this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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HP customers claim firmware update rendered third-party ink verboten | Then the company cranked up the price of cartridges, complaint alleges::Then the company cranked up the price of cartridges, complaint alleges

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That's like, HP's whole business model lol

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

Hey! Don't forget selling pieces of shit that are designed to last a few years tops.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Unfortunately it's not only HP.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Buy Brother

Edit: its the only cure

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

If I had my druthers, all my printers would be Brothers.


Hey Brother, hire me as an adman. I can write jingles!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Give me a nickel, Brother, Can you spare a di-heim?!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Beat me to it. DO NOT BUY HP PRODUCTS ANYMORE! Brother is a fantastic alternative and if I’m not mistaken sometimes cheaper, and if not cheaper, it’s at least far better quality.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's fucking nuts how much better they are. I bought a monochrome Brother printer a few years ago for like 250$. I'm still on the starter toner that came with it. I am never going back to ink. Gone are the days of not being able to print in black cause I'm low on cyan. Fuck HP.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago (1 children)

HP would literally shoot your pet if it was profitable.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

ATF enters the chat slyly.

[–] Tathas 5 points 11 months ago

Only to find that PETA has already stolen the dog and euthanized it, "To end its suffering."

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago

I work on copiers for a living. Seriously, fuck HP.

I swear they're designed not to be worked on. Just speaking of the fuser on any Laserjet photocopier, they heat up and cool down constantly. Obviously stuff is going to break and it needs to be repaired.

HP says fuck you! On the little desktop printers, on some models, you have to take all plastic panels off, and they all connect to each other so good luck getting it put back together right. They're built exactly like a rubix cube. I literally clip off plastic tabs and just leave it. The customer never knows.

I've been through official HP training. They told me "we can't teach you on a specific model because we average a new model every month, so we'll just give you a ball park on what to look for"

I stopped calling HP support because they don't even know their own machines. Shout-out to Laser Pros, they're the best.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Why does anyone still buy HP?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The big one seems to be non-techies who long ago heard they were good. A long, LONG time ago.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

It takes 20-seconds to research their products before purchasing. Those few seconds would reveal that HP is now a shit product. Another 20-seconds would reveal Brother to be highly regarded.

"Capitalism fucked me over and I wish to sue HP's ass off!"

I have no idea what to tell people.

"Companies make worse and worse products and I keep buying them! Make it stop Mr. Government!"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

IT professional here, cheap initial purchase means that when I go to my boss with the required '3 options', DESPITE me detailing why HP is super terrible and expensive long-term, they will ALWAYS insist on the HP.

Add onto that brand recognition and it's basically impossible to convince any site I work on to switch to Brother unless they directly experience just how unreliable and expensive HP actually is. Even then it's still a 50/50 if they'll make the rational choice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

They are often bundled with computers in cheap packages 

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

They sell the printers below cost.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (3 children)

We need a properly-open sourced printer at this point.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I have a laser etcher. Through trial and error, I got it to produce black and white images on wood. So it's now a laser photo printer. Just change one axis to move the material instead of the head and you have an open laser printer.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You know, we do have a word in English that means "verboten" right?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I hope I’ll remember never to buy anything new from HP as that’s disgusting 🤮

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


HP is facing a potential class action complaint regarding a firmware update that rendered its printers unable to use ink from any other supplier.

The complaint [PDF] centers around a firmware update issued between late 2022 and early 2023 that is alleged to have disabled a customer's printer if a replacement cartridge that was not HP-branded was installed.

It adds: "In effect, HP used the software update to create a monopoly in the aftermarket for replacement cartridges, permitting it to raise prices without fear of being undercut by competitors."

The complaint claims "the costs of ink for the All-in-One is not trivial or fleeting," and draws a comparison between the $100 needed for a typical set of HP-branded replacement cartridges versus those of a competitor, which it says can be half the price.

HP's end user license agreement states that using a third-party cartridge won't invalidate a warranty.

Ir is seeking class certification, compensation from the printer giant, and an injunction to disable the part of the firmware updates that prevent the use of third-party ink.


The original article contains 547 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Happened to me! Even with me taking efforts ahead of time to prevent the new firmware download, it somehow snuck through. I finally got so fed up with their BS because of this, I got rid of the hp and bought a Brother. Brother workin flawlessly, and I can rest easy knowing it will just print shit when I need it to and not try to extort cash from me to do so.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

German lone word from old high German. It just means Forbidden.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Also just plain and simply "forbidden" in regular modern German.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

If you ever see this lone word in the wild, run!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Normally, words hang out in larger groups called sentences or clauses. Words are social, so they like to stick together and form social bonds and hierarchies.

However, some words don’t have anyone to hang out with, and they’re called lone words.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Past participle of "bieten", "to bid", as in "to command". English correspondence to that is "bidden". The prefix is "ver-" which here denotes completative aspect as well as negativity, the English correspondence to that is "for-" (not strict, but at least in this case). Sticking both together you get "forbidden" which indeed is the right translation. "The action of commanding a negative has been completed", or, simply, "You've been told not to".

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Are there government consumer projection people working but no one has ever submitted a report so they just don't know?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Y'all gonna make me look up the German dictionary so I know what verboten means, gawd damn I don't need no education

(To be fair it's interesting that they'd throw a random German word into an English language headline meant for English language readers, especially as it's the key explanatory word in the headline, and yet it's one we wouldn't commonly know. Unlike commonly used non-English words like Information, or Cul-de-sac, Zeitgeist, Kaput, or Baguette, we - to my knowledge - haven't used the word verboten before over here).

So yeah, I had to Google translate it xD But now I know! Woo!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Another reason to boycott HP

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

My favourite printer brand.

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