Stopping Hewlett P from blocking generic cartridge use

Charlton_King

WTFH wrote: »

Your "battle" started out with you feeling smug (in your own words) because you think you got a bargain. Instead, you had chosen a short term saving that will cost you in the long term. You should choose a printer based not on the initial price but on your requirements and the related running costs.
Saving money is not about battling businesses, but making sensible financial decisions.

An attitude which will have the 'non charities' rushing to sign you up as their chief apologist while they laugh all the way to the bank.

I DO make 'sensible financial decisions'... and asking this question on this website is one of them...

Laz123

WTFH wrote: »

Your "battle" started out with you feeling smug (in your own words) because you think you got a bargain. Instead, you had chosen a short term saving that will cost you in the long term. You should choose a printer based not on the initial price but on your requirements and the related running costs.
Saving money is not about battling businesses, but making sensible financial decisions.

Actually the point being made was that HP (as well as all the other manufacturers) make their printers relatively cheap then rip consumers off with the price of their cartridges. In fact if this matter was properly investigated it will probably be discovered there is a cartel going on as no one maker has a significant lower price difference. To make matters even more un-user friendly they make so many different sized cartridges per manufacturer which is completely unnecessary, making the entire printer buying exercise a complete and utter minefield.

The op is just trying to save money by asking for our assistance.

WTFH

I apologise for my tone yesterday, unfortunately it's not a cartel, it's not a con, it's possibly like razors.
...but, choosing a printer should be about requirements of the printer, not just the price.
If you have a digital camera or smartphone, you don't need an all-in-one printer.
If you are only printing text, you do not need a high quality photo printer.

It's also possible that the best solution might be to have more than one printer - a cheap one for text and a better one for photos, then you can use 3rd party inks for text and you save your good printer (and more expensive inks) just for photos.

I used to go through printers at about 1 every 2 years. I now have a cheap Canon inkjet which is for docs and a more expensive one for photos. Both are 7+ years old.
I bought a 10 pack of 3rd party ink from Premier Ink for the doc printer over 5 years ago and am still working my way through that.