I have a new pet peeve and it’s leading me even further in the direction of deciding that printer companies are evil.  First they charge us more for ink cartridges than for the printers themselves.  Now they have added an entirely new gambit.

In the past week, both at work and at home, I’ve received new Hewlett Packard printers.  Both times the printers came without a USB cable that was absolutely necessary to get the printer to work.  I looked up the price of one of these USB cables online and it added $19.99 to what had previously seemed like a good deal (after a mail-in rebate - but that’s a whole different pet peeve topic).

I googled around to see if I was the only person supremely irritated by this practice.  I found one article here that shows Hewlett Packard isn’t the only company doing this.  This writer compares this experience to purchasing a television and taking it home only to discover that a power-cord isn’t included.  Interesting analogy.  A commenter on that same post refers to this as a “razer-and-blade-sell.”

I think this is a deceptive practice because of the consumer’s unanticipated added cost.  Unless you are a complete tech-geek with lots of extra equipment lying around, it’s also a major time-waster - because you either have to make another trip to the store or wait for the ordered part to arrive.

Frankly, if I plunk down a hundred dollars on a piece of equipment, I expect it to work when I take it home.  Period.  This is really irritating and I’m barely able to keep from writing what I’m feeling in even plainer language.