HP and extortion

[MountainSage]

My husband and I just returned from a very long trip, 2 months. Before leaving we were busy shutting things down, focusing on our emails impacting our trip and then leaving.

The day after we returned, my husband went to print something. Instead, he was shown a message that said we were now banned from using our printer, and that our account was suspended. Note: the printer was chock full of the ink that HP had sent us a while before we left.

Our printing needs are in the low to negligible category. But HP using their secret "hovering over your device software", failed to recognize our printer was offline. It was turned off and unplugged for 2 months.

I take full responsibility for NOT seeing the email notices HP sent. But given the ink status at full, and HP knew we had not printed anything for those 2 months; their only option was to block us from printing anything? What about waiting until our ink levels had dropped from full to almost full before sending those emails? Or a temporary period of 5-10 days for us to establish payment, or a limited number of print jobs,  a phone number to call to submit a payment via credit card. All reasonable options if they are so desperate for cash. But no.

THEY BANNED US FROM PRINTING FROM A PRINTER WITH INK LEVELS AT FULL, AND THEN SUSPENDED OUR ACCOUNT.

Sure feels like extortion to me. 

HP has a long history in tech. It used to  have a reputable name, a name trusted around the world as evidenced of sales abroad. But now? Did the Mafia buy them out? Are they in such financial dire straits they have to resort to this?

So because we were on holiday, busy traveling and not being the type who just HAVE to check emails-when you are retired, every day is Saturday after all; we lose complete access to our printer making it now a very large paperweight.

So here's my question: in this condition, can I sell it? Is there a way I can remove my account from HP? Should I see if the county dump is open on Sunday? Should I box it up and send it back to HP?  And what brand, if any, would be better. First condition: no ink subscription manacle.

And of course, phone calls to tech support have resolved nothing. It is the week-end after all.

[Repairatrooper]

The ink levels have nothing to do with your situation. You mention payment, which suggests that you made no payments during the 2 months you were on holidays. Instant ink is a subscription service and requires a monthly payment to stay active. The ink is supplied for use while the printer is covered under a subscription and will not function when a subscription is cancelled, otherwise people would register once every and cancel after they received new cartridges and then register again when those cartridges are empty. If you re-establish your payment and get your account current then you should be able to print again. Have you contacted the instant ink yet regarding the problem? This is a user to user volunteer support forum and people like myself have no ability to resolve your issue with instant ink, we can only provide guidance on how to get the problem fixed.