192
HP exec says quiet part out loud when it comes to locking in print customers
(www.theregister.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
192 points (98.0% liked)
Technology
58303 readers
46 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I’ve used them. Basically it just turns your printer purchase into a printer rental.
It’s not a bad deal, necessarily, but if your card declines for any reason, HP bricks your printer (including non-printer functionality) until you pay up. And printing more than your chosen plan allows can get pricey real quick. As little as I print, though, a laser printer was a more reliable option and much cheaper long term.
iRobot does something similar with their Select program. Like HP’s Instant Ink, it’s a great deal for some folks, not so much for others.
Yeah fuck that. I am already paperless. I don't see a reason for any of it. Bricking a printer? Lmao
Like I said, whether it’s good deal or not depends on how your cost/benefit comparison comes out.
For me, it went against renting a printer (I print maybe 5 pages a year nowadays), and for renting a Roomba as my family often seems to think they were born in a barn. 😂 Renting that Roomba has, for me, turned out much cheaper than owning it.
I bought a laser printer years ago(Brother brand) and have printed a few hundred pages, I've never had to worry about toner. Ink printers are a total scam and the only reason people buy them is because the initial cost is much cheaper or they don't know the difference between inkjet and laser.
I literally bought a pallet of printers from state surplus for $45. They were all laser. I’m on three years on the first one now. BTW don’t do this, moving them was a PITA
I got a brother laser printer from goodwill like 5 years ago for 7 bucks.
Still on the toner cart that came with it.
So much better than inkjets.
When I urgently needed to print something a few years ago I ran to the store and purchased the cheapest laser printer I could find, which was a Ricoh for Eur 42. Windows GDI printer shit, but I also found Mac drivers and a working linux driver.
It waa the low end model, had the same printing mechanism as the larger Ricoh Multifunction things and third party toner was dirt cheap. Ah and I can't remember any paper jam.
Inkjets, especiallw those from HP are a scam.
I only threw out the (fully working) Ricoh after years, because someone gave me a network connected full color Oki Multifunction led printer device for free.
(Ah I checked later, "normal" price for the Ricoh when not on sale was Eur 75 or so)