Officejet 6100 won't print in B&W without full color cartridges installed (RIPOFF)

[MickyG]

I have to reinterate that I think the tech for HP's explanation of why they have it that the printer stops dead totally unsatifactory. I owned I think it was a Kodak printer that disapeard in a move. That printer also had seperate resivors for ink, it also had replaceable print heads. That printer seemed to have no problem printing just black, frankly I ended up using it for a time with just a black cartridge and setting it to print only black. I am sure it was months, when I finally quite being lazy and bought the color, ran through cleaning cycle and Bob's your uncle. I can't see this move along with not supplying actual cartridges when you buy it as nothing but a marketing stratedgy.

[jmmjrhp]

Like the other posters, I have just experienced this HP 6100 printer refusing to print, suddenly, at very inconvenient times, claiming first a magenta depleted cartidge, then yellow depleted, then cyan depleted, so that all of the cartridges had to be replaced, even though I only print black & white documents. The HP explanation that these cartridges must be replaced in order to save the hardware, is absolutely unconvincing, pathetic & transparent. Further, as other posters have noted, when you're in the middle of printing for some project, and the printer suddenly refuses to print, it may be impossible to obtain a replacement cartridge, either due to time of day, or because there is no nearby store stocking those cartridges, thereby throwing a major monkey wrench into the project, possibly jeopardizing it. HP seems to assume that use of this printer is strictly optional or leisure time. And on top of it, HP claims, oh-golly-gee-whiz, we really wish we could design these cartridges differently, but we just can't, so we'll just have to keep soaking the customers' money, making them buy cartridges they don't want, because they only want to print black and white. How very convenient for you, HP, you don't want to take our money, but, jeepers, you'll just have to take our money, since we can't manage to design a proper cartridge.

So, HP makes a printer with these unnecessary, expensive, inconvenient cartridges, and forces a customer to use them and spend unnecessary money for something they don't want. And then HP claims oh jeepers, we're incapable of designing anything else, despite the fact the HP designs millions of computers and printers, and all kinds of other hardware and software, so we'll just have to take customers' money.

The HP arrogance and dishonesty is absolutelyINFURIATING. So congratulations, HP, for adopting a brilliant sales strategy, INFURIATING and ABUSING your customers. Ridiculous.

And even if you delete this message, HP, the printer practice described above continues INFURIATING your customers. Do you notice that there are over 3000 views of this message thread ? You have a problem, HP.

[BS2013]

Looks like HP found a way not to damage the printer by cost their customer. Why other printer manufactures doesn't find such a good way to protect their printer. If you made a mistake, just admit and solve the problem. The explaination is worthless and damage your company image even more. The leaders in the company should be responsible for their terrible company culture.

[kinless]

I unfortunately discovered this infuriating anomaly with the OfficeJet 6700 Premium this morning. I had important sheet music to print out (in B&W) and told me Magenta and Yellow was out, even though I printed out a receipt fine just moments before. I searched all over the place for a workaround but could not find it. Had to use a friend's printer in order to get my music in time for rehearsal.

Your explanation about "damaging the printer" with empty cartridges is a bunch of baloney. You know darn well the engineers could program the printer to compensate and use an alternative method for printing B&W if you have blank ink left. Some of us don't need the color cartridges to fill the gaps for B&W if quality isn't important.

Congrats HP, after over 15 years of buying your inkjet printers, this is the last one I will ever buy, nor will I ever recommend your brand to friends/family again.

[ROLAND-A]

Dear HP,

Your way of stopping me from using MY printer is theft. I can judge myself if I want to risk using old ink or using almost expired ink and I certainly know if I want to print in Grayscale or Black mode.

You have ruined my day and work, why on earth are you taking on the role as a police for my work and MY printer.

Your basic product is good but your selling style (selling expensive ink) is terrible.

You are outsmarting yourself.

Until recently I was able to pass the instruction replace ink and just accept print in black.

What has happened and how can I get back to a stage where I am in charge of my printer ?

Regards

Roland

[FormerHpOwner]

Wow, so glad I found this thread before wasting my money on an Officejet 6700.

My old Photosmart C7280 worked great for 6 years using cheap 3rd-party ink cartridges but finally gave up the ghost - it would happily print only in B/W when one or more of the color cartridges was empty.

The 6700's inability to print B/W without color ink available was clearly a design choice made by HP engineers and management.   The "protecting the printer" argument made by HP customer service is laughable, since this issue could obviously have been designed-around as it was in previous printers.

Between selling the printer with half-full cartridges, encrypted ID chips, bogus ink volume indicators - and now, the inability to print in B/W when color cartridges are "exhausted" - I am giving up on HP and purchasing an Epson or Brother instead.

No wonder HP is going down the tubes!

[wishing1953]

I would have to echo everyones issues here, just finding out myslef about no color NO PRINT there is no solution even if you have a post saying there is !  HP has gone to CRAPY marketing ploys plain and simple I will post everywhere I knwo anout this "feature" on their products even write a letter to the company ( major chain) about this "feature" that is NOT listed anywhere in any documentation or advertisement

Solution ? throw away HP printer and go with ANY OTHER BRAND shame on you HP

[Corepot]

I couldn't agree more!

First, the problem is marked as "solved" when infact HP has offered NO solution.  This deceitful behavior is consistent with the owners' manual for the Officejet 6100 which indicates that it is possible to get the printer to print in black-only mode, when in fact it is NOT possible.

So I spent a very frustrating hour trying to print a document I urgently needed in black and white because I was misled by the the owner's manual.

Now I also hear about expiration dates for ink cartridges, and it does all add up to a ginormous rip-off, compounded by fraudulent corporate miscommunication.

I too will avoid purchasing the HP brand in future because HP designed a product to rip off customers, lied about its capabilities in its official owner's manual, and then lied about "solving' the problem on its "help" site.

Just thinking about it makes me angry!

[MikeyFresh]

This is an absolute ripoff!

I own a chain of stores with 45 HP printers.  Because of this issue I will never buy an HP printer, nor ink, again.  

If anyone at your company gives a hoot about customer service then you'll stop making excuses for your obvious attempt to extort money, apologize, and fix the problem.

[wishing1953]

I have to echo everyone here, HP has like so many other business totally forgotten customer service...instead they hold us hostage to "buy more ink that will fix the issue"  fuuny as I see thousands of remarks here yet HP does nothign but read from a script