ripped that sticker away and using the printer using USB only.
then, the various software they try to push they try VERY hard to get you into instant-ink. if you do accept, your printer is then firmware-flashed to check and look for HP genuine cartridges. in order to avoid lawsuits in Europe, by default the printer DOES NOT check for those. they do IF you accept the instant-ink contract, which contains a clause inside where YOU accept, as the customer, to see your rights reduced by the firmware of the printer to be modified so it will no longer accept all cartridges, but only HP ones with a chip for authentication....
HP. there's a place in HELL just for you.
Unfortunately, their MBA probably never told them to measure the cost of a bad reputation.
I was expecting to pay a premium for toner, but not a "might as well throw the printer out and get a new one" premium.
This CEO totally deserves their hard-earned bonus.
After that, I never bought anything HP again. Said laptop went into the bin a year after I bought it because it wouldn't stop bluescreening.
I have a Brother laser printer and I am reasonably happy with that (as happy as you can be with a printer, I guess).
There are a lot of hearts and minds who used to love the company that now actively recommend against them — in no small part because of the printer ink thing.
They should be more worried about their reputation than their printer profits.
At ~$66M he probably doesn't need to care about long-term reputation.
Recently went for a brother toner based printer, and even if the quality it's lower if you look for details, feels so nice to have a device that "just works". Besides the toner and drums are multiple times cheaper.
To be clear, I’m not defending HP (I avoid them myself too). I just want to raise more awareness that Brother is not great option either. They are just much less shitty than HP.
This is what desperation looks like. Nothing they can do will reverse the trend--its bigger than a single company. HP has its numbers to hit.. but are completely powerless to make it grow. So they do things like this, trying to slow the decline for themselves personally... but push more consumers away, accelerating the trend and the decline of their business.
I think the model is starting to show its cracks.. the old model was: buy a printer at a discount, pay us for ink. But if consumers are printing less, they're buying less ink, making it even harder to get back that printer discount. So HP needs to squeeze all of the ink sales out of the consumer they can... maybe if they can push out 3rd party ink, they can delay changing the business model for a little bit longer. But thats going to get harder every single year (if its even realistic).
I've owned lots of printers over the years, including a few HPs... I currently own 0 printers. And dealing with stuff like this is a small part why, but the bigger reason is: dont need a printer.
As far as I can tell, printing return shipping labels is the main reason to own a printer these days.
And even those often aren't needed, as UPS will sometimes scan a QR and print the label themselves. Or dropping off Amazon at Whole Foods.
But frequently enough there's no way around it. And if you don't go to an office frequently enough to use that printer, and buy things online (especially clothing) -- you still need one at home.
https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/set-up-cups-print-server-ub...
Also printing guidelines/designs/checklists for woodworking/leatherworking/sewing projects, but that's not something most people do.
I can't imagine not having a (laser) printer in the house.
Basically, every printer is a loss leader. And recurring supplies is their way to recoup losses.
I think this is an annoying business model. The world has changed. Culture has changed. This may have been great in the 90s. It does not work anymore. (Remember those internet connection companies that gave free junky computers in exchange for internet contracts?)
Of course this won't work for everybody, but so much less trouble for me than any printer I haf before.
I have the HL-L3280CDW and its been solid.
Though, I'm pretty sure I'd just spring for a thermal printer if they made toner maintenance impractical too, personally speaking.
https://www.alles4pc.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/12543_Pro...
My main print source is occasional business dealings. Just last week I hired a civil engineer for a consult and he sent me a PDF to sign and return. I thought it was archaic, expecting an esign, especially for the small job it was ($1000) but I think he was old school/low tech (even fumbled the Teams meeting invite we had pretty hard) so I just went with it.
This type thing comes up for me 2-8 times a year over the past 20 years. I just use printandgo@fedex.com and make an errand out of it. There’s a few brick and mortar locations near my home and areas I frequent so it’s never too inconvenient. I can sign and scan it back to PDF while there too. Printing alone was never enough for me anyway, so I’d either need to get a print and scan printer or two separate peripherals. Using FedEx costs me about $10-30 a year and just works albeit requires a little logistics on my part.
(I'm in the same boat: I've heard so much about their anti-consumer practices with printers over the years, I wouldn't even consider other products even if those practices didn't carry over.)
Try going into the Admin settings of the printer - usually via the admin web interface of the device - and look for Print Quality/Density settings. You can set the printer to use even less toner/ink than Draft without having to sacrifice legible quality. So you'll be able to print in good quality while using less ink. And you can set it to use even less ink than Draft mode usually does.
