<story><title>Canon is telling customers how to override counterfeit cartridge warnings</title><url>https://twitter.com/naderman/status/1479529888977760258</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trentnix</author><text>I bought extra HP cartridges off of Amazon years ago for my business so we would have extras. Imagine my surprise when, after installing the cartridges about a year later, I learned they were the wrong “region”. Turns out HP region locks ink like they are Blu-Rays or Nintendo games!&lt;p&gt;I had no idea I was buying “out-of-region” ink cartridges and I also had no idea such a thing could possibly matter. I called HP and the tech support person had the gall to tell me they have different ink for different regions because the climates are different. I nearly swallowed my teeth at the stupidity of such a claim.&lt;p&gt;They offered nothing until I started telling my story on Twitter, and suddenly a Support person messaged me on Twitter offering free replacements. So not only do they have an indefensible strategy of region-locking ink cartridges, they also train you to whine as loudly as possible to get any sort of recourse.&lt;p&gt;The entire printer industry appears to be running one scam or another.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xahrepap</author><text>I bought an HP Color Laser printer a few years ago to avoid the Ink Jet nonsense.&lt;p&gt;Turns out it’s not Ink Jet, it’s HP. Lessons learned.&lt;p&gt;The printer worked flawlessly until I went through my first toner cartridges (the carts shipped with the printer are intentionally smaller so you have to replace them)&lt;p&gt;I noticed the 3rd party replacements were $80 for a full set whereas 1st party were $200. I got the 3rd party. It’s been such a headache ever since. The MAJORITY of prints from my iMac fail. Google suggests the Mac drivers have a bug that cause OOM errors on the printer. Funny thing is it always succeeds from Windows or Linux. So I half bought it, and just put up with it.&lt;p&gt;Fast forward a few years (a week or two ago) and my wife points out that there was an HP update and the printer works perfectly! Yay! The color cartridge is basically empty and needs replacing. Worked perfectly for a week until the printer popped up an error message “non-hp chip”.&lt;p&gt;All speculation and anecdotal, but I just can’t help but feel like they’ve ended their charade and are actually being “honest” with me now…</text></comment>
<story><title>Canon is telling customers how to override counterfeit cartridge warnings</title><url>https://twitter.com/naderman/status/1479529888977760258</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trentnix</author><text>I bought extra HP cartridges off of Amazon years ago for my business so we would have extras. Imagine my surprise when, after installing the cartridges about a year later, I learned they were the wrong “region”. Turns out HP region locks ink like they are Blu-Rays or Nintendo games!&lt;p&gt;I had no idea I was buying “out-of-region” ink cartridges and I also had no idea such a thing could possibly matter. I called HP and the tech support person had the gall to tell me they have different ink for different regions because the climates are different. I nearly swallowed my teeth at the stupidity of such a claim.&lt;p&gt;They offered nothing until I started telling my story on Twitter, and suddenly a Support person messaged me on Twitter offering free replacements. So not only do they have an indefensible strategy of region-locking ink cartridges, they also train you to whine as loudly as possible to get any sort of recourse.&lt;p&gt;The entire printer industry appears to be running one scam or another.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mattkevan</author><text>I discovered this when the HP printer I’d just bought from a major UK retailer refused to accept official HP ink cartridges.&lt;p&gt;Turned out that the starter cartridges that came with it were US region coded and the printer was now permanently locked to US ink.&lt;p&gt;Hated that thing with a passion - the crunch it made hitting the bottom of the e-waste bin when it finally broke was deeply satisfying.&lt;p&gt;I’ll never purchase an HP product ever again.</text></comment>