Switch use of non-instant ink cartridge

[JillSa]

@MB_B

Hi, I wanted to answer your questions so take a look below:

1. While setting up a new HP printer, I have to decide whether to buy regular ink myself or subscribe to Instant ink. (If, say, I bought the printer a month ago but haven't set it up yet, this time doesn't count.)  Answer:  If you have not set up your new printer yet (even if it's a month old) if you follow the in box directions, it will give you the choice to enroll for Instant Ink or not.  If you decide to enroll for Instant Ink at the time you set up the printer then your service will start immediately and the pens in box will convert to Instant Ink pens and your will get an offer to try the service for free (free months depends on offer at the time).  If you set up your printer and decline Instant Ink and then sometime later you decide to enroll in Instant Ink you can do this but then your service will not start until you receive your first Instant Ink cartridges in the mail and the free months offer is not valid.

2. The plan goes into effect the moment I install the first Instant ink cartrige received by mail. (Again, if I don't do it right away, that time doesn't count.)  Anwer:  See answer to #1 above.  The answer to this question depends on when you enrolled in Instant Ink (while setting up your printer, or at a later date after your printer is set up).

3. The ink itself is exactly the same in regular and Instant cartriges; the difference is in the control chip communicating with HP server.  Answer:  The ink itself is exactly the same, but most Instant Ink cartridges have more ink in them so they last longer and Instant Ink cartridges can only be used while you are subscribed to the service, they are disabled once you are no longer an Instant Ink customer but you can easily go buy regular HP cartridges at any retailer to continue printing.  (Similar to cell phones where you have a cell phone and it only works if you have a phone service to go with it)

4. I still can use non-Instant HP ink or generic ink; once I replace ALL Instant cartriges with non-Instant ones, the prints I make with them DON'T count towards the monthly limit. (And once I put the Instant cartriges back, obviously the level of ink in them remains the same as when taken out.) And there's no penalty for doing this.  Answer:  If you switch out ALL cartridges from Instant Ink to regular cartridges then the pages printed with these cartridges do not count towards your page count, however, you are still being billed your monthly service fee and the service will not know to delivery you more ink.  If you have even 1 Instant Ink cartridge while printing it will go against your page count.  I would caution trading out all Instant Ink cartridges since the price of aditional pages for Instant Ink is generally still cheaper than buying regular cartridges and your Instant Ink shipments are delayed until you put the Instant Ink cartridges back into the printer and this causes customers to run out of ink before the service can send you more.

5. It applies to all your plans, including the free one.  Answer:  Yes, it's the same except you won't be charged the monthly service fee since your on the free plan if you use all regular cartridges.  But again, it's still generally cheaper to pay the additional pages while on the free plan than to go buy a set of regular cartridges, however, this is a customer decision.

I hope this helps clarify!  Happy printing and hope you like Instant Ink.

[JillSa]

@JaJu14@MB_B

Hi, I just wanted to clarify that HP alignment pages or Printer reports do NOT count towards page counts for Instant Ink.

You can test this by opening your acct page at Instantink.com and making sure printer is online and refreshed so all data is up to date.  Look under your status at number of pages printed in the billing cycle.   Then print an alignment page directly from the printer based on front panel or in box directions and then go back to your acct page and refresh it and see if the page count changes.   It should not change as these printer diagnostic pages do not count towards Instant Ink prints.

Hope that helps.

[MB_B]

Thank you, Jill. This is exactly what I hoped to hear.

MB_B