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Why yes, I'd love to rent your printer and be spied on!

thestrangebrew1

thestrangebrew1

Diamond Member
Not sure if this has been talked about or not yet, but HP has decided to start a printer renting service/subscription model and lock you in for 2 years or get charged up the wazoo.

arstechnica.com

HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors

Never own a printer again."
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

This is complete bullshit and overly hostile to consumers. Thank goodness I've boycotted HP products recently.
 
Tip of the iceberg for HP.

"HP Dynamic Security" stops your printer + scanner working until you remove the non-HP cartridges, combined with coercion to use automatic firmware updates.

"HP Instant Ink" can also disable all your printer's printing capabilities if HP feels there's an issue with your account.
 
It's not like they are holding a gun to your head to make you sibscribe is it?
 
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the subscription model is a business dream come true

once software-as-a-service started making crazy money by providing almost nothing new, it was only a matter every other industry tried to get in on the same model

it's why i keep running my old adobe software instead of upgrading. there's no way i'd pay for something when i already own it.
 
I hate how this subscription and cloud connected trend is taking over everything now. At some point there will be no other options if they all jump the bandwagon. Just look at the direction cars are going, it's shitty. I just want to pay for a product and fully own it, and have it work stand alone without relying on some server I don't have control over.

I have a Brother laserjet that's around 15 years old and it still works fine. Maybe I need to buy a colour one before they all go subscription based. I always kinda wanted a colour laserjet but also can't quite justify it for the little printing I do.
 
Quality and therfore brand loyalty aren't dead but very much endangered. You'd have to pay me to buy any Sony products - I won't even read the reviews. And yes, I'm bitter but better bitter than a biter,rt?

Anyway, we have to assume they did their market research so they at least believe that this will be attractive to enough peeps to make it worthwhile
 
Sony's overrated, and they've been overrated a very long time. Re renting a printer... You aren't even renting. You get the worst of both worlds. With a true rental, hp's on the hook to keep the printer functioning properly. This scheme, you pay like you're renting, but you have to fix any problems yourself. A service agreement can work for the right person(usually businesses). You rent the printer, ink gets sent on a schedule, and if the printer fucks up, a tech comes out and fixes it.
 
Part of the issue is most people are financially dumb and can't think long term. They are not willing to spend 1k once, to get a high quality product but rather pay $41 monthly (once you factor taxes), for a cheap product, and they think they're saving.

So sadly, this trend will continue as there will be enough people that buy into it. But even if not enough people buy into it, once all the manufacturers get on board it's going to be forced anyway. Kinda like smart TVs. If you want a non smart TV, good luck. Pickings are very slim. I think fridges are going to be the next item to get affected by this trend.

Maybe eventually there will be a hacker community that specializes in reverse engineering this stuff and writing custom firmware that you load on the microcontroller. Or even sell the chips pre programmed and you can just desolder the factory one and put in the custom one.
 
lxskllr said:
A service agreement can work for the right person(usually businesses). You rent the printer, ink gets sent on a schedule, and if the printer fucks up, a tech comes out and fixes it.
Click to expand...
Excellent point but more for a somewhat obscure reason - rented equipment can be expensed rather than depreciated. Expenses come rt off of the top line. That's also true for purchased equipment too in some cases, but not generally and if nothing else, it simplifies your tax accounting.
 
I've never owned an HP. I've owned an Epson and they are junk and will never buy again. Now I stick to my Brother laser printer/scanner/feeder and my Canon Prograph pro-1000 for photos (small and large scale). Best combination I've had and will keep them for as long as possible. Love my Brother laser though.
 
Brother makes good printers, hope they never go to the dark side.

Now this has me looking at colour laser printers... I don't need one but always kind of wanted one. They are surprisingly affordable now.
 
I love my Epson Tank Printer. I don't print a lot and I'm still on the factory supplied ink bottles. I've had it for 3 years now, I just make sure I print a color page every week or so to prevent the jets from gumming up.
 
thestrangebrew1 said:
Not sure if this has been talked about or not yet, but HP has decided to start a printer renting service/subscription model and lock you in for 2 years or get charged up the wazoo.

arstechnica.com

HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors

Never own a printer again."
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

This is complete bullshit and overly hostile to consumers. Thank goodness I've boycotted HP products recently.
Click to expand...
I have used HP printer for like almost the past 10 to 11 years.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Part of the issue is most people are financially dumb and can't think long term. They are not willing to spend 1k once, to get a high quality product but rather pay $41 monthly (once you factor taxes), for a cheap product, and they think they're saving.
Click to expand...
Actually that's not how this all happened, people didn't ask for subscription services, these things called corporations forced them on us, so you victim blame - but let's not get into that as it won't go well, but anyway...


Red Squirrel said:
Now this has me looking at colour laser printers... I don't need one but always kind of wanted one. They are surprisingly affordable now.
Click to expand...

Smart. Fuck the long-term house maintenance you are always complaining about like it's something crazy for you to even have to deal with. I'm with you, get the printer toy.
 
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