Why I probably will never buy an HP printing device again..

by Don Burnett

I like HP as a company, even though every time I try to talk to their tech support I get more and more disgusted because I am speaking to someone in tech support because there is a language barrier.

I bought an All-in-One C7280 photo smart printer scanner fax today. I have had all-in-ones from them before that worked great, so I was expecting no less from this one..

 

My experience:

Assembly, great instructions easy assembly

Printer intializes with the starter ink cartridges

then I get the error message "Error: incorrect ink cartridges" immediately after installing the starter cartridges... I talk to HP online support they tell me go buy some new cartridges.

Okay the store isn't open to go buy new cartridges, why don't I just finish installing the drivers and try out the scanner..

The printer won't let me get to it, until I have fresh working ink cartridges installed. How bad is this? It's a multifunction device and it won't let me use the other functions of the device and bypass the error message.

Seems to me this is a serious design flaw in HP's system and design.

Making the situation worse I found out that the new cartridges might not work due to a protection chip they put on the ink cartridge to "freshness date" and subvert cartridge refills. It's true that more HP printers are ruined by incorrectly refilled print cartridges.

So if you want a multi-function device, that only works if you have printer ink, then this device is for you..  This is a serious design flaw..