Well - Epson and co. may have lost street cred for their excessively priced ink, but they only have themselves to blame. If I remember correctly, the first ink jet printers for the retail market were manufactured by HP. In those days, their ink jet mechanisms tended to wear out fairly rapidly, so that HP had no alternative but to oblige you to change the ink jets when their ink cartridges ran out. This inevitably made replacement cartridges pricey. So when Epson and the other manufacturers developed ink jet mechanisms that lasted for the life of the printer, they rubbed their hands with glee when they noted what the competition was having to charge for ink refills! Regrettably for them, their attempts to keep this market for themselves by chipping cartridges and designing them to be as difficult as possible to refill have been thwarted by the availability of chip resetters and cheap third party cartridges where you pay the real cost of such consumables. If the printer manufacturers had kept their printer prices a little higher and charged a sensible price for refills then they would have had the market to themselves. HP would probably have been obliged to fit a "lifetime" ink jet mechanism to their printers as well. Anyway, they have got what they deserve. I just feel sorry for people like Lord Fulmer who, until they read threads like this, continue to get ripped off.
P.P.