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HP Printrule (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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[–] 39 points 2 years ago (1 child)

yes it's a real thing, it's part of the HP ink program, they disable printers when your payment method rejects or you cancel the sub

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    So you're basically just renting the printer then. Wow.

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Nono, you buy the printer and AFTERWARDS they sell you a subscription on top.

    That way they get paid twise, much better...

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They get paid twice anyway, if you buy cartridges from HP. This is just a subscription for those cartridges.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    True, but usually you buy them from retailers... This way they cut out the middleman. And the chance that you use 3rd party inks (although, that "security risk" got patched with firmware upgrades)

    Also, they don't just send you ink... It's a monthly plan where you have x pages included. Unused pages are rolled over 3 times [1] and afterwards they probably are just lost.

    Further, if you cancel the subscription, containers you received within the subscription wont work anymore.

    Damn, I knew it was bad, but now that I read the details it's even worse...

    [1] https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/cv/instantink

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Sort of. You're renting the ink, not the printer. If you went to Staples or Amazon and got regular ink for the printer, it would immediately start working again.

    If you buy ink from the Instant Ink program, the cartridges are sent to you for far less money than a regular cartridge. They sell page based plans where they make the money back and then new ink just shows up in the mail as you go. HP DRM's these cartridges to prevent people from skipping out on the subscription and printing normally for wayyyyyyy less up front cost.

    HP printers suck. And ink sucks too. So there's a lot of understandable suckiness. But most of the criticisms about HP's ink DRM are just people mixing up Instant Ink and regular ink cartridges and getting mad they can't read instructions.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    And yet the printer was remotely disabled. If the ink is such an intrinsic part of the printer that the printer can't be used independently, than it may as well be the same thing.

    You're not renting the car, just the keys!

    All our hotel rooms are free for everyone! Access isn't though, sorry.

    $0 phones! Only works with Comcast though...

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