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

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

#231

Post by tptacek »

canttestthis wrote: post #229
rayiner wrote: post #153

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.

Disagree. You don't have to own a product to write an honest review of it. You don't need to have a Galaxy that caught fire to warn others of what's happening. I'm going to leave a 1-star review because my review is an accurate description of the product even though I haven't owned it. The real problem is people who review products on unrelated issues, like the political positions of the CEO.

The end result of this isn't reviews that serve as helpful warnings to consumers, but rather reviews that nobody takes seriously at all because they aren't a reliable record of user experience.

It's easy to quibble with this in cases like the Samsung batteries. But exploding batteries aren't the common case: much dumber things are.

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

#232

Post by [deleted] »

clydethefrog wrote: post #109
pjc50 wrote: post #39

I'm fairly sure this is illegal in the EU under one of the e-waste directives.

Yes, cartridges fall under the WEEE Directive. What do you think is the best way to enforce the rules on HP and make this action illegal? Contact the Member State authorities? Feel this should be enforced by the EU instead of national... gah, directives.

[deleted]

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

#233

Post by msl »

wildmusings wrote: post #164
Spooky23 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is already doing this, iirc. As self-driving cars become a thing, you'll see way more of this, "for safety".

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.

What about the brake pads in my multi-ton death machine? Should I be prohibited from replacing them with third-party parts for the fear of risking everyone else's lives?

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

#235

Post by canttestthis »

tptacek wrote: post #231
canttestthis wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. You don't have to own a product to write an honest review of it. You don't need to have a Galaxy that caught fire to warn others of what's happening. I'm going to leave a 1-star review because my review is an accurate description of the product even though I haven't owned it. The real problem is people who review products on unrelated issues, like the political positions of the CEO.

The end result of this isn't reviews that serve as helpful warnings to consumers, but rather reviews that nobody takes seriously at all because they aren't a reliable record of user experience. It's easy to quibble with this in cases like the Samsung batteries. But exploding batteries aren't the common case: much dumber things are.

My review _is_ a reliable record of user experience. If the reader buys the printer he is likely to face the same issue that I'm describing. To not warn them of the issue with the product seems way more unethical to me in my moral framework than the moral stance of keeping the reviews sacred.

Heck, if I and others didn't do this and the printer was still at 4stars because the uninformed majority don't understand the technical aspect of this planned obsolescence, other uninformed readers may not feel the need to read the reviews at all (the average is 4! It probably has no issues! HP is a household name, I'll be using this for years!)

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

#236

Post by PieterH »

dsr_ wrote: post #104
raphaelh wrote: post #88

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.

Haha, broscript... Sorry, thought I was on Reddit.

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

#237

Post by tptacek »

canttestthis wrote: post #235
tptacek wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The end result of this isn't reviews that serve as helpful warnings to consumers, but rather reviews that nobody takes seriously at all because they aren't a reliable record of user experience. It's easy to quibble with this in cases like the Samsung batteries. But exploding batteries aren't the common case: much dumber things are.

My review _is_ a reliable record of user experience. If the reader buys the printer he is likely to face the same issue that I'm describing. To not warn them of the issue with the product seems way more unethical to me in my moral framework than the moral stance of keeping the reviews sacred. Heck, if I and others didn't do this and the printer was still at 4stars because the uninformed majority don't understand the…

This mentality seems to me to have produced reviews --- on Yelp, on Grubhub, and christ have mercy on the Apple App Store --- that are basically worthless. You can painstakingly read all the reviews and try to glean useful tidbits, but you cannot look at the overall review scores and use them to make reliable decisions.

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

#238

Post by XCSme »

Just get a CISS printer. I got an Epson L300 when I started college (4 years ago) and the printer is still going strong and I still have one full bottle of black ink (it came with 3x black ink bottles in the box). It was about $150 when I bought it and I spent $0 on ink.

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

#239

Post by canttestthis »

tptacek wrote: post #237
canttestthis wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My review _is_ a reliable record of user experience. If the reader buys the printer he is likely to face the same issue that I'm describing. To not warn them of the issue with the product seems way more unethical to me in my moral framework than the moral stance of keeping the reviews sacred. Heck, if I and others didn't do this and the printer was still at 4stars because the uninformed majority don't understand the…

This mentality seems to me to have produced reviews --- on Yelp, on Grubhub, and christ have mercy on the Apple App Store --- that are basically worthless. You can painstakingly read all the reviews and try to glean useful tidbits, but you cannot look at the overall review scores and use them to make reliable decisions.

> you cannot look at the overall review scores and use them to make reliable decisions.

As I said, my review (that the printer has hard-coded planned obsolescence in place) is a fair review allowing you to make a more informed, reliable decision.

It's not worth a long debate, but you're not telling me your whole argument so I don't know how to respond.

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