6 ms·

I don't understand why people keep buying HP products - printers in particular. They're awful in every regard. They have zero respect for their users, even afte

by elric 2y ago

I don't understand why people keep buying HP products - printers in particular. They're awful in every regard. They have zero respect for their users, even after they've over paid for inferior products. They've shown time and time again that they will do everythin within their power to rip you off and screw you over.

criddell 2y ago
Have you used an HP printer lately? I have and I don't think they are awful in every regard. The printers I've used work just fine. The output is clean and the paper handling is good. My current printer at home is a Canon and it's good as well.
- blenderob 2y ago
  > I have and I don't think they are awful in every regard. I have too. And the printer insisting that I create an account in some "Smart" website and log into it even before I can print anything with it is beyond annoying. I got around the problem by finding some old drivers that I had a backup of. But I suspect most people don't give old drivers around and are forced to go through this "Smart" sign up nonsense!
- macNchz 2y ago
  I bought a small HP laser printer a couple of years ago, not realizing that the “e” in the model number meant it’d require an HP account and an always on internet connection. I did the initial setup and declined to create an account, after which it successfully printed 20 pages before refusing to print anything other than a sheet of paper telling me I needed to create an HP account and finish setting it up with the app. There was absolutely no way it would print without an HP account, and, even if I’d made one, it’d actually refuse to print if it ever didn’t have an internet connection (even over USB). Naturally it’d taken me three weeks or so to print the twenty pages and it was outside the return window, but it made me so upset that I just put it away and bought a new printer from a manufacturer that’s not overtly hostile. HP lost me as a customer for life with that thing, and actually made me a vocal critic. The print quality wasn’t as good as I’d hoped for a laser printer, either.
  - ninalanyon 2y ago
    I think in most European jurisdictions you would have been able to return the printer for a refund on the grounds that it didn't work, that it was not of merchantable quality, was misleadingly advertised, etc.
- linsomniac 2y ago
  Agreed, I have a nearly decade old HP now and it's been working fine. It's a multi-function, with duplex printing, color, scanning and Postscript. I'm a Postscript fan because it has tended to work much better with Linux than the brand-specific PCLs. We vary in printing, I average probably a couple pages per month, over the years, with kids, we've varied between no printing and lots of printing. I think we're on our third set of cartridges. I would have bought the HP carts, but they were ridiculously priced, I think $450 for a full set of replacements. So I went with an aftermarket for $100 and they've worked fine.
  - mbreese 2y ago
    I think this is an interesting issue -- I also have a multi-year old multi-function HP laser printer. Before that, I had another one that lasted multiple years until a cross-country move broke the scanner. I don't really have any issues with HP or their printers. They've been expensive to replace toner, but aside from that, they've worked fine. I don't print much, but when I do, it's more than adequate. However, my experience doesn't necessarily mean that I'd by an HP printer now. So much has changed with HP over the time I've had this printer that I'm not sure how much of my experience with older products maps to current products. I'm more inclined to listen to people with more recent experience vs. my own personal experience with a company that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist anymore.
- theryan 2y ago
  The printers are fine but this post reminded me to cancel my ink subscription as I haven't printed anything in 6 months. After my subscription date ends in March, they are charging me one final fee of $6.99 for the privilege of cancelling -- first time I have ever seen something like that.
- elric 2y ago
  I helped an elderly relative install a brand new all-in-one HP printer over christmas. It was a ridiculous shit show of an experience. The printing quality is OK, but that's the only positive thing I'll say about it. It ships with a bunch of crapware, which nags her about ink subscriptions. It's all quite unpleasant.
- jonhohle 2y ago
  If had two Canon lasers and like their output and reliability, but don’t care for their drivers. AirPrint is unreliable unless the printer is awake. I gave up getting CUPS set up in FreeBSD (less necessary with AirPrint, but locked down school Chromebooks need the most generic printer interface possible).
pocketarc 2y ago
I print maybe once or twice a year. In the past, my workflow was: "need to print, realize cartridge has dried out because it's been so long, go buy a ridiculously-priced new cartridge, finally print the 1 page I needed to". For the past several years I've had an HP printer, with a subscription that costs £0 unless I print more than 10 pages (at which point it'd cost £1 per 10 extra pages). They send me ink for free automatically, and I never had to worry about it. The printer was stupid cheap. It's honestly the best printer deal I could've asked for. I'm completely OK with it. It's convenient, virtually free, and I haven't had to think about cartridges in a long, long time. I don't know -anything- about how HP treats its customers, I'm sure there's lots of horror stories. But... I'm very happy with the current situation, and unless I needed to print more regularly, I don't think I'd ever change.
- rvnx 2y ago
  What is this subscription deal ? It looks great. I bought HP Printer because it was the cheapest I could "throw away", because I need to print one page every X years because one stupid legacy organization accepts only paper, but in my case the ink is still drying between two pages.
  - dartos 2y ago
    I paid $100 for a canon laserjet printer from walmart, had it for about two years, still prints on the first included toner cartridge. I run dnd games and my players like having printed maps and props, so I use it more than once a year, but I’ll never buy inkjet again.
  - Crosseye_Jack 2y ago
    tl;dr version: You sign up for a monthly recurring payment and in return HP monitor your ink levels and number of pages printed, and mail you out new ink as you need it. If you print more than the included pages per month they will charge you an overage. If you stop paying the monthly fee they revoke access to the ink you already have in your procession (ink provided by the subscription service - they don't revoke any ink you have purchased from your local store for example, just to clear.). My advice, If you only need to print once in a blue moon, get a refrub'ed "office grade" laser printer off eBay (or similar). I picked one up about 10 years ago with 64,000~ prints on it for about £50, and apart from having having to change out some foam pads that had disintegrated over the years, its still printing just fine. Only had to refill the toner once (I don't print a lot) and because the drum and fuser were fine I just ordered a bottle of toner refill. EDIT: Reread your post. As you are only printing a single page every couple of years, I would adjust my advice. You might be able to ditch the printer completely, When you do need to print use a local library or similar to do the one off print. My local library charges 15p per side for black and 50p per side for colour prints. Sure I wouldn't use them to print large amounts or even small amounts regularly, but for very very low usage paying a quid once in a blue moon to use someone elses printer and then you can leave the maintenance of the printer to someone else. But granted, you would then have to travel to a place just to print, and if you need to get the document printed ASAP, it might not be the best thing for you. But its another option to consider.
3D30497420 2y ago
Most people don't pay attention, while marketing and availability works. For what its worth, I bought an HP printer about 8 years ago and was pretty happy with it. It was reliable, fairly simple, the screen UI was genuinely well-designed, and the ink prices were fine with how rarely I printed. And then I moved from the US to the EU and discovered that printer cartridges are regionally locked. After much research and many calls I learned HP can unlock the printer, but you need you buy completely new cartridges first. I gave away the printer and bought a Brother. So, yeah, it was decent product clearly ruined by stupid business decisions.
pjmlp 2y ago
Because among the normies they still have a good name, I know enough people that are resistent to anything else. The first printer I owned was a HP DeskJet 500, but those times are long gone.
- elric 2y ago
  I think the first one I bought with my own money was a DeskJet 540. Printing seemed much more important then than it does now.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    The escape codes were in the manual, I used that so that we could in our Clipper application write a poor man's printer driver. Basically we had a table with the escape codes for printers, for the common stuff (bold, italic, underline, ....), we would read the entries for the respective model, and then use them accordingly.
michaelt 2y ago
> I don't understand why people keep buying HP products - printers in particular. You need a printer, so you go to the store. The inkjet printer industry offers you an all-in-one printer/ scanner/ copier with 1200dpi printing for $65. It includes "3 months free instant ink". The laser printer industry offers you a printer with 600 dpi colour printing, no scanner/copier function, and it costs $265. You ask the nice young man in the store which is better. He tells you the inkjet gives the best quality for printing photos, and the laser printer is best for business use and people printing 500 pages per week or more. So you buy the inkjet. Repeat 3 years later after it stops working.
- Timwi 2y ago
  I'm really lucky because I have a good and cheap print shop close by. So I never felt the need to buy a printer. The only inconvenience is having to physically go there, but the upsides are numerous. No worrying about toner or paper. Having the shop do all the decisions for me such as what printer to use if I want color, or double-sided, or unusually large paper size. They even have a paper-cutting guillotine for me to use for free. It really outweighs the mild inconvenience of a short walk, especially if I'm already going out anyway.
- drewzero1 2y ago
  The funny thing is that the laser printer is much better for people who print once a week or less, because toner doesn't dry up and clog the printer. But for the price/quality it's hard to justify buying a new one.
  - noja 2y ago
    Unless you print colour
    - jwagenet 2y ago
      Realistically, how many people need and really expect high quality color prints? I’m sure the tech has improved marginally, but I was always disappointed as a kid with inkjet photo prints compared to professional prints. Most people would be better off having professional prints made rather than owning inkjet, very rarely do other documents require high quality color.
olivierestsage 2y ago
Just stopping in to give a shout-out to Brother. The black and white laser printer I bought a few years ago (HL-2390DW) is the first reliable printer I have owned in my life.
- ubermonkey 2y ago
  Yup. I've had a Brother for a long while now, and it replaced a previous Brother only because I reconfigured my office and needed one that would work with wifi.
- anymouse123456 2y ago
  Mine's more than 12 years old. There's nothing that comes even close.
  - drewzero1 2y ago
    My DCP-7020 is going on 20 pretty soon here. Don't want to jinx it but it's been the reliable workhorse of the home office.
- dade_ 2y ago
  They also have excellent support, that I’ve only used once in 15 years.
- tokai 2y ago
  This. Also their Linux drivers work.
  - buttercraft 2y ago
    I recently installed kubuntu on an old gaming PC. Thought I'd see if I could print one day. To my surprise, my Brother printer was already recognized. Printed what I needed right away. No time spent configuring anything, no fuss.
- Maultasche 2y ago
  I had a Brother Multi-Function color scanner/printer that lasted almost 15 years. In the end, the scanner started to malfunction, doing blurry scans, but the printer portion still worked great. Toward the end, it started complaining about low black toner, and I looked up when I last bought black toner: it had been 7 years earlier. I ended up buying a new Brother scanner/printer that can do full-duplex scanning and printing. The thing is amazing, and I'll likely have it for another 15 years. It's solid and reliable, and the toner lasts a really long time.
agys 2y ago
I’m still printing on my HP LaserJet 1320 from 20 years ago. It’s a tank. Are there equivalent contemporary models?
jmuguy 2y ago
The LaserJet was so good that its reputation is keeping the brand alive 30 years later, despite the company's best efforts to flush it down the toilet.
underseacables 2y ago
The same could be said about a lot of companies. I think most people, the vast majority, just don't realize or understand until they purchase a product and have experience with it. Maybe there needs to be more consumer education about operations, products, and corproate behavior towards consumers.
karmakaze 2y ago
I asked a friend recently. They were completely sold on the subscription service thinking it was the best thing ever. I was questioning that, but I have to admit the printer that (I assume) was included with the subscription was better than I would have bought with endless consumables. It did seem to make sense for them who runs a business in their home-office. It's an in-between volume between personal ink-jet and business laser printing. Personally, I bought the cheapest Brother laser on sale from Staples and it does all I need.
_DeadFred_ 2y ago
When I moved to IT management I had a guy I didn't want to lose but whose attitude I needed to turn around. Lots of malicious compliance type stuff. When I came on board I expended a ton of goodwill capital on removing all desktop printers, just MFCs. He threw a fit when I lost a political battle and a crappy policy got implemented. My response was to let him know I was approving Katie the HR lady's latest request for a desktop printer and I needed him spec out the lowest price HP inkjet for me. Dude realized if I wasn't on his team things would have been much worse. Slowly I brought him around thanks to HP printers :)
nilram 2y ago
My HP 1320m Laser Printer is still printing after 20 years. No streaks or blotches. It has issues when drawing paper from the lower tray, but still printing and duplexing fine. No proper drivers for newer OSX versions, but the generic driver is working fine. I usually use 600dpi, but it's fine with 1200dpi (and so am I).

by elric 2y ago

criddell 2y ago

Have you used an HP printer lately? I have and I don't think they are awful in every regard. The printers I've used work just fine. The output is clean and the paper handling is good. My current printer at home is a Canon and it's good as well.

blenderob 2y ago
> I have and I don't think they are awful in every regard. I have too. And the printer insisting that I create an account in some "Smart" website and log into it even before I can print anything with it is beyond annoying. I got around the problem by finding some old drivers that I had a backup of. But I suspect most people don't give old drivers around and are forced to go through this "Smart" sign up nonsense!
macNchz 2y ago
I bought a small HP laser printer a couple of years ago, not realizing that the “e” in the model number meant it’d require an HP account and an always on internet connection. I did the initial setup and declined to create an account, after which it successfully printed 20 pages before refusing to print anything other than a sheet of paper telling me I needed to create an HP account and finish setting it up with the app. There was absolutely no way it would print without an HP account, and, even if I’d made one, it’d actually refuse to print if it ever didn’t have an internet connection (even over USB). Naturally it’d taken me three weeks or so to print the twenty pages and it was outside the return window, but it made me so upset that I just put it away and bought a new printer from a manufacturer that’s not overtly hostile. HP lost me as a customer for life with that thing, and actually made me a vocal critic. The print quality wasn’t as good as I’d hoped for a laser printer, either.
- ninalanyon 2y ago
  I think in most European jurisdictions you would have been able to return the printer for a refund on the grounds that it didn't work, that it was not of merchantable quality, was misleadingly advertised, etc.
linsomniac 2y ago
Agreed, I have a nearly decade old HP now and it's been working fine. It's a multi-function, with duplex printing, color, scanning and Postscript. I'm a Postscript fan because it has tended to work much better with Linux than the brand-specific PCLs. We vary in printing, I average probably a couple pages per month, over the years, with kids, we've varied between no printing and lots of printing. I think we're on our third set of cartridges. I would have bought the HP carts, but they were ridiculously priced, I think $450 for a full set of replacements. So I went with an aftermarket for $100 and they've worked fine.
- mbreese 2y ago
  I think this is an interesting issue -- I also have a multi-year old multi-function HP laser printer. Before that, I had another one that lasted multiple years until a cross-country move broke the scanner. I don't really have any issues with HP or their printers. They've been expensive to replace toner, but aside from that, they've worked fine. I don't print much, but when I do, it's more than adequate. However, my experience doesn't necessarily mean that I'd by an HP printer now. So much has changed with HP over the time I've had this printer that I'm not sure how much of my experience with older products maps to current products. I'm more inclined to listen to people with more recent experience vs. my own personal experience with a company that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist anymore.
theryan 2y ago
The printers are fine but this post reminded me to cancel my ink subscription as I haven't printed anything in 6 months. After my subscription date ends in March, they are charging me one final fee of $6.99 for the privilege of cancelling -- first time I have ever seen something like that.
elric 2y ago
I helped an elderly relative install a brand new all-in-one HP printer over christmas. It was a ridiculous shit show of an experience. The printing quality is OK, but that's the only positive thing I'll say about it. It ships with a bunch of crapware, which nags her about ink subscriptions. It's all quite unpleasant.
jonhohle 2y ago
If had two Canon lasers and like their output and reliability, but don’t care for their drivers. AirPrint is unreliable unless the printer is awake. I gave up getting CUPS set up in FreeBSD (less necessary with AirPrint, but locked down school Chromebooks need the most generic printer interface possible).

pocketarc 2y ago

I print maybe once or twice a year. In the past, my workflow was: "need to print, realize cartridge has dried out because it's been so long, go buy a ridiculously-priced new cartridge, finally print the 1 page I needed to". For the past several years I've had an HP printer, with a subscription that costs £0 unless I print more than 10 pages (at which point it'd cost £1 per 10 extra pages). They send me ink for free automatically, and I never had to worry about it. The printer was stupid cheap. It's honestly the best printer deal I could've asked for. I'm completely OK with it. It's convenient, virtually free, and I haven't had to think about cartridges in a long, long time. I don't know -anything- about how HP treats its customers, I'm sure there's lots of horror stories. But... I'm very happy with the current situation, and unless I needed to print more regularly, I don't think I'd ever change.

rvnx 2y ago
What is this subscription deal ? It looks great. I bought HP Printer because it was the cheapest I could "throw away", because I need to print one page every X years because one stupid legacy organization accepts only paper, but in my case the ink is still drying between two pages.
- dartos 2y ago
  I paid $100 for a canon laserjet printer from walmart, had it for about two years, still prints on the first included toner cartridge. I run dnd games and my players like having printed maps and props, so I use it more than once a year, but I’ll never buy inkjet again.
- Crosseye_Jack 2y ago
  tl;dr version: You sign up for a monthly recurring payment and in return HP monitor your ink levels and number of pages printed, and mail you out new ink as you need it. If you print more than the included pages per month they will charge you an overage. If you stop paying the monthly fee they revoke access to the ink you already have in your procession (ink provided by the subscription service - they don't revoke any ink you have purchased from your local store for example, just to clear.). My advice, If you only need to print once in a blue moon, get a refrub'ed "office grade" laser printer off eBay (or similar). I picked one up about 10 years ago with 64,000~ prints on it for about £50, and apart from having having to change out some foam pads that had disintegrated over the years, its still printing just fine. Only had to refill the toner once (I don't print a lot) and because the drum and fuser were fine I just ordered a bottle of toner refill. EDIT: Reread your post. As you are only printing a single page every couple of years, I would adjust my advice. You might be able to ditch the printer completely, When you do need to print use a local library or similar to do the one off print. My local library charges 15p per side for black and 50p per side for colour prints. Sure I wouldn't use them to print large amounts or even small amounts regularly, but for very very low usage paying a quid once in a blue moon to use someone elses printer and then you can leave the maintenance of the printer to someone else. But granted, you would then have to travel to a place just to print, and if you need to get the document printed ASAP, it might not be the best thing for you. But its another option to consider.

3D30497420 2y ago

Most people don't pay attention, while marketing and availability works. For what its worth, I bought an HP printer about 8 years ago and was pretty happy with it. It was reliable, fairly simple, the screen UI was genuinely well-designed, and the ink prices were fine with how rarely I printed. And then I moved from the US to the EU and discovered that printer cartridges are regionally locked. After much research and many calls I learned HP can unlock the printer, but you need you buy completely new cartridges first. I gave away the printer and bought a Brother. So, yeah, it was decent product clearly ruined by stupid business decisions.

pjmlp 2y ago

Because among the normies they still have a good name, I know enough people that are resistent to anything else. The first printer I owned was a HP DeskJet 500, but those times are long gone.

elric 2y ago
I think the first one I bought with my own money was a DeskJet 540. Printing seemed much more important then than it does now.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  The escape codes were in the manual, I used that so that we could in our Clipper application write a poor man's printer driver. Basically we had a table with the escape codes for printers, for the common stuff (bold, italic, underline, ....), we would read the entries for the respective model, and then use them accordingly.

michaelt 2y ago

> I don't understand why people keep buying HP products - printers in particular. You need a printer, so you go to the store. The inkjet printer industry offers you an all-in-one printer/ scanner/ copier with 1200dpi printing for $65. It includes "3 months free instant ink". The laser printer industry offers you a printer with 600 dpi colour printing, no scanner/copier function, and it costs $265. You ask the nice young man in the store which is better. He tells you the inkjet gives the best quality for printing photos, and the laser printer is best for business use and people printing 500 pages per week or more. So you buy the inkjet. Repeat 3 years later after it stops working.

Timwi 2y ago
I'm really lucky because I have a good and cheap print shop close by. So I never felt the need to buy a printer. The only inconvenience is having to physically go there, but the upsides are numerous. No worrying about toner or paper. Having the shop do all the decisions for me such as what printer to use if I want color, or double-sided, or unusually large paper size. They even have a paper-cutting guillotine for me to use for free. It really outweighs the mild inconvenience of a short walk, especially if I'm already going out anyway.
drewzero1 2y ago
The funny thing is that the laser printer is much better for people who print once a week or less, because toner doesn't dry up and clog the printer. But for the price/quality it's hard to justify buying a new one.
- noja 2y ago
  Unless you print colour
  - jwagenet 2y ago
    Realistically, how many people need and really expect high quality color prints? I’m sure the tech has improved marginally, but I was always disappointed as a kid with inkjet photo prints compared to professional prints. Most people would be better off having professional prints made rather than owning inkjet, very rarely do other documents require high quality color.

olivierestsage 2y ago

Just stopping in to give a shout-out to Brother. The black and white laser printer I bought a few years ago (HL-2390DW) is the first reliable printer I have owned in my life.

ubermonkey 2y ago
Yup. I've had a Brother for a long while now, and it replaced a previous Brother only because I reconfigured my office and needed one that would work with wifi.
anymouse123456 2y ago
Mine's more than 12 years old. There's nothing that comes even close.
- drewzero1 2y ago
  My DCP-7020 is going on 20 pretty soon here. Don't want to jinx it but it's been the reliable workhorse of the home office.
dade_ 2y ago
They also have excellent support, that I’ve only used once in 15 years.
tokai 2y ago
This. Also their Linux drivers work.
- buttercraft 2y ago
  I recently installed kubuntu on an old gaming PC. Thought I'd see if I could print one day. To my surprise, my Brother printer was already recognized. Printed what I needed right away. No time spent configuring anything, no fuss.
Maultasche 2y ago
I had a Brother Multi-Function color scanner/printer that lasted almost 15 years. In the end, the scanner started to malfunction, doing blurry scans, but the printer portion still worked great. Toward the end, it started complaining about low black toner, and I looked up when I last bought black toner: it had been 7 years earlier. I ended up buying a new Brother scanner/printer that can do full-duplex scanning and printing. The thing is amazing, and I'll likely have it for another 15 years. It's solid and reliable, and the toner lasts a really long time.

agys 2y ago

I’m still printing on my HP LaserJet 1320 from 20 years ago. It’s a tank. Are there equivalent contemporary models?

jmuguy 2y ago

The LaserJet was so good that its reputation is keeping the brand alive 30 years later, despite the company's best efforts to flush it down the toilet.

underseacables 2y ago

The same could be said about a lot of companies. I think most people, the vast majority, just don't realize or understand until they purchase a product and have experience with it. Maybe there needs to be more consumer education about operations, products, and corproate behavior towards consumers.

karmakaze 2y ago

I asked a friend recently. They were completely sold on the subscription service thinking it was the best thing ever. I was questioning that, but I have to admit the printer that (I assume) was included with the subscription was better than I would have bought with endless consumables. It did seem to make sense for them who runs a business in their home-office. It's an in-between volume between personal ink-jet and business laser printing. Personally, I bought the cheapest Brother laser on sale from Staples and it does all I need.

_DeadFred_ 2y ago

When I moved to IT management I had a guy I didn't want to lose but whose attitude I needed to turn around. Lots of malicious compliance type stuff. When I came on board I expended a ton of goodwill capital on removing all desktop printers, just MFCs. He threw a fit when I lost a political battle and a crappy policy got implemented. My response was to let him know I was approving Katie the HR lady's latest request for a desktop printer and I needed him spec out the lowest price HP inkjet for me. Dude realized if I wasn't on his team things would have been much worse. Slowly I brought him around thanks to HP printers :)

nilram 2y ago

My HP 1320m Laser Printer is still printing after 20 years. No streaks or blotches. It has issues when drawing paper from the lower tray, but still printing and duplexing fine. No proper drivers for newer OSX versions, but the generic driver is working fine. I usually use 600dpi, but it's fine with 1200dpi (and so am I).