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I used to work for a Dymo competitor. They would pull every nasty trick in the book to make companies like Dymo look bad, including posting stuff like this to s

I used to work for a Dymo competitor. They would pull every nasty trick in the book to make companies like Dymo look bad, including posting stuff like this to spark some sympathetic outrage in your nearest business office. It's also a really weird space with tons of customers who aren't exactly interested in quality, to say nothing of loyalty. If third party labels don't work, Dymo likely gets blamed both by label vendor speaking to customer, and customer speaking to Dymo. For these and other reasons I find it hard to fault Dymo for doing this, also because they state that using their refills is a requirement and it helps them with QC...so what else is wrong with the approach? RFIDs are used all over the place these days, but should there be an RFID warning label or what?

josephcsible 5y ago
> They would pull every nasty trick in the book to make companies like Dymo look bad, including posting stuff like this to spark some sympathetic outrage in your nearest business office. Are you claiming this story is false, or are you saying that posting negative but true things about competitors is a "nasty trick"? > RFIDs are used all over the place these days, but should there be an RFID warning label or what? There's no issue with the fact that Dymo's labels have RFID tags in them. The issue is that their printers refuse to work without one.
- themodelplumber 5y ago
  > posting negative but true things about competitors Amplifying maybe-negative (see below) things about competitors when many of your own products are comparatively awful ripoffs by specification? Yeah, that was not good. People inside the company were ashamed of it. Astroturfing alone was pretty sad. I did QA testing on their latest tech, straight out of a reverse-engineering & design contractor in Taiwan. The hardware sucked and they also played proprietary refill tricks. And this is saying nothing of the bundled software... > The issue is that their printers refuse to work without one. They publish the fact that you have to use their labels. Their refills use RFIDs for verification. Who is enraged, what are the details? It's a logical use of the tech. Why is this an issue unless they mistakenly ship a refill without an RFID tag?
  - josephcsible 5y ago
    > They publish the fact that you have to use their labels. Their refills use RFIDs for verification. Who is enraged, what are the details? It's a logical use of the tech. Why is this an issue unless they mistakenly ship a refill without an RFID tag? The issue is that you shouldn't have to use their labels. When I buy something, it's mine, and if I want to try to print on some old faded receipts with it, I should be able to, even if the manufacturer disapproves.
    - themodelplumber 5y ago
      So the issue really isn't related to hidden RFID at all? You're saying it's related to the thing they already told you about up front.
      - josephcsible 5y ago
        Correct. I didn't mean to ever imply otherwise. I'm upset that the DRM exists at all, not with the way they chose to implement it.

josephcsible 5y ago

> They would pull every nasty trick in the book to make companies like Dymo look bad, including posting stuff like this to spark some sympathetic outrage in your nearest business office. Are you claiming this story is false, or are you saying that posting negative but true things about competitors is a "nasty trick"? > RFIDs are used all over the place these days, but should there be an RFID warning label or what? There's no issue with the fact that Dymo's labels have RFID tags in them. The issue is that their printers refuse to work without one.

themodelplumber 5y ago
> posting negative but true things about competitors Amplifying maybe-negative (see below) things about competitors when many of your own products are comparatively awful ripoffs by specification? Yeah, that was not good. People inside the company were ashamed of it. Astroturfing alone was pretty sad. I did QA testing on their latest tech, straight out of a reverse-engineering & design contractor in Taiwan. The hardware sucked and they also played proprietary refill tricks. And this is saying nothing of the bundled software... > The issue is that their printers refuse to work without one. They publish the fact that you have to use their labels. Their refills use RFIDs for verification. Who is enraged, what are the details? It's a logical use of the tech. Why is this an issue unless they mistakenly ship a refill without an RFID tag?
- josephcsible 5y ago
  > They publish the fact that you have to use their labels. Their refills use RFIDs for verification. Who is enraged, what are the details? It's a logical use of the tech. Why is this an issue unless they mistakenly ship a refill without an RFID tag? The issue is that you shouldn't have to use their labels. When I buy something, it's mine, and if I want to try to print on some old faded receipts with it, I should be able to, even if the manufacturer disapproves.
  - themodelplumber 5y ago
    So the issue really isn't related to hidden RFID at all? You're saying it's related to the thing they already told you about up front.
    - josephcsible 5y ago
      Correct. I didn't mean to ever imply otherwise. I'm upset that the DRM exists at all, not with the way they chose to implement it.