You have not heard from me for awhile. I have been dealing with problems with my printer, which has obviously frustrated me and I feel that I should warn you about getting mired in the same way and the costs I am experiencing from the problem.
Last year I bought a new HP printer, a 4-in-1 color printer, because I thought I needed to have one that sent faxes as well as scan, copy, and print. (Since then I have not sent one fax so I should have just kept the Canon that I had before.) When my computer geek installed and hooked up everything, he knew that I was a writer and asked if I would like to halve the costs of ink cartridges. Of course I would! I have to print out 12 copies of each chapter I write for the Memoirs and they average 5-6 pages each, four times a month. This is so that each chapter gets critiqued by the members of the Writers Group at Dusenbury library. So the Tech enrolled me in the Instant Ink plan HP has for people who print a lot. I chose to subscribe to the 300-page/month plan, since the numbers I just gave you multiply and add out to 288 pages a month. The cartridges they mail you automatically are supposed to contain twice the amount of ink as those sold in stores like Costco or on Amazon. They charge you $11.85/mo. to subscribe, including taxes. The contract says you can cancel any time.
Well, after they had mailed me two cartons of cartridges without my ordering them or the printer showing that the ink was running low, I decided that since I hadn't opened the cartons and my black cartridge was still printing clearly, I should cancel the monthly payment scheme and then go back on it when the two batches of cartridges would eventually run out. I cancelled online and it was confirmed. Then three days before the year's subscription was supposed to end anyway, I get another email from HP saying that because I had canceled my subscription, the ink cartridges would no longer work in the printer, and they were discontinuing my use of the ink. I was astonished, because no ink had run out, I had paid $130 for the year subscription, they had sent me the cartridges, so I felt that I had bought and paid for them, and they had absolutely no right to cut off the ink and leave me high and dry, and that's not meant as a pun. Nowhere in the contract do they indicate that it gives them the right to cut off the ink.
I was so angry that I looked at a great many possibilities. Buying a laser printer, too expensive. Going back to buying ink cartridges in stores, came out to be around $180/year, because they now put so little ink in them that they would only last me 3-4 months. I decided the only choice I had was to renew the subscription even though I considered it a form of blackmail, thinking if I renewed, they could automatically turn my printer back on.
I called HP on Wed. at 11:30 a.m. ; I hung up in utter, complete frustration and stress at 4:30, having spoken to three HP techsupport people. The first one was of course in India and I could not understand a word he was saying. The second was an American woman who was on the phone and computer and printer with me for two hours, re-setting the password FIVE times and each time it was rejected as unacceptable. She finally turned me over to another techie who could not get the computer to be cartridge acceptable and finally at 4:30 I just gave up. I couldn't take it any more.
I called the computer experts I deal with two blocks from my house, and one showed up the next morning at 9:30 and after he had tried for a half-hour, he called HP and finally after an hour on the phone with them he got the printer networked to the computer, the router, the wireless and whatever else is down in the crawlspace under the desk, and the computer started blinking in blue again. I am now on a $95 an hour service charge and it took him an hour and a half.
So, dear Friends, take heed of my sad story. 1. Do not buy any HP products. 2, Do NOT sign up for their Instant Ink scam. Be aware they can get into your printer remotely and cut off the ink flow if you dare to cancel. And, 4. the tech support people don't know a damned thing about how to turn the ink back on and you will waste precious hours of your precious time messing with them.
Resolution: As soon as I get the rest of the chapters of my Memoirs written and I don't need to make so many copies each week, I will consider tossing the printer in the Dumpster where it belongs (and maybe the HP computer as well!) I've had it.
See you next week in a better mood. Janice
