Another one from HP, now it deactivates the printers that do not use their cartridges

HP continues its unnecessary war against its clientele

Not long ago we shared here on the blog a news about the actions that HP has taken in relation to the issue of their printers and is that now HP has taken the great "idea" to disable the printers of customers who use ink cartridges from the competition.

The manufacturer has broken into customer equipment by remotely applying updates that have the effect of preventing printers from working if they are not equipped with approved ink cartridges. The company justifies it by the need to guarantee consumer safety.

It seems that HP is running out of ideas on how to deal with this situation that clearly it has already gotten out of hand and that for many it is a senseless war and that it is clearly losing, since instead of keeping its clients, it is driving them away.

“I was printing a lot of documents for a rush job and I needed to change the cartridges. Unbeknownst to me, HP electronically broke into my apartment overnight and disabled my printer, demanding a ransom if I didn't use their ink. I refused and I refuse to do it”, reports the owner of a printing press.

This new movement by the company, as always justified indicates that third-party ink cartridges pose security risks, question that follows several others with similar motives.

These are complaints related, for the most part, to a cartridge renewal service offered by the printer manufacturer, since it is a fact, the original ink cartridges are expensive. To respond to this state of affairs, the company, since 2016, has established HP Inc Subscription for a range of printers connected to the Internet network.

The company's promise through this service is to help consumers achieve significant savings. So far, it has promoted the “Free Ink For Life” offer, which allows users to print 15 pages a month for free. After this fee, you must proceed to the cash register according to a rate scale defined by the company.

HP ships ink cartridges to owners of some of its connected printers to cover their anticipated printing needs. Use of these is subject to linking to a subscription. If it is exceeded, the company charges additional fees for each new page printed. In case of refusal to pay the subscription or additional costs by the user, the printer stops working, even if the cartridge still has ink. Therefore, the expiration of the plaintiff's card will have been considered by the company as a refusal to pay the subscription fees.

These situations have led many users to end up choosing to use another brand of printers or even to purchase continuous ink or toner printers (although the latter is similar to using cartridges, there are also some models in which they can be recharged). .

The detail of this is that HP has brought this war to a point of no return (at least from the point of view of many), since breaking into client computers are big words, even if they say what they say about their policies, it is clear that this situation will be taken advantage of by many to take it to another level and Proceed with possible lawsuits.

The legal issue may or may not be appropriate, The background to decisions that HP has made has led it to not only have to apologize but also to pay to compensate affected users and a not too distant case was in 2016 when the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sent a letter to the HP CEO asking him to apologize to the company's customers and restore the ability to use third-party cartridges, to which HP agreed to pay $1 million in compensation.

Finally, personally, I reiterate my comment to HP in which it should opt for a more "eco friendly" position, since today it is no longer an option, it is a necessity and a commitment for the future to reduce from now on all that electronic garbage that may well be useful in the long term and not for single use.