HP Printer Excessive Repair Costs

I have an HP6500A printer which is only 5 years old and not used very much. The cyan & magenta colours stopped printing so I went through the usual process of cleaning & trying to align to no avail. Took it to the HP approved repair centre and they want to charge me over R2300 for repair costs - apparently the print head needs to be replaced. I only paid R1600 for the printer so don't understand how the repairs can be so overpriced!! Have only every used original HP cartridges!! Will not be purchasing HP again!! This printer is for home use so not used much at all over the years. Also the touch panel packed up at the same time... seems that they are only built to last a few years!! There does not seem to be any option to purchase cheaper parts. All reviews seem to indicate that this is one of the worst printers on the market. I think that it is entirely unacceptable that a supplier such as HP can charge such exorbitant prices to repair their products!!