Printers

retail

OfficeMax Calls You A Thief For Trying To Recycle

OfficeMax called Chris a thief for recycling empty printer cartridges. OfficeMax's MaxPerks program gives customers $3 for each empty cartridge they recycle, with a limit of 5 cartridges per customer per day. Chris runs a computer repair business that leaves him flush with empty cartridges. According to one cashier, this makes Chris a thief. More »

4:48 PM on Sun May 4 2008
By Carey
26,773 views, 125 comments

planned obsolescence

HP Won't Issue New Drivers For Leopard, Tells You To Buy A New Printer

Matt's Officejet 6110 scans perfectly under Ubuntu, but won't play nice with Leopard. When Matt called HP for support, he was told that the company has no plans to issue new drivers so he should just buy a new printer. To soften the blow, the tech mentioned HP's trade-in program, which would give Matt a whopping $16 for his printer. More »

10:50 AM on Sat Mar 15 2008
By Carey
14,248 views, 147 comments

printers

Customer Files Class-Action Suit Against HP & Staples, Charging Printer Ink Price Collusion

Ranjit Bedi, a Californian, has filed a lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard and Staples in a U.S. District Court in Boston, accusing the two companies of colluding to prevent the sale of third-party ink cartridges in Staples stores. Bedi is accusing HP of paying Staples over $100 million to get it to stop selling lower-priced ink refills, but none of the news sources we found supply any evidence to support that figure, so we hope Bedi has more than just a gut feeling about this. More »

8:40 PM on Wed Dec 19 2007
By Chris Walters
2,589 views, 42 comments

Latest by John from Huntersville: My HP color (78) cartridge has been warning me that it's low on ink for 3 months now. It does the same with HP black (45) cartridges. I am using an HP 1215 printer. I just print till it more »

good companies

Canon's Customer Service Is Helpful, Painless

A reader writes in to commend Canon for their efficient and—brace yourselves—helpful customer service: "I was on the phone less than two minutes beginning to end." Among the surprises: the customer service department was based in the U.S., he was called back when a rep was available instead of being abandoned in an endless hold loop, the people he spoke with seemed motivated to help him, and the Canon rep had enough autonomy and intelligence to come up with an alternative solution when the original problem couldn't be solved. More »

6:07 PM on Fri Nov 9 2007
By Chris Walters
4,720 views, 47 comments

Latest by mistaketv: My mom recently had a great experience with Canon. Long story short, her long-out-of-warranty several year old PowerShot digital camera broke. She called Canon; they determined that it was a known manufacturing defect and fixed it for free. They even more »

shopping

6 Photo Printers Reviewed

We don't really print photographs much anymore—most of the time, there's some display we can show them on, and for the rare times we want physical copies, it's cheaper to order through an online service like Shutterfly than deal with the total cost of owning a photo printer. But maybe you're more retro than that or need instant gratification with your pics, in which case you might want to read Slate's side-by-side showdown of six different photo printers. More »

9:57 PM on Fri Oct 26 2007
By Chris Walters
2,563 views, 26 comments

Latest by arby: @Benstein: You should try to get a letter from the photographer, on letterhead, that you can show to the clerk; if he still won't let you buy the photos I suppose I'd try to escalate to management or corporate. I more »

pc load letter

Office Printers Spew As Many Particles As Smoldering Cigarettes

Everyone hates the office printer, including scientists who blame the printers for emitting dangerous amounts of ultra-fine particles. Scientists from Queensland University examined printers from Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Ricoh and Toshiba. Their findings don't condemn any one brand: the HP LaserJet 4050 emitted no particles, while the the HP LaserJet 1320 and 4250 raised the particle count of the surrounding air tenfold. From the LA Times:

Morawska did not originally set out to study printers. She was invited by the Queensland Department of Public Works to measure air quality inside a six-floor office building near a busy road.

More »

10:42 AM on Fri Aug 3 2007
By Carey
2,453 views, 22 comments

Latest by Saboth: @Cowboys_fan: Great...I work for a mailing company that prints stuff all day long. Even in our office we have 10 desktop printers that probably print 200-500 sheets per day apiece. more »

inefficiency

Printers Prompt For Ink Replacement Before Ink Is Out

An EPSON study found many printers will tell you it's time to replace the ink cartridge before it's actually empty.

Ink-jet lies [Spending Smart]

11:28 AM on Thu Jul 26 2007
By Ben Popken
3,277 views, 29 comments

Latest by scodav: I have a Pixma iP4200, about a year old. It sends the message that it needs a new cartridge when it's still 1/3 full. But, all you need to do is press the 'resume' button and it will keep more »

hewlett-packard

9 More Hewlett-Packard Company Secrets From A Former Employee

A former Hewlett-Packard worker who could barely wait for their non-disclosure-agreement to end so they could spill company secrets to The Consumerist has more, along with clarifications about what was posted yesterday. More »

9:09 AM on Thu Feb 15 2007
By Ben Popken
11,811 views, 15 comments

hewlett-packard

14 Hewlett-Packard Company Secrets From A Former Employee

UPDATE: 9 More Hewlett-Packard Company Secrets From A Former Employee More »

complaints

Soldier in Iraq Shoots Crappy HP Printer

Loosely in honor of 9/11, here's an American soldier in Iraq expressing his dissatisfaction with an HP printer. With his automatic rifle. According to the original post on Break.com, after they sent this in to HP, they received a free new printer in return.