EFF: HP Must Make Amends For Self-Destructing Printers

[Dr. Righteous]

This is ridiculous; ink requires rather a little amount of R&D.
HP should just charge the proper amount for the printer. We don't have this kind of printer-ink lockin for cars-gas, washing machines-water/detergent, coffeemaker-coffee, and so on.

What do you think the ink is? Food coloring and water? No it is a complex formula that has to preform and meet a lot of criteria. Each manufacturer has developed and patented a printing process, or they licence one. HP is "ink jet", Cannon is "bubble Jet" Epson uses a peizo electric method to spray the ink, a newer method is MemJet (usually in high end, high speed machines) but the ink formulas are different for each technology.
These are water based inks; that is only ONE of many different technologies. Go ahead and buy your knock off ink. Nothing illegal about it. But you will not get the performance of OEM and it many cases it will damage the printer.

 

[M76]

Nothing illegal about it. But you will not get the performance of OEM and it many cases it will damage the printer.

It should be perfectly within your right to damage your printer if you want. Unless you're leasing the printer from HP and not buying them.

HP has so many dirty tricks when it comes to printers that it's criminal. Like the cartridges packaged with the printer only filled to 10 percent of capacity. Or the printer refusing to print with old cartridges because it decides they're "expired". How does a print cartridge expire in the vacuum sealed packaging? The expiry date should only mean you can't sell the cartridge in a retail store after that date, and not that you can'T use them if you already purchased it for a ton of money. A full set of 6 cartridges in a designjet printer costs a fortune.

 

[Dr. Righteous]

It should be perfectly within your right to damage your printer if you want. Unless you're leasing the printer from HP and not buying them.

Indeed. You are also within your right to drag it out to the drive way and run over it with your car. But don't expect HP to honor a warranty claim.

HP has so many dirty tricks when it comes to printers that it's criminal. Like the cartridges packaged with the printer only filled to 10 percent of capacity.

Never heard of this one but if you purchased new cart and it showed only 10% full you are entitled to a replacement. BUT, if you think you only got 10% of the life of a cartridge, take a hard look at what you are printing and how much you use the printer and h ow much it sits idle. If your printer sits idle for days; it has to WASTE INK in cleaning and purge to keep the print quality at maximum. This is how printer work that use water based ink. Must inkjet type printer print a "composite black" which uses all colors at once. so when you cry "Why am I out of yellow? I didn't print anything with yellow in it!!!!" Get a clue.

Or the printer refusing to print with old cartridges because it decides they're "expired". How does a print cartridge expire in the vacuum sealed packaging? The expiry date should only mean you can't sell the cartridge in a retail store after that date, and not that you can'T use them if you already purchased it for a ton of money. A full set of 6 cartridges in a designjet printer costs a fortune.

Inkjet print cartridges have a shelf life. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to customer sites that complained about bad performance from their DesignJet only to find a cabinet full of ink carts; most all of them expired.
Yes, they freak out when I tell them $800 worth of ink they purchased 3 years ago needs to go in the trash. You don't buy Ink that far ahead if you are not printing a high volume. The same reason your don't go to the grocery store and buy a years worth of wonder bread.
When they started embedding ID tags in the carts the printers could read them and see how old they were. If expired, forget it. You waste your other ink trying to purge and make a bad cartridge print. Better to reject the expired cart to begin with. That is how it is designed to work. NO it is not a conspiracy against you.

 

[Uvaman2]

Indeed. You are also within your right to drag it out to the drive way and run over it with your car. But don't expect HP to honor a warranty claim.


Never heard of this one but if you purchased new cart and it showed only 10% full you are entitled to a replacement. BUT, if you think you only got 10% of the life of a cartridge, take a hard look at what you are printing and how much you use the printer and h ow much it sits idle. If your printer sits idle for days; it has to WASTE INK in cleaning and purge to keep the print quality at maximum. This is how printer work that use water based ink. Must inkjet type printer print a "composite black" which uses all colors at once. so when you cry "Why am I out of yellow? I didn't print anything with yellow in it!!!!" Get a clue.


Inkjet print cartridges have a shelf life. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to customer sites that complained about bad performance from their DesignJet only to find a cabinet full of ink carts; most all of them expired.
Yes, they freak out when I tell them $800 worth of ink they purchased 3 years ago needs to go in the trash. You don't buy Ink that far ahead if you are not printing a high volume. The same reason your don't go to the grocery store and buy a years worth of wonder bread.
When they started embedding ID tags in the carts the printers could read them and see how old they were. If expired, forget it. You waste your other ink trying to purge and make a bad cartridge print. Better to reject the expired cart to begin with. That is how it is designed to work. NO it is not a conspiracy against you.

Listen, knockoff ink is the only thing I use. In fact, I started the printer in knockoff ink, knowing I had better odds of it working that way, instead of mixing the inks and maybe getting a clog.
IT can be done cheaper, can be done for less profit.
Maybe a bit less quality, but cheaper for sure.
HP doesn't want to, that is fine, maybe their market is not shrinking so its not an issue.
I know this, I used to buy Gillette.. Havent for years now, just too much money.
Maybe they are making tons of money too.. I don't know, I know they have tons of competition though (or it seems that way, lord knows it might all be the same company).

 

[M76]

Indeed. You are also within your right to drag it out to the drive way and run over it with your car. But don't expect HP to honor a warranty claim.

Did I say they should? But they can't tell me what can I do with it either.

Never heard of this one but if you purchased new cart and it showed only 10% full you are entitled to a replacement. BUT, if you think you only got 10% of the life of a cartridge, take a hard look at what you are printing and how much you use the printer and h ow much it sits idle. If your printer sits idle for days; it has to WASTE INK in cleaning and purge to keep the print quality at maximum. This is how printer work that use water based ink. Must inkjet type printer print a "composite black" which uses all colors at once. so when you cry "Why am I out of yellow? I didn't print anything with yellow in it!!!!" Get a clue.

I said if you purchase a new HP printer from a store the cartridges that come with it will be filled to 10-20% of capacity max. You think using that condescending tone validates your point?

Inkjet print cartridges have a shelf life. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to customer sites that complained about bad performance from their DesignJet only to find a cabinet full of ink carts; most all of them expired.
Yes, they freak out when I tell them $800 worth of ink they purchased 3 years ago needs to go in the trash. You don't buy Ink that far ahead if you are not printing a high volume. The same reason your don't go to the grocery store and buy a years worth of wonder bread.
When they started embedding ID tags in the carts the printers could read them and see how old they were. If expired, forget it. You waste your other ink trying to purge and make a bad cartridge print. Better to reject the expired cart to begin with. That is how it is designed to work. NO it is not a conspiracy against you.

The grocery store won't make you throw out the bread if it's expired when you take it out of the freezer. 99% of the time that bread will be perfectly fine, and eatable.

The point is that they shouldn't dictate how you use the printer. It's greed nothing else, it has nothing to do with customer interests.

 

[jardows]

Never heard of this one but if you purchased new cart and it showed only 10% full you are entitled to a replacement. BUT, if you think you only got 10% of the life of a cartridge, take a hard look at what you are printing and how much you use the printer and h ow much it sits idle. If your printer sits idle for days; it has to WASTE INK in cleaning and purge to keep the print quality at maximum. This is how printer work that use water based ink. Must inkjet type printer print a "composite black" which uses all colors at once. so when you cry "Why am I out of yellow? I didn't print anything with yellow in it!!!!" Get a clue.

Either you didn't understand the statement, or you are not buying printers from retail stores. Most of the retail stores will state that the printers come with "starter" cartridges, which are rated for only a couple hundred pages. Basically, that really good deal you got on the printer? Be prepared to pay more for ink than you paid for the printer just to print out more than 100 or so pages.