Gosh, why are their printers so bad to control? I’ve lost sleep over them

Is this extreme planned obsolescence?

My printer had to restart at least twice to get it to work, and I thought it was a problem with my computer…

  • Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    11 months ago

    Maybe this is a bit much fedposting

    Yeah go with Brother. After 2 or 3 HPs going to complete shit over mudane crap I’ve switched at least 4 people to them. They’ve been happy with it’s amazing holy shit it just works! Chinese printer company.

      • WayeeCool [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Best printers out there. I’ve had the same b/w brother laser printer for well over a decade and it is still going strong. None of the bullshit associated with other brands of laser printers or inkjets. It can sit unused for over a year and will immediately print something no problem. Also gives me 7000 pages between ink toner replacements and only have to replace the drum every 3 or 4 tone replacement cycles.

  • alcoholicorn [comrade/them, doe/deer]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    11 months ago

    Is this extreme planned obsolescence?

    Probably. HP is in textbooks as an example of market segmentation:

    HP had 2 models of a printer, an office and home version. They were identical, but since offices spent more on printers, the office version sold for a higher price.

    Sales reported that some buyers would notice the numbers for the office and home models were identical.

    The solution was to add an extra chip to the home models to slow down how quickly they could print. This increased manufacturing costs.

    HP made the home model more expensive to manufacture (.: less profitable) for the purpose of making them worse so another market segment would be convinced to pay even more.

    Gosh, why are their printers so bad to control?

    A lot of HP’s user-hostile/bad design isn’t planned obsolesce but the efforts and effects of locking users into a walled garden.

    Printers that are cheaper than a full ink cartrige and pushing registering/more HP services hard put users into a position where they’re willing to put up with a lot before they go out and spend hundreds on a non-HP printer.

    That enables HP to spend less on the product being good without losing customers.

    btw Anyone have a recommendation for a printer brand with less painful software?