[richardtufty]

Up until a few weeks ago I was a really happy HP customer. I bought an HP Photosmart 8250 printer in the UK about 2 and a half years ago and have been really happy with the quality of prints and the cost of using genuine HP ink isn't even too bad when you use the 6x4 value packs of ink and paper.

About a year ago I moved to the USA with work and since HP were clever enough to supply a 110/240V power supply I took my printer with me. All was well until I ran out of the ink I brought with me and purchased a yellow ink cart at Best Buy. I popped it in and the printer gave an error message saying "Incorrect ink cartridge fitted". It turns out HP region code their ink cartridges in order to keep prices high in certain markets (the ink cart in the USA is $9.99, in the UK it's £8.99, roughly double).

HP tech support said I can get the printer re-coded by taking it to a service centre (Best Buy is one). Best Buy couldn't do the work and wanted between $34 and $84 just to ship the printer to HP, plus the cost of any work. The printer only cost £45 ($90) in the first place!

I simply can't bring myself to buy another HP product (shame, since I want a laptop and they have some very nice ones) after this, and I told HP this in an email, they just replied with a standard response saying they "Valued me as a customer and were dedicated to my satisfaction"! Clearly not.

Sorry for the rant, I just had to vent somewhere!

Richard

[Flashorn]

Hey Richard!!


Welcome to PCWorld Community!



Yes , we get some frustrated members from time to time

who only want to be heard and listened to.

That's quite alright. As long as you don't through away that printer.



Are you here to stay or will you be going back to the UK sometime in the future?



If you are ( going back that is ) you could pick up a printer in the states for allot less

this way you would still have the HP for when you go back.



As far as the notebook you would like to buy, HP is not the only one on the market.

Although they do seem to have a good selection along with the prices to go with them.

The best part about HP is that you can custom order the unit to your liking.

Besides Dell ,( I wouldn't even consider a Dell , but that's me ) there are not to many that would customize

one

for you at a Reasonable price.



If you think about it for a second, it was not the hardware that gave a problem but, changing countries.

Would it be an outrageous suggestion that you order the cartridges from the UK or would that be an expensive venture?



In any case , you could still get a printer with good quality prints for around $70.00 US



If you would like help in choosing a notebook , start another thread and you will get all the info.

needed to make a wise decision.



Flashorn.

[smax013]

richardtufty said:

Up until a few weeks ago I was a really happy HP customer. I bought an HP Photosmart 8250 printer in the UK about 2 and a half years ago and have been really happy with the quality of prints and the cost of using genuine HP ink isn't even too bad when you use the 6x4 value packs of ink and paper.

About a year ago I moved to the USA with work and since HP were clever enough to supply a 110/240V power supply I took my printer with me. All was well until I ran out of the ink I brought with me and purchased a yellow ink cart at Best Buy. I popped it in and the printer gave an error message saying "Incorrect ink cartridge fitted". It turns out HP region code their ink cartridges in order to keep prices high in certain markets (the ink cart in the USA is $9.99, in the UK it's £8.99, roughly double).


HP tech support said I can get the printer re-coded by taking it to a service centre (Best Buy is one). Best Buy couldn't do the work and wanted between $34 and $84 just to ship the printer to HP, plus the cost of any work. The printer only cost £45 ($90) in the first place!


I simply can't bring myself to buy another HP product (shame, since I want a laptop and they have some very nice ones) after this, and I told HP this in an email, they just replied with a standard response saying they "Valued me as a customer and were dedicated to my satisfaction"! Clearly not.


Sorry for the rant, I just had to vent somewhere!


Richard

You are certainly welcome to stop buying HP products, but I will note that there is a sporting chance that other printer manufacturers do the same thing (I don't know, but considering the "region coding" is SOP for DVDs and DVD players...it might also be SOP for inkjet printers and cartridges). If so, then if you were to extend your "principle of thing", you would not buy from ANYONE that does that and thus might end up with no printer if everyone does it. Thus, it might a situation of "cutting off your nose to spite your face". Just a thought.

[coastie65]

Hi Richard, I agree about that region thing. Maybe one of these days they will set an International standard for this stuff. I recently bought a DVD movie that was advertised as all regions and it was released by Lion's Gate Studios. When I got it, It was indeed released By LionsGate, but it was Lions gate UK. Right then I had the sinking feeling that it was in the PAL format instead of NTSC. It was. When I contacted Amazon,com, they appologized and offered a refund. I had the refund within the hour and shipped the movie back the following morning. Anyway, this is first I have heard of this in other than DVDs and Video Tapes. I do know the power requirements are different as well as the plugs and outlets. I have an HP 5180 All-in-One printer and was looking through the book. According to the book you can set the Country/Region as well as language. 1) Press setup 2) scroll down to preference press OK 3) scroll down to set language press OK 4) scroll down to the language you want to use press OK 5) When prompted press scroll down to highlight yes or no then press OK 6) press Country/Region then press OK 7) scroll down to the country / region you want then press OK 8) when prompted Press scroll down to hightlight yes or no and then press OK and you're done. This was from the book that came came with my printer so I don't really know if it will apply to your printer. All this is done at the printer using the printer controls. Also, this printer is only about a year old. I don't know if it will solve the problem you described or not otr even if it is doable on your printer. I thought I'd throw it out there though just in case. coastie65

[richardtufty]

Coastie65,
Thanks for the info, I was really excited when i noticed that I could change mine the same way. However, it still objects to the US spec cartridge. It's a real pain. Thankfully I can get some more from the UK in about 6 weeks since I'm going back to visit.

Many thanks for the reply though, it was great to have some help!

Richard

[coastie65]

Hi Richard, I print a lot of photos as I have a digital camera and it really goes through some ink. At 8.99 British pounds, I think that is about $19 - $20 USD each at the present rate of exchange and the Black cartridges are more for some reason. I didn't know if your printer would set up the same or not and if so if changing the region would help, but thought I'd throw it out there on the off chance that it might. As I said, I've been thrown off by that region stuff myself and it is rather frustrating to say the least. The only thing I can think of is the determination of the ink levels in the European cartridges is probably metric and the US cartridges aren't. If that is the case then any cartridges bought in Canada should work, but then again, they use the same region format as the US as far as DVDs go, so probably not. I know that as far as DVDs go, the NTSC, PAL, and SEACAM ( Asia) formats go has something to do with the color. I think the regional aspects of the printers has more to do with the various measurement calibrations involved and would involve reprogramming the internal software in the printer to a different standard, but that is just a guess on my part. I know that electrical, it varies all over the world, with different types of outlet configurations, and power requirements such as voltage and amps. My neighbor travels all over the world with a laptop, and I guess he does alright as I haven't heard any complaints, except the one time he left his adapter behind in India. Sorry that set up stuff didn't work for you, but I guess it was worth a shot. coastie

[rgreen4]

It might not be HP. It might be the EU. They have very strict codes on what comes in. Don't forget that the price in the UK includes VAT, which by one reference I saw was 21%. If that is the case, then at $19 equivalent at checkout, it would equate to $15.70 without the VAT comparted to $9.99 before the sales tax.

In the US, sales tax (for those 49 states that have it) is added to the sales price at checkout, so the posted price is usually without sales tax.

The Photosmart 8250 is a very nice printer. I have one and gave two away as gifts. I like the 6 individual ink cartridges, in fact since my old scanner will not work with Vista, I bought a Photosmart C6180 All-In-One because it used the same ink cartridges. The Photosmart D7260 is the least expensive printer that now uses those same cartridges at $110 before tax, but with free shipping.

[coastie65]

I have a C5180 that for, whatever reason ,still runs at $179.95, but on the other hand the C5280 is at $149.95 and it looks pretty much the same and has the same features as the C5180. Go figure. Anyway, they all use the 02 cartridges. $9.95 here in Va. plus 5% sales tax. Incidentally, the black ones cost more for some unearthly reason. coastie
Added content - coastie