Price increase of HP Instant Ink

[Badger10]

I have been using the £1.99 package for several years. I have already wondered if I am overpaying as rarely need a new cartridge. An inflation based increase would have been acceptable, but an arbitrary 50% increase is not. They have made their commercial decision based on how much they can screw over their customers compared to how many they will lose and I will make mine. I do not expect to be a member of instant ink come March.

[choddo]

They almost certainly can get away with this. If they had said "sorry, materials costs are going up" etc, I might have even stuck with it, certainly at 25% I would have, It's the comical "hey valued customer, got some news for you!" approach that has me cancelling.

And I'm sure it wasn't a reference just to me, or perhaps not to me at all, but when I said I'm cancelling when the cartridges I just ordered arrive, I meant the non-instant ink standard cartridges. £47 for genuine HP ones. So if they last over 16 months, I was right. If they don't, I was wrong 🙂

[AlanG2]

Blocking supplied cartridges cannot be right, you have already paid for them?   That must be illegal?

[AlanG2]

My Officejet Pro 6970 packed up a week ago.   I have tried things suggested by the HP Support forum and it still will not work (black screen).  I cannot contact HP support on the phone ('not available?) so it seems to be a brick.   I was looking at getting a new HP until this Instant Ink increase hit the email.    Will now look at going back to Epson or Cannon for a replacement.

[choddo]

@AlanG2 - you haven't paid for them, you've paid for the capability to print 50 pages each month. They have fulfilled that by providing cartridges. As soon as you stop paying, that no longer applies. The cartridges are just a logistical mechanism to make the printing that you are paying for work.

[mjcuk]

There’s a decent deal on Amazon today for delivery by 10pm for a black and colour 301XL pair of carts for £30. 

I have cancelled my plan and explained the reasons why. 

What’s funny is the plan page still stated that the new plan taking effect from 13th feb was 99p/15 pages/45 rollover. 

When it tried to talk me out of cancelling it still showed the old prices. 

My carts will stop working 12th feb, for £30 we’ll see how we go. I never printed photos anyways so not overly bothered about any quality I might lose from not using HP genuine carts. 

I’ve had the Envy 4500 since May 2016, and been on instant ink since then. 

[ghfd]

Looks like The Register are now aware of HP’s price gouging and have an article on it. Making the wider IT community aware is a good start, especially as many will work for organisations who use and potentially influence buying decisions in those places. https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/27/instant_ump_hps_subscription_ink/

[AlanG2]

That you are paying for printing pages may be their semantics but I look on it as I bought the printer with cartridges (paid for) and then I start paying for the next set of cartridges immediately.  They do sometimes give a 'free' period (which varies) but I see that as an inducement to buy the printer and join their ink scheme. It is effectively paying for their ink in advance.   I also have 150 roll over pages on my 'contract', the ink cartridges I have need to last at least long enough to fulfil that and not be blocked.

As previous, this is all semantics on my part as my printer is a brick and I cannot get it sorted so will have to buy a new one anyway - and not an HP.  

[lohr500]

Hopefully someone will soon join the discussion who can explain how to terminate HP's access to the printer, whilst still allowing wifi printer connection to the network to facilitate printing!! In this way, I presume the Instant Ink cartridges will continue to work until they run out.  

[ProgRod]

Quote "There were 10 million plus subscribers [PDF] to the service globally as of October 2021, according to HP's Securities Analyst Meeting. The firm said revenues generated by Instant Ink in fiscal '21 were forecast to grow 30 per cent year-on-year to more than $500m. HP reported pre-tax profit from printing for the whole financial year of $3.635bn, up from $2.49bn a year earlier."

Yes...pure greed. .they already have a massive profit margin.