HP Instant Ink con

tempus_fugit

I have previously sung the praises of HP Instant Ink, as I have been signed up to this service since October 2018, and have been paying £2 a month since January with the promise that I would get replacement cartridges as I needed them. All well and good.

However, today my printer has stopped working - a cartridge error of some sort. I have followed the advice on HP's website: update firmware (it's up-to-date); switch printer on and off again (done it, no change); take cartridge out, clean it and reinstall it (done that too, no change).

So I try to get some support from HP but as the warranty has expired (I got two months only for some reason, as it expired in January, although it would have expired by now anyway) I cannot get any help unless I buy a one-off support case.

As I am subscribed to Instant Ink I thought I would get some help from there, but no, paying them all this time entitles me to no help whatsoever. I have to fix the issue myself, and if I can't do that I have to buy a new cartridge myself and try that, as they will not send me any new cartridges until I get this issue fixed, and of course if I buy a new one it will not be an Instant Ink one so that won't entitle me to any new ink either.

In desperation I have purchased a support call for £18, probably stupidly, but I can't use that until tomorrow, and they may not even be able to fix it anyway, so more bad money being thrown away after good. And to top it all, the email I am supposed to get to confirm the details of the call and the procedure has not arrived. How do HP get away with this? It's daylight robbery. And I needed to print a label for an eBay package that must be sent within the next two days, so it is putting my blood pressure through the roof.

So, if I can't get this resolved I will have to cancel Instant Ink and go back to the traditional method, or possibly even bin the printer and start again with another make. The upshot is that it gives you no peace of mind whatsoever, and I have been put off ever using HP again. And I have wasted £24 on this "service", plus another £18 on a non-existant support call. Sorry Hp, but it is rubbish! Not happy (as you can probably tell).

DoaM

I don't think anyone (until now) has thought Instant Ink was a warranty/support service ... the clue is in the name.

anmarj

I have had issues with mine today, put the new ones in, but wouldn’t print in colour. Uninstall and install plenty of times. Put old ones in, started printing in colour and swapped for the new ones, and now working I wondered if it was a issue with HP.

tempus_fugit

DoaM wrote: »

I don't think anyone (until now) has thought Instant Ink was a warranty/support service ... the clue is in the name.

No, I realise that, but I thought that there would be some way of getting new cartridges seeing as I pay for that but no I have to buy them myself and then they won’t be Instant Ink cartridges so the subscription is a waste of money. It’s obviously a cartridge issue so they should give some help to resolve it I would have thought. And for it to randomly go faulty after 13 months doesn’t say much for their products either. I guess it’s my fault that it has decided to stop working, despite having successfully printed something just yesterday. Anyway, all I am saying is that the subscription doesn’t seem to provide what it promises as they absolve themselves of any liability once it stops working. Doesn’t seem fair to me.

tempus_fugit

anmarj wrote: »

I have had issues with mine today, put the new ones in, but wouldn’t print in colour. Uninstall and install plenty of times. Put old ones in, started printing in colour and swapped for the new ones, and now working I wondered if it was a issue with HP.

I wondered that too as I had seen a lot of other people having the same issue on the HP support boards, but it’s still not working so I guess I am out of luck, and a lot of expense in store due to this rubbish printer. The old one, despite being out of date and not able to be used by any iPad, still worked when I replaced it last year. Thought the new one would last a bit more than 13 months.

anmarj

I have had mine about 14 months!:eek:

societys_child

I solved this problem by returning the printer to Argos and buying a *Canon








* a Canon printer that is, not a thing that chucks metal balls at your enemy

twhitehousescat

I thought it was HP Instant Ink.coM

SnowTiger

tempus_fugit wrote: »

However, today my printer has stopped working - a cartridge error of some sort. I have followed the advice on HP's website: update firmware (it's up-to-date); switch printer on and off again (done it, no change); take cartridge out, clean it and reinstall it (done that too, no change).

Sounds like a pretty average inkjet printer experience.

As a very casual printer user I think the ink would dry inside my printer and I would have to fiddle around cleaning the cartridge head, then printing my document out several times until I got a copy where 'banding' wasn't too extreme.

I gave up and bought a laser printer. The print quality is excellent, toner lasts forever and the printer doesn't get grumpy if I don't use it for a month.

Lots of websites compare laser and inkjet printers. Laser comes out on top in most respects, including total operating cost. However, apparently, inkjet printers print photos better than laser. I offload photo printing to Tesco, so that doesn't bother me.

anmarj

just found that I can print from my phone in colour, my windows is not after being successful yesterday

SnowTiger

anmarj wrote: »

just found that I can print from my phone in colour, my windows is not after being successful yesterday

Printing from Windows is in black (and white) only?

I guess somewhere within Windows you have a print in 'black and white' option set. There's usually an option in the print dialogue that appears just before you print.