this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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387
HP misreads room, awkwardly brags about its “less hated” printers | Opinion: HP's printer business practices have infuriated users for years. (arstechnica.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

HP misreads room, awkwardly brags about its “less hated” printers | Opinion: HP's printer business practices have infuriated users for years.::Opinion: HP's printer business practices have infuriated users for years.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I'm copying my comment from an earlier thread on the same subject.

Tl:Dr If you want to be less hated, make a good product.

I was asked to set up an HP printer earlier this week. It was connected by a USB cable. It stopped printing after a few pages.

HP wants the end user to download their app to use the printer. The printer also has to be set up using an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection. I'd already tried to connect it to Wi-Fi using the button on the printer, but it just said "Er" & blinked some other lights. The HP website specifically says that the printer cannot be used with just a USB cable.

I was confident I could have got it to connect to Wi-Fi and downloaded the app, but it was too much of a problem just to be able to print.

I had a Brother printer moved into its place. There haven't been any other printing issues.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

Definitely recommend brother. No fuss, just works.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I have an HP laser printer at work. When you run out of paper it tells you to load paper. Fair enough. After you load the paper, it asks you which type of paper you loaded, as if people change the paper they put in their printer. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. So, if you just hit okay like with every other printer that has stopped because it ran out of paper, you get sent down this rabbit hole of printer settings displayed on a screen that is barely big enough to show the options given, to be navigated by some poor user who just wants his report.

You can skip all those steps if you ignore everything you've ever learned about loading paper into a printer in the middle of a print job, and just hit the 'x' button. No, it doesn't cancel the job like on every other printer in the world, it just keeps the paper settings you've been using for the last 5 years.

I also have a Brother laser printer at home.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I inherited an older (2012) black and white compact HP laser. Has wifi.

Was a bit of a pita getting wifi setup. Had to use HP software first. Unlike my Canon which just showed up on the network.

Works great otherwise, surprisingly. Even back then I wouldn't have bought it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I'm not too surprised at having to use HP software to set it up. The one I was assigned to set up wanted an HP app that requires an account. I'm pretty sure it would also need to be continuously connected to the Internet in order to print. That is utterly ridiculous!

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fuck HP

That's all

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

HP used to be such a fascinating company, they made so many interesting computers and their old calculators are still amazing and I use one every day. But for some reason they decided to throw all of that away to make the junk they make now

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Enshittification

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is this like when Domino's admitted that their pizza was garbage?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago

As if that was a revelation to anyone with functional tastebuds

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago

My wife needs a printer for work and I hate the thing. I’ve firewalled it off as much as I can for two reasons:

  1. they’re usually a massive security vulnerability
  2. if it updates its firmware it won’t take cheaper 3rd party cartridges anymore
[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago

There was a time when they were good, but that time is long, long gone.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They should eat a bag of dildos.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Still better than dominos

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Too limp, flavorless and uninspiring? Get the door... It's Domidildos

(my apologies to any decent dildos that felt offended by this comment)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I feel alienated for actually prefering Dominos and Papa Johns, I keep seeing everyone hating on them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Don't feel bad. They're certainly better than the cardboard with red sauce that it's papa johns

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Papa John's is the least bad chain pizza IMO. I find myself getting them for sheer topping selection despite living near better places.

Pizza Hut is the real worst. Well, without factoring in cost, Little Caesar's is the worst, but LC is some of the cheapest preheated food at least in the US and bad pizza is still good pizza, so they get a pass that Pizza Hut doesn't.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Three short HP video ad campaigns detailed by Marketing Communication News include one with a customer supremely frustrated with his printer's low ink warning.

Despite this, HP has continued to roll out sudden disruptive firmware updates to add dynamic security to additional printer models.

That happened earlier this year, when users reported that their previously functioning third-party ink wouldn't work in their HP printer anymore.

HP didn't explain why dynamic security was suddenly necessary, nor did it warn users relying on their printers for work and other critical matters.

CFO Marie Myers highlighted the business value of constraining customer choice at the UBS Global Technology conference for investors this week.

The executive added that HP's "really proud" about raising "the range on our print margins" through "bold moves and shifting models."

The original article contains 646 words, the summary contains 131 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I dont even bother reading these HP articles anymore because if you’re still using or buying an HP printer these days you deserve whatever you get.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"infuriated users for years"

Yet people are still buying them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The price sucks in those who don't know better.

People still buy inkjets too.

I've had a BW laser for years... It was made in 1996. It just died. Can't remember when I replaced the toner last.

Most people would be well served by having a BW laser that never clogs, just sits there. And if they want color, get a decent color printer that's know for doing what they want to do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

They have put out good laser printers within the past several years. They probably still do. Those things are like tanks. You will replace every other piece of equipment - probably twice - before you have to do any real maintenance with one of those old laser printers. The one I have takes cheap third party toner cartridges. It’s got over 30k prints and I haven’t done anything but replace toner a couple times.

Their inkjet printers are horrible. Those things suck up so much ink that you spend more on that than you do the printer. You end up at the store looking at a $50 cartridge and a new printer right next to it for $60. Then you walk out with a new printer, in the hopes it might be better, before realizing you got fooled again about a 80 pages later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

HP are complicit in genocide. Boycott them.