HP does it again...

Well, I sorta knew this day was going to happen, mostly because I don't trust big business...

Awhile back I needed a new printer and bought a HP Officejet. For a time I rented it by buying their incredibly overpriced and underfilled ink cartridges, then discovered generic cartridges that are actually filled to capacity and are far less costly. Let's see, less expensive and actually full of ink; what's not to like? Well, HP didn't like it and a few years ago they "updated software" to make anything not made by HP to stop the printer from functioning. My position was then and still is that once the printer was sold it was my printer and how dare they go into it and deliberately make it non-functional? I wasn't alone in my outrage and HP backed down, but I sorta knew they'd be back. Yesterday I got an error message telling me that I had depleted cartridges that needed to be replaced. So I did replace them (when shaken I could hear the ink inside), with full generic cart's. Same error message. My message to HP, is that I'll buy a new printer today, one with ink tanks, and not of the HP brand. Nothing of the HP brand EVER AGAIN. Phooey on HP! I vowed to never buy another HP product those years ago when they first did this and kept that promise, and renewed that vow yesterday. At this time I don't know if it'll be a Brothers, Epson, or Canon, but I do know that it'll have ink tanks (Epson brand refills are $13 per and good for thousands of pages), and be a multifunction printer. One other thing that I learned from the HP printer... I like having a copier, fax, yada, yada, all in house and in one unit.

FWIW, I have never rented anything that I use frequently, and everything I purchase can accept and use whatever I put into it to make it run. Why does HP think folks would want to pay for the privilege of continuing to use something that they purchased outright? I'm someone who is in the market frequently, but HP is on my "do not purchase" list of manufacturers now. Unlike some folks I NEVER forget. It bugs me to trash something that should still work, but HP did that and not me.

We need a class action lawsuit. I would definitely join in. I would love to have HP pay for the new printer that they forced me to buy. Are any lawyers reading this?

Too many farmers are experiencing similar issues with John Deere equipment!

Sadly, Brian, all of the major manufacturers of printers do something like that. My favorite is one you mentioned, that is stating that an ink cartridge (or toner for a laser printer) needs replacing long before it actually does. Of course, Gillette does the same thing with their ludicrously expensive Fusion cartridges. At least it’s ones own face, head, or legs that lets a man or woman know when it’s time to change the cartridge and not the manufacturer.

I bought an Epson ET-3750 MF printer/copier/scanner, don't know what else, maybe it chops wood too. It's 1/2 the size of the old HP and the only thing it doesn't do that the old one did is something I never used, ever, and never had the urge to use... it's missing fax. Oh, and it uses reasonably priced ink bottles to fill the internal ink tanks; it came with 2 fillings in the box. But rather than renting it with high priced and underperforming cartridges, the price is all upfront in the purchase price. I can see the ink levels from where I sit. And unless I miss my guess I can top up the tanks anytime I wish. Setup was easy, but I'm not done setting things up yet, that is if I ever want to finish it at some time. I might never. It'll do all that I want just as it is.

Right now life is good.

On reflection it's my opinion that cartridge printers are for those folks who want a printer but very rarely use it (not me). In that case they would be a suitable fit, otherwise they are a rip off. Let me be more explicit... if you use many cartridges at all you are renting your printer and never really bought it. It's my belief that HP and any other brand of cartridge printer is counting on you not understanding just how many copies you make and the maintenance required for the print heads. When the printer makes a huge commotion before printing it's using your ink cartridge to clear things out and that's on you and definitely not on them. Require head maintenance? That uses a huge amount of ink (btdt) and guess who pays for that? It was what drove me to explore less expensive printing options using generic cartridges.

OK, finished with the topic now. It's your money.

Sounds like you’ve already moved on but I’ll throw in my two cents. I’m like you.... I had an HP inkjet and suffered the same frustrations. I went with a Brother laser all in one. I’ve been very happy with it and am using 3rd party toner refills without any issues.

I bought an Epson ET-3750 all in one that uses ink tanks. So far very happy with it; easy setup and it's 1/2 the size of the older HP. Oh, and did I mention no cartridges, but ink tanks?

I bought an HP inkjet printer a couple years ago. All I needed was to print black and white for printing shipping labels and recipes for use in the kitchen. Inkjet printers only came in color, fine. I print a few pages a year so it should last a while.

When I printed my <20th page in a year it looks like crud. Did the cleaning, head realignment, etc. same issue. Thought maybe the 'starter' ink was done. Bought new cartridges. Less than a year later the same thing. I tossed the printer in the trash can.

I bought Brother laser printer for $99 and have had 0 issues. What great printer this is. As for the HP I tossed - I could not morally give this away knowing the ink dries out quickly, ink cost, and overall aggravation.

I have a Brother too. Combo printer/scanner/fax machine/blender. It does detect when ink is "low" but you can easily tell it to keep printing until the cart is dry. They seem to be better about this than HP.

Cart' printers are inexpensive because the manufacturer intends to make their $ on the cart's. So they make them to deliberately hold little ink* and charge exorbitantly for them. That was one of the things I discovered when using off brand (and far less expensive) cartridges for the HP. They lasted close to forever because they actually contained a full load of ink.

*How do they do this since they sound full when new? It's a molded cartridge, and what's it's like inside can't be seen. They could easily form a tiny tank inside the full size cartridge. From the exterior it would look normal but hold a tiny charge of ink in that tiny interior tank. What clued me in to this was the fact of the off brand cart's I bought... they lasted MUCH(!) longer than HP brand. And they wanted to force me to buy their cartridges again to get the use of the printer I owned. It wasn't going to happen! That's why I will never buy another HP product.

Maybe 10 years ago I was given a "free" brand new printer from Dell. Now I know there is no such thing as a free lunch, but I just had to see the scam for myself, so I took the printer. It had a cartridge with BMCY all in one unit. Of course when one ink ran out you were done printing until a new (and expensive) cartridge was inserted. It wouldn't even let me print in B&W if I remember correctly. It got trashed almost immediately. Near as I can figure it would have worked for someone who needed a printer to fill a hole at a computer workstation and never used for printing. But use it for printing and that free printer would get expensive very quickly. Now if HP had done this by giving me the printer for free I might have allowed the scam, but I paid for the printer making it mine. They thought they could change the buyer/seller "contract" after the sale had been made. Again, not going to happen.