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HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#21

Post by jxf »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #18
mcny wrote: post #12

The CEO and the board must serve prison time for things like this. No measure less than prison for the CEO and all board members is enough to curtail this because it just becomes the cost of doing business. No, you can’t say it wasn’t your decision. If you want to not be held accountable for the work your employees, contractors, and agents do on your behalf, you should have to prove they acted against your express wr…

Prison time? For bricking an $80 printer unless you use specific parts? I don't think so. Let's try to stay on planet earth here..

Not saying they should go to jail, but OP is saying they're bricking potentially millions of printers, not one $80 printer.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#22

Post by rvense »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #18
mcny wrote: post #12

The CEO and the board must serve prison time for things like this. No measure less than prison for the CEO and all board members is enough to curtail this because it just becomes the cost of doing business. No, you can’t say it wasn’t your decision. If you want to not be held accountable for the work your employees, contractors, and agents do on your behalf, you should have to prove they acted against your express wr…

Prison time? For bricking an $80 printer unless you use specific parts? I don't think so. Let's try to stay on planet earth here..

I'm quite sure you can go to prison for stealing a printer. Why not for breaking one?

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#24

Post by clipsy »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #18
mcny wrote: post #12

The CEO and the board must serve prison time for things like this. No measure less than prison for the CEO and all board members is enough to curtail this because it just becomes the cost of doing business. No, you can’t say it wasn’t your decision. If you want to not be held accountable for the work your employees, contractors, and agents do on your behalf, you should have to prove they acted against your express wr…

Prison time? For bricking an $80 printer unless you use specific parts? I don't think so. Let's try to stay on planet earth here..

You deliberately misrepresent this as one $80 printer; in reality it is the sum total of all printers bricked by this, plus price gouging the printer owners who don’t want their printer bricked.

If even a few dozen printers were bricked by this it would represent more lost value than the threshold for grand larceny in many jurisdictions; do you propose we let people who steal, say, $1600 of goods walk away scot free? And don’t waste your breath on fines —- those will only be passed on to the captive consumers as the “cost of business.”

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#26

Post by cyberlurker »

cubefox wrote: post #11

This issue is discussed for over 20 years now, it baffles me that there is apparently still no established solution. By the way, Apple forcing users to install apps only via its 30% fee AppStore has provoked far less outrage. Probably because people are not directly aware of the Apple premium, in contrast to the HP premium.

Whether you think it is a good value is up for debate but users do get some benefit from buying through the App Store. (Security, convenience, etc.)

You get nothing extra from buying HP first party ink otherwise they wouldn’t do this.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#27

Post by avewa »

rvense wrote: post #20

Imagine if IKEA sent someone to your house to smash your plates if you used cutlery they didn't like. The CEO and board who are supervising this ought to be barred from ever running a company again.

A more apt analogy would be that you entered a contract in which IKEA rented you a house at a great discount and in exchange you can only furnish the house with IKEA furniture and then they caught you buying stuff somewhere else and kicked you out.

The "smash your plates" part is not adequate because the 3rd party ink cartridges are not being destroyed. If you promise to keep buying IKEA furniture they'll let you return to the house.

If you don't like the terms of this contract (I don't) then don't sign it. Easy!

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#28

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

clipsy wrote: post #24
VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prison time? For bricking an $80 printer unless you use specific parts? I don't think so. Let's try to stay on planet earth here..

You deliberately misrepresent this as one $80 printer; in reality it is the sum total of all printers bricked by this, plus price gouging the printer owners who don’t want their printer bricked. If even a few dozen printers were bricked by this it would represent more lost value than the threshold for grand larceny in many jurisdictions; do you propose we let people who steal, say, $1600 of goods walk away scot free?…

Prison seems very extreme to me. But maybe it's appropriate, I don't know.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#29

Post by clipsy »

kayson wrote: post #14

It seems like there is enough competition in the printer market that this wouldn't be a thing. Are the margins so thin that all manufacturers depend on ink sales? Otherwise I don't understand why one wouldn't make universal ink compatibility a major selling point and force everyone to follow suit.

The margins on home inkjet printer sales are not just low, they are typically negative. Which, coupled with incurious/cheap customers makes it very hard for an honest printer manufacturer to compete.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#30

Post by golem14 »

cubefox wrote: post #11

This issue is discussed for over 20 years now, it baffles me that there is apparently still no established solution. By the way, Apple forcing users to install apps only via its 30% fee AppStore has provoked far less outrage. Probably because people are not directly aware of the Apple premium, in contrast to the HP premium.

People are less upset because Apple does not brick the phone when the user downloads an app they don't like. (they might in the future, but not today).
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