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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

#221

Post by lazide »

scarface74 wrote: post #186
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that there’s cornucopias of choice in day to day life for 99% of Americans is absurd You have to go to extraordinary and extreme measures to break out of the basic choices that you are offered for which the profits all go to the same group of people There is basically Zero diversity in the corporate landscape for either consumers or workers. Maybe even if that’s the trend, let’s choose not all live in a pvp…

> You have to go to extraordinary and extreme measures to break out of the basic choices that you are offered for which the profits all go to the same group of people In this case we are talking about printers. There are literally dozens of printer makers.

Personally I just buy Brother now, though they are starting to do some of the tricks.

Least evil option?

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

#222

Post by bcrosby95 »

crazygringo wrote: post #85
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…

Why not send top stockholders to prison while you're at it? And regional managers as well? And the stores that sell the printers too? No, prison makes zero sense. When people agree to a business contract and one side fails to uphold their end of the bargain, the remedy should remain financial. And punitive remedies exist precisely to make sure the "cost of doing business" makes it no longer profitable. And if that's…

So fraud shouldn't result in prison time? This isn't an "oops I couldn't do what I said", it's purposeful.

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

#223

Post by lazide »

emodendroket wrote: post #131
option wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

intentionally destroying someone’s property?

Let's see a statute this would fall under.

Not the poster or taking a position, but California Penal Code 594 (Vandalism/Malicious Mischief) might apply if one were to try to take that direction. [https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...]

Difficulty: it’s a wobbler, and is only a misdemeanor unless it’s > $400 worth of damage. Good luck proving that in this situation.

Maybe if they wrote in an email their evil plan to set the printers on fire so their customers would buy new ones, and it caught some people’s houses on fire.

Civil claims or a class action are an entirely different matter of course.

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

#224

Post by einpoklum »

scarface74 wrote: post #196
einpoklum wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Brother multi-function (MFC-L2710DW). > And their drivers aren't user hostile? They offer a closed-source Linux and you need to download an installer from them (an i386 binary, which also works on i686 and x86_64); so, not great. The driver is mostly-reliable, although every once in a while it does kind of give out on you and printing fails, possibly until a restart. I suppose on Windows it's better. > really…

It amazes that in 2023, other operating systems still need separate drivers for printers. I just look for AirPrint compatible printers and they work seamless from my Mac, iPhone and iPad. I pulled an old 2010 iPad out a couple of years ago and it could print to a brand new printer.

> I just look for AirPrint compatible printers

A custom, single-vendor protocol? Hmm. Is it at least license-free and patent-free? ... I doubt it.

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

#225

Post by oxfordmale »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #176
oxfordmale wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just stop buying HP printers. If you bought and it is still under warranty, ask for a full refund. You likely won't get it, but make sure HP waste as much time as possible dealing with this In the UK it is even worth considering to take this to the small claims court. Of course seek legal advice first. The only way HP gets away with this, because people just accept this kind of behaviour.

> The only way HP gets away with this, because people just accept this kind of behaviour please name a situation in the past 50 years where a conpany went under or lost at least 10% of their revenue from'peiple not accepting' this behaviour

HP printing revenue has been sliding for more than a decade.

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

#226

Post by testfoobar »

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…

In a competitive market, individual consumer decisions punish bad actors.

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

#227

Post by oxfordmale »

pessimizer wrote: post #164
oxfordmale wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just stop buying HP printers. If you bought and it is still under warranty, ask for a full refund. You likely won't get it, but make sure HP waste as much time as possible dealing with this In the UK it is even worth considering to take this to the small claims court. Of course seek legal advice first. The only way HP gets away with this, because people just accept this kind of behaviour.

> The only way HP gets away with this, because people just accept this kind of behaviour. No, the way they get away with it is to collude, and make sure customers have no other choices.

There are other printer brands that do not follow HP's lowball tactics.

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

#228

Post by jmugan »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #35

Did you know Brother makes really good printers that are inexpensive and live a long, happy, life? And their drivers aren't user hostile? This is one of those really good "vote with your wallets" situations.

I bought a Brother laser printer like the internet told me to, and I even paid extra money to get the one that is easy to connect on wifi, but we can't seem to connect the printer to any macs wirelessly. It only connects to the iphones and the ubuntu machine. It just doesn't show up in macs. Anyone know anything about that?

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

#229

Post by judge2020 »

jmugan wrote: post #228
DiabloD3 wrote: post #35

Did you know Brother makes really good printers that are inexpensive and live a long, happy, life? And their drivers aren't user hostile? This is one of those really good "vote with your wallets" situations.

I bought a Brother laser printer like the internet told me to, and I even paid extra money to get the one that is easy to connect on wifi, but we can't seem to connect the printer to any macs wirelessly. It only connects to the iphones and the ubuntu machine. It just doesn't show up in macs. Anyone know anything about that?

Have you tried manually adding it? When adding a printer you can change the type to 'airprint' which makes it discoverable in the same way that iphones discover printers. You could also use the IP address directly if you must.

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

#230

Post by jackphilson »

gameman144 wrote: post #51
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…

I don't think prison time is even what's needed here, I think these issues would resolve themselves if corporate fines were continually issued, rather than one-off lawsuits. For instance, a standing ruling that if your printer stops being able to print for no reason other than a contract breach, then the hardware is eligible for a refund. We don't need to put CEOs in prison for making consumer-hostile decisions, we j…

or just let the free market run it's course.
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