I want to vent.

About six months ago I bought my wife a new HP Photosmart printer.  This thing has your basic separate color cartridges.  Well the yellow one ran out not long after we got it.  She was printing photos like crazy.  I didn't think it was a big deal though.  The black one is still full.  So I could use it for my needs...

Well I haven't needed to use the printer until today.  I fire it up, and see the indicator telling me to replace the yellow cartridge.  So I go to the printer preferences.  I select "Gray scale" and "use black cartridge only".  I open the document I need to print, and send it away.  After this an error pops up "Please replace yellow ink to continue".  I get pissed off and check my settings again.  Sure enough, gray scale, and use black cartridge only are already selected.  I try again... "Please replace yellow ink". 

I immediately guessed that HP had coded this as a means to make you buy more ink.  But I decided to call them anyway.  I get the guy on the phone and present my problem.  After a five minute wait on hold, he returns and tells me.  "Sir you will need to replace the yellow ink in order to continue using your printer.  Had you selected "Use black only" before the yellow ran out, you could continue printing.  But now you must replace the yellow ink to use the printer again".

I don't need to tell you how angry I am over this.  I am unemployed, and needing to print a resume.  The last thing I want to do is spend a dime on something as unnecessary as yellow ink. 

I will now load my documents on a flash drive and go to Alphagraphics down the street.  They will print them for three pennies a page.  I'll just have to wait until they open tomorrow.  In the morning on my way there, I'll be throwing this proprietary piece of shit HP printer in the garbage.

If you were going to destroy a printer.  Say for a youtube video about why I'll never buy another HP, what creative ways would you use to dispose of the printer?

I use to have a HP Printer..I think Gray Scale setting is only for Black Ink Cartridges.

Is it a laser printer?

 I was reading an article last year that said though lasers cost more, the other type are so cheap because the companies make their money from ink sales. I believe it.

 Wow. One search and I found it!!

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/testdrive/article.php/3521141

I'll be throwing this proprietary piece of shit HP printer in the garbage.

Sell it. Don't do that.

Semtex?

 I used to have the recipe around here somewhere....

 

Get drunk and give it a good old Utah Teabagging.. it won't make it print, but you'll have shown the bastard who's boss YEHAAW!

I tried replacing it with one of the other colors.  But the cartridges have a knob on them that is shaped differently for each color. 

A Utah tea bagging sounds delightful.  I think that will be number one on the list.

Creating software that forces you to buy ink that you don't need, that's just criminal.  I would like to use Alphagraphics forever, but what if I need to pring on a Sunday again? 

This is the exact reason I bout a 60 dollar Samsung Monochrome Laser printer, almost 4 years ago. I'd had a couple color printers over they years and always hated the uneven use of the different cartridges. That doubled with the head cleaning (ink wasting) routines they'd have to go through seemingly every few times i wanted to print something.

I've had to buy one toner cartridge in 4 years, the one that came with it printed REAMS of paper on the included one, and the replacment has about 1/3 more ink than that. Granted the toner cart cost about as much a new printer, but i'd have had to spend the cash either way and the printer I have works perfect.

The photo printing i attacked a different way. When I used to do a lot of it, photo printers were somewhat new, very expensive, and changing monthly in thier features. Rather than waste money on them, I just started taking my memory cards, CD's full of photo's or even real photographs to longs drugs, or anywhere with a fujifilm, sony, kodak etc kiosk in em. You pay per print, they read anything I've ever put in em, have a scanner and the best part is that on the fuji one's i use the most, the copys aren't printed on the photo paper, they are exposed on to it, just like film.

Yeah it's per use and can add up, but offset by that fact that neither me or my wife feel like driving just to print one or 2 photos, not having to but the printer or the damn ink that gets wasted because we didn't print for a while and it needs to do a head cleaning, not having to pay for the power, upkeep etc and buy photo paper. it's been a much better experience than the endless loop frustration. Plus I noticed yeah, we were having all this fun printing photos... to do what with them. Hang a few and chuck most of them in a drawer somewhere. I view most of them on a screen and or send them to people that do the same thing.

Even when I had a color printer, 99% of what I printed was black, if you have the funds sometime, invest in a black laser printer. You won't be sorry