Re: Agilent now dumping its U.S. employees -- I'm going to boycott them

From: Gene S. Berkowitz (first.last_at_comcast.net)
Date: 06/08/04 

Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 23:54:44 -0400

In article <hK6xc.42854$4x2.313@fe2.texas.rr.com>, spam@anywhere.com
says...
>
> "rickman" <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:40C4DEEE.2290A4A9@yahoo.com...
> > Anthony Fremont wrote:
>
> > > Exactly. I have a IIIP that is about 14 years old. It's getting
> ready
> > > for it's third or fourth cartridge, I'm not sure. It will cost me
> about
> > > $50 and will be good to go for at least another 4 years. Oh, I did
> > > replace the fuser bulb once, that cost a whole $15 and took less
> than 30
> > > minutes. Those days of HP making quality printers are long gone.
> They
> > > are good at making crappy printers that come complete with drivers
> > > embedded containing ad/spyware and that swamp even a powerful
> computer.
> >
> > As long as we are trashing HP, I'll second that vote. I bought an
> 1100A
> > for $500 and found that within a year it was starting to misfeed the
> > paper. I thought it was the paper picking up humidity. Later it got
> > worse and I had to start hand feeding the paper one *** at a time.
> > Turns out HP made a design defect on that model that fails right
> around
> > the 1 year mark at the end of warranty. So by the time it was bad
>
> <sarcasm>You don't think that was intentional, do you?</sarcasm>
>
> > enough for me to recognize it as a printer problem, they wouldn't do
> > anything about it. There ended up being a class action suit and
> > everyone registered got $75 worth of discounts on new HP equipment,
> but
> > no repairs. Like I'm going to buy more HP stuff... :-P
>
> You could get an ink cartridge, and print 65 more pages before the blue
> runs out. I tell customers (in my panhandling job) to buy the cheapest
> printer available and then when the ink runs out, just buy another one.
> I wish more people would do this out of protest. It would only cost
> slightly more, but it sure would make the printer makers take notice
> quickly. The inkjet printer market is the biggest scam going now, with
> printers being sold for a net loss so that they can rape the consumer on
> ink refills. The manufacturer won't even include a lousy USB cable with
> many of them, too expensive.
>
> I also paid $300 for an HP 315 digital camera for wife a couple of years
> ago for Christmas. It absolutely sucks in photo quality. You'd think a
> company that makes it's name in printing and imaging could do better.
> They could, but why bother when they can make money just on the brand
> name.
>
> Too bad that engineers aren't allowed to run their companies any more.
> Now the likes of used car salesmen are at the helm, and it really shows
> in the end products.

I bought an HP Laserjet 4L in 1995. It's on toner cartridge #3
(a Xerox cartridge, by the way; they're about $15 less than HP
(and Hecho de Mexico)).
I have no idea how many pages it's printed (the counter in this model
resets when it's unplugged), but I must have bought close to 20 reams
of paper for it.

I have a 4-year old Canon BJ printer, still on the original print
cartridge (Canon uses separate tanks for each color and black, so I'm
not tossing $40 of plastic out just because my son decided to print
his drawing of a solid red train against a solid blue background).

I refuse to spend real money on a digital camera until there is one
that takes as good an image as my 70's vintage Minolta SLR, and costs
the same as that SLR cost me then (adjusted for inflation, of course).
In the meantime, I bought one for $1.00 on Ebay because it is no longer
SOTA.

Don't blame the new HP; they're just dancing to Wal-Mart's tune, and
Wal-Mart is simply giving the US consumer what they ask for, namely
cheaply made junk at Always Low Prices(TM).

With the warmer weather finally set to make an appearance here in the
Northeast, has anyone else noticed the piles of air conditioners in
supermarkets and drugstores? All with an EER of 9.7, the LOWEST
efficiency allowed on the US market? Five minutes at www.energystar.gov
will give you a page-long list of more efficient models, but GOD FORBID
the American consumer should spend $20 more (all of which will be paid
back by the end of the cooling season in lower electric bills).

Agilent, Tek, etc. are all faced with a US market that requires
equipment under ($3,000? $10,000?) because that's all managers can
approve spending without giving up a kidney. And, they're selling
into a market that is simply AWASH in perfectly good used equipment
from the TeleDotCom collapse. Their market is in a death spiral;
what would YOU do?

You can be sure that the last buggy whip manufacturer in this country
probably made the best darn buggy whip there was.

--Gene

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