14 DAY TRIAL // A tweet published on January 17 has eventually gone viral, fueling a new wave of criticism aimed against tech and printer manufacturing giant HP.
Ryan Sullivan turned to Twitter to reveal something that outraged way too many people out there: if you cancel HP’s Instant Ink subscription service, cartridges are remotely disabled, technically rendering the printer useless.
“Last month I canceled a random charge for $4.99 per month from HP called "InstantInk". Wasn't sure what it was for. I've had it for over a year but had no idea what it did. I just found out what it did,” he tweeted, along with a HP software notification reading “Cartridge cannot be used until printer is enrolled in HP Instant Ink.”
“Apparently HP remotely disabled perfectly good ink cartridges because I don’t pay a monthly fee?”
At first glance, many believed HP was playing dirty and remotely disabled the printer unless the customer agreed to pay a monthly fee. HP is an evil company, many said, and the days when you could just print whatever document you wanted are long gone.
Only that HP has every right to disable this customer’s cartridge and there’s nothing wrong about it.
What is HP Instant Ink?
HP’s Instant Ink is a service that monitors the ink level in a cartridge, sends it to HP, allowing the company to ship a new cartridge whenever you’re running low on ink. The service is available with a $4.99 monthly subscription and technically allows your printer to communicate with HP for sending information that enables the company to ship you these new cartridges.
HP actually details the required data in the HP Instant Ink Terms of Service:
“Remote monitoring includes provision to HP of Your ink levels, page counts, types of documents printed (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, pdf, jpeg, etc.), types of devices that initiated print jobs, printer serial number, cartridge information (e.g. HP Original ink status, and whether the cartridge was new or used at the time of its last insertion into the printer), and other similar types of metrics related to your Instant Ink Service as may be added by HP from time to time.”
So technically, you’re no longer paying for cartridges, but for how much you print. And since it’s all based on a subscription service, when you stop paying for the subscription, you can no longer print.
HP doesn’t clearly state explain that the cartridges that it sent to you are disabled, but it does say that the service would stop working.
“Upon cancellation of Your Instant Ink Service for any reason, any rights granted to You under this Agreement will terminate and You must immediately cease all use of the Instant Ink Service and return the Instant Ink Program Cartridges to HP,” it says.
At the end of the day, you can badmouth HP for many things, but there’s nothing unfair this time. It’s a subscription model that works just like all the others: you get all benefits as long as you pay, it’s disabled when you stop paying.
Last month I canceled a random charge for $4.99 per month from HP called "InstantInk". Wasn't sure what it was for. I've had it for over a year but had no idea what it did.I just found out what it did pic.twitter.com/lsFLDR5grv — Ryan Sullivan (@ryandonsullivan) January 17, 2020