Printer ink subscriptions

Soldato
Joined
18 May 2004
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Lincoln, Uk
Possibly not the right forum, general hardware seemed a bit out the way, and I briefly considered photography, but again possibly folk who never venture into that forum may have a view on it, so I gave up and stuck it in GD, because everyone reads GD :cry:

Anyone here subscribe to printer ink (instant inck, readyprint flex, etc) Im considering it as it is looking like I need to replace my HP A3 AIO as it has decided the printhead has failed, it looks like HP dont do ink suscriptions on A3, but Epson do (and just count A3 as 2x A4 - which seems fair)
I know there is a section of the internet that likes to hate the idea, but I'm comming round to the idea more now. It always seemed that I'd end up using more ink cleaning the heads than actual printing as I didn't use it a lot, but I do need it for time to time. I also have a black and white Oki laser which is the go to machine for printing work documents out (which I could do in the office, but often its easier to just do them at home on the laser to avoid extra trips)

Now if I didn't have the laser, I wouldn't be considering an ink suscription, because the page count would make it untenable, but if I'm not using it for printing out stuff like returns shipping labels it could work out in my favour, I'd just need to remember to make sure I print regulally, which might take a bit of work (Thanks ADHD....) but because I've already paid for the pagecount I'm not worrying about draining the ink, and I could even print a lot of full colour photographs and the missus can regulaly update the pictures of the nieces and nephews as well as all the dogs in the extended family that she has on the living room wall! So, anyone know if theres any sort of fair use restriction on these things, as I suspect that most folk will be printing a number of pages with just black text on, and I would not, I've not seen anything on their sites but just thought I'd ask on here, to make sure that no one has bumped up against them comming back and complaining that they are using too much ink within the page count paid for

I'm not really tempted by the ink tank models, they are very expensive for A3 (Want, only very occasionly need, could probably live without) units and printers seem very flimsy/tempermental these days (like the printhead on my current HP), if I only get a few years out a cartridge model its not the end of the world, its easy enough to cancel the ink and skip it and get a new one
 
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Man of Honour
Joined
15 Jan 2006
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Tosche Station
It's terrible anti-consumer nonsense, just get cheap third party perfectly serviceable cartridges and blow shed loads of ink through when you need to guilt free. Your mileage very much may vary depending on your exact model and the third party stuff available.

:edit: to be less douchey (it's a challenge for me, I'm trying OK) and actually answer one of your actual questions, I don't think there are any restrictions exactly but I think I remember them saying what they count a "page" as on average, and that if you go over this you might find they don't send the ink in time.
 
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Soldato
Joined
19 Dec 2006
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9,997
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UK
If you regularly print a fairly consistent volume and that fits in one of the service tiers it can save a massive amount of money in comparison to buying genuine cartridges, otherwise just like any subscription you'll be spending money for no good reason. I know a few people who use it and are perfectly happy with the service, it does very much highlight the utter rip off that genuine ink cartridges are though.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Nov 2005
Posts
45,280
is that chatgpt trying to make a forum post?


my advice is, post offices will copy stuff for 30p, libraries can print stuff out for even cheaper and you don't need to be a member, AFAIK you just need the file on your mobile phone for libraries.
for people who don't need a printer much they can save a small fortune
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2008
Posts
8,299
Location
England
It sounds like you're trying to justify the subscription with extra use that goes beyond your actual needs. It's a printer... you're not going to enjoy it more just because your subscription allows you to use it more.

I find the notion of a monthly subscription for printer ink quite resentful.
 
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Associate
Joined
28 Jul 2015
Posts
128
Madness. I'd rather not print then pay for ink subscriptions :cry:

If it doesn't make sense to pay for premium ink outright, then it can't make sense to subscribe for it?

You're partially right though, if you want to spend/waste money, head over to general hardware and pick up something nice! RGB fans? Nice case? 4090 perhaps? :D
 
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Associate
Joined
19 Nov 2021
Posts
954
Location
Portsmouth
I use HP instant ink on an Envy 7000 series printer.
It may not be the most cost effective way of doing things, but I find the lack of hassle to be compelling. We go through periods when we hardly print at all, and I can adjust the plan down to 10 or so pages a month on a month's notice - and then when my wife decides she needs to deforest the amazon for her uni work, we just scale it up (you can do it retrospectively during the month).
We've put over 5k pages through this little printer since September with no hassles at all.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Posts
16,553
Yes and no

When I bought our HP all-in-one (which is utter rubbish btw) we got a free six month trial I think, so I printed out various family photos as I wanted to put them all on a pinboard in my office.

Now we're on the free tier, which is 10 free pages and then something daft like 99p for 10 pages. Since I very rarely print (only in emergencies basically) it suits us well.
 
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Associate
Joined
6 Mar 2010
Posts
1,138
It might've possibly been alluded to by you mentioning the photography board, but are you actually printing anything that necessitates an inkjet printer? Or is it just documents that have a bit of colour?

Personally, I think a subscription service for printer ink is utterly ludicrous. If it's just documents, I'd rather just take the hit and buy a colour laserjet and be done with it. It'll last way longer than an inkjet for simple documents. Bloody every little thing is becoming a subscription service, it's ridiculous.
 
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