Why am I getting charged for pages printed? Now that I cancelled Instant Ink it says I can't print!

[Peplola17]

Good morning, I was hoping someone could help since I can't seem to get any answers reaching out to support from HP.  I purchased this printer about a year ago.  Only used it sparingly until about 3 months ago when my wife needed to use it for school.  She probably printed 1000 pages over that span.  Out of nowhere we got charged two different times for a combined $400+ for the number of pages we printed. 

I need to understand if I bought a printer for my home and use my own paper, why am I getting charged for the usage of my own printer?

Then I decided to cancel the HP Instant Ink service thinking this may be the reason.  However, now it says that I must sign up for a particular program before I can actually print something again on the printer.

Can anyone explain or help me with this?  There is no reason I should be paying for using my own printer.

Thank you.

[Dragon-Fur]

@Peplola17

I dislike pointing someone to the contract "after the fact" - the advice is rarely appreciated.  

My apologies for any added distress.

• Instant Ink is a print-by-page subscription plan. 
• Ink, however much is needed, is provided as part of the plan during the time the subscription is active.  This means that you can print a page (sheet) covered with a photo image or you can print a page containing a single line of text - there is no extra charge for how much ink is used during the subscription.
• If the number of printed pages exceed the number of "allowed" pages in your Instant Ink subscription plan, there is an extra charge for those pages that exceed the number of pages the plan.  Extra pages are provided in "sets" as explained in the Terms of Service Contract.

• With the exception of the ink cartridges that came with the printer, you never owned any of the Instant Ink cartridges that were provided as part of the subscription.  Instant Ink cartridges should be removed from the printer and returned to HP.

Important documents for your consideration:

HP Instant Ink Service Contract

HP Instant Ink - Terms of Service  (Click Flag to switch to your region)

Topics (Sections) in the document include (and are not limited to):

• Customer Support Center -- Cloud Services Contact Phone Number / options

• Instant Ink Service Requirements – including subtopics:
  • Printer Needs to be Connected to Internet
  • Instant Ink Program Cartridges Provided to You (Read this one!)
  • Instant Ink Program Cartridges Must Be Returned to HP by You (Read this one!)
• Choosing an Instant Ink Service Plan – including subtopics:
  • What is a page? (Read this one!)
  • Rollover Pages (Reminder: The Free plan does not include “rollover” pages)
• Cancellation
• Instant Ink Programs – including subtopics:
  • Fifteen (15) -Free-Pages-Per-Month Program (Where available)

Web Services

HP Instant Ink > How to > Instant Ink > Manage Account > Turning Off Web Services

Instant Ink - Cancel the Subscription

HP Instant Ink - Cancelling Your HP Instant Ink Service

Scroll to the bottom and click the Flag to change region.

Final Notes

I am not aware of you having to sign up for a "particular program" to be able to print after the subscription is cancelled.  In my opinion, it should be enough to replace the Instant Ink cartridges with a set of retail cartridges and perhaps shut off Web Services (depends on what else might be dependent on Web service - ePrint, for example).

HP Connected > How to > Setting Up and Using HP ePrint

What else?

If you like, contact Instant Ink Support in your region during regular business hours.

Option - Instant Ink Account Login, Videos, and Service Information

HP Instant Ink - Sign-up / Sign-in

Click Supported Countries (top right of Website) - Change Flag to your country

Support Contact information is provided on the Website.  If necessary, scroll down a bit until the phone number / contact options show on the right side of the page.

AND / OR

We have "roving" agents on the Community - an agent can give you this and other information to clarify the issue.  Agents also have the ability to look "behind the scene" for those instances when it is necessary that your Instant Ink Account details must (should) be checked / accessed.

Option:  Agent Response in the Community

Choose to wait for an HP Agent to find and respond to your request here on the community.

If there is a response from HP: 

• An HP agent will always post back on the Community before contacting you privately.

• Agents are identified by the "HP" icon  next to the Profile ID avatar.

• HP Moderators are identified by the "Mod" icon  next to the Profile ID avatar
• Agents do volunteer on our Community on their own time.  Hours, number of agents vary by region.

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[Jeet_singh]

@Peplola17,

Thank you for showing your interest in HP Support Forums. It is a great place to find the help you need, from other users, HP experts, and other support personnel. 

As I understand you are having concern with HP Instant ink program. Don't worry as i'll be glad to help you, however, to provide you with an accurate solution, I'll need a few more details:

Do you get any error message while printing? Have you tried to clean the ink cartridges. Are you using regular Ink cartridges or HP Instant Ink cartridges.

Why do you want to cancel the Instant ink program? 

Have you got a confirmation email regarding cancellation of Instant Ink?

When did you place a request for cancelling the Instant Ink program?

In the meantime, let's try these steps here: 

After cancellation, you will still be able to use the service until just before your billing cycle ends which is perhaps why you are still being prompted to connect.

For more details please go through  HP Instant Ink Terms of Service

If you do still have your instant ink cartridges inserted, you could try removing them and replacing them with normal cartridges to see if that helps.

If the issue persists, I would suggest here is to turn off web services and then restart the printer and then start using regular Ink cartridges, which should definitely help in resolving this issue.

Here's the steps for Turning of Web services on HP printer.

As mentioned you could go ahead and restart the printer and make sure that the printer is connected directly to the wall outlet and not to the surge protector.

Remove all the ink cartridges and then try to perform a hard reset on the printer.

With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

Remove USB cable, if present.

Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.

Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord and then plug back the power cord to the printer.

Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle.

Now insert the ink cartridges and then try to print a test page and check if it works.

Keep me posted,

If the information I've provided was helpful,

give us some reinforcement by clicking the solution and kudos buttons,

that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

Good Luck.