HP forced to ditch popular printer range following user backlash

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨lemmee_in@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.techradar.com/pro/hp-forced-to-ditch-popular-printer-range-following-user-backlash

HP has discontinued its e-series LaserJet printers following widespread consumer dissatisfaction with the printers’ mandatory online connection of the HP+ scheme.

The decision, reported by German media outlet §, addresses growing frustration among users who have been forced to maintain a constant internet connection and use HP original ink and toner, with cheaper and more accessible third-party alternatives prohibited.

The LaserJet e-series models, identifiable by an ‘e’ suffix in their models names, now look to have been pulled from sale.

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empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
So rather than just push a super simple firmware update that disables the always online need, they’d rather just stop selling it, and probably brick these printers in a year or so when they discontinue the service.

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- SkyezOpen@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Has hp ever done anything to suggest they give a shit about users beyond milking them for all they’re worth?
  
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  - Dremor@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They did provide good first party Linux support where other printer required the use of hacky reverse engineered drivers. Other than that…
    
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  - qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Maybe a dumb take, but I think milking customers for all they’re worth is much better option than what HP is seemingly doing — which is milking them for all they’re worth this quarter.
    
    Like, there are companies with a cult like following (Valve comes to mind) and while they could probably increase profit for a quarter or two, they seem to be playing the long game fairly well. Which is ultimately better for everyone — they get more money over your lifetime, and you get a product that you’re happy with.
    
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  - grue@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_LaserJet_4
    
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  - cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    HP was a good company back when they primarily made test equipment. They made very good equipment that was built to last. They had very detailed documentation and service manuals so you could repair everything yourself.
    
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- 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Firmware update, means the printers keep working with third party ink (HP loses). Bricking them, means you must buy another printer (HP has a 50:50 chance to win).
  
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  - Bruhh@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I don’t think that’s how probability works.
    
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- sramder@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What else ya’ got under that rock? Cuz’ these things brick themselves if you miss a monthly payment on your ink subscription.
  
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  - cowfodder@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes, the laser printer bricks itself if you miss a payment on your ink subscription…
    
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- dreikelvin@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Time to unlock my printer with an opensource firmware
  
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Corngood@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

popular

[citation needed]

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- treadful@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, the title kind of contradicts itself.
  
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  - Corngood@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I was expecting something in the article to back it up, like sales figures, but I couldn’t find anything.
    
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- AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I guess having a lot of unhappy customers implies that a lot of people previously purchased the product.
  
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- johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Very possible they sold well if people didn’t know about the requirement to be online.
  
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- RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m not sure there’s another term for “sold well” that doesn’t also imply people liked it.
  
  Alternatively they could just be calling them plebian.
  
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  - Zorque@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Pretty sure lots of things people are forced to use due to poor competition “sell well” while also being quite un-popular.
    
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chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Brother laser printers are more consumer friendly and cheaper than HP. Epson’s inkejet printers with ecotank are the better deal

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- ThomasLadder_69@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  As someone who sells both the ecotanks are good, but you dont quite get the yield they promise upfront.
  
  Because the ink has to travel all the way from the reservoir at the front of the printer to the print head, there is much more distance that the ink has to travel, giving it more opportunity to dry out. To combat this, ecotanks need to purge much more frequently than traditional inkjets that mount the cartridges next to the print head. This requires shooting a lot of the ink through the lines at high speed/pressure in turn wasting ink.
  
  Also, once this cleaning cycle has been run enough times, you need to replace the ink pad that absorbs all the ink used to clean out the printer. (Only costs 10 bucks)
  
  All of this said, I still recommend them to folks who need to print photos at home, as their color accuracy is impressive for a CMYK printer, and while the yield isn’t as high as they claim, it is still much cheaper per page than most other inkjets. But more often than not, I try to convince people to just get a monochrome Brother and use a printing service/shop that has a multi-thousand dollar photo printer when they need photos.
  
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  - buttfarts@lemy.lol ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I have a monochrome brother laser/fax that is old af. I don’t mess with color because like you said if I want photos printed I’m going to get the big-boy printer at the store to do it.
    
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  - derpgon@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    A million times this. Yet people never learn.
    
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  - chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I have an old Brother monochrome laser printer as well. It works flawlessly
    
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Usually we just want 1-2 pictures, so we have one of those small, portable printers that connects via phone. They’re pricey per print, so it’s really not a good option for any kind of volume, but we do volume at a print shop instead.
    
    So consider reevaluating what you actually need to print. A laser printer is fantastic for regular text documents, and the toner can sit for months or even years without any issues with going bad. Or if you only need occasional prints, check your local library instead, maybe you don’t even need a printer.
    
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  - AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I ise a brother colour laser, but that’s only so I can print nice documents. All my photos have always been printed in professional labs. I only print a few pictures that I really like in large format anyway.
    
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Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I was beginning to think there was no limit to what consumers would take.
But apparently it’s just that there is ALMOST no limit, which is better bus we remain in a sad state of lack of consumer awareness.

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- barsquid@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Efficient free market economics requires something like perfect up-front information or zero switching cost to solve this. Those things are fictitious so, predictably, free market economics has not solved printer bullshit.
  
  I’d like to see regulations addressing the up-front information aspect. If we require neon stickers for “needs account” “needs subscription” and “proprietary replacement parts” on all hardware products, people would be better able to dodge scams and cons like HP.
  
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  - tdawg@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You mean consumers aren’t both rational and omniscient?
    
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  - seaQueue@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    “Requires subscription. Monthly cost: $XX, total cost over 5y: $XXX” should do it
    
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jordanlund@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
“Popular”?

If it were popular they’d keep it…

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- Etterra@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They’re just calling it popular so that that one guy - you know, Craig? - that one guy who likes it will blame other people instead of HP themselves.
  
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- Zanz@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They are popular since they cost less than non internet version. This is them removing the internet/subscription version that they were tricking people with.
  
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Alpha71@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Just don’t buy HP. Problem solved.

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Bell@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Always beware of anyone trying to “provide users with a better experience”.

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crystalmerchant@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
So… not popular?

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ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If it was popular, they’d fix the issue. It’s not popular, so they’re just trashing it, like nearly everything else that comes out of HP

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ZeroPoke@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Sorry HP. You already sour’d me on everything you make.

When VARs call me if they do HP I tell them no. I won’t work with anything HP.

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homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Internet: article on HP printers

Me: Image

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psvrh@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You have have my LaserJet 5 when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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- adarza@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  it’ll happen. had to give up a 4L because the toner got scarce–and rather expensive. pretty much nonexistent now.
  
  and now we’re on our seventh printer since.
  
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pelletbucket@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve got a Canon printer & a Xerox scanner that will never be connected to the internet. the last printer I had that connected to the internet got the Office Space treatment when it wouldn’t let me scan something because it was low on cyan

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- barsquid@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That is beyond enraging. I’ve started doing way more research on things up front to maintain a stable blood pressure. Absolutely unacceptable.
  
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reksas@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
hp is mark of shame

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Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Who tf needs a printer these days? I print maybe 5 pages a year and the library does it for a quarter.

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- Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hi. It’s me. I still burn CDs and print onto them direct as part of a niche art hobby. Unfortunately that means owning an Epson inkjet printer.
  
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- Copernican@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The kind of people that can’t use an always online connected printer. But seriously, for some professions and shift to work from home during covid kind of made printers in a home more common again.
  
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- blackris@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I scan nearly all the crap that comes in through my (physical) mailbox and throw it away. My trusty Brother multi laser thingy sends it to me per e-mail and I can sort it later, when the PC is on. Once a month or so, I need to print some pages and it does that, too. Awesome thing, wouldn’t want to miss it.
  
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0x0@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Surprised no one.

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FarFarAway@startrek.website ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Oh now they pull em. Jerks.

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