News HP ad campaign claims its printers are ‘made to be less hated’ following years of anti-consumer behavior

[Admin]

HP’s new ad campaign in Europe seems to be hoping to win over customers by saying its printers aren’t as bad as those from competitors.

HP ad campaign claims its printers are ‘made to be less hated’ following years of anti-consumer behavior : Read more

 

[hotaru251]

weren't they the 1st company to force your printer to demand new ink (of all colors) if only 1 was low?
and would say ur black ink is out even thoguh people physically looked and it wasn't actually out?

 

[emike09]

I've had an HP M425dn B/W laser printer at home for about 10 years. I've never once had an issue with it. Replaced the toner cartridge one time in a decade, probably getting close to needing new toner soon. I keep it unplugged until I need it. Power it on, hit print from one of my various computers, and voila. Even scanning to PC has been fool-proof.

Legit the most reliable printer I've ever had. I've also managed several dozens of similar HP printers at work (all laser) and had similar experiences with reliability.

Haven't used an inkjet printer in near 20 years. Not sure why anybody still buys those besides the fact they're hella-cheap to buy, very expensive to own. Go color laser if you need color. I just don't see any reason to use ink. I'll use a professional printing studio if I need high-quality photos printed.

I think Sharp's big printers were the most problematic I've worked with in a professional setting. Jam here, jam there, etc.

 

[JamesJones44]

Not that I use printers all that much these days but the last two HP printers have been awful. One would never wake up on it's own and the newer one the ink cartridges die in 3 week whether it's used or not.

The HP printer I had before these two was great, worked like a charm, but sadly I "upgraded" and it was a horrible decision. Not sure I would buy another from HP at this point.

 

[Dante'sfired]

HP is why I went to a Brother laser printer and Never looked back. There was a time where it was occasionally cheaper to buy A WHOLE NEW PRINTER than buy the black and color ink need to make your current printer work.

HP did not care about consumers, only profit. I have replaced all my family's HP over the years. I simply told them that I refused to service them and the gladly made the change

 

[evdjj3j]

I was forced to buy an HP inkjet during the outbreak and it is the biggest POS printer I have ever owned. One 28 page document used an entire new set of ink carts. I'll never buy another HP product.

 

[PEnns]

I've had an HP M425dn B/W laser printer at home for about 10 years. I've never once had an issue with it. Replaced the toner cartridge one time in a decade, probably getting close to needing new toner soon. I keep it unplugged until I need it. Power it on, hit print from one of my various computers, and voila. Even scanning to PC has been fool-proof.

Legit the most reliable printer I've ever had. I've also managed several dozens of similar HP printers at work (all laser) and had similar experiences with reliability.

Haven't used an inkjet printer in near 20 years. Not sure why anybody still buys those besides the fact they're hella-cheap to buy, very expensive to own. Go color laser if you need color. I just don't see any reason to use ink. I'll use a professional printing studio if I need high-quality photos printed.

I think Sharp's big printers were the most problematic I've worked with in a professional setting. Jam here, jam there, etc.

Couldn't agree more. Their laser printers are fine, Inkjets are a heart-issue inducing nightmare!!

 

[brandonjclark]

I stopped paying for ink over a decade ago. B/W laser prints for my family... sorry kiddos!

 

[RandomWan]

HP printers are made to be the most hated. From roping people into ink subscriptions that essentially brick your printer if you cancel to their new e series that render the printer unusable if you don't create an account and activate your printer.

I'd never personally buy an HP printer again and steer anyone asking away from them.

 

[newtechldtech]

HP made the best inkprinter , the pagewide series then stopped making them because they never fail and their ink cartridges' are huge and cheaper .... pagewide had a fixed head "pagewide length" and the paper moves under it resulting in lasrer like printing using inkjet head.

 

[voyteck]

When avoding malpractice became the sole criterion for choosing a printer.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Marcomm News says this ad campaign acknowledges “the universal disdain for printers.”

This is 2023. Color laser printers have been affordable even for home users for over a decade, Brother and other companies have had great injets with per-color cartridges that aren't firmware locked for a decade as well, and tank printers are steadily replacing injets with laser-like per-page costs and lack proprietary cartridges with a price that is steadily decreasing.

The only disdain I see is towards HP for their should-be-illegal business practices.

 

[pug_s]

These inkjet printers are total garbage, even tank based ones. If you don't print within a week, the heads would clog. I brought a Dell 1660w printer 10 years ago and it works fine on the occasional color printing but I use Brother MFP printer as the main printer.

 

[vern72]

It doesn't matter anymore. All printers are HPs now (well, at least all Windows user's printers are).

 

[ThomasKinsley]

Well, if their intention was to make printers less hated, then they failed.

 

[coromonadalix]

the more they try the more i hate them

i still have an old laserjer 1210, reliable and practical, 300 pages on a cartridge / fuser combo

Had to use 2x officejet 7740 for a mere 1k$$$ for ultra wide print and scanning, they have been crippled by the famous HP app, i found out old tests pages with the old FW version who could pass the non genuine inks, they have been upgraded without our conscent.

They are a mess, no ink = no scanning, a full black but one color missing = no print

Uther crap and some bad joke, and they drain pretty fast when they start and do their auto clean up etc ... they purge some ink ... it cost aroud 150$ ea printer, to have the genuine 952xl 4 ink pack

Had Samsung laser ones in the past, ditched them, they used a trick to blow a part in the fuser block asking / forcing it to be changed ... and was still plenty good ???

other brands used tricks too

Checking the ECO trend, on some brand, they cost a lot and doesn't have a third of the options i need, for an absurd pricing

 

[kb7rky]

"Less hated"? Sorry, HP, but that ship has already sailed. It's still cheaper to buy an all-new printer (something like a Canon printer), than it is to buy printer ink

 

[leondecuir]

BEFORE talent-free, nothing-burger Carly Fiorna was SO MISTAKENLY made HP's CEO, the company was engineer-driven, excellence-driven and remarkable. "She" (IT) then came in with her entitled Hedge Fund / MBA stupidity and greed and wrecked HP (a statement that emeritis founder David Packard later MADE IN PUBLIC). She presided over the future wreck of HP that we see today. And was FIRED, and of course with a golden parachute for having gleefully wrecked an American tech icon. BTW -- my 1998 HP 1020 Laserjet printer is STILL going strong, since it was the LAST ONE with all wear parts cleverly in its replaceable TONER cartridge. Madam "Razor Blade Model" Fiorna made sure HP "didn't make THAT mistake again." M-E-H

 

[BaguetteOmelette]

After years of reading Tom´s Hardware articles, I finally encountered THE article that lead to me registering on the forum to post my two cents here.

For over 2 decades I have been a computer enthusiast and for the last 5 years I turned one of my hobbies into a full time job. I have been repairing and assembling both Windows and Apple devices from back in the days of DOS PC´s and colourful G4 Powerbooks.
I am employed in a computer repair shop at the moment, specialised in Apple computers and last month alone I had 2 customers come in with their BRAND NEW STORE BOUGHT HP laser printer.

CUSTOMER NUMBER ONE

First customer in question brought in his old 2012 unibody MacBook Pro and an HP M234dwe laserjet printer.
This was a rather unique case as the customer is a writer who has banned internet out of his home and uses his MacBook Pro only for text processing and printing whatever articles or books he wrote.
A little bit of overkill of a printer with all its wireless capabilities, nonetheless, this should be a very decent printer & scanner combo.
So I started unboxing the printer, hooking it up to the MacBook over USB, MacBook recognises the printer and even printer model.
Now when we send it anything to print, it would show to be sent through successfully and to be printed, however, the printer was doing absolutely nothing,
Tech tip number one, restart the MacBook and try again. Same result.
Tech tip number two, grab a new device in the shop (M1 MacBook Air), hook it up over USB, same result.
Tech tip number three, change the connection.
So I tried to setup the printer to use AirPrint instead of USB and what would you know, IMMEDIATE SUCCES!
Ring up the customer, told him we can just set it up to print wirelessly, even if he doesn’t have a network at home.
Customer picks up his devices, we even print a test page together in the shop before he takes off.

ONE WEEK LATER
Customer returns, the printer was only spitting out a single page which had the same information on it over and over again “Please activate your printer using the HP Smart App” with a QR code and some more information.
Completely flabbergasted, I take his MacBook and printer back in and this is where the fun starts.
I connect both devices again, this time over USB. Trying to print anything remains unsuccessful, however the scanner seems to be communicating fine and I even took the chance to make a deep scan of a MacBooks logic board.
I disconnect USB connection and connect over AirPrint, now the printer IS PRINTING, but it only spits out this page stating the printer needs to be activated.
So, I follow the steps on the page and go look for the HP Smart App.
When I scan the QR code and select that I am looking to install this printer on Mac OS, no software or separate drivers are needed as this printer supports AirPrint.
Yes, we were able to print a couple of documents last week over AirPrint but this appeared to have stopped working for some reason.
So I open the App Store and go have a look for HP Smart App.
Next problem, the App required Mac OS 11 Big Sur or later, customers MacBook only supports Mac OS 10.15…
So I hook up the printer to one of our shops laptops again, this time an 2017 MacBook Air running Mac OS 12 Monterey.
I download the HP Smart App, connect with the printer over USB and now the true craziness start.
First, I have to open one of the printer drawers and locate a label with a PIN code on it.
Enter this PIN code into the HP Smart App and what would you know, SUCCES!
Or at least so I think… “To successfully activate YOUR printer please login to your HP account”
This customer banned internet out of his home and did NOT want to create any online account he deemed unnecessary.
So I ended up creating an email address for the customer, solely for creating an HP account, so we could get HIS printer, which HE BOUGHT BRAND NEW IN THE STORE, activated.
Ok, activation successful. Surely things should go buttery smooth now right?
On the 2017 MacBook Air in the shop, sure things went great.
Back to the customers 2012 MacBook Pro. Connect over USB, printer does not print, scanner works great.
Connect over AirPrint. Printer does not print, scanner works great.
I go for the last option, since this printer also has an ethernet jack and so does the customers MacBook, I decide to connect both using an ethernet cable.
SUCCES, the printer prints and the scanner scans.

“HP. Made to be less hated.”


CUSTOMER NUMBER TWO

The second customer brought in her 2015 MacBook Air and an HP 107w laserjet printer.
Their old printer had broken down and they were looking for a compact printer with wireless capabilities for their studio.
We connect the printer to the MacBook Air over USB, printer gets recognised, printer task gets sent to printer manager, which claims the document is being printed.
However, NO PRINTING IS HAPPENING.
Ok, cool, I learned to keep my cool and patience after last week’s HP adventure so I put away the USB cable and try to get the devices connected over AirPrint.
MacBook is doing great, recognising and connecting to the device instantly.
We try to print a document, Mac OS Print Manager sees the print task and sends it to the printer, claiming it is being printed, however, NO DOCUMENT IS PRINTED.
I open the drawer and look for any label, similar to last week’s customer printer, showing any sort of PIN code for possible activation of the printer.
Couldn’t find anything remotely similar.
Customer is running Mac OS Mojave as she is using certain software that lost compatibility after this OS.
So, HP Smart App could not be downloaded from the App Store.
I deep dived into our hard drives with software our shop has gathered over the last 3 decades and succes! I find a version of the HP Smart compatible with Mac OS 10.14 Mojave.
I install it on customers MacBook Air, the software recognises the printer over AirPrint and SURPRISE, we have to activate the printer, this time not by using a PIN code located on a label somewhere on or in the device, but just by logging in to our HP Account and confirming some T&C.
So, created an HP account with the customer, explained to her the procedure to activate the printer and told her it was better to do this at home as it would also ask to setup the printer in the network.
I did not want to risk this printer being bound to the network in the store somehow, resulting in a returning customer with an unresolved issue.
When she asked me if it would work over USB as well so she could potentially take the printer home if needed, I could not give her an answer as the printer had to be activated first.

“HP. Made to be less hated.”


It’s been 3 weeks now and I haven’t seen or heard of both customers. Sometimes I’m thinking of giving them a call just to see if their printer is working, but it’s not really store policy to call up customers after “repairs” are done and the customer picked up their devices.
However, this has now changed our store policy that we will no longer be accepting customer walking in with printer issues, we will be happy to advise them over the counter but these past experience, and I’m only writing about two of them in the past month.
These are people that are not tech savvy, they are daily driving MacBooks as these machines last a very long time when taken proper care of and are undeniable very easy to use once you get used to Mac OS.
In a sense I felt nearly guilty charging them for this work, however we did charge them the minimum fee for a regular diagnosis, we ran a standard system diagnosis and cleaned both of their MacBooks while they were in the shop and I assume they both have working printers now.
They didn’t feel comfortable reaching out to HP Customer Service as they were both not tech savvy people, which is something I can also understand.
On the other hand, some people just don’t want to waste their time, getting stuck in a phone call with a customer service agent for who knows how long and trying to get their BRAND NEW STORE BOUGHT printer working.
If anything, in this moment I feel like HP owes me money :-D

Now to conclude,

“HP. Made to be less hated.”

 

[BaguetteOmelette]

HP is why I went to a Brother laser printer and Never looked back. There was a time where it was occasionally cheaper to buy A WHOLE NEW PRINTER than buy the black and color ink need to make your current printer work.

HP did not care about consumers, only profit. I have replaced all my family's HP over the years. I simply told them that I refused to service them and the gladly made the change

Everybody should refuse to service HP!

 

[bart simpson]

Not that I use printers all that much these days but the last two HP printers have been awful. One would never wake up on it's own and the newer one the ink cartridges die in 3 week whether it's used or not.

The HP printer I had before these two was great, worked like a charm, but sadly I "upgraded" and it was a horrible decision. Not sure I would buy another from HP at this point.

Buy a Xerox laser, instead. They don't cost all that much and they work great.

 

[Co BIY]

I spent three hours last week troubleshooting a driver problem for out HP Inkjet Pro 8715 for my son's computer. The computer had printed fine recently and other computers on the home network could still print fine.

After downloading updated Apps and a Smart App and "the Print doctor I still had no success . Followed lots of advice on help boards and FAQs.

The eventual solution was a "Pro driver package" for IT professionals. I suspect they have nerfed support through the consumer channel because of age and only the "Pro" drivers are still functioning.

If I hadn't just been jacked for a new three pack of ink ($97) I would probably have thrown it out.

I'd go for just Black-and-White Laser if my wife didn't need the fax machine. (the worst technology ever invented ). Strangely my experience with HP Laser printers is all good.

 

[stonecarver]

I spent three hours last week troubleshooting a driver problem for out HP Inkjet Pro 8715 for my son's computer. The computer had printed fine recently and other computers on the home network could still print fine.

I have to agree with HP drivers what a pain to get working. I have a HP Laser printer that have had for years and still functions 100% and it only has the one cartridge , black simple . But the drivers man I have so many backed up versions of my driver as depending what version of window's 10/11 and what up dated version 10 or 11 moves to the drivers will not load.

Always a hit or miss. It never fails someone will need to print something and as sure as life it will be on a new setup and try to get printer working and nope driver fits.

I have my old windows 7 PC like a time capsule. Plug play print done. I do get it working on 10/11 but it's a afternoon.

Put me on the HP hate list.

 

[Co BIY]

I have to agree with HP drivers what a pain to get working. I have a HP Laser printer that have had for years and still functions 100% and it only has the one cartridge , black simple . But the drivers man I have so many backed up versions of my driver as depending what version of window's 10/11 and what up dated version 10 or 11 moves to the drivers will not load.

Always a hit or miss. It never fails someone will need to print something and as sure as life it will be on a new setup and try to get printer working and nope driver fits.

I have my old windows 7 PC like a time capsule. Plug play print done. I do get it working on 10/11 but it's a afternoon.

Put me on the HP hate list.

In this case I feel like the actual fix was hidden in the "IT Pro" downloads to deliberately frustrate consumer level users into upgrading or calling for help and getting sold an ink subscription.