Currys £16.99 USB cable rip-off.

I know this might qualify as a journalist rant - (actually there is no doubt about it) but sometimes you just have to let it out.

I am not sure who I am more annoyed at HP or electrical store Curry’s. I bought a F2100 All-in-One printer, scanner and copier from PC World last weekend – and found out when I went to set it up that HP had kindly decided not to include everything I needed in the box – there was no USB cable to connect the printer to my Mac Mini.

They must have forgot to put it in I thought and dutifully tramped down to Currys expecting to pay £3 or £4 for the cable – after all if HP didn’t think to put it in the box, it must be a commodity item that costs peanuts right? Well, Currys didn’t see it that way and charged me £16.99 for a length of wire and some plastic coating – over a third of the cost of the whole printer – on what planet does this make sense? I guess I should have held out and ordered the cable online but how can Currys justify £16.99 for a cable. I am going to phone some marketing people and find out.