A la Carte

When did it become acceptable to sell an item to consumers without having to include all of the necessary parts to make it work? I bought a new color printer the other day that does not come equipped with – of all things – the USB cable necessary to hook the thing up to the computer. What really gets me, is that this seems to be the standard now. I just spent $100 on a printer – would it kill the manufacturer to include the $5 accessory I need to actually use it? Charge me $105 then, and include the cable!

Is this a sign of things to come? In the future, will every purchase we make be “a la carte”? Will the television come without an electrical cord? Will I buy a wall clock at one store, and the hands at another? The next time I buy a car, will the engine be sold separately…and even worse, will all of my car parts come in a box marked “some assembly required”??? Sorry, but I draw the line at having to put my car together…the Ikea furniture was bad enough!

Maybe the whole USB cable thing wouldn’t bother me so much if the one I had ordered along with the printer had shipped at the same time. The printer arrived today. The cable did not.

4 thoughts on “A la Carte”

  1. Yeah i dont understand why they stopped including a simple USB cable with the printers.. At one point you could hook a print up via an LPT port or usb cable so they stopped selling the cables. Now I think almost all printers are attached via USB only and makes no sense not to include the stupid cheap cable.

    Maybe it has something to do with the increased price of copper? So cables are even more expensive.. Did it come with any ink/toner? I've seen them not come with that ..

  2. Since she called last night asking me where her dorm was, I don't think there is much of a chance for anyone else to find it either. LOL

    Got any part time jobs where you are? I'm looking for something in the mornings.. filing or something??

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