News HP begins subscription plans for its printers and ink — up to $36 per month, includes limits and cancellation fees

[USAFRet]

it's a bad idea in the sense that HP has already done the math and KNOWS it will make more money this way vs simply price gouging on the ink costs itself

the network connected printers have been feeding them plenty of data for many years now and they have already made sure any such plan is advantageous to only one side of the transaction. i believe the saying goes "the house ALWAYS wins"

so for them it's a pretty good idea, but for everyone else it is most likely not going to be a very good thing.

Absolutely.

Then, you have to fold in the convenience factor for the customer.

Money is most of the equation, but not necessarily all of it.

 

[DavidC1]

$36 a month? In a year that's over $400 and that's in american dollars. For an average user that barely prints $3.6 per month would be too expensive.

No thanks. I'd rather spend $600 on a color laser printer. At that price range you can start to get decent ones.

 

[Math Geek]

$36 a month? In a year that's over $400 and that's in american dollars. For an average user that barely prints $3.6 per month would be too expensive.

No thanks. I'd rather spend $600 on a color laser printer. At that price range you can start to get decent ones.

do note that $36 is for the top end super printer. to be fair it does go a lot cheaper if you just get the basic Envy model at $7 a month. that's still almost $100 a year when the printer itself is usually about $50. so still more than the person printing 5 things a month would ever need to spend.

but as much as i hate the idea and know it is just a money grab, i do like to still be accurate in my hate

 

[USAFRet]

so still more than the person printing 5 things a month would ever need to spend.

But for the small business printing 5 things a day....maybe.

 

[ThomasKinsley]

I bought one of the Epson Ecotank printers when they first came out. It seemed like it was too good of a deal. Just squirt bottles of ink into the tank and boom good to go. Cheap ink, no cartridges what could possibly go wrong. Then it clogged over and over. I had to do numerous cleaing cycles. I found out that, at that time, the only way to change out the cleaning pads was through an "Authorized dealer" and at that time I was getting quotes of $150-200 to change it out. (Obviously I would void the warranty and use a third party kit). Point being, Epson is no angle either.

HP going to the old Columbia Records model. It was a complete ripoff in the 80's. I think HP needs to back off on that.

I recently had to research a new printer for someone else. Epson's supertanks were getting great reviews.....except for the clogging. One person claimed it was OK as long as you printed at least two pages per week but any clogs would cost more than it was worth, exactly as you say now. Sadly the final choice was another HP inkjet. I'm getting tired of them though. They break quickly and their software is even worse. I'm trying to troubleshoot one person's drivers. They scan pages, they hear the printer scan, and....nothing shows up. It's resolved by running HP Print and Scan Doctor repeatedly over and over until it magically works....until it doesn't again. Rubbish.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

HP thinks they can get away with this because "they are HP", basically, the same thinking that caused Xerox to go from a world leader to a bit player. The rent-a-printer model does make sense in a way (free next day replacement, for example), but in 2024 with a number of great tank printers without subscriptions and inexpensive refills, as well as a number of very affordable color laser printers without subscriptions, I'm struggling to figure out for whom these printer subscriptions are targeting.

 

[wr3zzz]

Copiers have been using this model for years as an option and have been a win-win for an industry facing probable obsolescence. For organizations deploying large number of printers this is not that stupid. There is no capital outlay which tend to have additional hidden costs in large organizations and they can scale deployment based on needs which is a variable cost rather than fix cost.

Edit: Any news outlet with some kind of business desk would easily noted the similarity with copiers. Toms' pretense into business news has been and still is ridiculously amateurish.

 

[cyrusfox]

I bought one of the Epson Ecotank printers when they first came out. It seemed like it was too good of a deal. Just squirt bottles of ink into the tank and boom good to go. Cheap ink, no cartridges what could possibly go wrong. Then it clogged over and over. I had to do numerous cleaing cycles. I found out that, at that time, the only way to change out the cleaning pads was through an "Authorized dealer" and at that time I was getting quotes of $150-200 to change it out. (Obviously I would void the warranty and use a third party kit). Point being, Epson is no angle either.

HP going to the old Columbia Records model. It was a complete ripoff in the 80's. I think HP needs to back off on that.

You need to print in high volume with tanks inkjet to prevent clogging up, I use to run 3rd party tanks on old HP printers(2009), they had the same issue.

Best to use B&W laser (old used printers go for $20 frequently), and when you need color, pay a shop for it.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

A year ago I purchased a wireless HP LaserJet from Amazon. I had two choices, one that was subscription based which cost far less and the more expensive non subscription printer. I chose the more expensive option. The tiny printer is great. HP sux and I would never support their subscription model. I'm surprised that the FTC or DOJ hasn't looked into HP's business practices, because they are very anti-consumer.

 

[Giroro]

I feel that HP has been trying to sell ink subscriptions for at least a decade.

But the cheapest way to get HP printer ink is still to just buy a new printer when the included starter cartridge runs out - or more likely dries out for anybody who only prints occasionally. That 200 sheet capacity lasts a pretty long time when you only need to print 10 things a year. Or be more reasonable and use an on-demand printing service, library, etc.
But anybody who prints a lot should only ever buy a printer solely based on how easy it is to get cheap(er) 3rd party toner/ink.

 

[MJS WARLORD]

I am not going to name certain companies so that i dont get into trouble but over here in england a well known magazine readers have reported that they were using " compatable " ink cartridges and after a software update their printers stopped working .

That seems a bit to big brotherish its a bit like somebody saying if you go to a car spares store for oil instead of paying over inflated prices at the dealership we wont service your car

 

[RandomEsq]

Thank you for writing this article. This whole system is bizarre. I cancelled my HP instaink subscription with the assurance that it was NOT mandatory to use my own personal computer (prior to the launching of this so-called "all-in-one plan"). Once the subscription was cancelled, the printer would not work at all since it has "instaink cartridges," installed even though using NON-instaink cartridges will not allow printer to work either. So what is the solution? To be forced to use instaink?

I have a stockpile of cartridges I did not ask for AND apparently will not work. So is my own personal printer no longer useable just because I do not want to subscribe to instaink?

Sidenote - I may be overthinking this, but out of no where (the day my subscription ended), the scan to email function no longer worked and additionally required a PIN that I never asked for or set. When I tried to address this with HP support, I was told I would need to pay a $19.99 fee to troubleshoot the issue. Seems strange to me