HP inkjet printer

[Av Gorritt]

I have an inkjet printer , HP office jet pro 6970 . Good printer too . I've just cancelled my subscription to HP direct ink .(it's over 12 months old now so out of warranty . I can't believe that HP would be so petty and vindictive . After clicking cancel I got the message "do you really want to cancel ? You do realise that when this month's subscription ends , you will be charged another month's rent to cancel , and also you won't be able to use the ink that's left in your printer after this time ". I' m not that bothered because I'll use my laser printer , so I won't be stuck , Really I only use the inkjet for colour jobs that the laser isn't just up to - photos etc. I wouldn't mind betting that when I buy my own cartridges , I'll get a nag - message about using spurious cartridges too . If I'd ever contemplated going back on to HP's scheme , I certainly wouldn't now . F.U. Mr. Hewlett , and Mr Packard too ! Now to Google "ink cartridges" ! I notice that an old black cartridge has a little embedded chip , so I'll need to check this with the new supplier .

 

[milkloss]

I despise all this subscription nonsense. The problem I found with inkjets was the chip in the cartridge keep disabling it due to best before dates. Absolute con.

Binned it and now use colour laser for most stuff and photobox for photos online. Much, much cheaper and better quality.

 

[Av Gorritt]

I understood that it was illegal for a printer manufacturer to tie a printer to their own "Genuine" inks . (Restriction of trade an' all that) and that may well be so , but the printer people can make it very difficult for you if you want to stray off their path . The only manufacturer that I know for certain doesn't do that is "Brother ". Their printers will , IME, just about accept what you give it , and cheerfully too . And , again IME the worst offender inn all this is Epson , and I vowed never to buy another Epson machine - good though they are . So , I'll see what happens at the end of this contract cycle (20/08/19 )

 

[Av Gorritt]

Just to follow "milkloss" on this . I've never used "photobox . Any comments on using it -- good or bad

 

[milkloss]

There’s all sorts of online sellers for photo printing. The quality is surprisingly good, the Mrs does most using an app on her phone. Books, calendars etc etc.

 

[bravheart]

Still think HP ink deal was good enough value and means you never run out or have out of date ink, suppose printer won’t like spurious cartridges though.
Last time I looked they had a deal with 15 pages a month for free, seemed a good deal if you just wanted to print a few high quality pictures a month, could you not just change to that deal if it is rarely used.

BTW. could you not Just cancel dd when you have used your ink allowance.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Still think HP ink deal was good enough value and means you never run out or have out of date ink, suppose printer won’t like spurious cartridges though.
Last time I looked they had a deal with 15 pages a month for free, seemed a good deal if you just wanted to print a few high quality pictures a month, could you not just change to that deal if it is rarely used.

BTW. could you not Just cancel dd when you have used your ink allowance.

Well yes , I could have done that alright , but I was near the end of my cartridges anyway. What tipped me over the edge was HP levying an extra charge for going over my quota by a couple of pages . I knew what would happen because the printer got the bit between it's teeth and just refused to stop printing . (and also I was having a bad day ) I think the extra charges were about 10p / sheet , quite outrageous IMO. And the contract was 4 p. / sheet I think . I've done it anyway , and after researching ink on the internet , there seems to be quite a few at 1.5 p/ sheet . Possibly frying pan and fire syndrome , but I'll live with that !

 

[neilo]

I have a similar HP printer, but have never signed up for their subscription scheme.
On the spurious cartridges, it is illegal for manufacturers (under eu law iirc) to tie their printers to genuine cartridges. However, HP have a history of updating the firmware on their printers via auto-updates, which regularly stop non-genuine cartridges chips from working. The spurious manufacturers then need to update the chips again, before they will work again. That’s not much use if you keep a stock of cartridges ready of course.

 

[Av Gorritt]

I have a similar HP printer, but have never signed up for their subscription scheme.
On the spurious cartridges, it is illegal for manufacturers (under eu law iirc) to tie their printers to genuine cartridges. However, HP have a history of updating the firmware on their printers via auto-updates, which regularly stop non-genuine cartridges chips from working. The spurious manufacturers then need to update the chips again, before they will work again. That’s not much use if you keep a stock of cartridges ready of course.

So , what's your answer to all that then ? I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I might just sign up for the smaller quota of pages , as Braveheart suggested , and save them for photo prints , using my trusty Brother colour laser for bills etc .

 

[neilo]

So , what's your answer to all that then ? I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I might just sign up for the smaller quota of pages , as Braveheart suggested , and save them for photo prints , using my trusty Brother colour laser for bills etc .

I seem to remember reading somewhere that you could just turn off automatic updates on the HP printer, so the firmware didn’t get updated and you can use non-genuine cartridges (just don’t carry too many in stock).

For the amount of printing I do, I decided buying a set of genuine cartridges from a discount website was probably less hassle (so I gave in).

 

[Av Gorritt]

Yes that was my first thought , buy a genuine set for the HP and use the laser as a workhorse . STILL haven't made my mind up . it's not really that urgent .

 

[An Gof]

So , what's your answer to all that then ? I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I might just sign up for the smaller quota of pages , as Braveheart suggested , and save them for photo prints , using my trusty Brother colour laser for bills etc .

I have an HP inkjet. I bought the printer and buy the cartridges from wherever i want. I have done that with all my HP printers. Never had a problem and would never sign up to a tied in scheme. Its like mobile phones. Buy the phone outright and source your sim deal separately. If not they will be making more money out of you.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Never had trouble with chipping ?

 

[Chickcatcher]

Epson Inktank I found the answer to many a question ink cost peanuts compared to the HP cartridges I was buying. Problem I did find was double sided printing was not as automatic as the Hp I was using. One had to manually turn page and replace into printer HP was total automatic. Just be careful if you want one todouble side print, possible with epson but I didnt read and understand correctly.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Have to say in fairness , my HP printer is excellent at double sided printing - fully automatic. And also the page feed is faultless too . All very good plus points , and very valuable characteristics .