6 Times Printer Companies Tried to Screw People Over
Tags: Consumer Rights, Ink Cartridges, Consumer, Consumer Exploitation, Consumer Behavior

…And the 5 Times People Won

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

Let’s be frank. If businesses can get away with exploitation, they’re not going to stop out of the goodness of their hearts.

Through the years, printer manufacturers tried to make people to buy more of their ink and more of their printers than necessary.

The Tug of War Between Consumer Rights and Consumer Exploitation

In 2006, Epson lost against a class action lawsuit. Plaintiffs claimed that Epson inkjet printers and inkjet cartridges suspend printer function due to “empty” cartridges even when usable ink still remains. Epson denied these claims and decided to settle to avoid further costs in legal actions. Their settlement includes giving $45 ecoupons in Epson’s E-stores to people who have bought Epson inkjet printers and Epson inkjet cartridges from April 8, 1999 to May 8, 2006.

In 2010, HP lost against three class action lawsuits and have to pay $5 million in settlement. The first lawsuit claimed HP inkjet printers give false low ink notifications. The second one claimed that cyan ink is spent upon printing with black ink. The last suit claimed that ink cartridges are disabled even when they are not yet empty.

In 2015, Canon settled a class action lawsuit of $930,000 after being sued for printhead defects that commonly occur in their printers after the one-year warranty. Fixing the printhead would be more expensive than buying a new printer. The plaintiffs stated that if they had been informed of the defect, they would not have purchased a Canon inkjet printer in the first place.

In 2017, a French legal organization, Halte à L’Obsolescence Programmêe (HOP) — End Planned Obsolescence — filed a lawsuit against Brother, Canon, Epson, HP and other companies for intentionally shortening the lifespan of both their printers and ink cartridges. Planned obsolescence forces consumers to spend more on repairs or replacements, causing more waste in the environment. The companies were fined modestly of €15,000.

In September 2018, HP and the plaintiffs ended a class action lawsuit in US after reaching a $1.5 million deal over printer firmware updates that caused fake error messages upon using third party ink cartridges.

In October 2019, a class action complaint was filed against Epson for printer firmware updates that prevent their printers from working if third party ink cartridges are used. There is no updates for this case yet.

Big businesses never learn. If they can get away with it. They will. Unless people will call them out on it. Unless we realized we’re being played dirty.

Your Right as a Consumer

In 2010, Thom Brown, HP Marketing Manager, explained that they don’t disclose the volume of ink cartridges because it would confuse customers. First of all, that’s an insult to the intelligence of customers. Even if different printers use this amounts of ink for the same surface area of paper, knowing the volume of ink in a cartridge can help people compare unit costs.

As a customer, you should have the right to know actual information about products in order to make better buying decisions. In 2014, the “Hamon Law” was passed in France that fines manufacturers if they are not transparent about their product’s longevity to their customers.

If you own a product, it should be your right to decide how and what to use it with. If you own a printer, it should be your right to decide what ink cartridge to use it with. Printer companies that use strategies to force people to buy their ink over cheaper third party ink do not respect that.

It’s not surprising that people wonder if ink cartridges are a scam. In fact, there are a lot of things printer manufacturers don’t want you to know and when you do, it’s often too late.

Multitudes of Small Defiances Can Move Mountains

You don’t need to grab a pitchfork every time you want to call out unfair practices of a big company.

Below are things you can do to be consumer savvy.

Contact the Seller

Before you file a complaint to others, know first if it can be settled with the company.

Customer feedback is important to the companies in order to know what makes customers happy. Every call is recorded and/or documented by a customer service representative.

Tell them your consumer problem and what action you would like to be taken to solve it. Please keep in mind to document actions taken and keep its receipts or screenshots if possible.

You can ask for the call’s ticket number if the issue cannot be solved within one call. This way, when you call again, you can tell them the ticket number so that the next representative would know what actions have been taken and what actions can be done next.

Depending on what the printer manufacturers have trained their customer support, you may get a refund, a discount or representatives may try to make you spend more by presenting their products as a form of solution.

If you’re not satisfied with the resolution assigned to your case by the customer service, you can ask to speak to their supervisor. Or their “customer retention” department if they have one.

You can even send an email complaint to CEOs’s email addresses.

If you get ignored, give them a reason not to ignore you. By doing the other things below.

Send a Complaint to Your State or Local Consumer Protection Office

You can look for your State and Local Consumer Offices here.

After you have stated your complaint and all actions that were taken, these offices will investigate your complaint. They will open up a communication with the company and will ask the company to explain their position to your issue.

Businesses that ignore complaints often settle cases once they caught the attention of government offices. Or state attorneys general (AGs) or municipal district attorneys (DAs) if the company is not under any government agency.

Either way, they regulate and investigate the claims made by complaining consumers. These offices depend on consumers to be informed of unfair practices. They may not be able to help settle your case, but they can use it to stop illegal business practices.

If the printer manufacturer is out of state, you can do the next step.

Submit a Complaint to A Federal Government Agency

The Federal Trade Commission can provide you with what steps to take if you file your complaints to them. This agency encourages people to file their complaints in order to detect patterns of unfair practices.

Their complaint form will ask how it started, if you lose money, who the complaint is about and what happened. It is up to you how much personal information you are willing to provide.

You can also call them at 1–877-FTC-HELP (1–877–382–4357); TTY: 1–866–653–4261.

And if the government doesn’t respond?

Submit a Complaint Through an Organization

You can file a complaint to the Consumer Watchdog Organization if you’re in the US. You can even call them in 310–392–0522.

Consumer complaints can change the tides in laws and make corporations be held accountable. With a third party intervention, you are represented by people with more expertise and resources that risks the company with bad publicity and lost business.

Speak Up in Social Media

After you have done what you can, you can encourage other people to do the same.

A tweet on HP’s Instant Ink went viral when the twitter user posted how his ink cartridges were disabled after he cancelled his subscription.

A Youtube video got over 6 million views on sharing his experience and knowledge as an ex-employee of a printer manufacturer company.

Create a Ripple

All it takes is a pebble to create a ripple of people sharing the same experiences of what you’ve gone through. The more people that would speak up, the stronger a potential case can be filed against consumer exploitation, the more companies would get the message to stop exploiting consumers and, instead, take action to improve their products.

Go ahead and tell your story.