this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
72 points (91.9% liked)

Off My Chest

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  1. Your account is defined by your email address
  2. Your email address is unchangeable
  3. You can create a new account with a new email address, but you can't re-register the same printer, because it was already registered to your old email address

This means you can be locked out of registering your printer. Why are all printer companies the stupidest companies ever?


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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m confused, it’s a piece of hardware that you communicate with over the LAN. Why does it need your email?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

in this case, i think it's purely a data mining operation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

why would you register a brother printer?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't remember why, but I'm pretty sure I needed to to use some kind of service.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

We have an older Brother printer, and they now insist, even though there's a USB port, that you register with them to print over wifi. There is no driver for USB that I could find. There is an app that will let you print over USB, but it's buggy and very limited in function.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure it's stupid, but I don't see how it's really an issue. If you want that printer registered to a new account so badly, it seems you have to contact them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This. Mail to customer support and make them fix it.

If they won't, find their GDPR contact and make them fix it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

find their GDPR contact and make them fix it.

As someone not in the EU...I wish.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably not an option here since registering likely involves country and home address, but in general, life pro tip: many companies don't know where you are resident and don't ask if you approach their GDPR contact...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks, SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT. Some solid advice there.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is why i havent bought my own printer. That shit is a scam industry. 15 years ago printers already had plenty of issues and now it's only gotten worse with this type of shenanigans

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I don't see any shenanigans here, what do you mean? He just needs to contact customer service if he want the printer registered so badly.

Why he wants that though, I have no idea?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Printers are like a magnet for shitty exploitative consumer practices. This is, no doubt, probably intended to make the it difficult or impossible to resell the printer.

They’ve probably got someone high up in the company that’s convinced themselves that every sale on the secondary market is money coming out of their pockets. Complete bullshit if you think about it for more than a few moments, but that’s the kind of innovative adversarial stupidity that business brained types are best at.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's a funny claim, since printer companies generally sell their printers at a loss, to make money on refills later.

I think if you don't need your printer anymore, the printer company would be very happy if someone else continues to buy refills for it.

Although Brother is more balanced than most in this regard, I bet they still want their printers to be used.

With HP however, it's all about the refill, they'd probably pay you money if you can get someone to use their printers. Most other companies are probably somewhere in between.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You know, I considered pointing out that they already try to exploit their customers with the ink price scam but I assumed it was such common knowledge that it wasn’t worth the effort.

Just because they exploit their customers in a different way doesn’t mean they aren’t coming up with and implementing new ways to do it. I’d say having already been gouging customers for years makes you more likely to look for new ways to go about it, not less.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Show me where there's a scam with Brother printers. I'm not saying they are saints, but they are not scamming their customers, that's their main attraction actually. Just because some companies like HP do it, doesn't mean they all do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like all shitty printer companies they use firmware updates to block non "genuine" ink and toner cartridges.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

No they don't, that one single firmware update you are referring to, was to prevent damage due to overheating.r

At least that's the only case I have heard about.

Edit:

Do you just not consider selling at a loss to gouge people on ink to be a scam?

Yes absolutely, but I don't think Brother is doing that, and definitely not to the extreme for instance HP does.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Bullshit. I'm not referring to one single update. It's multiple printers.

There is a reason there are instruction videos on youtube for how to swap a toner cartridge chip to a 3rd party cartridge.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Funny, looking it up, I have no problem finding sellers of compatible toner for Brother printers here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Funny, that doesn't address what I said at all. You can find 3rd party toner/ink for any printer.

Brother (like other printer manufacturers) attempts to block non-OEM toner and ink.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ahh, yes, they absolutely do that. They did it to mine. One update, and suddenly third party ink no longer functions. It's bullshit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Do you just not consider selling at a loss to gouge people on ink to be a scam? Are you not aware that they do the same ink cartridge drm bullshit that every printer manufacturer is up to these days, and have for years?