Hewlett-Packard

Featured photo: three HP printers

Since my better half brought a laser printer into our first shared household, we have been using Hewlett-Packard (HP) printers. At that time I was still using a dot matrix printer - a real monster - which was more expensive to buy than my Schneider computer at the time.

And so I was visibly impressed, even more so when it turned out that this laser printer simply couldn't be broken. At some point I could no longer connect the printer to the newer computers and gave up on it. Which wasn't a big deal since we now had additional HP printers in service. And so the years went by and every now and then an HP printer simply had to be replaced. The world was fine for me, so fine that I recommended all HP printers with a clear conscience.

Then HP came up with the idea of ​​introducing “instant ink,” a subscription to printer cartridges, so to speak. What initially sounded very good turned out to be an unpleasant situation for me because I used printers that were partly identical in construction and also at different locations. At least for me, it meant that I always had the wrong cartridge on the wrong printer at the wrong time.

The only way I could solve the problem was to return to the normal filling of all printers - which is no longer so easy today, because some cartridges are becoming rare or with one wrong click you become a cartridge subscriber again. An increasingly indelicate affair that I only got over because my printers continued to do their job.

The next unpleasant thing was receiving broken original printer cartridges. This was the first time I had done this and by the time I actually figured it out, it was already too late and the cartridges could no longer be exchanged - which is really expensive with laser printers! At least I now know what such cartridges look like from the inside and how the whole thing is structured.

All good things come in threes and so it has now happened that an HP laser printer signaled far too early that it was coming to an end and, by HP standards, this was still in its baby age!

In order to be able to continue to offer my better half sufficient printing capacity, I bought a new and larger laser printer from HP. This also arrived very quickly in the mail - which didn't amuse the nice delivery person because the package was surprisingly heavy.

The printer was set up and connected to the network even faster. With that, my actual task was completed. The first somewhat larger print job from my better half revealed that the new HP printer was defective! Now I was asked again.

Installing additional HP software and connecting to the HP service website was quick, but even quicker was the realization that these are in even worse condition than today's HP printers themselves!

In short, before I have a heart attack in the HP service jungle, I have now requested that the printer be returned. Now I'm excited to see how my first return delivery in more than three decades of HP experience goes.

And I had already thought that an HP printer would one day be the last printer that I would buy myself - we have now actually arrived in the age of paperless offices.

Now I'll take a look at the return delivery and refund of this printer and hope that the old one doesn't give up the ghost just yet.

And hopefully the ongoing process of reversing the new printer doesn't turn into a real drama - the HP online service is more than enough for me! What happened to Hewlett-Packard in all these decades?

Addendum 8.11.2023

Today I received the message that I will receive a refund for the printer. That's a good thing, but it doesn't solve my printer problem.

And so I'll have to think about a few more things soon.

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