It's uncanny how any post about problems with HP always has the same solution in the comments. Brother.
In related news, learning what Audi is doing with their new model and subscriptions makes me think the world has gone mad.
It's a good brand. I have their laser printer and it's great. No annoying registration, 3rd party toner cartridges are allowed. Super fast compared to inkjet. Overall a great experience compared to my HP printer which won't let me scan unless I register on the HP app.
Because they are no bullshit brand. You get what you pay for. Open the box, put it somewhere, connect to WIFI and forget about it. The moment you need it, it will happily spring to life without complaints and then go back to sleep.
It's hardly believable how problem-free these printers are. They have a bunch of models, but you always get what you pay for. Laser is this much, a bit more expensive is LAN model, a bit more LAN+WIFI, then higher up scanner added, etc. They also work without drivers on Linux. Company also allows recycled and third party toners. In my case they are even faster to receive data and print than any other printer I've had. They even don't send statistics back home, even though they are network connected.
Not $250/yr for WiFi & nav that you’re referring to, no?
Nor 2019’s scheme which sounds like $1000/mo to drive any of several different Audis?
You will earn nothing and be happy.
Meanwhile cheapskates who buy used old products, renew them and use them: happy.
If you want a non-Brother recommendation, find one of the series 4 HP LaserJets. Those things were figuratively and perhaps literally bulletproof.
My 5P didn't survive the 2012 move. RIP
We had a 5P back in the Win98 days, and it was exactly what you'd expect a printer to be. The refills were pricey, but they'd last a long time (we printed a lot then). And you could get a bit more life out of an empty drum if you shook the hell out it.
I do wonder about compatibility with Win10/11 at this point. I know some other old devices I still have around are all but impossible to get to work.
I have a brother multifunction laser printer scanner thing. It is a cheap piece of crap with flaky wireless.
Unlike the HP printers I've had or worked with, with the Brother I feel like I at least get what I pay for... but it's a pretty low bar.
I bet the Audi model (pricing) is relying of folks leasing vs buying the cars. I can see how they could cram this on a car someone will only have a couple years vs a purchase.
Personally I'd spend the 800 for VAGcom and make a business unlocking cars features.
Any of the luxury brands are smart moves to lease because they depreciate while being under a needed warranty.
Anyone who buys a luxury car new and keeps it past the bumper to bumper is not smart with money.
The fuck?
I’m guessing they signed up for HP Instant Ink, a monthly subscription service that monitors the ink levels in the printer and automatically mails you refills.
If you buy an HP printer, they HEAVILY promote this and offer discounts/free trials. I declined, because fuck that, but I could see someone agreeing and forgetting about it.
They make the money on the ink, not the printer. Laserlet for win
When I was in college, I would go to micro center and buy the cheapest printer there, getting the warranty for $2.99. Run out of ink? Return it as defective and get a new printer with the gift card, paying $2.99 for the warranty again. So I paid $2.99 for ink for all 4 years of college.
$10,000 per gallon
No, the printer
Everybody donate to Pine64 so they can get that open source printer off the ground someday.
Wait, what?
Pine64, the company that has made such excellent projects as the PinePhone, PineBook, and PineTime(open source hardware and software smartphone, laptop and smart watch), has stated that one of their dream projects would be an open source, hackable printer. There's obviously a ton of logistics though and it will likely never materialize unless they really start making big bucks.
Epson EcoTank. They’re expensive printers, but the ink is so cheap they make up for it. I absolutely love mine and recommend it to anyone looking for a printer.
If you're gonna spend money on a decent printer, go with a laser printer unless you specifically need ink printing.
I have an HP I got like a decade ago, and only had to change the OEM toner carts in the last 6mo or so. The thing has survived 3 moves too, so it's held up like a champ. It probably helps that it's an older HP, so it was before they went to shit.
Hi, this is Hewlett Packard here. We read your post and are happy you love our products! Wouldn’t it make sense for you to upgrade to one of our newer models? I’m sure you’re tired of lugging your heavy, old printer these days.
Our new ones are much lighter! Lighter in weight due to beautiful design! Lighter even on your wallet (at first, and for now)!
Won’t you consider upgrading and locking in - I mean - “purchasing” a new printer, pretty please? uwu :3
Here’s a friendly Kirby to convince you to upgrade! See, we’re cool and we know how to use product placement! Upgrade now or else!! We can’t wait for YOUR SOUL TO BE OURS.
Your Friend, HP
(We rebranded. Now the “P” stands for Predatory, but like the cute kind 😘. It’s okay to give us your money, trust us.)
Honestly, if I printed enough to warrant it, I'd go for that Epson... But I stick with my color laser because it's over ten years old and I print so little it still has the starter cartridges in it, ink would have dried out so many times during that period
Boom. My HP is a tiny B&W from 10+ years ago. Runs like a champ, $20 for an easy 1,000 pages, or more. WFH and do a little company printing so they buy the supplies. MUCH love. When it finally kicks it, if I can't find a refurb kit, I'll go Brother.
I won't go eco tank personally, clogs and cleaning is a royal pain on them and there's no good purge feature. I would fully recommend going this path only if accuracy on color is requirement further then laser printers do
I’ve had mine for about four years. I’ve had clogged print heads once, and I ran the auto cleaning five times, then it worked. I’ll give you that it was a pain, but the purge feature works. You’ve just gotta do it multiple times if it’s a really bad clog.
Actually they have a power wash feature you can use. It just wastes a lot of ink.
Hands down the best printer I've ever had. Only challenge is cleaning the printer heads because I don't print often enough.
I just run the automated thing like 4 or 5 times until it prints well again. It always works eventually.
Actually eco tank printers are also designed to fail as they have ink pads that can only be replaced by the manufacturer I recommend you watch this video explaining the problem with tank printers like the eco tank.
That’s an ink absorber, and all inkjet printers have them. It’s not “designed to fail”, it’s a physical limitation of the universe. You can’t just keep dumping ink into a sponge forever. Eventually it will become saturated and you can either clean it or replace it.
I’ve had my printer for about four years and haven’t needed to replace one yet. They only cost about $10 when you do need to replace it. If they cost several hundred dollars, I would see your point, but the savings in ink more than makes up for having to replace a sponge every decade or so.
Edit: I missed that you said only the manufacturer can replace it. That’s not true. It’s user replaceable with a Phillips head screwdriver.
Edit 2: Added links.
Nah. After getting a laser jet I'll never go back to an inkjet printer. For the cost of an eco tank you can get a solid laser printer with zero maintenance and it will last much longer.
I've had mine for seven years and only changed the ink twice.
Yes and no. I have one and they work fine until you unplug them for any length of time. Then you have to deal with cleaning all the printheads and getting it to work properly again. Typically needs multiple passes before it will print right. I know it's a problem with all ink jet printers. It's a shame toner is more expensive and colour laser printers are so expensive. If not I would switch to one of them.
The fact that HP didn't even say anything makes it look less like profiteering and more like spite. Idiots. I'm actually in the market for a printer and from what I can tell, in order to get something that won't stiff me in some way I have to get one which is really old. And not made by HP.
You just want a Brother laser jet black and white printer
It's no bullshit and will work forever
I'm with the others recommending Brother. They aren't perfect, but they're the least bad.
Running about a 10 year old MFC 9349 CDW here, only changed the black toner so far. Used a cartridge reset truck I found on YouTube to get more life out of the original black before that.
Scans to network nicely, does 2 sided prints etc.
Go for a Brother.
I've owned a HL-3070cw for a decade (I think, close to if not) - I've changed the toner carts 4 times, it's printed high res color daily for pennies. Shit just works, and quality isn't bad at all. Works from any device on the network - phones tablets desktops laptops - practically zero network admin/setup, it just fucking works for everyone. Cannot recommend enough.
I've been around in IT long enough... The emails went to someone who has left or someone set auto delete "on these annoying spam emails!".
Not to make it right or better, hp sucks donkey balls, but I don't believe the would've been zero contact. If you buy a subscription printer and stop paying for a subscription... That's on you.
Apparently Brother, and some Lexmark, printers don't come with this BS DRM baked into the firmware.
Has anyone cracked the HP firmware to give us proper access to our hardware?
For those who don't know, Wendigoon is a creepy lore youtuber.
He's also sometimes been acredited with creating the aesthetic of the boogaloo boys, not sure how true that is.
As far as I've heard, his videos are fairly consistent with documentation of the events he covers, such as the unibomber, the MLK assassination, etc.
It's very funny to think he wasn't radicalized before the printer situation.
Yeah, he has a... questionable history, what with the "boogaloo boys" memes, but he stopped engaging with that pretty quickly around the time it became associated with Actual Nazis instead of semi-ironic government-hating libertarians.
I did not know that! Thank you.
He is not exactly radical, he is not a fan of the government and loves a good conspiracy.
He also is a devote Christian, but not a dick about it.
He, by all accounts, is a wonderful person that everybody who knows him loves.
He interviewed a fed.
He’s also sometimes been acredited with creating the aesthetic of the boogaloo boys, not sure how true that is.
I don't really know anything about him, but I just checked out his channel and I don't really think that's true since its only 3 years old
Seen this so many times and glad to keep seeing it.
More people being informed on these scummy practices to look out for and avoid is a good thing.
I'm not glad that I keep seeing it. They were using managed printing i.e. pay-per-page. HP may make garbage and overcharge for ink, but I'm sick of people tapping the up arrow on low effort posts like this.
I will happily upvote anything that rags on HP printers, I don't care how low effort it is. In fact, I would hate to think someone spent actual effort on anything HP related.
HP printers have been kicking puppies and insulting your mother for well over 20 years. Wait, they haven't? Well, after a certain point a company has burned so much good will by making marginal printers, less-than marginal drivers and artificially differentiating inks and toners to such a degree it's hard to see it as anything other than profiteering... pant pant ...that nobody cares if it's unfair or inaccurate.
Don't buy HP. Think of the puppies. Think of your mother, for God's sake!
Printers shouldn't be allowed to the edge...vlan with no Internet access.... it's a fucking printer not a web host.
Jokes on you it's hosting hornets.
Get a brother printer
I was given a Brother printer that had spent 10+ years in a damp cellar. I already had one but this one was A3 and that could be ha'dy. Unfortunately it was an ink jet.
So, of course, I had to buy cartridges as the printer was screaming bloody murder. Alas, the whole feeding circuit and the printing head were clogged beyond salvage (the manual insists that it's not to be left unplugged for extended periods).
But that's not the point of the story. The whole (compatible) set of four cartridges was something like 17€. Also the scanner still worked just fine.
Looked like a great machine, probably not worth it to fix (new one is about 450€).
I replaced my HP with a brother laser printer. Works great and no more ink cartridges. That toner cart will last me years
Fuck HP. Simple as that.
As other comments have said. Never buy anything from HP.
Get a Brother printer.
every time I see this screenshot I'm disappointed that it misses the photo of Ted Kaczynski he responded with
this one?No this one
I need to print once a year. When I do, I print at my local library.
My mom bought a cheap HP printer/scanner several years ago and subscribed to their "instant ink" subscription which was actually surprisingly cheap (like $3/mo) but once the printer stopped reliably connecting to the internet and nobody could print wirelessly anymore with it, she canceled the subscription and HP DISABLED ALL OF THE INK CARTRIDGES. The cartridges themselves have wifi connections so HP can automatically send you new ink when they get low. What a scam.
No, they have serial numbers that are read by the printer when you try to use them. Air Gap the printer.
This is just what HP told us.
Never use a smart printer. If this is your only choice, make sure this dorker has no internet connection. If it does make any sudden movements, use the 9mm.
Don't buy HP ever, they straight up refuse to work without wi-fi.
I got an old… Ricoh? machine from some company sellout with a heck of a lot of toners. Was €500 but I’ll never need to buy anything again for the next 3 decades.
I prefer the .45 for stawpping powa. PC Load Letter?! Blamblamblam.
It’s crazy how the people and govt have let this go on for so long. This has been a known issue with consumer grade printers for a long time now. I remember my parents bitching about ink costs when I was in grade school. Now these companies have raced to the bottom and are locking them down.
Personally, I have found myself to print less than a dozen pages per year. Usually it’s some government office that wants hard copy. For every instance, I just used my local Office Depot to handle all of my printing needs. So glad I don’t have to deal with printer bs
My old HP printer takes XL refills and HP can't do a thing about it. I need them to know this too.
I did an internship at an OEM that was the dying most of the revenue came from government make work money for economic development and selling machines to the 3rd world because they were too dangerous for first world.
Our high end products did this remote deactivation thing. Hated it at the time still hate it today.
And while you’re at it, get a laser printer.
Wait a second, people still use printers in 2024!
Part of the reason I got a brother LaserJet instead of an Epson eco tank was because I don't need to worry about toner drying out. As much as I try to avoid it, I still need to print once in a blue moon and it's not really "efficient" to drive to the library.
Yeah I had a legal document that needed a shorter turnaround than the time it took me to drive to the library print it, bring it by and submit it. So I own a LaserJet brother printer I got at office Max because my HP printer doesn't print anymore because I unsubscribed from their ink shipping service so they remotely bricked it.
I highly recommend everyone buy a black and white toner based printer. Its the way to go to hit the right blend of "I live paperless what need have I for a printer" and "oh actually my society isn't totally paperless sometimes I need a printed document"
Wait until you find out that some countries still use fax machines.
Yeah, the only time I needed to print something in the last 5 years was a passport renewal form. I just spent 10 cents to print it at my local library. I really don't understand why anybody really needs a printer nowadays.
Join the wendigoon trail, REBEAL
That is frustrating for sure, but they prob should have read their agreement when they purchased whatever subscription they signed up for. It's like complaining that T-Mobile has locked their subscription-discounted phone despite them not paying the bill.
Yeah they should really invent a printer with a tiny internet connected screen on the front that could convey this type of message about a person's account and the nature of the problem.
It isn't like that at all. T-Mobile would've given you a better deal for taking a contract such as that, HP just decided they didn't want you to even THINK about purchasing ink or something from anyone else but them. It'd be more like if T-Mobile sold you a phone that you paid full price for, and then decided they'd remotely lock your phone and wipe it if you tried to buy a charging cable from anywhere but their store.
This is straight malicious anti-consumer bullshit, and it is basically rapist behavior. It's disgusting.
If you buy a printer that has it already included, then you're either getting a discounted printer or "discounted" ink for a subscription period. They make it clear that it is a subscription service when you do so. They all sell printers that are not subscription-based. I'm guessing you can still sign up for their subscription-based service, and you should read the fine print about being able to cancel or what happens if you don't pay.
I absolutely hate HP by the way. They do things like include spyware in their "drivers" that are pushed through Windows Update. However, in this case, a simple Twitter screenshot doesn't accurately capture the full story. If you want to provide some more context, then by all means feel free to do so.
