I dont think printer manufactures are as bad for this as they used to be, I think that they have realized that joe public have cottoned onto there scam, I was bought a lexmark all in one scanner.printer and copier about 3 months ago for my birthday as my old printer was playing up.
must admit at first I thought oh my god I know this only cost �50 to buy so I am going to have to bin it when the ink runs out, but I was quite surprized I went online and found I could get the cartridge for it for �15 delivered (obviuse not a real lexmark one but it is just as good) .
I think the trick here is do what I used to do, my last printer that I bought I found out what the cost of a replacment ink cart was on various printers on line and found the cheapest ones then had a look into what the printers were like. I eventually found one that was relativly cheap to buy �35 and had good reports and the cost of the replacment carts were a riddicoulus �5 so I bought that one and the prints were stunning even up to a4 size.
Just another thing to ad here about a year ago I was in staples in basildon and the people in front of me bought 2 lots of carts and the bill was a stagering �140 I remember thinking its people like you that buy them at an extorsonate price that keeps the manufactures falsley inflatting their prices