Interesting. I can't remember the last time I bought a printer that came with the required cable... would have been back in the parallel days as I know none of my USB ones did.

I'm not a Dell fan, but why were they singled out for this when HP/Lexmark/Canon/et al don't (as far as I've ever seen) state on their printer boxes that the cables are not included?

How can they get away with charging £14 for a USB cable? at online retailers you can pick one up for a few quid. i would expect to pay £5 from dell.

also consider the volume of these things that dell buys means unit costs must be in the pennies - that roughly equates to 1400% mark-up!! criminal!!!

£14 for a USB cable? Haven't they been to Poundland?

Not including a printer cable has been done for years and is practically a tradition now, its how they manage to make a profit on the bundles I think margins are so tight, and yeah if you look you can get them for a £1, or I can at my local pc shop anyways ;)

Wonder why the ASA leapt on Dell though for truthfulness over something thats been done literally for years, but the ISP's can sell a defiantly not unlimited service as unlimited and be seen to be just fine and dandy (oh dear, its that argument *again*)

I guess Dell printers require über-THX-class cables. It better be shielded with 24 carat gold, lined with diamonds so you can better spot it the dark, and made of ambient-temperature superconductive material.

"Yes, we have free meal, but a Coke will cost you 20 quid". Geez...

These days printers can use so many different cables. My new laser can use parallel, USB or ethernet. Putting all three cables in the box makes no sense. Leaving it out adds a nice little "cherry on top" for the seller.

If they put in just the parallel, people would betch about no USB or ethernet.

However ASA has a good point. A printer bundled with a computer should be considered a "system". and needs at least one cable to make it so.

Head on over to pcworld.co.uk and search for "USB cable" - always good for a laugh.

I did... and because their website is designed by utter morons who wouldn't know even partly good web-design if it bit them on the a**, kicked them in the head and then stole their car keys... the "search" feature conveniently doesn't work unless you have JavaScript (or JScript) enabled.

I mean, it's *so* difficult to figure out how to use a submit button on a form properly, without having to resort to "clickable" images to trigger inane JavaScript to do the same thing for you.

Now, where's the accessibilty watchdog when you want one?

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I browse with scripting turned off except for the websites that I know and use often and that "require" it. Everybody else's website can suffer with the fact that their ads are not popped up, popped under and, frequently due to a few custom DNS entries, displayed at all.

Back to the plot - having temporarily enabled scripting on the pcworld site, you can get one of these high spec, hard to find cables for just £14.99... (saving a massive 1p off the Dell price). Oh, but did I omit the £4.95 p&p on top of that?

"I'm not a Dell fan, but why were they singled out for this when HP/Lexmark/Canon/et al don't (as far as I've ever seen) state on their printer boxes that the cables are not included?"

Must be something peculiar to the UK... I'm in Oz, and I have three Canon printers (an A3, an A4 and a multi-function) and all three came with the requisite USB cable. So did the 400D camera. So did the scanner. (yes, I standardised on Canon because it's much easier to only have one set of drivers/apps)

Our HP 3050 conveniently had a usb cable in the box. Of course it's the only way to connect it so there's no choice of including different types of cables.

Re: Head over to PC World, by Nick Ryan

"the "search" feature conveniently doesn't work unless you have JavaScript (or JScript) enabled."

Was the first thing that p***ed me off too.

Over here you could get one for RM8, or in British currency, a quid and a few pence. And that's AFTER taxes.

...are obviously far too computer-savvy to ever buy a USB cable from a high-street chain, but Staples, PC World, Curry's, etc. must be raking it in from technophobes, as from what I've seen £15 is about average!

They come in so much packaging too, there's tons of plastic to rip off before you can get near the damn thing. Why they even need packaging is beyond me, it's just a goddamn cable!

...about £1.50 I seem to remember?

Try walking into the PC World/Comet/High Street stores. Buy a printer in there, and they try and sell you a gold plated USB cable for £25, extra inks, expensive paper, extra warrenties. This is the way they make their money on the cheap printers.

It makes me feel sorry for those members of the public who believe the "expert" sales personal in any shop. Why do they not realise that sales staff are on commision?

in a recent copy of the misco catalogue, you could get a genuine Lexmark USB Printer cable for the value price of £36.00 +VAT + Delivery. BTW if you order a hundred from a cable supplier, you will geta price of about 20p per cable

Maybe it's like the snake oil high-end audio cables. Oxygen-free copper, silver contacts, that sort of thing.

Or maybe it's just Dell profiting from those gullible / unsuspecting enough to fall for it...

All my Canon gear came with all the required cables (+ non-essential cables), so did my monitor, etc etc.

One day I was speccing a Dell laptop that came with a free printer (except of course it stated the printer cable wasn't included and added the option of purchasing one for £14) - at that point I gave up and bought an Acer which has worked perfectly for 4 years.

The Lexmark all in one that I bought came with a USB cable.

Which was a pity really as it didn't work, as soon as I swapped it for one of the multitude of other USB cables I had it worked perfectly...

Because the ASA only respond to complaints. I'd guess nobody has bothered complaining about Canon, HP, et al.

I've bought a new computer with no printer. I walk down to my nearest computer store to buy a printer. I would blinkingwell expect a cable to be inside.

Ironically, recently I went to a car boot sale. Saw a semi-nice HP inject for £20. Bargain! Took it home, realised it had no ink and no cable. Went to PC world, stood at checkout paying £30 (OMGWTF!), and noticed all-in-one Printer/Fax/Scanners for £48 :(((((

I am glad Dell remove these from the bundle...It's all about choice.

There is no such thing as a free cable, if it's in the box you must've paid for it somehow...So if I already have one, then why on earth should I buy another or forced to have a second one. Think of the environment...It's bad enough having disposable printers because the ink is so flipping expensive!!! That's another matter.

Dell gives us three choices -

1- Use your own if you have one and save money!!

2- buy one cheaper from your preferred poundshop, if you haven't already got one.

3- Or get one from Dell at the market rate.