I dont think this is limited to printers though...
I bought a nice hp convertible laptop for uni. Now the pen tips that came with it are used up and the only way to get new ones is to buy 110 tips for about 100€ (which are very hard to get too) or to buy a new pen for 40€. I tried contacting hp support where I first had to fight through a "chat bot" (basically a fancy way to navigate through their faq) to finally be told that my warranty is voided for 2 months now and if I wanted to contact hp support I might have to pay fees on their hotline ...
Printers are worse for sure though but I will never in my life again buy any product made by HP.
Edit: to be clear 100 tips for over 100€ is insane and you can basically only get them from aliexpress and they are not even sold in the official hp shop.
This is the reason why I started to block Internet access for all devices that don’t need it for their normal operation. I don’t trust the „disable updates“ function at all.
Their enterprise server hardware is pretty nice, but they did spin that off into its own subsidiary.
HPE Greenlake is actually a pretty nice service (or it used to be). They drop the hardware in your data center, but you only pay for the resources you use, and every few years they upgrade the hardware for you. Basically like an on-prem AWS.
I don't know anyone who would accept an HP printer even as a gift. If I got one, I would recreate that scene from "Office Space" and bust it up with a sledgehammer.
Don’t destroy it, I’m glad a perfectly working one got trashed. I recently found a small office B/W LaserJet MFP from 2014 next to an e-waste bin with no obvious damage. I was glad this was a pre-Instant-Ink model, as signing up to the service would permanently remove the otherwise legally mandated ability to use aftermarket supplies. I carried the heavy thing home and disassembled it just enough to wipe the condensation from the previous night’s rain off the scanner glass. I factory-reset it and it turned on without errors but printed with terrible streaks despite claiming 80% toner left. Turning the cartridge’s drum manually still produced the streaks, so I bought a different one for 10 % of HP’s price (twice as cheap ones were available too from less reputable brands), and it works perfectly. There is only one warning per aftermarket cartridge installation, the rest can be disabled. Unfortunately, it always advertises HP paper when it runs out but I will never be giving money to these scumbags. I use it via Ethernet (it has no Wi-Fi) and disabled its internet access with a firewall rule. My roommates do a lot of printing on our Epson inkjet EcoTank and this one is way faster and more capable (but B/W).
I just stopped using my printer. I do have to print often, but it's not worth it. I'd rather pay the nearest general store to print my stuff. Dirt cheap rates and I don't have to maintain anything. Just pay and print
Why does HP print plugin need to send it to some server when both my phone and printer are on the same fucking network.
When the ink is out, I am getting an Epson Inktank
That's the fun part, technically you don't need money to make that first bet with short/long positions. You just have to ensure that your bet was correct.
That's the opposite of how it should be. Corporations are the ones that are actually going to want the ink subscription. Corporations are happy to blow money on anything other than wages.
Consumers are the ones that need to save every penny they can. The consumer grade printers should be the ones getting the "crappy" customer service with no firmware updates. The commercial version should be the one shoving ink down their throats.
Reporting telemetry is crucial in enterprise environments where you need to report the print counts monthly. Are you using an enterprise printer at home by chance?
only thing the telemetry is used in this printer is nice graphs on the app, but the same can be done locally from the embedded web server at the printer ip address
this bit about "reporting unknown quantities of data back to hp" let me remember a "cool" feature of the printer. HP takes back the cartridges for free, even sends back the recycling company at their expense, but then the fine print says:
The HP cartridges used with this product contain a memory chip that assists in the operation of the product.
In addition, this memory chip collects a limited set of information about the usage of the product, which might include the following: the date when the cartridge was first installed, the date when the cartridge was last used, the number of pages printed using the cartridge, the page coverage, the printing modes used, any printing errors that might have occurred, and the product model. This information helps HP design future products to meet our customers' printing needs.
HP collects a sampling of the memory chips from cartridges returned to HP's free return and recycling program (HP Planet Partners: www.hp.com/recycle) .
The memory chips from this sampling are read and studied in order to improve future HP products. HP partners who assist in recycling this cartridge might have access to this data, as well.