arstechnica
HP launched a subscription service today that rents people a printer, allots them a specific amount of printed pages, and sends them ink for a monthly fee. HP is framing its service as a way to simplify printing for families and small businesses, but the deal also comes with monitoring and a years-long commitment.
Prices range from $6.99 per month for a plan that includes an HP Envy printer (the current model is the 6020e) and 20 printed pages. The priciest plan includes an HP OfficeJet Pro rental and 700 printed pages for $35.99 per month. More
It’s not a service, it’s extortion.
HAHAHA. No.
All your printers are belong to us.
Social media spy’s on you for free.
Save your money.
HP will send you ink deliveries when you’re running low and for an additional fee they’ll FAX you more paper… 👀
Most people don’t print that much anymore.
I print occasionally, but not enough to warrant even an ink cart a year!
^ I’m still on my second laser cartridge on my 2009 printer!
But I’m miserly. I recycle laser toner! 🤣
Leasing big printers/fax machines/scanners have been the norm for ever to businesses. Nobodies going to lease these plastic POSs.
We have an HP 902 series at the shop. It’s been pretty reliable. But it’s a big step up from their disposable model.
Transfer any file you need printed to a flash drive and take it to Fedex store or UPS store to print it out. None of the hassle, no dried out ink cartridges. and the mailbox places have plenty of paper.
Kermit – In my case I usually wind up correcting, adding or re-formatting something once I look at the printed version of manuals and schematics, so that would represent a few trips.
HP printers are a loss-leader. The real money comes from selling their over-priced, crappy ink cartridges. I hate them, but I hate the other brands even more.
Has anyone tried refilling their cartridges?
Tony R
Try Amazon for printer supplies.Occasionally they have stationary stores trying to “out discount” one another and you can find some pretty cheap supplies.
Remember when the “paperless office” was going to be a really big deal.
Yeah, right. Just like the flying car.
We recently threw out our HP printer. Those bastards make you buy ink from them and only them. The printer is inoperable otherwise. Screw them!
Tony R – Most if not all the ink printers are like that. For decades if ya wanted to print that’s the game you had to play… or go laser.
If you print a lot you’re going to eat thru a lot of carts and that’s when you graduate to a laser. I’ve had a couple lasers when I did a lot more documentation, but now an ink printer fits the bill. I have an HP Envy and it has worked just fine for quite a few years now. No complaints.
“Remember when the “paperless office””
We have a some one sought after paperless manufacturing process. Ask me how much paper we go through. All driven by the very same people that were looking for a paperless manufacturing, art to part, solution. It’s all fun and games until QA gets involved.
Take it from me, I have worked with this stuff from the beginning.
If you want to print stuff, get a COLOR LASERJET printer with a scanner. They’re cheap. make sure it has a USB port so you can scan stuff to it and email it from a laptop.
Wireless is also a good option.
Laser causes last a long time, even the low end HP machines stir the toner periodically.
DON’T connect them to the Internet, HP will annoy and spam the hell out of you.
I don’t know what the latest and best model is, but mine has been running for 5 years or more and hasn’t needed any toner.
Jethro – I have used refilled carts and while they work (in my HP) the quality can be questionable. One nice thing about new ink carts is that you get a new print head. You get the advertised quality every time. Again, if you print enough that the cost of ink is prohibitive, go to a laser.
Sounds like another scam to me.
“Yeah, right. Just like the flying car.”…. Most of the iceholes I see on the road are incapable of driving to the gas station safely on two planes… Let’s not add a third.
FJB
^ Drove through Wyoming once in late winter after a blizzard and on average, there were deep snow spin-outs about every 500′. Some still had old couples standing there waiting to be rescued. I just drove on sandwiched between trucks driven by Mexicans going 60. 🙂
I have an HP laptop. I hate it. It’s maybe worse than the Lenovo that died on me couple years ago.
No more HP products for me. I call the company Pewlet Hackard.
@Dr. Hambone, same thing happened here.
Had to buy a new printer and it was HP or Epson at the local Walmart. The printer getting replaced (an HP) one day just lost the ability to recognize any driver from any computer. Anyway, the new one worked fine for about 6 months then we bought a replacement cartridge. The local Walmart didn’t have a brand-new HP cartridge at the time so I had to buy a reused one. The new HP demanded to be hooked up the internet before working and when we finally relented it demanded we purchase a brand-new HP cartridge then it started printing again.
I recommend HP to all democrats everywhere.
Have a couple of real nice Samsung Color Laser printers. Samsung dumped the printer business and sold it to HP. HP has now trashed those printers just like they trashed Compaq Computer and Digital Equipment Corp [DEC] including the DEC Alpha processor. My Samsung printers are over 10 years old, fully functional and they print beautiful color prints. They are not-so-quite photo quality. There is no substitute HP offers that even comes close to the Samsung quality for non photo color laser applications. Would really like HP to offer the Samsung line under their brand. Outside of that, I’m looking for an AFFORDABLE color laser printer. HP has gone from the Oscillator Instrument to a rip you off in any way we can just to make an obscene profit. For Photo’s, I use an HP inkjet printer but I have to unclog or replace the ink cartridges every time I want a photo quality print. I have resigned myself to getting photo quality printer cartridges and replacing them every time I need to print a group of Hi Quality photo’s. I am looking at Epson for Photo quality and something comparable to the old Samsung color laserjet for daily use. OK, I’m a primadonna, what’s wrong with that.
For small desk top printer Brothers are probably the best.
Epson Workforce 630 at least 10 yo. I can get 12 cartridges for $45 from ezink123.
As for computers, Microcunt and the chip manufactures have killed a lot of computers or rendered them useless with updates. XP to Vista & W7 to W10, the chip manufactures didn’t write updated drivers for the new operating systems. So everybody went and bought new ones, planned scam.
General Malaise – Don’t tell me yer “miserly” until you start putting strings on yer Supositories!
Jethro,
Refilling HP ink carts is somewhat of a crapshoot.
There used to be kits you could buy, or shops you could go to, that would refill the HP (and other brands) ink carts.
Sometimes they would work, sometimes not.
What I found out was (supposedly) HP would (used to? still?) put a chip in the ink cart that would communicate with the printer, saying “oops, I’m low/out of ink”.
When you’d have the ink cartridge refilled, you couldn’t reset the chip. So when you put the refilled cart in the printer, the cart would still insist “oops, I’m still empty”, and the printer wouldn’t print.
I gave up on the whole mess, and now if I have any printing I want done, I go to my Local Public Library and used THEIR printer, ink, and paper, at only 20 cents per page.
I still have the printer, but any more, if I use it at all, it’s to do OCR scanning into my computer.
^^^Brad….My Brother laser printer makes amazing prints.
Dumb Bunnies – Have you tried Metal Prints?
They’re pricey, but phenomenal!
I send some of my best photos to get metal prints and give them away to my kids and relatives. They love them!
Search the Internet and check it out.
No strings attached, yet, Harry! But, by golly, as I explained to a gorgeous store checker the other day, “I’ve been a tight wad my whole life, and I’m done with that! I’m finally enjoying spending money!” She smiled back and said, “I know exactly what you mean!”
“Brad….My Brother laser printer makes amazing prints.”
I have one at home. I’ve had customers mistake prints of 3d electronic models as actual picture of parts. I’ve had it for about four years. No problems.
@Harry FRIDAY, 1 MARCH 2024, 18:51 AT 6:51 PM
Thanks, that is totally new to me (have been retired too long) will check it out for sure
My brother in law picked up a printer that “included” an ink cartridge subscription service. After a couple months of paying for the service but not needing ink cartridges, he cancelled his subscription.
The company PERMANENTLY DISABLED HIS PRINTER REMOTELY and it immediately became an electronic paperweight.
Dumb Bunnies – I personally like the glossy finish – it brings out the detail.
They’re shit printers. I wouldn’t want the damn things even if they were free.
I’ll keep this short. I’m old enough to have done work for H.P. when they were considered the Tech geniuses. And at that time they were. And the company was reaching out in many different directions with great success. What happened you may ask. Carly Fiorina happened. And the bitch had the balls to run for President. Bitch has fucked up everything she’s touched. Wrecked a great company.
I came across a plethora of old school HP inkjets at an auction. Picked them up for $1 each. We had a new fancy Cannon inkjet once, I was so frustrated it was tossed out of the second storey window, it cost me $250. Not a joke, man.
Now we’re running 3 old school HP inkjets for the past 8 years. None have failed and have had zero problems. Still have 5 of them in storage on top of that.
By old school I mean 2001. I get they wanna sell more printers and their desperation is showing. lol.