HP is like the facebook of printers. Hugely popular; absolute shit product.
I actually have a HP printer with instant ink. When it first launched it was great, there was a "free" tier that was like up to 10 pages free per month.
I don't print a lot but like having a printer for the odd job so that was ideal for me. Now and again a new ink cartridge would arrive and I just didn't think about it.
But they took away the free tier, so I've been on that £0.99 plan which is like 15 pages a month. I put up with it because it was convenient enough to not have to worry about ink, but I was still pissed off at the rug pull.
If they do raise the price in the UK, I'll just sell the printer and buy a new one that does super cheap ink.
Any recommendations out there?
I have two Epson ecotank printers, one at home and one for small business. Not cheap, but the ink that comes with the printer lasts for years. That is at 30 pages a month or so. Avoid all inkjet printers with replaceable ink cartridges.
If you don't really need color, just buy a laser printer.
if you need color, the epson ecotank line is great. they do also have a counter that stops the entire printer after around 18000 pages, but it can be reset with 3rd party software and a 10$ software key. the purge tank for cleaning the nozzle fills up, so just take it out, wash the sponge and reset the counter. idk if newer models still have that counter.
Anything corporations think you can't do without will be raised until enough people have no choice but to stop buying them, then they'll hold it there.
After 15 years of having to buy a new ink printer almost every year. We just bought an entry level laser printer. Same printer for 20 years now. Never even changed the toner yet. Was a huge upfront cost of 500$ compared to the 100$ ink jets, but man is it ever nice to just completely forget your printer exists until you hit the print button, grab your document, then go back to completely forgetting you own a printer. Never have to put any thought or effort into it. Just sits there always being ready and fully functional.
When we do have to change the toner, the exact same standardized cartridges are still the ones they use on the new ones, so they will be around when we need them.
HP taking business ideas from Elon I see.
“The beatings will continue until moral improves”
the article sorta implies that only 'hp+' denies use of third-party cartridges for life of the printer.. but just plain 'instant ink' subs do, too, through mandatory automatic firmware updates to the printer that will immediately install a firmware update with 'dynamic security' that blocks all but 'genuine' oem cartridges.
Good. Stop printing.
I use Instant Ink in the US, and I haven't received an email about a price increase.
I know no one wants to hear this, based on past experience, but I'll say it anyway: The plan has worked fine for us. Our ink costs went from $60-$80/year to $12. The printer works fine, too; we've not had any problems with it. Obviously we don't print a ton, but we do print enough that we want to have a printer. If we did print a ton of stuff, I'd definitely go a different direction than Instant Ink, but for our light use, it works fine.
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