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Printer manufacturers still blocking 3rd party cartridges via 'updates'..?
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3 years ago got a
Brother MFC-J6530DW
£35 (John Lewis)
A3 duplex print.
A3 50 sheet document feed for the scanner
Full set of xl 1500/3000 page cartridges £18
Going to take a few years to get close to an expensive printer total.
Last brother gave over 11 years of service eventually broke a cog on the paper feed.
This is the printer.
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfcj6530dw
Never had a cart blocked yet 14+ years with brothers
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We used to have a Brother MFC-somethingIt used to annoy the XXX out of me because it would suddenly declare that the ink had run out and would refuse to print anything, despite printing a perfect page previously.The Canon I have now just flags up 'low ink' but carries on for many more pages without issue!0
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Deleted_User said:Why would you refuse firmware updates?
Firmware updates are often fixing security vulnerabilities - they are not trying to stiff you with firmware updates, there are genuine security vulnerabilities that will be fixed.
I'd rather live without the disablement and/or dire warnings.2 -
Carrot007 said:So to chage my conclusion. Don't buy HP. Go towards canon. Have at least 5(yes or 4 if any do these days) cartidges. Check the ink price before buying. Don't buy anything a supermarket has to offer.Maybe that is better!
My current HP Envy 5532 is now 7 years old and cost under £50 (in a sale) and genuine ink costs £1.99 per month. It has never once let me down nor has it required a cleaning cycle yet. It all depends on how you use it.I don't care about your first world problems; I have enough of my own!0 -
HP instant ink got round the ink cost for very low users as they had the free option.
Buy the printer and no more ink costs. there were some down at the <£30 range with that option.
Think that may have changed I did see some posts about the free option going
https://instantink.hpconnected.com/uk/en/l/
Looks like the cheapest is now £12/year
looking back at one of the threads thread look like the change was this year but they grandfathered existing free plans.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5722087/hp-instant-ink-new-free-plan/p2
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[Deleted User] said:Why would you refuse firmware updates?
Firmware updates are often fixing security vulnerabilities - they are not trying to stiff you with firmware updates, there are genuine security vulnerabilities that will be fixed.For the reason stated in the thread's title - third party cartridges often become blacklisted after an update.I don't doubt there are bugs and errors that are fixed in the updates, we both know all software contains them. However when somebody explicitly uses the cheaper cartridges, and getting them blacklisted is an extremely likely consequence of updating... the best choice is to take the risk and refuse.The whole ink cartridge business is rotten and needs looking into.1 -
AstonSmith said:[Deleted User] said:Why would you refuse firmware updates?
Firmware updates are often fixing security vulnerabilities - they are not trying to stiff you with firmware updates, there are genuine security vulnerabilities that will be fixed.For the reason stated in the thread's title - third party cartridges often become blacklisted after an update.I don't doubt there are bugs and errors that are fixed in the updates, we both know all software contains them. However when somebody explicitly uses the cheaper cartridges, and getting them blacklisted is an extremely likely consequence of updating... the best choice is to take the risk and refuse.The whole ink cartridge business is rotten and needs looking into.2 -
The manufacturers love you using 'cleaning cycles' or 'head cleaning'This is because the printer will use lots of ink, trying to clear all the print heads, even if only one is blocked.I have a set of word documents, one for each colour/print head. I also have one that has a row for each colour which shows me which head(s) need attention and finally to confirm they are all working.Also don't power off the printer each day as the power up routine also uses ink.0
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As the OP, let me have one more say. Trying to 'have your cake and eat it', as someone above sneeringly puts it, is a quite reasonable impulse by Mr Average Consumer in a scenario which has been quite deliberately and unreasonably skewed to profits maximisation by the manufacturers. They are, to put it bluntly, 'asking for it'. MSE is totally about trying to trying to economise, so let's have no more of this patrician snobbery.
Presumably the likes of HP know that some people - the ones who can be bothered - will try to buy BOTH the machine AND the ink cheaply but this will be far outweighed by the mass of docile punters who are just suckered. For them to then go on and try to operate what appears to be an anti-competitive practice and stymy even those few people by backdoor software blocking AFTER the machine has become the customer's property borders on, or is even wholly mired in, illegality.
It is as if they are claiming that THEIR ink is somehow unique, specially produced and precious - that it is the only ink that can physically operate on the machine and so must be bought from them... when everyone knows that ink is a dirt cheap commodity. Personally, I see no obvious connection between the manufacture of ink and the manufacture of printers. If I buy a Ford, I don't expect, as the owner of that vehicle, to then be obliged to buy 'Ford petrol' for ever afterwards.
A test case, please. Maybe the courts can help us.
This racket has been going on for years and HAS to finish. Why do governments NEVER tackle clear and obvious abuses/problems like this which beset the average citizen? Too busy with staring in the political mirror and tarting up their reputation legacy on what they fondly imagine to be the 'big issues', I expect, instead of getting their hands dirty with things which would actually help people...2 -
It is not illegal to sell a printer for peanuts and the ink for a fortune. That's a business decision. If people don't cotton on that's their own fault. Compatible solutions are available and they cost what they cost, it just so happens to be that the HP compatibles are more expensive than the Epson compatibles, as the latter are dirt cheap to make, they're just essentially plastic tanks and aside from a chip, the plastic and the ink there's nothing to them.Re: "if I buy a Ford I don't expect to be obligated to buy Ford petrol", aside from the fact that doesn't exist, you will almost certainly find strongly worded hints in the manual that you should use "premium" petrol for it, even though 95% of cars can't use it anyway, and the printer argument is the same. Buying "Premium"/"official" ink makes no difference to the operation of the printer. and compatible ink still squirts onto the paper whether you paid £12 for it or £2, even though the official guidance says don't even think about it.Printer ink has always been expensive for what it is. Again it is a commercial decision to sell it for what it is. It's the whole business model after all. Anyway in this modern era where printing is effectively discouraged for environmental reasons in favour of email and what not, it probably doesn't matter in the long term to most people.1
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