re editorial,
Well, to me the stores are entitled to charge a fee for using their services expecially when the goods are not purchased from them, cos the machine is their business tool and obviously they have to maintain the same and derive profit from it. Imagine if everyday every one goes there to print for free - it will affect business as well if ALI's purchasers have to wait for their turn there for others who did not buy from ALI to finish their printing.
On whether the charges are too much, that is for the market to dictate im afraid. Right now there are 3 big players in the klang valley ie ALI BB, RealOne and Q Line that all charges RM10 if I recall correctly. So that cannot be unfair in my view. To push for cheaper rates the consumers may want to stop going there to print and start DIY-ing perhaps, so if the 3 players want to "pull" customers back they may wish to offer cheaper rates etc. Its down to market force. Right now all 3 charges same or similar prices so cant hardly say its exhorbitant.
But having said that, I doubt the 3 players' target is to get more of such application business. In fact, the charges for application to me is more a deterrent so as to encourage costomers to buy the patches and / or shirts from their respective stores (and application is FOC if bought from their respective stores) instead of getting them elsewhere and merely going to the stores for application.
At the very least, you can maybe "nego" for waiver of the printing costs and buy some items from the store, like a cap, a ball, a boot etc. Sometimes they accomodate, since at least you have bought smoething from them. That way although u pay more for the goods, but at least u have som goods. Anyway this is for ppl who feel "imbalance" in paying the application fee