Unethical practices by HP

[Deb9991]

I bought a jetpro 9020 printer for our small business and went on the instaprint system. It worked for awhile but we could never get the dates right so I opted out about 6 months (Maybe longer) ago. A couple of days ago my printer stopped printing saying it could not print because of an account issue. I checked our account but did not see any problem but also could not figure out how to get the printer to work. I called an HP technical support person today to see what was going on and they said I needed to pay for the Instaprint system if I am going to print. I responded that I already paid for the Ink I was using and the person responded saying I had to be part of the system and paying the membership fee to use the ink I had already purchased.

1) Why is HP monitoring what I am doing with my computer? Unethical?

2) How come I can't use an ink cartridge I already paid for?

3) How come HP has not let me leave the membership?

I have always been an HP person but am now having second thoughts and may go in another directions unless this system which is unethical and possibly illegal is not changed.

Deborah

[Repairatrooper]

I am not here to criticize or defend the instant ink program. Only explain in perhaps terms that will make it more clear. When you purchased the printer, there were cartridges in it. Those are really the only cartridges that you purchased. When you signed up for Instant Ink, you were entering into a subscription service where you agreed that you were going to be able to print X number of pages per month and that HP would supply ink in order to allow you to print those pages and that they would receive reports from your printer on your printing in order to keep you supplied with ink. Your rights to that ink ended when you cancelled your agreement. There is really no other way that HP could run this program without being taken advantage of. If you could use the cartridges until empty, regardless of whether you subscribed or not, there would be a constant stream of users signing up for instant ink and then cancelling their subscription once they received their cartridges and then signing up again when those ran out. Failure to read the terms of service on your part does not mean the other party has evil intent. It is the sad reality that in our digital world it is very easy to click, click, click without reading anything and then be angry later because you do not agree to the terms. The same thing happened in the old days with paper applications for credit cards where people did not read the fine print and then wound up with 30% interest rates on their credit balance.

[Deb9991]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, i am sure I agreed to it in haste. II want to let you know I recycled all the cartridges I had automatically sent me and bought new ink from Office depot yesterday and the printer still won't work. Can you tell me why that would be the case? I did buy the printer outright and the ink but HP is still not letting me use them. Can you help with this instead of making excuses for the company.

Deborah