HP, please acknowledge and fix the "unable to connect to the server" Smart Tasks Issue!

[SilverRonin]

I've had two HP printers in the past 3-4 years that have had the "Smart Tasks" function, and I really appreciate the idea behind it, but it seems to me that HP has utterly and completely failed their customers in delivering a stable service that works. This function worked great for quite a while, but a few months ago it started to fail now and then with the "The printer was unable to connect to the server. Please try again later" error. Then in December it displayed that issue to me 100% of the time.

I did all the usual things customers like me do: we look through forums, spend hours troubleshooting and trying to figure out why this thing we paid money for no longer functions. It's out of warranty now of course so I can't get support. I went so far as to do a complete factory reset and set up the printer from scratch - and it still didn't work. Angry and frustrated, I gave up for a few hours. Then when I came back later and tried again, it worked once. Then the next day it failed. Now it fails 90% of the time.

This morning I tried my Smart Task again, and it failed. But I immediately did a manual scan to email, and that worked. The email settings are the same, so what's the difference? I believe there's a web service layer that HP uses for Smart Tasks, and that is what's failing. It would explain the intermittent failures, and why "fixes" posted in the forums work for some but don't work for others. The problem isn't in our printer, it's in a service layer that our printers are trying to contact.

HP, please acknowledge what's going on and fix the issue. I would honestly be fine paying $10-15 a year for the convenience of using Smart Tasks if they actually worked, though I'd hope they would be improved (it's still too many clicks). Please stop treating your customers this way: respect us, respect our time, and we'll keep buying products from you in the future. As it stands now, this will be the last HP printer I buy unless this issue is addressed.

[SilverRonin]

Saturday 7am testing: Smart Tasks test #1 fails, "unable to connect to the server". Test #2...works. Test #3...works. What is going on? How can it be this inconsistent and unreliable unless there's a server-side issue? It's not like my printer settings or WiFi is radically changing in a matter of seconds.

[Betty0610]

@SilverRonin

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