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

    • Wermhatswormhat@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • PM_ME_YOUR_ZOD_RUNES@sh.itjust.works
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      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.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Personally, I’ve been fine without having a printer at all for like the last decade. In the rare event that I need to print something, I’ll just go to Staples or something to get it done there. I’d be surprised if I’ve spent more than $20 total on printing.

      Though with my daughter getting older, it might be only a matter of time before it becomes more cost effective and convenient to have my own. Which will not be an HP even if they paid me to take one.

  • Copythis@lemmy.world
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    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.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

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

    • Moira_Mayhem@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      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!”

    • GreyBeard@lemmy.one
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      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.

  • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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    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.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    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!

  • tabular@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

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

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    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!