HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors

linearchaos , 3 months ago

I wouldn’t pay $36 for an HP printer that they didn’t monitor much less per month

azenyr , 3 months ago

1 - buy one of those refillable ink tank printers that are now actually common and not expensive;

2 - buy ink bottles at aliexpress for $10 4x200ml ink or around that;

3 - years of ink for a few bucks.

If you have a cartridge printer, search on aliexpress for refillable cartridges for your printer and do step 2 anyway (you can usually refill those easily with a seringe).

Don’t feed their greed.

FlyingSquid , 3 months ago

Even the low end is insane. $8 a month for 20 pages? You can go to a place like Staples or FedEx Office with a USB drive and get that printed out for less than a dollar.

michaelmrose , 3 months ago

It’s actually 20c per page for about 4 bucks. Then there is tax for another 40c then 35c of gas and possibly 15 minutes of your time over and over and over again.

The right answer is a black and white laser. spend $199 once in the next 10-15 years

FlyingSquid , 3 months ago

You could also go to the library.

Twitches , 3 months ago

This is what we did, sometimes we print, sometimes we don’t, toner doesn’t dry. Multi function 200 dollars. So far 5 years later, off brand toner and all is well.

rustydomino , 3 months ago

In a lot of densely populated Asian cities, you can print to the shared printer of a local convenience store through the network without bringing a USB drive. You submit the job, it gets stored in the queue of the device, you go to the store (usually just downstairs from your apartment), scan a QR code, and the job prints. You can even pay online - it’s great!

echodot , 3 months ago

That’s an insane price. It would literally be cheaper to buy a new HP printer when the ink runs out.

LukyJay , 3 months ago

I’d hate to defend this ridiculous company but the price is “up to” so cheaper plans are available, and the one you’re quoting includes ink for 700 pages a month which I doubt a new printer for $35 will do.

NigelFrobisher , 3 months ago

Yup dawg, we heard you like economic rent…

suction , 3 months ago

Oh yeah? I want Kojima to make more MGS games…

Railcar8095 , 3 months ago

Sir, this is Wen… I mean HP

suction , 3 months ago

What hinders HP to open a top tier games division, hire Kojima, buy the MGS IP from Konami, and fulfill my want? Then maybe I’ll consider renting a printer from them.

Railcar8095 , 3 months ago

Do you want another EA?

suction , 3 months ago

It wouldn’t be because it’s acronym would be “HP”.

Raz , 3 months ago

Helectronic Parts?

tomkatt , 3 months ago

I bought a Brother laser printer some years back for like $120 and am still working on the starter toner cartridge. HP can fuck right off with this.

FlyingSquid , 3 months ago

My laser printer is so old that it’s USB 1.0.

It’s on its second toner cartridge and I have no plans to get rid of it.

NutWrench , 3 months ago

Same here. BW Brother printer and I can get 3 toner cartridges for about $25. At about a dozen pages a day, those cartridges last me a whole year.

FlavoredButtHair , 3 months ago

I wouldn’t pay half that if it was the only source to feed HP employees. Fuck HP in the ass with a gasoline soaked pickle.

suction , 3 months ago

But then again Brother was founded by known racist Hulk Hogan, so…

PeterPoopshit , 3 months ago

HP can go fuck themselves

AlecSadler , 3 months ago

I paid $100 for my Brother printer and I’ve spent…maybe $100 on toner cartridges since 2010.

So, yeah, HP can fuck off.

xia , 3 months ago

Meanwhile, physical media is on the decline.

DudeImMacGyver , 3 months ago

Fuck HP, I will definitely never own one of their printers ever again because I have a Brother laser printer that is fucking great, never breaks, and definitely never tries to rip me off.

InternetUser2012 , 3 months ago

Really nice to see other people showing the brother printers love. I have a little laser printer I bought years ago at best buy when I was running a printing business and has well over a million copies on it. I no longer have the business but that printer is still working.

runeko , 3 months ago

Team Brother!

sebinspace , 3 months ago

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/18d816bb-98c9-4930-aa34-21240e77604a.jpeg

runeko , 3 months ago

I promote Brother because HP is so so bad. Product, business model, service. So bad. I want to save others from the nightmare of dealing with HP. I willingly exchanged my money for a good and service: a Brother printer. The $4 bil company didn’t raid my village and burn my house down. They offered me a printer at a reasonable price and I’m tired of pretending otherwise. So: Team Brother!

FlyingSquid , 3 months ago

On top of that, their products work forever. Yes, I buy Brother printers. The last time I bought one was at least 20 years ago and it still works.

How many other tech companies make hardware that lasts that long? I try to use my tech as long as possible, but 20 years? My notebook just conked out at 9 years and I was amazed it lasted that long.

FatTony , 3 months ago

At this point I know I will never buy a printer, period.

Smokeless7048 , 3 months ago

just get a small laser printer. i got a Pantum Laser Printer, on sale, for like $40. Its on its 3rd refill after years and years of heavy printing for my wife while in school.

FarFarAway , 3 months ago

I’ve heard good things about the tank printers

fxt_ryknow , 3 months ago

I picked up an Epson eco tank printer for my wife a couple years ago, and it’s been fantastic! My wife, being a kindergarten teacher has a knack for absolutely killing printers… And this little Epson has been a work horse!!! I have nothing but good things to say about it!

Dark_Arc , 3 months ago

Get a black and white laser printer from brother… It’s all you ever really “need”

MataVatnik , 3 months ago

That’s what I got, years later still haven’t changed the ink and it runs smoothly. Not sure whose buying HP

EdibleFriend , 3 months ago

People who don’t keep up with things like this, which is honestly a lot of people. I was the electronics guys at walmart for years. Just quit a few months back. So many people would be stunned when I tell them about all the bullshit HP pulls. And so many more would hit me with ‘well ive heard good things’ and buy it anyways.

MataVatnik , 3 months ago

Good on you for giving them fair warning

EdibleFriend , 3 months ago

Yeah I honestly tried with a lot of the shit there lol. oh well.

Epzillon , 3 months ago

You know, I think this is one of those “some people just want to get scammed” moments.

EdibleFriend , 3 months ago

That’s a whole other can of worms. I would get so many old fucks coming in for gift cards, mostly iTunes of course, and when the amount seemed fishy I would ask what it was for and, predictably, quite often it was some obvious bullshit. some would believe me right away, some would take some convincing, some would get mad. I remember one in particular called me a ‘fucking moron who doesn’t know shit’ and insisted i sell him the 1k iTunes so he could pay is taxes. Had fun selling that one.

Others really stick out though. I had more then a few of the ‘love scams’ over the years. The military online BF who was discharged but has to pay his own trip home. This one in particualar is gonna stick with me till the day I die. She was there with a friend, and when i brought up how obvious the bullshit was, her friend was like ‘SEE!?’ We talked to her about this for a half hour or so before she believed us and holy fuck did she break down.

Dark_Arc , 3 months ago

To be fair it’s always a crapshoot whether the person at Walmart or BestBuy or wherever really knows their stuff or just has a personal bias.

Sounds like you’re doing good by folks but for a lot of people you’re going to have an uphill credibility battle mostly because they don’t know you.

I’m a professional software engineer that has done all sorts of things involving computers over the years … I’ll always hear people out and some do have some genuinely great advice/say things I would’ve said if somebody asked me (and almost definitely aren’t getting paid what they’re worth by these places). Others are just kinda blowing smoke … and I fear for the customers that listen to them lol.

EdibleFriend , 3 months ago

lol don’t get me started on the stupid shit i heard from my coworkers. one time I was just coming back from break and this new girl had been helping a customer while I was gone. They had just finished up the sale.

How do I get photopshop on this?

Oh it will have an app store.

IT WAS A FUCKING MONITOR

Dark_Arc , 3 months ago

Big oof…

DudeImMacGyver , 3 months ago

People who don’t know any better.

FarFarAway , 3 months ago

That’s what happened to me. Needed a printer in the middle of covid, ASAP. Nothing I researched was there, so I had a limited time to just pick a printer. Hmmm, this HP seems ok…

3 months later, there was no way I used all the ink. WTF. Go to buy more, and thats when I realized my mistake. !@#☆$%^&*

garretble , 3 months ago

Costs $.10 to print at the library.

I’m fortunate to have a library just down the street so I go over there.

I also don’t have to print anything very often so I’ve only had to do that a couple of times in as many years.

duffman , 3 months ago

My library offers $7 worth of printing free each week with your Library. I am curious how many households actually still have printers these days.

FlyingSquid , 3 months ago

The public library here (and it’s far from alone) offers free B&W and color laser printing, free large format printing and free 3D printing. Libraries are awesome.

(I am married to one of the library’s administrators, so I may be slightly biased, but really, go check out your local library.)

bratosch , 3 months ago

Apart from this printer nonsense, why do people hate HP so much?

floridaman , 3 months ago

Their products have become pretty junk as of recent, at least on the consumer side. I hear good things about their enterprise devices.

Woht24 , 3 months ago

HP was making garbage in the 2000s. Always has been, always will be.

fxt_ryknow , 3 months ago

Absolutely hate the fact that their drivers and firmware updates (for servers) are stashed away behind ludacris support contracts.

Have a simplivity stack at work, and for two nodes with an off site DR, needed an $8,000 support contract just to get the latest drivers and firmware to upgrade to the latest VMware version simplivity supports.

One shot deal, as we are already planning the move away from VMware and getting plans together for budgets to do so…

Maybe they all do this…? Admittedly I’ve not had to go looking for drivers or firmware updates on the few dells we have as they are air gapped systems that just run for a very specific purpose… So I honestly am not sure. But HP absolutely sucks in this regard as far as Im concerned.

MonkeMischief , 3 months ago

I got one for you: You’re on a tightrope of balancing security and your pocketbook, because a firmware update might also include DRM to brick any aftermarket toners you might have purchased.

Oh, you don’t wanna pay out the nose for gEnUiNe HP?? What’s your threat model look like?

Ridiculous.

Halcyon , 3 months ago

They sell ink for higher prices than champagne. And make it impossible to use third party ink.

kmirl , 3 months ago

I bought an HP m281 mfp printer 3-4 years ago and disabled automatic firmware updates when I was setting it up. Not too long after that I read that a new firmware release prevented 3rd party cartridges from working.

Anyway I bought new ink cartridges a couple of years ago after getting pop-ups saying the ink was getting low. Thing is, I haven’t had to install them yet because despite the warnings the printer has been printing just fine with the original cartridges.

So in addition to blocking 3rd party cartridges HP is also lying about how much ink their cartridges contain.

F.U. HP.

dual_sport_dork , 3 months ago

All printers do this to some extent, I think. A combination of never wanting to report a false negative plus manufacturers making most of their money on consumables.

One of the cheapie monochrome Brother printers we have at work has been bitching about replacing the imaging drum for about four years now. We just dismiss the message and it’s been printing just fine this whole time. It still is.

Naboo_calls_for_aid , 3 months ago

Right, my thought has always been I’d rather change the ink when the print quality bothers me, not because the company that sold me the printer is forcing me to.