to solve..
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Xerox is terrorist
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printer
Invisible ink cartridges T069 for Epson inkjet printers | Invisible Epson uv ink
invisible ink cartridge epson
https://www.uvstuff.com/en/12-set-of-4-invisible-ink-cartridges-t069-for-epson-inkjet-printers -filled-with-invisible-ink-white-cyan-magenta-and-yellow.html
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So guess what... Samsung/HP will never make another dollar out of me for this printer due to their region coding. They are punishing customers who want to use their genuine products... to their own detriment.
As an aside... I have now discovered that the non-genuine cartridges work fantastically, so a side effect of their stupidity is that they converted me from being a "genuine only" guy, to a "never again will I waste money on genuine" guy. And neither will any of my friends or family... I am converting everyone to the non-genuine dark side ;)
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