First introduced in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, HP Plus was built around FOMO right from the start. You get just seven days to claim your free ink, starting the moment you plug a new printer into the wall. Act now, and it’ll also extend your warranty a full year, give you an “Advanced HP Smart app,” and plant trees on your behalf. Because why wouldn’t you want to save the forest?
Here’s one reason, as detailed in a new complaint by the International Imaging Technology Council (IITC) that might turn into a false advertising fight: HP Plus comes with a firmware update that utterly removes your printer’s ability to accept third-party ink. You have to buy “genuine” HP ink as long as you use the printer.
I mean, complaining about printer makers is basically like shooting fish in a barrel, but somehow they always manage to find rockier bottom.
DRM’ing ink in a printer should be criminal, as should the practice of artificially crippling hardware, not just printers, you own. And for that matter, making people pay for things like heated seats in their car as a service needs to criminalized too.
Ok, so Epson, HP, … who’s next on my ban list ?
HP is shooting its own foot…
Today, there are limited reasons to go with an inkjet over laser.
For example, A color laser, with a duplex and scanner unit, like Canon mf642c (the one I use), usually goes on very good discount making the equation very lopsided.
(There are still valid reasons, like ventilation of toner, large format, photo printing, etc).
Yet, even for ink, there is almost no reason to go with these hp models.
Epson has ink “tank” printers, for example: https://epson.com/ecotank-ink-tank-printers
You no longer need cartridges, but buy ink larger boxes. And refilling is much simpler. (Again, there are other brands, including hp).
The only reason people are brought into what could be a scam, is that they give “cheap” printer with “free” ink. There is no free lunch, and a good printer will either cost $300 upfront, or much more in the long run with “subscriptions”.
Epson has long lost any credibility, not only due to their ink cartridge chip scam, but also preventing you from scanning when the printer considered there was not enough ink available (yet there was plenty left). https://www.google.com/search?q=epson+scanning+without+ink
Yes, that was a thing. (I know I had an older Epson).
But they came to their senses a while ago:
https://epson.com/support/wa00934
Again, inkjet would not be my first choice. But if needed, then I will get a “tank” version, and that will alleviate these issues. Even the original ink has very high yields: https://www.staples.com/ecotank-l655/cat_CL90000033210
Won’t ever touch an Epson printer, inkjet or not. Loss of trust. Period. There are alternatives. Even better than Epson, so why bother ?
Epson may be a bit O/T here, but same.
Epson, you had a customer in me before you became too damn greedy. When it comes to engineering your products to cease functioning…this is indefensible BS and you guys know it! Epson = unfit for purpose. Sorry Epson, but you when you drag your own name through the mud don’t be surprised when you earn a reputation for being a trash company. The only way I’d personally consider going back is if they issue a formal apology to the millions of customers they intentionally screwed over with their defective by design engineering and commit to never doing it again.
This came up before…
https://www.osnews.com/story/135165/citing-danger-of-ink-spills-epson-programs-end-of-life-for-some-printers/
Unfortunately it seems like HP wants in on the ink scam too. Competition and the environment can just go to hell for all they care, profit are all that matter. I hate government interference and it feels so stupid that the government should have to regulate ink accessibility. But at the same time products keep getting worse as our companies go on power trips engineering artificial restrictions to crush competition, be it ink, app stores, computer components, etc. These companies seem adamant that abusing their customers is their best business strategy. And that sucks because absent governmental regulation things just keep getting worse with abusive DRM schemes.
/rant
Kochise, Alfman,
Yes there is a broken trust component.
But it ultimately comes down the total cost of ownership calculation. Knowing how long I plan to keep the printer, whether there is viable third party ink or toner (*), any known reliability issues, and of course the set of features that I absolutely need and would be nice to have.
None* of the “cartridge” based inkjet would be my choice at the moment for general purpose printing. But again, tank ones are in a different category.
*1 I used to have a very good 3rd party toner provider, but their last two batches were low quality. There is always that risk. Even though I switched, now I have a set of 4 toners that I can’t use
*2 For photo printing, there is little alternative to professional Canon series. Unfortunately, that comes with cartridges.
sukru,
The problem for me wasn’t necessarily the features or even cartridges, it was the denial of service being engineered into their products, Kochise’s link contains one example as well as my link. Epson is like the person with a mile long rap sheet. It is possible they’ll do better next time, but if they’re not even going to repent for their past sins, how likely is that outcome, really?
You mention ink tanks, and while that sounds good on paper, I still see many bad reviews.
“Are ink tank printers a scam? Are they designed to fail? (EcoTank, MegaTank, SmartTank, SuperTank)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt6KkFCw3eY
“Canon’s Megatank: Yet Another Inkjet Scam, Doomed to Fail Thanks to Ink Absorber/Error Code 5b00!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HUazpXWRYo
My own opinion today is that ink printing is no longer worth it given how widespread ink scams have become. Laser is the way to go, but part of me is afraid it may be a matter of time before the abuse migrates to laser printers too.
sukru,
Maybe I am being too harsh, after all clogging does seem like it is a legitimately difficult problem to address. But even if this is true, these companies have had ample opportunities over decades to get it right, so why is it that we don’t have easily serviceable products that can be fixed/cleaned right at home?
Obviously it comes down to my cynicism, but I believe the companies are likely instructing their engineers to double down on the problems in order to sell more printers/ink instead of working on real solutions that fix the problems and waste less ink. It sure feels like planned obsolescence.
Alfman,
I know about the clogging issue. There is a sponge at the bottom that accumulates waste ink. And, yes, that requires service: https://epson.com/Support/wa00369
I am not sure whether there is a “crack” for the DRM for that one. But I have used, should I say, heavily, an Epson printer for about 10 years. And did not reach that end of life.
At least for my use case, the printer died of old age before even reaching that stage.
And that is an inherent issue with inkjets. We want fast drying ink (remember old days with soggy output?). And that means the printer will have to clean the heads and eject stale ink on its on every now and then.
(The pads look something like this: https://www.amazon.com/epson-ink-pad/s?k=epson+ink+pad)
Again, if I had to use inkject, and if I had the choice, I would stay away from cartridges.
not to mention those ink bottles come at a fraction of the price of hp cartridge, who in case of that hp plus printer lasts for maybe 300 pages.
where i live the hp cartridge is ~4x more expensive than the epson bottle, and it costs nearly 1/2 the price of the hp printer.
while hp printer is 3x cheaper than epson printer. so epson pays for itself within few months.
a rule of thumb i discovered when searching for a printer for my family – the more expensive the printer, the cheaper the supplies.
best printer i found was one where you simply pour the ink in, no cartridges.
“more expensive” part is treated within reason, i did not go very high-end with the price.
as for laser printers – no idea.