PRINTER CARTRIDGE MAINTENANCE AGREEMENTS; ARE THEY A RESTRICTION OF TRADE?

Often printer users are locked into a maintenance agreement preventing them from buying cheaper toner cartridges.

So what to do? Well, there is not much you can do, but wait until the maintenance agreement expires.

When a brand supplier such as Brother, Canon, or HP sell a business consumer a printer, or printers, they sprout the advantages of signing up for a maintenance agreement, and the dire perils if you don't. 

What they don't tell you is that for them, the Maintenance Agreement is where the real profits are!

The user is locked in and can't escape the agreement. And certainly when your printer needs another cartridge, it is promptly delivered, and normally their service is acceptable, but if you require parts - "oh, if you look at the small print, that's not included". 

Have you noticed how the supplier will encourage you to sign up for two years - obviously the longer the better to enjoy 'this restriction of trade'. 

And finally, have you tried to evaluate the cost of the printer cartridges as they are replaced, as a cost component of the agreement? No. Probably a good idea not to, the shock could be severe.

It might just pay you to look around for an independant printer maintenace firm, usually manned by ex senior-technicians previously with the brand company anyhow who will charge you a lot less, and allow you to chose your own printer cartidges.

CAN YOU TRUST WEB SITES FOR PRINTER CARTRIDGE PURCHASES?

Ordering your Printer Cartridge on the Internet

My own business often gets 'phone enquiries from other businesses/individuals  asking about security concerns of placing an order for their Ink/Toner printer cartridges.
The concern for customers is:  (a) making their credit card details available to the web site, and
                                              (b) never seeing the products they have ordered.
To help allay your fears, there are some factors that you can take into account. If the web page offers a telephone number, then that in itself is a way of saying that that supplier is reputable.
The next thing to look for is the layout of a website and the access from one page to others, particularly product pages. There is a great deal of cost in setting up a web page, which is beyond the means of a shonky operator. So if a web site offers flexability then it will be OK.
Finally, there is TLS/SSL security in the form of Cryptographic Protocols that prevents eavesdropping and tampering so that your credit card details or PayPal details remain confidential. The credit card details are not even available to the webpage operator, which in fact makes it more secure than giving your credit card details on the 'phone.
But if you still have a concern, then for peace of mind.....'phone.

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