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"it's been over 7 years since we've had a new lineup of multifunction printers," I have one of those 7 year old MFPs and it has worked great, but HP has kindly

"it's been over 7 years since we've had a new lineup of multifunction printers," I have one of those 7 year old MFPs and it has worked great, but HP has kindly sent me a new replacement printer because of a cartridge issue I've had in the last few months. The new printer is three "generations" newer, looks great, has a few new features, but has significant operating flaws like paper jams and crashing my brand new (2 week old) laptop and a year old desktop. Already spent three hours on the phone with HP tech support with the new printer, after five plus hours on the phone with the old printer, and really learning how much they need to either be retrained (or trained to begin with, why do I have to explain what duplex means) or re-shore them to North America. Already been escalated, now waiting for a local case manager to call back. But I know that means sending me a new printer, instead of trying to fix this unit, because they don't do tech support here.

ShabbyDoo 14y ago
I have a HP LaserJet 4100 series at home which I bought several years ago on eBay for < $200. It's amazingly reliable and cheap to print with due to an abundance of 3rd party toner cartridges -- not that it matters much when we average perhaps a couple hundred pages a month in usage. Perhaps this device is so old that it emerged from HP's old school engineering culture?
- JamesLeonis 14y ago
  My dad only recently retired his old HP Laserjet 4 after almost 20 years of use. I remember using it when his desktop computer was running Windows 3.1. With a little maintenance that we did ourselves that printer remained a workhorse for the family for an unthinkable amount of time. I would love to see HP return to that level of quality.
  - philwelch 14y ago
    But then you don't buy another HP printer, which is bad for business. Printers are the worst market for quality goods; the incentives are all wrong.
    - chris_wot 14y ago
      He bought toner cartridges. It's not a zero sum game.
- burntwater 14y ago
  HP business-level B&W lasers have, for the most part, stayed pretty good. Especially the older 4100 series, which is one of my favorite. Older B&W laser drivers were great, newer ones are usually still good. For color laser I often go with Xerox, for inkjet AIO I go with Brother. I've had far too many multi-hour sessions dealing with HP AIO software and drivers. HP standalone inkjet printers can be good, but it seems no one buys non-AIO inkjets anymore.
  - biturd 14y ago
    What is AIO?
    - burntwater 14y ago
      All-In-One - printer, scanner, copier, and sometimes fax.

ShabbyDoo 14y ago

I have a HP LaserJet 4100 series at home which I bought several years ago on eBay for < $200. It's amazingly reliable and cheap to print with due to an abundance of 3rd party toner cartridges -- not that it matters much when we average perhaps a couple hundred pages a month in usage. Perhaps this device is so old that it emerged from HP's old school engineering culture?

JamesLeonis 14y ago
My dad only recently retired his old HP Laserjet 4 after almost 20 years of use. I remember using it when his desktop computer was running Windows 3.1. With a little maintenance that we did ourselves that printer remained a workhorse for the family for an unthinkable amount of time. I would love to see HP return to that level of quality.
- philwelch 14y ago
  But then you don't buy another HP printer, which is bad for business. Printers are the worst market for quality goods; the incentives are all wrong.
  - chris_wot 14y ago
    He bought toner cartridges. It's not a zero sum game.
burntwater 14y ago
HP business-level B&W lasers have, for the most part, stayed pretty good. Especially the older 4100 series, which is one of my favorite. Older B&W laser drivers were great, newer ones are usually still good. For color laser I often go with Xerox, for inkjet AIO I go with Brother. I've had far too many multi-hour sessions dealing with HP AIO software and drivers. HP standalone inkjet printers can be good, but it seems no one buys non-AIO inkjets anymore.
- biturd 14y ago
  What is AIO?
  - burntwater 14y ago
    All-In-One - printer, scanner, copier, and sometimes fax.