HP raises cartridge prices, resellers fume

While the reseller community is yet to breath a sigh of relief from the counterfeit cartridge menace, HP has gone ahead and increased prices of its inkjet and LaserJet cartridges with effect from 1st of May, 2002. 

In a letter sent to all its registered supplies resellers (RSRs), HP has informed about a price increase of 4.4 percent on all but two models of inkjet and LaserJet cartridges. On the other two models, the price hike is to the tune of 9.4 percent. However, with the introduction of resale tax and taking into consideration the wholesale tax, overall changes in the cartridge prices turn out to be around six percent.

Resellers obviously are not very happy with this development. "When counterfeit and refilled cartridges are still widely in use, this increase in price is badly-timed," says Rajkumar Sheth of New Era Equipments. According to him, this price hike may in fact provoke end-users to go for cheaper alternatives. 

Voicing a stronger opinion, Saifee Merchant of Best International says, "This is surely not a customer-friendly approach that HP has adopted and it may well lose out on its marketshare in the next six month's time." 

The price hike has also created problems for those resellers who have annual consumable supply contracts with corporate.

Highlighting this, Devang Shah of Crystal Impex says, "RSRs or even lower-tier resellers who have an annual contract for supplying cartridges to clients would suffer as the latter won't revise their rates." He feels that in an absence of any kind of price-based support from HP, these resellers would be forced to pay from their own pockets.

Resellers have also expressed their dissatisfaction over the reason offered by HP for the price hike. HP attributes this hike to the devaluation of Indian rupee against the US dollar. Resellers, however, do not buy this because other brands have hardly increased their prices. 

Goldie S 

(CNS)