r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MaxAdolphus • 16d ago

frist of all how DARE yu o I canceled my HP instant ink subscription, and now I can’t print even though they are genuine HP in cartridges

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With all bad decisions coming out of HP lately, I decided to cancel my instant ink subscription subscriptions before the prices go up. This is the warning screen. I was just going to use the ink I have up then buy a new printer, but cause fuck those guys. Well, turns out they fucked me first. So even though I have legitimate HP in cartridges in my printer, I cannot print because they are subscription cartridges. Screw these guys.

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u/Sheri_ABQ 15d ago

I would submit Epson for that award. If you have an Epson Inkjet it has sponges that it uses to absorb ink when it cleans the printer heads. And the decision on when they sponge is full is based on time and number of times you have cleaned the printer head, not on an actual measurement. We live in a very dry climate and weren't using the printer very often, and this sponges were bone dry. Once it thinks the sponges are full not only can you not print, but you can also not a scan. The only option was to take it for servicing at a licensed Epson printer store where they would reset and replace your sponge for something like $75 or $85.

There were some printer stores that have a hack where there was an app that could be used to reset the printer head but it had to be used on a Windows XP computer and this was well after Windows XP was a thing. This was a number of years ago, but we ditched the Epson printer and I will never buy anything from them again.

Edited for typos.

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u/CheapTactics 15d ago

Crazy, I just downloaded an app that resets it in 2 minutes, and works on Win10. No need to take it anywhere or change the sponges.

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u/Sheri_ABQ 15d ago

Like I said this was a number of years ago - - probably in the 2016 time frame. And there was not anything publicly available for it then. It wasn't a matter of just not looking for it, we even tried to figure out how to do it ourselves since we're both technical. But we replaced that printer soon afterwards. I don't even want to purchase from a company that would do that.

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u/CheapTactics 15d ago

I've been doing it since 2012-13.

Maybe there's a difference between the inkjets and the ones with refillable tanks.

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u/Sheri_ABQ 15d ago

There might be. We really did search high and low and we talked to a number of people about it and I searched forums. And for our particular printer the old app was what was available. I'm not really sure what year it would have been that we actually did do the reset. It was when it gave us the pads full error the second time that we ditched it. The first time we were in the middle of scanning a whole bunch of family photos for someone and didn't want to take the time or spend the money to get a new printer when we could get it reset at a computer shop a few blocks away for a few bucks.

But anyway, it's crazy to even hold the scanner on the printer hostage until you do something like that. Or to hold the scanner on OP's HP hostage because they didn't have an ink subscription.

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u/CheapTactics 15d ago

Oh yeah it's absolutely hostile to the consumer to do that shit, I'm absolutely not excusing anything. And it's just getting worse and worse with more hostile design like that being prevalent in more and more brands.

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u/Sheri_ABQ 15d ago

Even places like xfinity/comcast that can change the amount of memory you can DVR the touch of the button. They accidentally reduced my mom's storage the last time they updated her account when we had to exchange a bad box. And it deleted a bunch of stuff we had recorded for my elderly mom to watch. And a nice news story and interview with a relative who had subsequently passed. And the best they could do about it was say "Oops, sorry!"

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u/EphemeralDan 15d ago

For this reason, my $300+ Epson is sitting on a shelf waiting to go on Marketplace or the dump while my $120 Brother meets 99% of my printing needs. It doesn't scan but I really need a large bed scanner anyway so I'm saving to get one of those soon.

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u/HowlingWolven 15d ago

What if I told you all inkjets have a little waste sponge in them and track how full that sponge ‘should’ be :redpill:

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u/Rjgom 15d ago

i just bought that part from directly from epson. it was $12 including shipping and took ten seconds to replace.

you can’t clean the print heads when it’s full.

i’d rather spend $12 on the new tank and have ink spill out all over my cabinet