wmrcomputers
Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
Just wondered what anyone here thinks about the new HP "Instant Ink" scheme? For those who don't know, you basically buy the printer and then enrol in the Instant Ink scheme. £1.99 per month buys you 50 pages, £3.49 buys 100 pages or £7.99 buys you 300 pages. The printer orders your ink cartridges automatically before they run out.
At first, it sounds really good. However, you can only roll over 1 month of unused pages. Now, if you use your "quota" then it's not a bad deal at all. However, I think that HP rely on the fact that sometimes printers just sit unused for some time, and it's those customers that they make good profits from. I'm certain there will be people who pay for the £7.99 deal to make sure they've covered any eventuality, but sometimes use as little as 50 - 100 pages per month.
I'm thinking of offering something similar myself but whereby you'd pay around just 2p per page in the long run no matter how much (or little) you used the printer. The monthly payments wouldn't start until you've exhausted your first cartridges and monthly payments would then be set according to your usage. I'd then automatically reduce or increase payments as your usage required (depending on how often I was called out to replace them).
Or do people just prefer to go out and buy their own inks as and when required still? Is this "monthly approach" to printing costs just silly?
At first, it sounds really good. However, you can only roll over 1 month of unused pages. Now, if you use your "quota" then it's not a bad deal at all. However, I think that HP rely on the fact that sometimes printers just sit unused for some time, and it's those customers that they make good profits from. I'm certain there will be people who pay for the £7.99 deal to make sure they've covered any eventuality, but sometimes use as little as 50 - 100 pages per month.
I'm thinking of offering something similar myself but whereby you'd pay around just 2p per page in the long run no matter how much (or little) you used the printer. The monthly payments wouldn't start until you've exhausted your first cartridges and monthly payments would then be set according to your usage. I'd then automatically reduce or increase payments as your usage required (depending on how often I was called out to replace them).
Or do people just prefer to go out and buy their own inks as and when required still? Is this "monthly approach" to printing costs just silly?