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Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

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Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#21

Post by dv_dt »

alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

After similar shenanigans from HP, I went to Brother laser printers and haven’t looked back since.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#22

Post by osrec »

Damn the need for recurring revenue. It makes us make bad things that eat away at our own resources.

I wished there was an alternative payment model, where everything is perhaps paid off over time. If the product fails during the specified time period, the payments stop. It would hopefully give the companies some sort of recurring revenue, while incentivising them to build something that lasts and not play dirty tricks on the consumer.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#23

Post by evgen »

klodolph wrote: post #20
alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

The exception is if you print photos. There’s not really a good alternative to inkjet, except RA-4, which is out of reach for consumers.

If you print photos yourself then you are doing it wrong. Send them to a service that actually has a photo printer that is not a piece of shit and you will find your prints actually lasting longer than the ink cartridge you used to print them with.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#25

Post by lokimedes »

jerf wrote: post #13
lokimedes wrote: post #7

My HP inkjet will not print any color or black if the “photo black” cartridge is removed. I consider this a similar “greed move” by HP.

Does your printer have two separate "black" and "photo black" cartridges?

Yep, and I am still (after 7 years) working out what the difference is. Photos come out just fine without any ink in the photo cartridge, photo paper is a must though.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#26

Post by orev »

klodolph wrote: post #20
alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

The exception is if you print photos. There’s not really a good alternative to inkjet, except RA-4, which is out of reach for consumers.

There really is no reason to be printing photos on your own printer (for consumers, though I suspect it’s similar for pros). Every corner drug store (in the US) can print them with better quality and at a lower cost. Maybe it’s a slight hassle, but how many people are printing a significant quantity of photos anymore?

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#27

Post by k8sToGo »

I bought a 99 bucks HP printer many years ago and signed up for HP instant ink. I have been printing for free basically since then since I print less than 15 pages a month. Don't even have to worry about the ink anymore as they send it automatically when it is near empty.

There are a few downsides. They count per page basis. So even if you print only one letter, it counts against you. When you have to print a lot, then you have to buy in the pack of 10 pages. But overall still cheaper for me than to buy ink at all.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#28

Post by wly_cdgr »

londons_explore wrote: post #4

I'd be interested to know if this was intentional. I can very much see that the all-in-one device has some "initializeHardware()" function that tests and sets up all the internal components, which probably requires ink to run (firing an ink jet as part of the initialization with no ink present usually burns some ink and it'll permanently clog with carbon deposits). Likewise, I suspect if the light bulb in the scanner…

The reasons don't matter as it's absolutely unacceptable user experience that breaks a major implicit product promise. I get that engineers may be too people-stupid to understand that it's a non-negotiable blocker, but that's why you employ UX designers

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#29

Post by orev »

alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

At the low number of pages printed at home, I don’t mind buying the actual name-brand toner. If you’re only changing it every 2 years, the cost doesn’t matter much, and at least the company (i.e. Brother) gets some profit from being a good citizen. Going with non-OEM toner in that situation just drives the company into needing to find more revenue streams, such as locking down the cartridges, which undermines you. At some point people need to be willing to pay a little more to a company that treats them with respect.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#30

Post by js2 »

alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

I had a contrary experience and I stopped buying laser printers. I had to toss two Brother lasers in the trash because Brother's customer service on warranty repairs required more hoops than I was willing to deal with.

Meanwhile, I ended up with an HP OfficeJet Pro 8620 that was recommended years ago by The Wirecutter and I use HP's ink subscription service. It's never failed on me. It never jams. No fuser or toner to worry about. Ink just magically shows up at my house when I need it. The old cartridges go back to HP for recycling. It is the most reliable printer I have ever owned, and I've owned dozens of printers since the early 1980s of almost every technology. I love it. It is one of the few devices in my home that I can say it Just Works. I will be sad if it ever dies and I can't fix it.

Edit: I purchased the HP for $150 in May 2016 on closeout from Office Depot. I've been on the $5/mo or $10/mo plan since then depending upon family needs, so let's say I've spent another $500 since then on ink costs, so I'm at ~ $650 since May 2016. I've printed 16,083 pages, so my lifetime per-page cost is ~ $0.04.

Maybe my mistake was going with a cheap color laser. But I've been thrilled with this particular HP and the convenience of their ink subscription program. Meanwhile, Brother's customer service on the laser printers which failed under warranty was terrible. It was the Brother HL-3170CDW. This isn't my review, but it matched my experience, except I mistakenly bought a second printer so I could re-use supplies I already had for the model:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R32TEW142QU2G6/re...

Edit: reworded for tone. Thank you for the feedback below.

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