This method of pricing permeates the whole consumer industry and if you ask me, it seems to be a way of deterring users to keep their old units and replace broken parts. It suits these dealers much better if you throw out the old one and buy a new one. This is especially so when service costs and replacement costs are making you feel that continual servicing and further parts replacements rivals the cost of simply purchasing a new unit and no longer having to worry about parts replacement or servicing for a while.
If you got a few years out of those pads, in the current climes I'd count myself lucky that I can get those pads for that price and that I can replace them myself. The market is particularly vicious these days about this policy and they push for it. The medical industry is particularly sorrowful and we end up paying sky high insurance premiums to fund this. They ensure that they sell their new equipment by encouraging the decommissioning of 'old' equipment, and guess what? This equipment is to be destroyed and not sold to less privileged territories that would love to have machinery as those decommissioned while in their infancy.
