I have a Canon printer/scanner/copier MP250 that I paid $30 for new at Walmart. It does not waste ink like you say.

A few months after I purchased this MG5250, its printing head broke and I had to send it for warranty repairs. Perhaps the replacement head is somehow poor and its thus wasting ink the way I described. This model was more expensive than the simpler ones, such as yours (actually I think my parents have the exact same model as you), so I assumed this more valuable one would say me money with the inks. Alas, no. I later bought a laser printer for my parents anyway, so that they wouldn't need to print text with the inkjet, so I haven't been hearing anymore how oft they need to buy inkjet cartridges. After reading CrazY_Milojko's post, I might need to seriously consider laser printers as well (or Brother's LED printers), despite the fact I mostly print 10x15 photos, with an occasional text document.

I just have one question: Is this **** legal??? For disclosure, i have an HP printer that i barely use...

It might be time to go for one of those Epson EcoTank printers then.

I just have one question: Is this **** legal???

It may clash with cartel laws in the European Union, but I'm not sure.

haven't been in the market for a printer but last i looked hp had the only decent priced ink all the others where cheaper to just replace the whole unit and get the ink with the unit.:3eyes:

Ink is and has always been a blatant rip-off which needs investigating like any industry.

+1, Amen

It makes total sense for a company to do that, but you do need to go back to the origin of the issue, why are there replacement cartridges in the first place ? If HP exclusively ties the cartridge to their ink ... prices of ink go up. Currently Hewlett-Packard color inkjet cartridge is costly by weight more than imported Russian caviar, it's is 3x more expensive then Dom Pérignon champagne. Companies like HP turned printer ink into black gold, hence a huge market for these 3rd party inkjet cartridges opened up as the reality is that the ink and cartridges can be up-to 3 to 4x cheaper for the same quality. Now HP is closing this 'discrepancy' again. If you are cool with that ... hey good for HP and go buy HP printers. If you like to save some money .. you probably don't wanna do that.

Well said, people should vote with their wallets now that HP is pulling this kind of stunt! I think it's shameless that genuine ink is such a rip off, if they brought it back into line with reality and it was say only 5 or 10% more expensive than generic ink then there's a good chance I'd buy genuine.

There's always ASDA printing services XD

Best deal going, imo, is the Instant Ink deal the wife has on her OfficeJet 5740. The printer is on the network and it communicates with HP to let it know the number of pages printed and the remaining capacity of the cartridges. You aren't charged by the cartridge--it's *by the page* and the really cool thing about it is 1 page is 1 page whether it's a page of text (uses almost no ink) *or* it's a full page color portrait (uses gobs of color inks!)...! In fact, every one of your pages can be 100% color if you like and it makes no difference in the cost of the plan--HP sends replacement cartridges to your door at no cost to you before you run out of ink. If you are low on Black they'll send a black, low on a color they'll send a color or low on both they'll send both. Here's the really great part: $2.99 per month for 50 pages; with 100% roll-over for the next month $4.99 per month for 100 pages; with 100% roll-over for the next month $9.99 per month for 300 pages per month; with 100% roll-over for the next month roll over = if you use, say, 200 pages of your 300 page plan then next month you are allowed 400 pages at no additional cost--etc. Use no pages and the next month you have 600 pages you can use. But, you must use the roll-over pages the next month or you lose them. It's allowed us to save a minimum of 50% on cartridge costs over what we were paying because my wife prints mostly full-color pages and that's where cartridge expense can add up quickly. No mess, no fuss with sloppy refills, etc., buggy 3rd-party cartridges (which we had been using.) Worst-case scenario? You pay $120 per year for all of your cartridges--you never run out of ink, and the cartridges are shipped to your door before you run out! I was skeptical at first and carefully monitored her page usage for the first few months--it was absolutely accurate. If you are nearing your plan limit they even email you to let you know--and if you go over it's only $1.00 per ea 20 pages you go over. (She has never gone over--she started with the 100-page plan but moved to the 300-page plan. We have been on it for a bit less than a year.) *you can cancel your plan at any time *you can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time *no contracts, no minimum buys, etc. It's month to month. This is by far the best deal on ink cartridges I've seen since I started using HP inkjets in 1987...;) While it is ~ if you print mainly text, it's a god-send if you like to use color--no more worrying about draft-mode to save ink because you are billed by the page not by the cartridge! Thought I'd mention it...;)

I used to buy ink hacking tools/methods years ago involving either drilling a hole in an original cartridge and refilling and resetting the fill level by fooling the firmware. There was a big scam back in the day that still persists through to this day and that was firmware was telling lies about how much ink was left. You see because the cartridge has no real method of measuring the actual amounts of ink left, it's basically an algorithm that best guesses the amounts remaining and it would never get it wrong in one direction but always get it wrong in the other direction. So people were throwing away cartridges because firmware/software on it was saying empty but when some experts checked they found most of these cartridges still had up to 50% ink left on them and the reporting was way off. Not other cartridge manufacturers was the aim but refills was the cause for them to make each cartridge have an electronic measuring system on board so refills became obsolete.

It makes total sense for a company to do that, but you do need to go back to the origin of the issue, why are there replacement cartridges in the first place ? If HP exclusively ties the cartridge to their ink ... prices of ink go up. Currently Hewlett-Packard color inkjet cartridge is costly by weight more than imported Russian caviar, it's is 3x more expensive then Dom Pérignon champagne. Companies like HP turned printer ink into black gold, hence a huge market for these 3rd party inkjet cartridges opened up as the reality is that the ink and cartridges can be up-to 3 to 4x cheaper for the same quality. Now HP is closing this 'discrepancy' again. If you are cool with that ... hey good for HP and go buy HP printers. If you like to save some money .. you probably don't wanna do that.

Not only the quality. These third party cartrides have double the ink for half the price as well. The cartrides for my printer from 123inkt have 15ml for the same price as a HP one with 8ml.

I just replaced my all in one printer (a Brother) with an HP model a couple of weeks ago. This news makes me grumpy. 🙁 *I print text 99% of the time so their sub plan doesn't interest me very much.

@waltc3 Great deal you have there!

Just from my experience, depending on the quality control of the third party, it is not worth the savings. I have yet to come across a third party cartridge that does not malfunction at some point. Nothing is preventing one from refilling the oem cartridges. Grant it, it can be messy at times but still doable. Plus like mentioned before, one has to know by now that ink jet printers are dirt cheap. The cost of the oem ink is where those manufacturers make their money. It is marketing at its finest. Television used to be free. One only resorted to cable because reception was terrible or nonexistent. So even though internet streaming is cheaper it is still more than it used to be. Do not even get started on the whole bottled water boondoggle. Who in their right mind pays for the stuff. Marketing is what convinced everyone it was the cool thing to do. Ink is nothing compared to the other stuff. It is just that the other stuff is more easily dismissed/rationalized. EDIT: Where are the dot matrix printers of old?

Simple fix really don't update your firmware lol. I doubt they even update the firmware anymore on my 3055A anyway.

What is a printer brand that doesn't try to pull this sort of ink drm? Are there any that are more focused on giving you a printer and giving the option of a bunch of third party cheaper ink?

I don't know if they simply don't care, but I am pretty happy with Brother printers, depending on the model, I have seen compatible cartridges as low as 0.75€ each.

I just have one question: Is this **** legal???

Most probably it is. I recall that when SodaStream suddenly switched the old thread diameter of the CO2 bottles to a new one, rendering third party CO2 solutions incompatible, some people made an official inquiry about it, claiming the action hurt the free market and customers' choices. SodaStream simply stated that their business model is to force customers to get their CO2 from SodaStream licensed official sources. That was enough for the EU as an explanation. I reckon this case is perfectly equivalent.

It might be time to go for one of those Epson EcoTank printers then.

The printer units themselves seem to be quite a bit more expensive, understandably if Epson wants then to make more money that way. However, my concern is that if the printer malfunctions, then that's it, the bigger invested is lost. I wouldn't put it beyond these corporations to purposefully include some weakness in the unit, to force the customer to get a new one after a time. In the first place since traditional printers are so cheap, as the money comes from the ink, is this EcoTank any different?

haven't been in the market for a printer but last i looked hp had the only decent priced ink all the others where cheaper to just replace the whole unit and get the ink with the unit.:3eyes:

Traditionally a printer is shipped with just a little bit of ink, so that the customer can print a couple of pages to see how it works. Then it's off to the shop to donate to the manufacturer!

From my experience the MG series printers are garbage. I've had two and both of them lasted a year max before they started acting up. Trashed the second one and bought a Brother. No problems since.

I bought an MG5750 a year ago and it's working perfectly. Ink seems to last what ink normally lasts. Love the automatic duplex too. Sure is a much better printer than my last couple of HP printers. Dunno, maybe I've been lucky? Maybe next printer will be a Brother, seeing that most of you are happy with them.

I have a Canon printer/scanner/copier MP250 that I paid $30 for new at Walmart.

You should move here. I paid $25 for mine....too bad it's color calibration was so far off it was impossible to print photos with. I live about 3 miles from one of the Canon printer plants through. All of the printers sold locally, come from the plant here. They can range from $5 to $25 cheaper for us than elsewhere.

I don't know if they simply don't care, but I am pretty happy with Brother printers, depending on the model, I have seen compatible cartridges as low as 0.75€ each.

We use Brothers printers at work. For the most part, they're great. Their Laser printers don't last forever though. We typically go through 2-3 of them a year but we're printing thousands of pages a months.

In most places I've seen, they use HP's laser printers for document and email printing and they all (except some of the largest companies) just get their toners refilled from the smaller computer shops. Why waste money when it gets the job done for less? lol.

why are we still printing papers in 2016 is the real question, I wish all those hipsters-ecologists would go on a revolt and ban pen and papers outright once and for all, so ironic how much outcry there is for waste and the planet yet we have this gargantuan, centuries old industry still hanging around