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mrfriki ,

Has always been meme

glovecraft ,

The subscription, like HP’s recent ad campaign promoting its printers as “made to be less hated,” trades on the idea that printers are frustrating commodities. The company’s configurator page mentions bonuses like “continuous printer coverage” and “next-business-day printer replacement,”

Our printers are unreliable pieces of absolute shit guys. But if you do the subscription we'll replace your shitty broken rental printer next day. Never worry that you can't print when you need to print. Mindblowing.

Just make reliable printers that work, dumbasses.

corsicanguppy ,

Just make reliable printers that work, dumbasses.

Again, you mean. My LJ4 was sold at 20 years old, more due to toner scarcity than any real problem.

SacralPlexus ,

Nailed it. I currently have an HP Laserjet 2100 for home printing and it is around 20 years old and going strong. Now you’ve made me think I should maybe order some toner ahead…

BearOfaTime ,

Just 6 months ago replaced my 1996 IBM Laser printer.

And it probably still works, keeps saying "paper jam" though I've cleaned it out. Probably a bad sensor/switch. I'll fix it some time.

Rodeo ,

“made to be less hated,”

They still want to be hated, just less.

Who's the halfwit that came up with that line lmao

NutWrench ,
@NutWrench@lemmy.world avatar

Yup. That slogan is the end result of a long line of bad company decisions.

Wooki ,

Dont buy hp?

UnculturedSwine ,

If they made reliable printers that worked, they wouldn't have a business because everyone would have a reliable printer that worked and hp would have no one left to sell printers to. The problem has always been the shortcomings of shareholder capitalism.

polygon6121 ,

I can see it being an option for some people. If you print low volume but regularly every month.
And you need a printer that always just works. The problem is the monthly limits! The base package is 20 pages per month, just printing out a pdf manual or something would eat that up in a minute. I would want unused prints to be added to next month.

Otherwise it is very similar to how it works for businesses having larger office printers.

JohnDClay ,

And it's still more expensive than a brother printer after a year and a half, and one of those will last decades.

just_another_person ,

Brother FTW 🐐

gilokee ,
@gilokee@lemmy.world avatar

Canon tho!

just_another_person ,

Canon is better than HP for sure, but not as reliable, compatible, or unobtrusive as Brother. I bought a higher-end Canon photo printer that just would not work well outside of Windows, and my main drivers are Linux and Android. Brother has never failed me there.

wreckedcarzz ,
@wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world avatar

I'm 2.5y into testing that claim, with a MFC-J6930DW. So far, no issues at all.

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

I've deployed half a dozen in the last dozen years. All still going.

GreyEyedGhost ,

I have a brother color laser, only had to change toner. My mom has a brother laser, haven't changed toner. These things run like trucks.

Alto , (edited )

I spent way longer than I ever hoped to primarily selling printers. This is the answer. I'd wager a solid 80% of people would be better off buying a cheap brother laser and just going to walgreens/office depot/where ever the 2 times a year they need to print in color

MeatsOfRage ,

Yea I definitely fall into the 20 pages or less a month category. Hell I probably fall into the 20 pages or less a year category. But I'd never add a subscription for something I can just buy out.

cmnybo ,

It's not just a subscription, it's a two year contract with a large early cancellation fee.

NateNate60 ,

I know it's not necessarily an option for everyone, but the printer at the library always works and costs way less or is free.

EngineerGaming ,
@EngineerGaming@feddit.nl avatar

Or a copycenter.

NateNate60 ,

Printing shops have existed as long as there have been printers. People rarely need to print anything anyway but most will convince themselves against it because they think it's a hassle or that they will print a lot more than they actually do.

Many people I know end up replacing their ink cartridges almost every time they have to print because it's been so long that the ink has dried up...

captainlezbian ,

And it doesn’t take up space. Like seriously, I haven’t really printed at home since college

tabular ,
@tabular@lemmy.world avatar

Those who see this as an option are not well. They are neglected by the tech literates who could help them do better and the people who understand the value of ownership that could help them be better.

Apollo2323 ,

I don't know what are you talking about. I have a Canon printer is being 10 years since I bought it and its working like new. This is the reason why HP can get away with this idiotic move.

MxM111 , (edited )

If you are over the initial pages, then it is $1 per 10-15 pages. Which is much cheaper than the original $6.99 for first 20 pages. $1 per 15 pages probably costs the same if you own HP printer and buy HP ink.

BearOfaTime ,

A laser printer always just works.

My 1996 laser just got replaced 6 months ago. I replaced the toner once or twice... Because I'm a low volume printer.

Low volume is probably also just B/W. But even a color laser isn't that much. Canon has a line of office color that aren't awfully expensive, and not large.

Why would I pay for a lease that over it's contract term is as much as a Canon color laser that will:

  1. Run longer on it's starter toners

  2. Never clog

  3. Probably run for 10 years or more

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The company debuted a subscription service today — just like CEO Enrique Lores said it would last month — called the HP All-In Plan.

So if you decide HP All-In isn’t for you after all, you’ll have to return the printer and go back to rubbing elbows with everyone else at FedEx whenever the need to print arises.

That way, if a firmware upgrade blue-screens your printer, at least you have some recourse that doesn’t involve driving to a store to buy a whole new one.

And receiving ink before you run out is great if you are, like me, the kind of person who ignores the “low ink” warning all the way until I’m fully out and am actually printing something critical, rather than coloring pages for your kid, for once.

But those are mostly functions of the fact that I don’t really print that often and rarely encounter the annoyances of printer ownership.

One is HP’s plan, which appeals to the frustration of user-hostile experiences like scanners that don’t work because you bought third-party ink and printers that become unusable without some serious effort because you moved overseas.

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