Officejet 8500 won't print Black ink only if other colors are out

I confirmed with HP's customer support that there is no way to print
black ink only with this printer if other colors are out. Does anyone
else feel that this is absolutely rediculous? If I have an urgent
printing need and I'm out of color, it seems that the printer should
allow me to print in black only. This seems to be a way for HP to
sell more color ink. ARGH!

HP and Corporate Plunder

Now I'm sitting here the day before Xmas, needing to print a black
document, and the printer won't print because the color cartridge
(which is FULL of ink) is expired.

You money-grubbing S.O.B.s aren't going to get any more of my $ than
I can possibly avoid, ever again--
-- Unless you wake up and stop trying to squeeze every last cent out
of your customers. Assume that most people won't refill, but
accommodate those who will. It won't kill you.

You made a good move when you released your drivers for open source
development (I'm a Linux user). But you're beginning to make dumb
moves.

Another example is an HP Pavillion computer my in-laws bought last
year. Decided they wanted Linux, which turned out to be impossible to
install on your cheaply made hardware. I've steered at least 30 small
companies away from HP computers since that experience.

They're putting smart chips in their cartridges. This makes it harder
for users to refill the cartridges. It also assures that even
refilled cartridges will have to be replaced much sooner than they
actually wear out.


The bottom line is something which has been known in the past as
planned obsolescence, but is much more "in your face" than anything
I've ever seen in the past. This isn't just an example of making
something poorly, so it wears out quicker. These people are telling
their products exactly when to stop working, for no other reason than
that they want to sell another one.


Merry Christmas.

Paul Lamar and others

Paul, reason being is that the HP printers put down a pre-layer of ink
in both Magenta and cyan before overlaying w/ black.
Something about the black in not sticking to the paper is the reason.
I used to use Business Inkjet 2800's for years, as in 4 of them IIRC
[larger format printing for drawings etc] but have since switched
to a Ricoh and will probably never go back. The only HP I currently
operate is a HP500 [42" wide] printer.

Fwiw

Jarrett


I don't think that should be necessary.

There are plenty of black ink jet printers out there.

They are shortsightedly victimizing their customers.
They deserve to go belly up over this.

I wonder which slim ball CEO thought this dumb idea up?

Paul Lamar


I totally agree, I'm sure they could figure out a way to get the black
to stick to the paper but. for whatever reason they decided it was
better this way. The only good thing about it is it keeps the print heads
on the other two colors kinda 'fresh' if you rarely print color... otherwise
they might dry out but.. thats a pretty thin reason.

I've been buying Brother printers for using at home. Best Buy always has the
multi-function unit's [scan/copy/print/fax] ones on for $99 at this
time of year.
A full set of new cartridges is ~ the price of 1 HP cartridge too boot!.

I never try to repair them.. just toss 'em and buy a new one if anything goes
wrong. they last ~2yrs before I do that... not the best for the
environment
but... works for every other problem.

Fwiw

Jarrett