Rogers Relents
After sending an e-mail to Rogers cable asking why their web site claimed there is a cap on the “surcharge” for Internet over-usage (I mentioned this initially in Rogers Cable and Overruns), and why I didn’t get that cap, I received a satisfactory reply (for now).
Evidently Rogers will be crediting my account by $5 for the $30 fee I paid last month, and this month’s $50 surcharge will be capped at $25.00 which is satisfactory. I still am not very happy with this whole surcharge for “overuse” and am investigating a few different high speed Internet companies (who were suggested by my intelligent readers), but I am happier that Rogers at least isn’t throwing salt in my wounds after gouging me.
Remember the importance of complaining if you do not like what is going on.
Back To School Ink
After returning from Staples and having paid $180 for ink jet replacement cartridges, I was fit to be tied. The three printers combined didn’t cost that much to purchase in the first place. Yes, I did buy XL cartridges for two of the printers (which allege to be able to print 3 times as many pages for only 2 times the cost (unless the cartridge dries out, from lack of use, like one of my printers)), however this cost for “Back to School” just drives me spare. Maybe it is cheaper to buy laser printers, does anyone know of a web site that does the price comparison?
Another important back to school cost to remember in your budgeting exercises next year.
Broken Contracts and Cell Phones
The CWTA (Canadian Wireless Telecom Association) came out with a Code of Conduct which says it is the Consumers right to be able to break contracts if their service provider changes the service being given to the consumer or raises the price of these services. Read that sentence again, and then ask yourself, “I wasn’t allowed to get out of my contract if the service provider broke their word in the contract?”, I guess the CWTA is just reinforcing this point?
Unsubstantiated rumor has it that it was a common practice to penalize folks who tried to get out of their contracts even if their service provider changed the contract or started to charge more, but now you have Consumer Rights!!! Whoo Hooo!!! (sarcasm for those who cannot tell).
Most laser printers are pretty cheap now – I like them because of 3 reasons:
1) They are fast
2) Toner is cheap compared to ink cartridges (per page)
3) They don’t bleed ink (ever been rained on?)
However, if you have kids, they might need to print in colour sometimes for school projects… in that case, you might want to buy ink and refill your cartridges by yourself. I bought a kit from Costco 5 years ago for about $20 and I’ve only used about half of it (I use very little colour). This will probably void your warrantee, but printers are not really worth much, it’s the cost of the ink that hurts!!!
Did you read that the wireless industry lobby forced Industry Canada to scrap their cell phone calculator (which allowed consumers to figure out their true cell phone charges)?
If you are going to print on ink jet (which I do), get the ink from ebay. It voids your warranty but like you said the printers were worth way less than the ink price. I bought some HP 94 and 97 online for 10packs/$45, I saw in Staples in the clearance bin a two pack of HP 94 and 95 for $45. When they come out with a multifunction colour Laser for under $200, I will buy that.
OK Good advice, next time I will watch for that!
Toner for (monochrome) laser printers is a full order of magnitude cheaper than ink for inkjet printers – 2-3 cents per page compared to 20-30 cents per page (more if you’re printing color inkjet prints).
I replace the cartridge on my laser printer every 2-3 years or so, and the cartridge costs about $75. Each cartridge is good for about 2500 pages.
If you’re mostly printing in black and white, it’s far cheaper to get a laser printer. Usually faster too.