HP Photosmart C5180 All-in-one SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT Please READ!!!! [ Edited ]

[Cyanbluesky]

The HP Photosmart C5180 All-in-one is a rip off. DO NOT BUY ANY PRODUCTS FROM THEM.

Get a hold of this......... If one of your inks run out  YOU CANNNOT USE THE PRINTER. Lets say you run out of cyan IT WILL NOT LET YOU PRINT IN BLACK!!

Their inks have an expiry date, AS IF we were going to drink the ink instead of print with it.

Bought this printer brand new, hardly ever used it, hence I got the message "INK EXPIRED''. Having hardly used it, the printer is not working

I have spent a hell of a lot of money on expensive inkS and FOUR DAYS OF MY TIME trouble shooting this {Content Removed: Language Filter Evasion}

Why are these companies allowed to rip off the consumer. Its highway robbery and they get away with it.

Please pass this on to everyone you know. Post it on Facebook, Twitter and everywhere you can.

SHAME ON YOU HP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jon-W]

I believe the main reason is that the printhead is built in tp the printer, using ink of that age could damage the printhead which means you would need a whole new unit. However that being said, that printer is now several years old, HP no longer uses that ink system, and no longer has an "expiration date" on ink. The only thing that will stop you from printing on current models is if the ink is actually empty.

Although ink does still have a warranty date, it will still print after said date, HP just cannot guarantee quality after said date.

[Cyanbluesky]

Thanks for your reply.

I have replaced ALL of the inks with proper HP inks yesterday. Its still not working. Any ideas? I went through all the proceedures the manual suggested and whent on to this forum went through all of those proceedures suggested, at least two dozen times. I uninstalled and installed the drivers, updated them. Tried using my other Apple Mac, checked the ethernet cable.

[Jon-W]

Is it still saying that the inks are expired, or is it giving a different error message now?

[Cyanbluesky]

Hi Jon

Last Saturday I replaced all of the six inks with fresh proper HP cartridges.

The error message is

Ink system failure

Ink system has failed. Unable to print. Refer to printer documentation.

Error Ox18a0206

Then I press OK and another message shows

Improper shut down.

To avoid damage, use the on button to shut down the printer. Do not use a power strip or wall switch to shut down

I have been using the correct way of shutting down, I use the power button on the machine.

Thank you for taking the time to help me.

Cyan

[Jon-W]

If you press OK on the improper shutdown message are you able to continue? If not there may be one more reset that can be done, although it usually has to be done by hp phone support. There would generally be a fee for this, however if the reset does not resolve it they can refund that payment.

[Cyanbluesky]

No I am not able to continue, tried several times on both macs.

Do you have an HP number for them? BTW are you in England or the Sates?

Here in the UK, I have called thier support number, and its a high premium number, I gave up after 5-7 minutes while I was going through their menus and them reading me the riot act. Rip off again this time by phone. How do these comanies get away with it??

HP are a really big when it comes to Built-in obsolescence, they have that down to a fine art. Really should be lobbied agaist this sort of thing. What about the impact of Built-in obsolescence to the environment? That would be a good ground to lobby for, imagine the positive affect this would have on our planet if these sort of practises were illegal.

A good way of finding out whether a company is above board or not is how easy you can get to the support team and complaints department without them charging an arm and a leg.

However, the HP moderator was on my case right away because he didn't like one of the words I used to describe this piece of rubbish. However, Mr. SunshineF did not offer me any solutions to this problem he was more concerned about my generative grammar. Hmmmmmmmm...............??

Just had to go to the local library to make the 70 pages I needed printing at considerable expense. Just to add to my total expenses over this whole affair

[Jon-W]

Ahh while im located in Canada myself, so im not sure about the support over in the UK. I would say try chat support but they may not be able to help you out as credit card payments are not nearly secure enough through a chat channel.

[Cyanbluesky]

Thank you