Wednesday 6 April 2011
Photo Printer - printer, hp
I am going to cut to the chase here; under no circumstances should you buy this printer. Feature rich, the printer sounds great on paper, and for the most part, many of the features work as advertised. The big problem with this printer is it does not print reliably. Don't take my word for it though, read the other 1-star reviews and visit HP's own Support Website forums to see the problems others are having with this model, and similar models before it.
I purchased this printer from Costco because it had some great features (wireless printing, large touch screen interface, duplexing, compact in size etc...), and because Costco has a painless return policy. I returned it because it didn't do the one thing I needed; print reliably. You would have to run the clean print head job in order to get the printer to print properly. After the printer would sit for a bit, it would not print properly again, until you ran the cleaning job again. And the printer could not even complete the alignment process either. My first thought was I got a bad one out of the batch. After doing some research though, I found these problems were all too common with this model and others from HP. Do not let HP's horrible support con you into blowing even more cash on new ink cartridges, it will not fix the problem. And don't let them try and send you an RMA, you will still have the same problems.
I have requested Amazon add a "reliability" rating to this product, as it needs it.
I can't be anymore clear about this; look at another line of printers; Epson's Artisan 725 is great, and in the same price range. HP needs to learn how to put out quality consumer level printers again. I will not be buying another HP inkjet printer until they prove they aren't putting crap in a flashy box. HP Photosmart Premium Wireless e-All-in-One (CN503A#B1H)
Very impressed with the features that this new line of printers offers. It did take a few days for it to pick up my FIOS network for some reason, but my other computer can now dance around the house and still print. I guess the threat of calling HP service spurred it into working. The colors are true to life and I like the separate cartridges instead of a combined cartridge for color. I checked the price for the color cartridges and they seem to be reasonably priced also. It is built a little lighter than my workhorse Officejet 650, but HP is trying to stay green and the prime parts that usually break are still study enough.
Perhaps I am spoiled by the iPhone touch pad, but the touchpad on this printer seems a little sluggish. Maybe we just need to get to know each other better!
Excellent concept. Especially liked ePrint and XL ink options. Product setup was okay. But the printer only worked for one day before running into problems. Wasted $50 replacing starter ink cartridges. Wasted an hour plus on consecutive days with HP online support chat. Was promised a replacement printer which never materialized. Maybe was unlucky in getting a dud from this new product line. Definitely was unlucky with poor HP support. Recommend against wasting time and money until kinks are worked out of both systems.
I bought this printer to replace my way old Cannon. Got it home which is 45 minutes from the store and it never worked. The ink holder would not move over so I could put the ink in it so I had to force it over. It kept giving me a "general print error". After about an hour of this, I called HP and got nowhere. They tried different things with me and it still would not work. The only difference was the error message changed but went back to the original one. I think it was 061011beb or something close to that. So after working my way up through their ranks with people in India, I was told it was a "general hardware failure" and they could send me a refurb. A REFURB AFTER OWNING THE PRINTER FOR 4 HOURS!?!?!? I told them no way. They said a case manager would be contacting me about this. It will be to late as I am bringing this back to Staples. If they are nice about it, I will get a Cannon from them, if not, I will raise all kinds of hell and go to another place.
It is very inconvenient for me to go through this.
I should have stuck with Cannon in the first place.
This printer has been my worst consumer product experience in at least 10 years. I have wasted vast amounts of time and effort in the two months since I bought it, with almost no success. Specific issues include
* USB connection cannot be made to work: My preferred arrangement would be to connect it directly to the computer via USB cable, which should be possible. Don't even think about it - the printer driver software that should allow this doesn't work. HP clearly knows this, but cynically wastes more of your time with "patches" that don't work either.
* Wireless connection keeps vanishing: So I finally got it connected to the network, printed out a document, and was momentarily happy. However, this was short-lived. An hour later I tried to print another document - the printer was "offline". No amount of coaxing would bring it back on. Eventually, through scanning various user forums (how fun is that!) I learned that the best bet was to switch it off for at least 30 minutes, then try again. This works about one time in ten.
* Total unreliability: If life were a Jane Austen novel, this printer would be one of those pale, delicate female protagonists, prone to fainting at the slightest provocation. An example - Friday, after allowing the damned thing to rest for 7 FULL HOURS, I finally got it to scan a single-page document for me. But the strain was such that it immediately got the vapours and refused to print, scan, or copy for the rest of the day. The next morning it managed to "print" a document again, but the entire thing was in magenta....
* My interactions with tech support convince me that HP knows this is a complete lemon, but is unwilling to admit it or replace my machine. (Unfortunately I didn't buy it on Amazon)
* The on/off button ceased to function on the second day, forcing me to have to unplug it to turn it off, then endure sanctimonious messages about "improper shutdown" and interminable rebooting and recalibration.
I could go on, but it would just elevate my blood pressure again.
DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT. (Frankly, at this point I will never buy another HP product - their quality and service have undergone a consistent decline over the last 10 years, to the point that they are now producing junk which they then refuse to stand behind) - Hp - Printer - All In One Printer - All In One'
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