HP Is In My Doghouse

Last week I wrote about the importance of getting good advice before buying your next printer.  Today I need to vent.  Whatever printer you do decide to buy--DO NOT BUY AN HP PRINTER.  Just say "no" to HP.  However, to be more specific, HP is still our recommendation for laser printers--both color and monochrome, just do not buy an HP inkjet printer.  For years HP has been the dominant player in printer hardware and they have the largest market share to boot.  Most people buy an HP ink printer believing it is of higher quality.  My how times change.  HP has fallen on hard times.  They are posting losses almost every quarter and recently laid off about 9,000 workers (only 3% of their workforce).  Apparently, they are blaming these hard times on us, the aftermarket industry, because they are fighting us tooth and nail.  This is very apparent in their new series of inkjet printers.  These cartridges are almost as bad as Lexmark's Prebate program cartridges.  Although they are easy to refill the problems only begin once the cartridge is inserted.  The chips are highly encrypted, which is evident in the slow development of replacement chips by the aftermarket.  In addition, the cartridges that do not have chips, but have gold colored contacts are designed to be used only once.  This has always been the case, but older cartridges could be refilled 6 to 8 times and still produce high quality prints without rejection by the printer.  That is no longer the case with this new generation of HP cartridges.  They will simply shut down when the internal counter reaches X number of prints.  The printer "does not recognize the cartridge", or warns you to "check the cartridge".  If you own an HP printer and use refilled cartridges you have seen these messages.  It is our policy to provide the customer with a new replacement cartridge--no questions asked.  However, you may have more difficulty getting an exchange or reimbursed from online retailers or other local remanufacturers.  Either way, it is a frustrating experience.  Just what HP ordered.  Now you are forced to buy new HP branded cartridges.  Here is another trend HP does not tell you about... these new generation of cartridges hold less ink and are more expensive than "older" HP cartridges.  That is also the trend with toner cartridges.  However, you still have many good options.  Thrift stores carry many older printers that are gems at the bargain price of $5 to $15 dollars.  Canon and Brother now offer several printers that are very refill friendly.  In many situations it makes more sense to upgrade to a monochrome laser printer, many of which can be purchased for less than $100.  There are tons of great deals available on refurbished laser printers, which usually include 30 to 90 day guarantees and give you ample time to discover any potential problems.  Another advantage of laser printers is the availability and price of replacement parts.  A quality laser printer can last 10 years or more with very heavy usage.  This is not the case with inkjet printers.  They are just disposable.  In short, do not buy HP inkjet printers right now.  I hope they change their philosophy as they lose more and more business to other manufacturers.  As long as HP fails to acknowledge that a large percentage of their customer base wishes to use recycled cartridges and that the aftermarket industry is a permanent player, they are going to continue to struggle.