iStockphoto / Jakob Berg
A new viral video has exposed the ongoing printer ink scam that impacts billions of people worldwide every day.
Printer ink cartridges are arguably the worst way to print documents or photographs as the amount of ink inside of a printer ink cartridge is so minuscule they constantly needing to be replaced. For regular printing, ink tank printers cost a fraction of using cartridges.
A recent viral video from the Fstoppers YouTube channel, a channel dedicated to ‘sharing reviews, photo tricks and tips, tutorials, and news’ for photographers and videographers has changed a lot of people’s perceptions about printer ink cartridges. He quickly exposes the printer ink scam by cracking open a cartridge to reveal virtually zero ink inside of a brand new cartridge…
Anyone who has owned a cartridge printer has felt ripped off at some point. But actually seeing how little ink is in a cartridge? Yikes…
The Printer Ink Scam Exposed
This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about the widespread printer ink scam here on BroBible. A few years back I wrote about another viral video that discussed why printer ink is so expensive.
For starters, the cartridge printers are sold at a loss by the manufacturers because they recoup costs by selling the cartridges time and again. That itself is a red flag. But the cartridges are also more than just ink, they contain materials to clean out the ink jets.
Cleaning out the ink jets to ensure each print job comes out correct is good, right? Well, not necessarily. Because the vast majority of the ink/liquid inside each cartridge is used to clean the printer. As consumers, we only ever get to use a small percentage of the ink in each cartridge.
There are refurbished cartridge vendors on the Internet for people who insist on using cartridge printers. However, as pointed out in the viral video above, using ink tank printers is the way to go. Ink tank printers are more expensive up front but A LOT of money can be saved with them.
It’s also worth mentioning that in 2022, Canon was forced to admit its printer ink technology was basically useless due to the chip shortage. After that they began to roll out chip-less cartridges.