HP's Instant Ink service left me with unseen benefits
A few years ago, I purchased an Instant Ink subscription service for my HP home printer. You pay a monthly amount based on your expected usage, and when ink is low, the printer sends a message to HP, who mails a new cartridge.
However, I used my printer very little, so I tried to reduce the amount of ink “ordered” each month. The website makes this difficult to do and I ended up getting mixed messages that I had both canceled and changed my subscription.
In the end , it turned out to have been undone, and after a very frustrating call to the customer service helpline, I was told it could not be reset.
As the subscription has ended, HP has made the ink I have left unusable by sending a message to my printer. This leaves me with four ink cartridges that I cannot use. I dread to think of the price I paid and how little ink I used.
CR, Norfolk< /p>
The HP Instant Ink subscription, which the company says has 11 million subscribers worldwide, claims to offer Britons savings of up to 70% on their printing costs. HP says subscribers pay for the number of pages they print per month rather than the cartridges themselves, a detail some users may miss. For a home user, this monthly subscription service starts at 99p for 10 pages and goes up to £9.99 for 300. You started paying £1.99 in 2019 for 50 pages, but the cost of this plan is dropped to £2.99 earlier this year.
HP says, "Customers can change their plan or cancel at any time. Cartridges shipped as part of an Instant Ink subscription will only work when a printer is registered with the HP Instant Ink service. If the subscription has been cancelled, at the end of the billing cycle, the cartridges will stop working and must be returned to HP for recycling via the postage-paid envelopes provided. To continue printing after the end of the billing cycle, customers can still use standard cartridges in their printer."
Overall you've spent around £90 and think that by switching off HP cartridges prevents you from using the ink you paid for. The company follows the rules of the program, but it seems petty not to let you finish the cartridge in your printer and I understand why you feel aggrieved.< /p>
We welcome letters but cannot respond individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters are subject to our terms and conditions
A few years ago, I purchased an Instant Ink subscription service for my HP home printer. You pay a monthly amount based on your expected usage, and when ink is low, the printer sends a message to HP, who mails a new cartridge.
However, I used my printer very little, so I tried to reduce the amount of ink “ordered” each month. The website makes this difficult to do and I ended up getting mixed messages that I had both canceled and changed my subscription.
In the end , it turned out to have been undone, and after a very frustrating call to the customer service helpline, I was told it could not be reset.
As the subscription has ended, HP has made the ink I have left unusable by sending a message to my printer. This leaves me with four ink cartridges that I cannot use. I dread to think of the price I paid and how little ink I used.
CR, Norfolk< /p>
The HP Instant Ink subscription, which the company says has 11 million subscribers worldwide, claims to offer Britons savings of up to 70% on their printing costs. HP says subscribers pay for the number of pages they print per month rather than the cartridges themselves, a detail some users may miss. For a home user, this monthly subscription service starts at 99p for 10 pages and goes up to £9.99 for 300. You started paying £1.99 in 2019 for 50 pages, but the cost of this plan is dropped to £2.99 earlier this year.
HP says, "Customers can change their plan or cancel at any time. Cartridges shipped as part of an Instant Ink subscription will only work when a printer is registered with the HP Instant Ink service. If the subscription has been cancelled, at the end of the billing cycle, the cartridges will stop working and must be returned to HP for recycling via the postage-paid envelopes provided. To continue printing after the end of the billing cycle, customers can still use standard cartridges in their printer."
Overall you've spent around £90 and think that by switching off HP cartridges prevents you from using the ink you paid for. The company follows the rules of the program, but it seems petty not to let you finish the cartridge in your printer and I understand why you feel aggrieved.< /p>
We welcome letters but cannot respond individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters are subject to our terms and conditions
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