A customer who bought a printer from HP was shocked to find that, just three years later, there was no support or replacement parts available for their model — rendering it more or less useless.
They wrote about the situation on Reddit, explaining, "Found out that there is no support for the model 3 years after being sold, and there were no set up cartridges in the box," they explained. "Company I got printer from out of the box went out of business, and HP confirmed that the printer was unusable without the starter cartridges. They could not send me new ones. And attempted to push subscriptions on me in lieu of solving the issue."
"Why the f*** would I need that?!?" they vented.
Even more frustrating, OP added, they had never needed the printer until now, making the entire purchase a waste. "About to head to a print store since it's cheaper to do that than [do] anything with HP," they wrote.
Commenters agreed; one person called the situation "absolutely ridiculous."
"This is part of what made me switch to laser printers," another said. "Couldn't stand inkjets clogging, constantly having to buy and depend on specific refill cartridges (felt like a scam, imo), lack of ongoing support, and planned obsolescence anymore."
"HP has created so much e-waste," another pointed out.
Indeed, planned obsolescence — the business practice where goods are intentionally made to fail within just a few years, to motivate the consumer to buy a replacement — has been ballooning in many categories, not just printers.
For example, according to Population Matters, there was an 82% increase in the number of smartphones thrown out in 2022 as compared to 2010, and it's expected to jump another 32% by 2030.
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And the billions of smartphones being tossed each year are just the tip of the iceberg. Furniture, clothing, home goods, and personal care items have all suffered from a drastic decline in quality and longevity, leading them to clog our landfills. Nowadays, per Anthropocene, the average garment is worn only seven to 10 times before being tossed.
But it is possible to break this cycle and keep our landfills — and oceans — from overflowing with trash. It begins, as some people recommended to OP, by steering away from buying new items as much as possible.
For example, one pointed out, "The library is almost always dirt cheap and accessible as well."
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