Printing Errors or Lights & Stuck Print Jobs

I just bought a HP Envy printer and, especially for the price, it has been fantastic. When I went to register I was offered to join the HP Instant Ink plan and not long after subscribing, I 've already decided to cancel. I am disappointed in the fine print details and how to whole plan in general works. I wanted to give some feedback to others so if their situation is similar to mine, they are aware. When I first signed up and on subsequent visits to the website I saw these great, quoted reviews, but I haven't been able to find anywhere to write a review(I genuinely have no idea how authentic they really are). This might not be an appropriate place but since I couldn't find anywhere else, I decided to add my review/two cents here:

I signed up for HP Instant Ink and based on the amount of pages I estimated that I’d be printing for the year I chose the FREE plan(15 pages a month, 180 total a year). Let me tell you why I've already decided to cancel...
PRO
- Huge savings to get free cartridges monthly

- Cartidges get delivered, so avoid trips to the store
CON
- While it may be my fault, I never once saw that the cartridges only work if you are signed up for a plan. When you cancel you have to check a couple boxes showing you acknowledge certain repercussions when cancelling and as far as I could see, it did not mention this anywhere in there. Only after in the confirmation email did I see they won’t work and I need to return them.
- Printing is connected through the internet, which has me concerned for privacy and security(All of the recent data leaks are enough of a headache)
- Free plan allows for 180 printed pages a year, way more than I’d use. Yet I could only print 15 a month or else I’d be charged $1 for 10 additional pages. Some months I need more than 15, while most 0.
- After cancelling, you have to wait out the current 30 day plan. If you’ve reached your limit of pages and print before the plan month is over, you risk being charged.
- Seems like a waste of ink since I have to return the cartridges, even the one I’ve already printed with. I also live in 100+ degree weather and after the cartridges were delivered they were extremely hot, so who knows if they are fried and still work or not.
- Free plan sends you two cartridges each month which won’t ever get used unless you go over and pay for extra pages.

- Maybe not HPs' fault, but the first package of cartridges I recieved through USPS was opened.

FOR ME this plan just doesn’t work, for others it is might be pretty great.  If HP decided to change it from monthly to yearly I’d consider signing back up, even for a monthly fee, although the privacy is still concerning. I don’t really want to risk getting nickeled and dimed by each month. It might or might not cost me more to buy a couple cartridges from the store but to me it is worth the extra cost, especially for the peace of mind when it comes to privacy. I think part of the problem was simply that multiple negative things all converged early on in the plan and has left me with a really sour taste.

Maybe the worst part was when I first got the printer, I wanted to test it out and I used an old stack of paper instead of the pricier new ones I had just bought just in case any issues came up when first printing. I was unaware that there were Ruled Paper pages mixed in the middle so I had to reprint some and ended up wasting 10 out of my 15 pages. I hit my monthly quota pretty quickly and was handcuffed the rest of the month. I take complete responsibility for this, but I don't think it is that irrational that someone would want to make sure their brand new printer is working properly and not have it eat into their monthly page limit.

**With all this being said, this should not be seen as an indictment on HP, I think the overall concept of Instant Ink is a good idea and probably saves a lot of people quite a bit of money/time. I've had multiple HP printers over the years and found them great and easy to use. I've also had HP computers in the past and did not have issues with them. I just want others to be aware and, if possible, avoid the situation I found myself in.