HP disables ink from cheaper suppliers

[Kyng]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/hewlett-packa...on-hp-ink/

Hewlett-Packard has prompted an onslaught of complaints after disabling printers of customers who try to use ink from rival companies.

HP has released a new ‘firmware’ update which blocks customers from using cheaper non-HP ink.

Customers’ printers were remotely updated and will now only work with approved ink cartridges which are fitted with a special microchip.

HP said the change was made to ‘reduce the risk of malware attacks’, adding 'third-party cartridges that use non-HP chips or circuitry can pose risks to the hardware performance, print quality, and security.'

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Yeah, if I had an HP printer, I'd be pretty annoyed about this . If anyone here believes the "reduce the risk of malware attacks" explanation, then I have a bridge to sell them: it's obviously to make more $$$ for HP themselves.

So, if you have an HP printer, what are you going to do?

[Deleted User 1213]

I suppose it's the best advert HP could give to its competitors.

[Jarkko]

I guess they need to recoup the money they aren't making from their crappy computers. As if I needed another reason to dislike HP, but now I have one.

This is going to backfire on them big time, I guarantee you. Certain HP printers have extremely expensive cartridges, so don't be surprised if those printers stop selling entirely after this.

[Moonshroom]

That's just stupid.

They have faced multiple lawsuits about this sort of thing in the past and even lost some of them... in one example they awarded the complainant $5.000.000 on store credit while still NOT admitting any wrongdoing. Amazing.

[Lurkerish Allsorts]

I don't know why this is making the news rounds now, it has been known since 2022, and I am pretty sure before then because I swore it was 2020 or 2021 when I first seeing articles about it in IT Professional forums.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/...party-ink/

I guess they need to recoup the money they aren't making from their crappy computers. 23×23 png
141 B As if I needed another reason to dislike HP, but now I have one.

Who ever started the "lets sell printers at or below cost, increase ink prices to recoup the loss" decades ago is what caused this.
But yes HP is crap.
Their B2B division is bad requiring active support contacts for server firmware updates, which kills the second hand market (which is mostly IT pros and people starting to get in to IT making a home lab to learn and test out IT concepts and what not).