Having dealt with HP printers, I feel compelled to share my deeply negative experiences. While the print quality itself is acceptable when it actually works, the journey to get there is often riddled with frustration and wasted time. The biggest issue, in my opinion, lies with HP’s ink subscription service, which feels more like a scam than a convenience.
For three years, I subscribed to HP ink, lured by the promise of automatic ink delivery and rollover pages. However, this promise remained largely unfulfilled. I never received a single complimentary ink cartridge beyond the initial setup, and the rollover pages were never transparently accessible or usable. Upon finally cancelling the subscription, the problems escalated. Despite the HP Smart app indicating that my cartridges were low but still functional, every print job resulted in blank pages. This occurred even when initiating prints through the HP Smart app, a process that was inexplicably required even though direct printing was previously possible under the subscription.
The core problem isn’t just the unreliable ink delivery; it’s the restrictive and customer-unfriendly nature of the entire system. HP ink subscriptions dictate how many pages you can print monthly, regardless of whether you own the printer. Exceeding this limit incurs additional charges per page. Even printer malfunctions that result in wasted prints count against your allotted pages. Furthermore, payment rigidity is a major inconvenience. Using prepaid cards or cards with security locks is problematic. If payment fails at the subscription renewal time, printing becomes impossible, requiring users to update payment information through a convoluted process, even with rollover pages available.
Based on my experiences, I strongly advise against purchasing an HP printer. And I emphatically recommend avoiding their ink subscription service. A far better approach is to buy your own ink from a supplier of your choice and manage your printing needs independently. This approach offers flexibility and control that HP’s ecosystem simply does not. Save yourself the frustration and hidden costs – explore printer options outside of HP.
