Should the recent Senate Inquiry into price gouging be taking a look at Officeworks and the high price they are charging for printer inks.

A report by the former chair of the ACCC Allan Fels recently analysed price gouging and pricing practices of supermarkets, what followed was Coles and Woolworths being ordered to front a senate inquiry into price gouging. Now questions are being asked as to whether Officeworks should be included in the Federal Senate Inquiry into the high cost of goods at Australian retailers.

An investigation by ChannelNews reveals that Officeworks is seriously stinging consumers when it comes to printer inks especially when you do a comparison of prices between what the same inks cost at JB Hi Fi Vs Officeworks

Questions are now being raised as to why the Government is not taking a look at price gouging by consumer electronics and office supply retailers selling printer inks where the actual printers are often cheaper than the replacement inks.

Recently I dumped a Brother printer when Officeworks charged me close to $700+ dollars for four CMYK replacement inks.

Not only was Brothers service shocking, but it also appears that once one the ink runs out, they want you to top up other inks which costs hundreds of dollars to replace and when the replacement inks fail to work properly, it’s impossible to get a support call. All they want to do is send you email instructions that don’t work anyway.During ChannelNews price checks we found the following:

• Canon P91 645 & CLI 646 replacement ink, at Officeworks was $67.45 while JB Hi Fi was $56 a saving of almost $10.
• Epson 812 Durabrite ink replacement, Officeworks $124, JB Hi Fi $101
• HP 955 CMYK 4 pack, Officeworks $184 for 4 colours Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.
• At JB Hi Fi the same four colours could be bought separately for $174 in total.
• The HP 965 XL Pack at Officeworks was listed on their web site at $295 Vs four separate inks for the same printer coming in at $233.

In nearly all of the brands and printers listed at Officeworks they were significantly more expensive than JB Hi Fi.

We have asked Officeworks PR executives for a response.