Printers suck
:: Wednesday, May 21st, 2003 @ 4:38:15 pm
:: Tags: Computers
I have a HP Laserjet 1200, which is a $399 printer. I’ve owned it for a year and a half. Two weeks ago, it decided to malfunction, and after going through HP Tech Support (which is excellent, by the way), we have concluded that the problem is something I cannot fix myself. Unfortunately, the machine is out of warranty, and it costs $375 to fix. Normally, they would allow me to trade it in for $75 through an upgrade to the new 1300 (the 1200 is “obsolete” already, apparently), but because the 1300 is so new, I can’t even do that.
So I have a $399 paperweight, and I have to buy a new printer. Oh, and I have a brand new $64.99 + tax toner cartridge which was purchased as part of the troubleshooting process. I opened it, which means that I can’t return it. Luckily, it seems that there is a large market on eBay for just about everything. :)
I’m going to get an extended warranty for the next printer I get.
UPDATE: So I have my new LJ1300 now, and it looks the same except that the stupid USB port isn’t hidden behind a cover that is nearly impossible to remove without feeling like you are breaking it. What did they change in this thing? It looks exactly the same. It sounds different, though, and the toner cartridge has two leads that must be wired to a chip or something. Stupid printers.
I did manage to sell my faulty LJ1200 for $50 to a nice Berkeley student. It still prints fine in 2-up mode because the area that doesn’t print becomes the top margin when two pages are printed on each sheet.
Journal RSS 
once upon a time i got an Epson 777 with a one-year warranty. thirteen months in, its paper feed broke.
then i got an Epson 820 and bought the extended warranty option from Fry’s (exchange it for free at any store if there are any problems). the one-year mark just passed recently, so we’ll see if it was worth it. :)
there must be an epidemic. mine has developed massive hemorrhaging. head cleaning and cartridge replacement can’t stop the bleeding. poor thing. now it just sits there gathering hate and dust.
Stupid printers.
I’ve been offered $30 for the thing. It still prints fine in two-pages-per-sheet mode because the left-hand strip (where it won’t print) becomes the top margin. It can still be a useful printer, I guess. Maybe I should sell it for $30.
hey eric - i know i’m way late on the comment here, but if you buy certain products with an amex gold card, you can get an extended warranty for up to 5 years. i haven’t read the fine print, but it might be worth checking out next time.
doh. you’re right, Pat! And I certainly did buy it with that card.
well, next time. :)
I do agree that HP tech support is friendly, but I don’t think they are helpful when their only solution is to replace, replace, replace. What happened to the good ole days when a printer was used for printing and not just collecting dust and emptying your pocket? I had an HP deskjet 5740 printer one of the $129.99 models. It lasted just past a year and when I was putting in the first new ink cartridge it started getting errors. HP tech support explained that it was out of warranty and the hardware issue would cost too much to fix. They suggested I purchase their remanufactured in November 2005 for $174.98 plust shipping. I have printed almost an entire ream of 500 sheets of paper since my purchase six months ago. It started getting a scanner failure error message. I contacted HP tech support and they told me it was out of warranty (90 day on remanufactured) and that I could purchase another one.
Seems to me that HP is an inferior product. I don’t think I will be purchasing anymore HP products. Any suggestions as to a better option for a printer?
I started with Epson, but they sucked, so I changed to HP, and they suck. I am now onto a Canon. It hasn’t started sucking yet, but … even though it doesn’t suck yet, it still does all the things I hate about printers: 1. it often takes ages to respond after you’ve pressed Print (and that’s not my computer’s fault: it’s got a 3GB Pentium chip) 2. while it’s warming up it carries on with all sorts of meaningless whirring and screeching and flubbering and farting. 3. when you have to change the cartridge, you press a button to make the ink cartridge holder to come to the center, but you have to hold the appropriate button down for much longer than the manual suggests, and even then it seems unpredictable and temperamental.
Those last two adjectives sum up every printer I’ve owned: unpredicatable and temperamental: in other words UNRELIABLE AND TINNY.
Why the hell can’t anyone produce a printer that lasts more than 18 months and that simply does what it is supposed to do quickly and smoothly, without any fuss? It’s over 30 years since we put a human on the moon ferchristsake!
I own an HP 7410 multi-function printer. I have also owned it approximately a year and one half. I am getting an error message that states I am not using HP cartridges and the support person I spoke with stated I now have to “upgrade”. When I bought this thing I was thinking I was getting the latest and greatest technology HP has to offer. It’s still being sold and am sure people are dealing issues I have. I am reluctantly going to purchase another printer but, you can bet it will NEVER be an HP.
Well, I just joined the club of disgusted HP Officejet 7410 All-In-One users - lucky me.
I purchased the unit exactly 2 yrs & 2 months ago. Upon trying to send a fax a couple of days ago I got the Scanner Failure Error.
I contacted HP Customer Care (three times before I connected with a representative whose spoken English was spoken well enough to understand), described my situation, and said I was interested in having my machine repaired – oh ya, and advised I did not purchase an extended warranty.
The representative gave a well-rehearsed and authoritative, however completely irrelevant response to my request for repair. He stated if the Scanner Failure Error problem were a software issue a technician could work on it over the phone, but the unit’s problem was mechanical – a diagnosis that took less than one minute to deliver.
The representative wasted no time and with the determination of a used car salesman promoted and described in detail the features of a “beautiful printer†he could replace my crippled and useless unit with for only $225.00. Hmmm, bait the customer’s interest with the guise of a “beautiful†replacement and then flip it into a sale. Wow, I finally have had my first opportunity to experience and learn about HP Customer world class “Care.†I sure am happy I recently purchased that HP Pavilion notebook!
I informed the representative I paid $450 for the unit and expected it to last longer, and, that I never purchase extended warranties because part of my purchase decision is based on quality expectations. Since when did it become accepted protocol for the consumer to be burdened with specific additional cost in order to insure the quality of any product? In my book it is up to the manufacturer to deliver a quality product!
The representative offered to send me to a phone technician for a diagnosis – hmmm. I asked to speak with a supervisor and he said there was no supervisor. I repeated my desire to have the unit repaired and he suggested I seek out a local service provider to which I suggested it was HP responsibility to back their product. Long story short, he thanked me for my call and hung up on me.
My response to this situation is to vote with my dollars and not purchase another HP product. HP sucks.