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HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

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171–180 of 308 posts

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#172

The best way to make a difference against this nastyness realistically available to us is probably the "one star review". And when you do, resist writing 10 paragraphs about all the times HP has ever wronged you or a long story about how much you needed the printout when it refused to print. One star, one sentence. "Expires full inks after only x months forcing you to buy new ones when you don't need them." I know fo…

Normally, I loathe one-star amazon and yelp reviews. They are almost always knee-jerk reactions to some function not working perfectly, or, more often, the consumer felt disrespected and didn't receive the proper service, even though the product or food is flawless.

However, there's an exception to everything. Just this week, my printer crapped out a week after inserting 3rd party ink cartridges. I just thought that printers have a planned obsolesce period of around 2 years. It's one thing to make a device so cheap that it's only capable of lasting 2 years. Intentionally sabotaging your own products just to extract a little more coin is beyond a slap in the face, it's consumer rape. Sony did something similar with their about face on installing Linux. Although I don't agree with what they did, they could at least explain it away as trying to prevent piracy.

I am never, ever, ever buying another product by HP again, never signing up for any of their cloud services and I will tell clients, friends, colleagues, and anyone else in shouting distance to do the same. Luckily, the TinyScanner app (my fave document scanning app, sorry Office Lens) and my phone are more than enough to replace my scanner/fax/copier/printer and I hope I never have to buy one again. For some reason though, faxes are still being used in high numbers in Japan.

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#173
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of automated multi-ton death machines moving at high-speed near other people, that seems totally reasonable. You shouldn't be allowed to tinker with your automated car and risk everyone else's lives.

No, it's not reasonable. Government should set standard, free market competes to follow start dates with best quality and lowest cost. Wht should Tesla be able to prevent me from replacing a bad Tesla part with a better/safer third-party part?

As long as it's advertised that way upfront, then I don't see why not. Tesla is not going to be the only automated car manufacturer. Today, you can buy cars that only take specialty parts. You can also buy cars that take standard parts. I'm sure it will be that way with automated cars too. Same way that you should be able to buy an iPhone with all of its non-standard quirks.

As for safety, it depends on the specific parts. An automated car is a complete integrated system. Once people start swapping parts, the test-matrix to ensure safety explodes. People modifying the driving software in their own cars, for example, is definitely a no-go. (And modifying any software at all should be prohibited unless the driving and entertainment computers are completely air-gapped.)

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#175
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it's not a verified-purchase , it's still counts in Amazon's count of percentage of 1 star reviews.

On principle I hate the idea of encouraging people to submit reviews for products that they haven't purchased. It's a crime worse than time-bombing generic printer cartridges and makes online reviews basically worthless. I don't give a shit about your moral stand against HP. Give me an honest review of a product you own or don't say anything.

[deleted]

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#176
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On principle I hate the idea of encouraging people to submit reviews for products that they haven't purchased. It's a crime worse than time-bombing generic printer cartridges and makes online reviews basically worthless. I don't give a shit about your moral stand against HP. Give me an honest review of a product you own or don't say anything.

You think sharing honest information to help people is worse than lying for profit?

Because the internet justice mob has never been mistaken? Because vigilantes never get a just a little carried away, and firebomb completely unrelated products with one star reviews?

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#177
post #104

So what is a good brand of laser printers that work well under Linux and accepts unofficial toners?

Brother. Look for: - BRScript3 (their clone of PostScript) - ethernet port - a "D" on the end means it can print on both sides, duplexing. It's slower but oh so much more convenient. Printers with all these features start around $100.

Good service too. Brother sent out a Pitney Bowes repair person free of charge for my $350 color laser printer.

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#178

Not trolling, but why do you use printers? I haven't used paper for 5 odd years now. The gov here (Spain) gives me tons of paper; I photograph it and then leave it and have them print it out when needed. Outside that I have not needed paper since the ipad. Why do other people?

Kids. School projects (science fair posters) and reports. And they also do some creative games/puzzles with them. Or print reminder/todo lists for them.

I'll also print interesting graphs or graphics, to share/discuss with them. It's much harder to discuss in front of a screen.

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#179

Not sure if it was a time bomb, but HP does have an "auto update" feature that could seem like a time bomb. We got nailed by this with our HP 8610. Were using 3rd party cartridges with much success for months. Last week my wife had a huge (for us) print job and encountered an annoying bug (prints blank sheets every other print). Updated the firmware hoping it would fix the problem. Next thing we know, cartridge error…

Are you printing in color?

Re: HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers

#180
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On principle I hate the idea of encouraging people to submit reviews for products that they haven't purchased. It's a crime worse than time-bombing generic printer cartridges and makes online reviews basically worthless. I don't give a shit about your moral stand against HP. Give me an honest review of a product you own or don't say anything.

I absolutely agree. But nearly half of Amazon reviews these days are paid advertisements by the seller in my experience. And while I think you should never write a review for a product you've never used, if you've: 1. Supported or used one at work 2. Had to make purchasing decisions at work, done research, and chosen a competing product 3. Helped a friend or family member with one Then go right ahead.

I would agree that there's absolutely a difference between a review for a product you've used or helped support and a review written because somebody on HN told you to write it.
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