I first learned about this scam/business strategy in around 2008. I'm from India.

When I was in 10th class, we got a printer for my dad's office work. The printer was for around $40 or so. I was really excited and printed out a few full-page colour images of animals. Then my 4-years-older sister told me that the printer used ink and didn't run indefinitely. Okay. I didn't know that. I stopped using the printer after that.

Eventually, we ran out of ink in 2-3 months. The cost of new cartridges? $50 The cost to get those re-filled in a local shop? $2. It voided the warranty? Who cares - a new printer WITH new cartridges would be cheaper than purchasing separate cartridges.

We re-filled those cartridges around 7-8 times over the next 2 years after which we threw away the printer, and it worked perfectly during the time.