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submitted 11 months ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 155 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

At their "cheapest" 0.099 euro / $0.11 USD tier it is already literally cheaper per page (albeit certainly not faster) for me to print documents as 8.5x11" 0.1mm thick single layer slabs of plastic on my 3D printer.

An entire "blank" page, i.e. no cutouts for text or anything, would be about 0.754 grams of plastic. That's about $0.0143 per page at a not-too-exorbitant retail cost of PLA filament ($18.99 USD for a kilo) and the material usage would be even less once the negative space for text is subtracted. And I don't even have to buy the paper.

That's mind boggling. Apparently I'm in the wrong racket.

[-] guacupado@lemmy.world 106 points 11 months ago
[-] forgetful_fox@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago

I was highly considering a Brother, now I definitely will get one.

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[-] PumpkinEscobar@lemmy.world 80 points 11 months ago

Holy shit, .15 euros per page? Why not just run to der Kinkos? I haven’t checked but I imagine it’s cheaper there. I get the convenience of having a printer at home but this is like if every cup of coffee you make at home cost you the Starbucks $8.25.

[-] Nommer@sh.itjust.works 47 points 11 months ago

Or just don't buy HP.

[-] 50gp@kbin.social 21 points 11 months ago

probably cheaper to print with blood than to use HP printers

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[-] yoz@aussie.zone 61 points 11 months ago

Brother printer gang printing with their tears of joy.

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[-] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 57 points 11 months ago

Jesus fuckin Christ I was today years old when I learned about HP Instant Ink. Good gracious what a scam

[-] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago

The whole company is a scam. I've seen a couple of big companies get nice bulk discount contracts.

$1600 off of laptop workstations. Who the fuck can afford a bulk discount of 50%?

I don't think they even used HP printers.

[-] CollisionResistance@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

The whole company is a scam

HP laptops also come with spyware installed. Hp touchpoint analytics, that you can't remove.

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[-] anarchyrabbit@lemmy.world 56 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Easy. Never buy HP. Their printers are shit and so are their laptops.

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[-] wosat@lemmy.world 52 points 11 months ago

It amazes me that there are so many people who buy a printer, are offered this "pay $x a month for Y pages" type of plan, and say yes. I mean, sure, HP sucks, but they wouldn't be able to get away with such slimy business practices if there weren't so many people willing to pay.

[-] Whattrees 21 points 11 months ago

I am obligated by my work to offer this to customers when they buy an HP printer and I make it really clear that it's a bad deal for most customers. There are some edge case examples, like a lady with a small business who always prints exactly like 3 pages a day. The other customers who agree to buy it are almost always the super old people who don't want to have to come to the store to get more ink. I think it's a shit program that should be scrapped entirely, but some people really don't care if it's a bad deal as long as they get the convenience. No different than 7-11 up charging shit because it's easier to buy it at the market down the street than the Walmart a few miles down the road.

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[-] sagrotan@lemmy.world 50 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If you still own a HP printer, it's your own fault. Sorry. Got an Canon with liquid refill, loved it, equipped my company with it & recommended it to everyone I know. It's not even expensive & the quality is impeccable. Plus: no problems whatsoever over Linux.

EDIT: CANON, not Epson. I'm distracted sometimes. Canon PIXMA G4511, sub 300 Eur.

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[-] notannpc@lemmy.world 49 points 11 months ago

Breaking news: Printer company behaves like printer companies always have. User hostile.

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[-] _number8_@lemmy.world 44 points 11 months ago

hahahaa i recently dumped them for a big, sturdy, traditional, offline Brother laser. it's ridiculous how much more satisfying it is to print, especially without HP breathing over your shoulder counting how many pages you've printed in the last billing period

[-] LUHG_HANI@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

Satisfying isn't the word. We have to generally use HP for SAP purposes so unfortunately I have to buy HP for work. Guess what? Every fucking month a few clients need printer support. Just HP bullshit time and time again..

I have brothers, kyoceras and others that just work and work without any issues. But HPs are just nagging offline fucking pains in the ass.

[-] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 44 points 11 months ago

So the plan dictates how many pages you can print each month? Feck no! I own a Brother laser printer and I’m so glad I escaped the HP madness years ago.

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 49 points 11 months ago

Yes and no. If you exceed that, I think they just bill you for the next tier.

If you cancel, they immediately remote disable the perfectly working cartridges already in your printer that are still full of ink. Even if you've fully paid for the remainder of the month.

It's a complete scam. Just don't buy an HP printer, Instant Ink or not.

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[-] thejml@lemm.ee 42 points 11 months ago

Just making it easier not to buy one!

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[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago

Being boycotting this shitstain company since Carly Fiorina turned it into a perfect example of peak 1990's MBA management style (the kind that killed companies like GE) and, once again, I get to pat myself on the back for it.

Almost 20 years of regular smug self-satisfaction for free is a pretty good investment.

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 39 points 11 months ago

Ink subscription is a bad descriptor

You pay per page, if you have extra ink leftover then you don’t have access to it

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[-] Heavybell@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago

If like me you don't print much but still need a printer occasionally, get a laser printer (possibly a scanner multifunction, since it can be handy to scan your receipts), and just buy your cartridges normally. Laser toner won't dry up like ink does, so you end up paying less for your infrequent prints in the long run.

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[-] th3dogcow@lemmy.world 36 points 11 months ago

Wow, what a scam!

[-] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml 34 points 11 months ago

You know why all of the printer companies are so shitty? It's because they're in the business of selling printers. That's why they break and cost so much to maintain. You know why the sewing machine company sells printers that work? Because they accidentally let some of their sewing machine engineers make printers.

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[-] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago

Seriously, fuck HP.

[-] weew@lemmy.ca 32 points 11 months ago

HP actually has a brilliant business strategy.

  1. First get a huge customer base via cheap ass product

  2. Remove the customers who care about quality

  3. Remove the customers who care about reliability

  4. Remove the customers who care about price

  5. Remove the customers who pay attention to their monthly bills

voila, you have like 3 people left who you can charge infinite money for a lump of shit. Infinite profit margins

[-] Tja@programming.dev 31 points 11 months ago

I've seen a lot of recommendations for Brother, I want to add one for Ricoh.

I bought a B/W laser printer from Ricoh (213w IIRC) a decade ago for under 40 bucks and a new generic, no-name Amazon toner refill for 25 like 5 years ago. Printed thousands of pages, just sitting in a corner under the stairs.

Bonus: it uses Wi-Fi (so anyone in the house can print) and is compatible with generic PCL drivers in Linux.

[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

Any laser printer is better for occasional printing. Ink doesn’t dry up, no nozzles to get clogged. It just sits there waiting to be used and prints beautifully when you do. I’m so done with ink jets.

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[-] rickdg@lemmy.world 30 points 11 months ago

The only thing that still might save printers is competition.

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago

Euuhh does nobody realize Brother has existed for like 20 years and doesn't pull all this HP shit? They even have label printers which allow third party labels.

There are inkjet printers now from multiple other brands which are great too and allow full refills.

Just don't buy HP it's that easy.

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[-] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 30 points 11 months ago

I will never buy or recommend HP printers ever again. If you need a general printer, Brother all the way now.

[-] academia_sucks1024@sh.itjust.works 27 points 11 months ago

Are these posts about HP just a way for Brother to advertise in the comment section

I mean I'm definitely cancelling my HP subscription, but still. It's a lot.

[-] LUHG_HANI@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago

No. It's like bitwarden. Everyone's praising them to shill levels because they are generally that good. Brothers just run and run without nagging or insane prices. They do tend to be a little more expensive because they don't lose money on the hardware like HP or cannon will.

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[-] Zerlyna@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Not advertising but I did buy a brother laser maybe two years ago for home. I rarely need color, if I need something stunning I’ll send it to Office Depot and pay .50 each. That’s maybe two time a year. $20 a year for an off brand toner cartridge otherwise.

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[-] mrfriki@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

Who the fuck keep buying HP in 2023 when there are lots of other brands available in the market?

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[-] LinusOnLemmyWld@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

The number of papers that subscribers are allowed to print...

hahaha

[-] dinckelman@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

It's literally cheaper for me to drive to a local printing shop, pay for parking, and drive back, than buy one of these dogshit HP printers, and then get scammed by their ink cartridges

[-] RandomPancake@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

This is yet another reason why I would not buy or recommend HP printers anymore. My ancient laserjet from 10 years ago is still going strong, but if it ever kicks the bucket, I'm getting a Brother. They seem to just work without any hassle.

[-] arin@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

HP selling hardware with digital blackmail fees

[-] Fake4000@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

I am guessing people aren't printing as much as they used to and the prices will just go up eventually.

Also, fuck printers, and HP specifically.

[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

Cannon has gotten so bad, that I can't remember what printer brand I hated before them. I am pretty sure it was cannon though.

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[-] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

Subscription-based hardware business models, or anything that is cloud-based have a strong tendency to do this. They sucker you into buying their hardware with rock bottom prices and reasonable subscription fees and slowly they increase the prices and put more and more features and functionalities behind increasing paywalls.

Never buy anything that you don't fully own after paying for it.

[-] UFODivebomb@programming.dev 16 points 11 months ago

My brother laser jet still happily prints.

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this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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