With the recent wave of backlash against the HP Instant Ink program, it comes as no surprise that more consumers are wondering what’s the HP Instant Ink program and if it’s a service worth subscribing to.
People who buy an HP printer most of the time find the HP Instant Ink program thrust upon them without really a chance to do some research on what it is. This article serves to inform HP printer users on what the HP Instant Ink program is and the disclaimers you should know about before signing up. And at the end of the article, we’re hoping that you’ll get a sense of whether or not this service is right for you or not.
Let’s dive into the most frequently asked questions about Instant Ink.
What is HP Instant Ink?
The HP Instant Ink program is monthly service jumping on the subscription bandwagon (similar to Netflix, Amazon’s Subscribe-and-Save, etc.), and with it they are reinventing the way customers buy ink. HP may be finally offering their ink for a competitive price with this program, but after years of high cartridge prices, some customers are still understandably apprehensive.
What does HP Instant Ink mean?
Simply put, it’s a subscription service where HP sends you only the amount of ink you need when you need it. No, it’s not as “instant” as the name suggests. But since it’s a subscription service, in theory, HP will eventually figure out your ordering patterns and ideally send out ink when you’re almost at the end of your current cartridge.
What does HP Instant Ink Ready mean?
You’ll see the phrase “HP Instant Ink Ready” on most HP printers out in the market today. This only means that the printer can take HP Instant Ink cartridges. Older HP models aren’t programmed to use HP Instant Ink cartridges so you can’t sign up for HP instant ink if it’s for use on older printer models. You can find a list of HP printers that are compatible with Instant Ink here.
Do HP Instant Ink cartridges look like regular HP ink cartridges?
No, HP instant ink cartridges do not look like regular HP ink cartridges. Instant Ink cartridges are visibly bigger and contain more ink than standard and even high yield HP ink cartridges.
The idea is for consumers to not need to replace cartridges as often. This theory is flawed if you’re not a frequent printer user, however, as ink tends to dry up when left unused. Even more so if you have a larger cartridge with more ink.
How does the HP Instant Ink program work?
Instead of buying and owning a cartridge outright and printing when needed, Instant Ink requires that you pay to print a predetermined amount of pages each month depending on what package you choose. The program comes in different price points so you can choose the plan that suits your printing volume best. Replacement cartridges get sent to you as your current cartridge hits empty. There is no long term contract with HP Instant ink, just a month-to-month commitment, so you can cancel at anytime (be sure to read up on how to cancel as it can get tricky) and if your printing needs ever change, you can always upgrade or downgrade your plan.
Instant Ink is offered at five different price points1. Regardless if you print in color or black and white, any page that comes out of your printer counts as one print. If you don’t print your allotted page amount every month, HP rolls over a select number of unused pages.
HP now has two versions of their Instant Ink subscription service: the original Instant Ink plan, which works with ink cartridges and select HP inkjet printers, and they recently rolled out a toner subscription service, which works with toner cartridges and select HP laser printers. Both programs are branded under the “HP Instant Ink” umbrella and even though “ink” is in the name, the service includes ink or toner subscription options. We have included monthly pricing details and page limits for either service below.
As of June 23, 2023:
| HP Instant Ink | Ink Subscription Plan Costs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | Monthly Page Limit | Unused Rollover Page Limit | ||
| $0.99 | 10 pages / month | 45 pages | ||
| $3.99 | 50 pages / month | 150 pages | ||
| $5.99 | 100 pages / month | 300 pages | ||
| $11.99 | 300 pages / month | 900 pages | ||
| $24.99 | 700 pages / month | 2,100 pages | ||
| HP Instant Ink | Toner Subscription Plan Costs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | Monthly Page Limit | Unused Rollover Page Limit | ||
| $1.99 | 50 pages / month | 100 pages | ||
| $3.99 | 100 pages / month | 200 pages | ||
| $7.99 | 200 pages / month | 400 pages | ||
| $13.99 | 400 pages / month | 800 pages | ||
| $19.99 | 800 pages / month | 1,600 pages | ||
Price-wise, a subscription-based ink service looks pretty enticing. But if you peel back the fine print, dealing with Instant Ink’s rules and regulations may outweigh the convenience of a low monthly cost.
Is HP Instant Ink worth it?
It depends largely on how often you print and the volume of documents or images you print. If you don’t print with any regularity or consistency, it might not be worth it. It’s also a mixed bag when it comes to consumer feedback. Though this service works for some, there are also those who initially signed up then cancelled soon after.
8 Things You Should Know about HP’s Instant Ink Service
If you plan on buying an HP printer soon, we strongly advice you read up on the things you should know about the Instant Ink program. Chances are your new printer will come with a free trial period of Instant Ink.
A printed page may not be what you expect.
HP defines a printed page as “a page upon which any amount of ink is placed by your printer” 2. Meaning if you print a page with just one line of text on it, it counts towards your monthly total. By introducing a firm set of print guidelines, customers of this program may want to be mindful of every page that is sent to their printer, especially if they are on a budget. Having minor prints like mailing labels count just as much as a full color photo might put you in a bit of a pickle if you normally don’t think about monthly printing habits. Customers may also need to factor in for unexpected and unintentional prints like the extra pages that magically appear with a printed concert ticket or recipe.
Beware of overage fees.
Printing more than your subscription warrants may add up. If you have printed your monthly page limit and gone through all of your rollover pages, HP charges1 a $1.00 per set for additional pages. Extra pages are available in sets of 10-50 pages, depending on what plan you are on. Paying an extra dollar for a handful of desperately needed bonus pages isn’t a big deal for most. But if a major print job requires you to print far more than the allotted monthly amount, those extra dollars may add up quick. To avoid the extra fees, customers enrolled in this program might need to plan ahead and weigh their options. Investing in a set of backup cartridges makes the most sense if you have a lot more printing to do. Although it’s an added expense, you’ll be able to continue printing as much as you want without constantly worrying about overage fees.
HP monitors your activity.
HP is watching your printer. By enrolling in the Instant Ink service, you are authorizing HP2 to remotely monitor page count, ink levels, the type of documents you print, the type of device you use to print a particular document and whether the last cartridge you used was new or used. They are also allowed to share some of your information2 (name, address, email, printer model, printer serial number) with the retailer that you purchased the subscription from.
Replacement cartridges may take up to 10 days to arrive.
HP sends replacement cartridges via standard shipping, noting that it could take up to 10 days2 for a new set of cartridges to arrive. Luckily for most, the wait time probably won’t be quite that long. When tested, an order of instant ink cartridges arrived relatively quickly. HP sent an email notification stating that a new set of cartridges were being shipped out on Friday and they were received the following Wednesday. Because it keeps track of your ink, your printer can anticipate when it thinks you will run out and ship ink to you in advance. HP bases this on when your cartridges have enough ink to “print twice as much as the number of average pages in your monthly plan“6. This works pretty well for someone that prints occasionally, and shipping time probably won’t be an issue. But if a high volume print job is in the works, you might want your next cartridge waiting in the wings, not waiting in transit. Need your Instant Ink in a pinch? HP does offer expedited shipping but customers may incur an additional charge.
Unused prints rollover to the next month – up to a certain point.
Under Instant Ink, the number of rollover pages you can accrue corresponds directly with the specific tier you’ve enrolled in. So if printing isn’t needed for a of couple of months, the number of rollover pages you can acquire is automatically capped. The cheapest ink plan offers a maximum of 45 rollover pages3 in your account at a time, the next tier up allows for up 150 rollover pages per account, the tier after that offers up to 300 rollover pages, after that, you get up to 900 pages and the most expensive plan allows for up to 2,100 pages. If you are in the toner subscription service, the breakdown is slightly different. The cheapest toner subscription tier allows for 100 rollover pages, the next tier allows for 200 pages, followed by 800 pages, then 1,600 pages and finally, 3,000 pages for the most expensive tier option.
Your printer must be connected to the internet to accurately monitor your use.
HP’s Instant Ink cartridges are designed to communicate directly with your printer to accurately track4 page usage and ink levels. The cartridges only communicate to the printer when you are connected to the internet, so if your internet connection is spotty or disconnected for a period of time, it won’t be able to properly record your page total. Any pages you print when your printer is not connected to the internet will be recorded when you reconnect and refresh the page counter included in Instant Ink’s online portal. This delay may become a problem for Instant Ink customers if they run a big print job offline, reach their monthly page limit and need a replacement cartridge right away. If the connection isn’t able to reflect how many pages you have left in real time, the program might not be able to anticipate when to ship out a new cartridge. Waiting for the service to catch up with you may put the brakes on a major project, requiring you to go out and buy regular cartridges in the interim.
Instant Ink only works with certain printers.
There are a select number of printers5 that operate under the Instant Ink program. Consumers with older model machines will need to upgrade if they want to enroll in the service. Printers can range from around $70 to $380, depending on the model and where you buy.
Forget to pay your Instant Ink bill and HP just might shut off access to the service.
Worrying about a monthly charge to use something as commonplace as a printer isn’t something we are used to. If you don’t stay current, HP has the option to temporarily shut down access2 to the service and your Instant Ink cartridges. A temporary delay in the service might be a bigger issue than anticipated if you happen to be low on ink at the time. Since Instant Ink relies on an active account to report ink levels, a delay in payment might also delay the shipping time of a badly needed replacement cartridge.
Instant Ink is making us think differently about the way we print. The low monthly rate and ability to print whatever you need within a designated page range is very enticing, especially for consumers that only print a few times a month. But for customers that are trying to stick to a strict printing budget, the extra fees that come along with unexpected prints might end up being a burden. No matter where you stand, factors like a monthly bill, connectivity concerns, and overage fees are worth keeping in mind.
So, now we get to the most asked question…
Does HP Instant Ink really save money?
It depends on what you print and how often. If you are able to comfortably stay within HP’s monthly preset page limit and don’t mind being tied to the whims of their subscription service, it might make sense for you (Check out our customer comments at the bottom of this article!). Keep in mind, anything you print counts as one printed page, so if your printing needs change from month to month, you’ll need to stay on top your subscription and map out your expected print volume in advance. And if you don’t print that often, paying a monthly fee for access to a seldom used service isn’t ideal.
Instant Ink is definitely cheaper than buying most original HP ink cartridges every few months, but if you print a lot, a laser printer that’s not tied to a subscription service, or ink tank printer might be a better fit for you. Laser printers and ink tank printers can cost a bit more upfront but they print thousands of pages and you don’t have to worry about counting each page.
How can you cancel HP instant ink?
If you wish to cancel your HP Instant Ink printing plan or switch plans, you can do so whenever you want. To make changes or cancel the service, simply log in to your account.1
Can I use my HP printer without HP Instant Ink?
Yes, you can use an HP printer without HP Instant Ink. If you sign up for Instant Ink and decide you want to cancel, you can go back to using regular HP ink cartridges.1 Please note, the HP Instant Ink cartridges will stop working in your printer at the end of your current billing cycle and you will need to return them to HP.
HP Instant Ink Alternatives
If HP Instant Ink’s terms and conditions are a concern for you, there are a few budget-friendly alternatives that can keep your printing costs low without committing to a subscription service.
Affordable Aftermarket Printer Cartridges
For decades now, aftermarket cartridges have been the best way to score low prices on ink and for thousands of customers, this is still their preferred low cost printing solution. Remanufactured and compatible cartridges are competitively priced and offer the same print quality as an original cartridge, without a long list of preconditions. Aftermarket cartridge options are available for almost every printer model on the market, so if you are happy with your current printer, you can start saving with lower cost cartridges right away. Check out this banner to see the dramatic difference in pricing.
A lot of customers have made the switch to compatible cartridge replacements and are able to freely print as much as they want at a great price.
Epson EcoTank Printers
Other major printer brands have introduced new printers with low running costs in recent years that rival HP Instant Ink. Epson’s Ecotank printers are one option – a series of refillable ink tank printers that use ink bottles instead of a cartridge to create a print. Epson designed the ink bottles to be far more cost effective than the average printer cartridge, printing thousands of pages per refill for pennies on the dollar. The Epson Ecotank ET-2720 is a solid entry level machine that produces great text and images. It works with an Epson T522 black ink bottle that prints 4,500 pages and the color bottles print 7,500 pages each. Ecotank printers are more expensive than most inkjet printers but if you print a lot, the cost savings you get with ink bottles will more than make up for that price difference.
Canon Megatank Printers
Canon developed their own ink tank printer series soon after Epson launched the Ecotank. Savings wise, they provide about the same value as the Ecotank and they are priced about the same as well. They also rely on an ink tank system to create a print and ink bottles to handle the refilling process. Which brand is better is really up to the preference of the user. Epson currently has a more robust line up, offering 15 Ecotank printers to Canon’s 6 Megatanks, but both brands offer a range of options that are suitable for homes and businesses. Canon’s PIXMA G5020 Megatank is a good option that works with the GI-20 ink bottle series. The black ink bottle prints around 6,000 pages and each color bottle prints 7,000 pages.
Brother Inkvestment Printers
Brother’s inkvestment printer line is a hybrid ink tank / inkjet printer. Rather than refilling the tank with an ink bottle, Brother created a cartridge that automatically does the refilling for you. All you have to do is install the cartridge into the printer and the ink inside the cartridge feeds directly into the tank. Currently Brother offers two printer models in their Inkvestment Ink Tank line up, the Brother MFC-J805DW and Brother MFC-J995W. XL versions of the printers are available at a slightly higher price point that include two sets of cartridges. Printing costs are more expensive than the Ecotank and Megatank due to higher priced cartridges but they are a nice middle of the road option if you are apprehensive about refilling with an ink bottle. Brother’s LC3035 super high yield cartridges print 6,000 pages and the color cartridges print 5,000 pages.
Closing
Doing your research on replacement cartridge options can save you tons of money. Now that you a have a better idea of what to expect with Instant Ink and what other options you have, the choice is up to you. A lot of customers who have used HP Instant Ink share their feedback below.
1 “How It Works.” HP.com, https://instantink.hpconnected.com/us/en?jumpID=va_nxc3gze76w. Accessed 18 February 2019.
2 “HP Instant Ink Terms of Service.” HP.com. https://instantink.hpconnected.com/us/en/terms. Accessed 18 February 2019, v.08.13.2018.
3 “HP Instant Ink – Understanding HP Instant Ink Monthly Charges.” HP.com, http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03917913. Accessed 18 February 2019.
4 “HP Instant Ink – Page Count Is Not the Same as Actual Pages Printed.” HP.com, http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Instant-Ink-series/5264756/model/5401249/document/c05029962/. Accessed 18 February 2019.
5 “HP Instant Ink Eligible Printers” HP.com, https://store.hp.com/us/en/SearchDisplay?client=&searchTerm=HPInstantInkPrinters&search=&charset=utf-8&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&beginIndex=0&pageSize=50&jumpid=cp_r11549_hho_iieligible_printerselector_090117. Accessed 18 February 2019.
6 “HP Instant Ink FAQ.” HP.com, http://m.hp.com/us/en/ads/instant-ink/faqs.html. Accessed 18 February 2019.
[…] began by pointing out that “subscription-based services seem to be everywhere these days”, and that […]
Big mistake. I ended up losing control of my own ability to manage my own printer. It was all made much worse when they sent me the wrong ink which then totally f$#@ked up my printheads essentially wrecking my printer. They charged me regardless of my ability to print a single page during the two months I messed about trying to get my printheads to work. No apologies or assuming responsibility for their mistake. I think my next printer will not be an HP. Just plain sad customer care.
I agree whole heartily. We don’t use the printer that much but there control has made it so we couldn’t finish printing documents. Not worth it no matter if you print a few or a lot. But, I have two sets of cartridges that are full but, since I opted out of instant ink they are any good. What a waste!!!!!!!!!
Agree. Not worth the ‘savings’. I’ve been trying for sing it for the last few years without issue. I don’t print very much so has been working, until this last time: my black ink was complete empty, but they stated I haven’t reached my limit. So, no new cartridge. Stuck, I’ve canceled my service and now buy on my own. Costs me more, but I’m in control now. Also will be the last HP I own.
You probably alluded to this at some point, but there is another issue the likes of which I have found to be very frustrating. I cancelled my Instant Ink account on September 4, and now my printer is completely locked until September 15th when the billing cycle closes. I was on the phone with HP tech service for nearly 4 hours on Saturday, speaking with 3 different technicians, and it appears that nothing can be done to ‘unlock” my printer even though I installed cartridges that I had bought at the local Walmart. I’m taking a class and it is very inconvenient not to be able to print notes, etc. from my own computer until HP Instant Ink decides I can do so.
I have to disagree with most. Hope not to jinks my service with HP. I love the service. I have received so much more ink than I need. JUST TO NOTE: THEY CHARGE PER PAGE. MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING IT’S THEIR INK IT’S NOT! It’s like going to the library and buying pages except at home. Yeah you have to make sure you keep your internet connected to your printer but they have a web page that you can monitor at all times to make sure you don’t over print and that you’re connected. If you do over print they sell the sets(per page in it) the same prices as a single page in your plan. I did the math. When you buy Cartridges at the store they cost you about $20 and give you about 250 pages which gives you .08 cents per page. Almost like the local library you go to. When you go with HP I have the $10 plan for 300 pages which is only .03 cents a page. May be a few cents off but saves me the trip of going to store and having to spend time to get it.
I had Instant Ink service for several years. I think I received cartridges maybe twice. I print allot and had to buy cartridges along the way, I finally canceled the service. Then my printer threatened me to not print unless I signed on and gave them new cc #’s. Which I did not. Then the printer would not work. So I was very happy to see the posting that said to buy cartridges other than Instant Ink cartridges. Thankfully the printer is working now. But I keep getting stupid messages about not having Instant Ink cartridges in the printer. Wow, don’t buy the printer that promises a good deal on cartridges.
Dianne D
What is really annoying is that I had a free trial for like 5 months straight and stupidly signed up for it. When I had to get this new printer, I had a bunch of stuff I needed to get printed. Now, since I don’t want it, (and has been almost 6 months since I cancelled), every time I print something, I have to click OK on the printer to get rid of the message that says something about connecting on to Instant Ink. So, if I am printing 5 one-page documents, I have to stand by the printer so I can press that OK button 5 times! I can’t figure out how to wipe all that. I guess you can’t. It still wants you to be connected to Instant Ink even if you are no longer enrolled. Total BS.
Also, this is pure HP genius: You have to return the Instant Ink cartridges, especially when you cancel. If there is unused ink in the cartridge when you cancel, you can’t use anymore of it, yet the return packaging states to only return empty cartridges….hmmm….
HP Instant Ink program is a joke. If you cancel the service, you cannot use the ink cartridge that may be left because it is designed for instant ink. The HP support position is that you are paying for a service not a print cartridge so even though you have paid enough of the service to cover a print cartridge, you cannot use it after you are no longer enrolled. The author of this article is also correct on the overage costs so there are a lot of hidden fees that the consumer is not accounting for when subscribing to this service.
I just bought an HP 6970 OfficeJetPro, but after reading about Instant Ink and all the problems I’m glad I didn’t take it out of the. I’ll be returning it tomorrow. Sounds like a big mess to me to me. and the per page fee if you go over!
Yep – returning it for a normal printer.
What a rip off. Took me 3 tries to cancel my service only to find out that the ink I had would no longer work.
Wish I had seen this before I signed up. I print a lot of 4.25 x 5.5 size sheets for a bowling tournament. They are counted as a page each. Secondly I print a lot of stuff in economy mode. Over the ls\ast six months I have paid over $100 in charges and have receivedone set of cartridges. I have one color cartridge l\yet to install. When I decided to cancel I was informed that unused cartridges would no longer function. I paid $100 for a set of cartridges that wont work. I would not have expected HP to run such a scam. Guess I’ll bite the bullet and cancel and accept the losses.
Allot of the Nay sayers on here dont know how to read a contract. You cannot use program ink pods mixed with store bought, it will send a error message. You can stop the contract ANY TIME. Just replace the current ink in the machine and send them back. The machine KNOWS if YOU CHEAT!
you arent LOCKED IN! That being said, one replacement “set” is $50-70. Depending on your printer, you get betw 100-300 pages per set of ink.
YOU do the math. ONE YR on the program is less than one replacement pack. Caveat Emptor!
YOU are the one who needs to figure our how much you print PER MONTH, to avoid overages, They certainly dont know how much YOU print……or how big that ONE job is. Perhaps if you call ahead of the job and make adjustments the support would be more happy to help you rather than calling up and WHINING that YOU made the mistake and expect THEM to fix it for you.
This service is the worst I’ve ever experienced. They sent the wrong cartridges for my printer. I sent them back. Heard nothing. NEVER received replacements. Then eight months later I noticed they were billing me monthly for nothing. I called. The guy *pleaded* with me not to cancel, said he’d make it right. The original deal was six months free. I received two ink cartridges *ten days* later. Ran out of black ink, and put my own cartridge in to continue. A week later I looked up my account and they charged me over $300 for those two cartridges. When I cancelled, I could no longer print with the cartridges I’d paid $300 for. How is this legal?
The worst! I never received any ink cartridges, and I’ve been on the phone now for 20 minutes being transferred to different departments trying to cancel my account. Meanwhile, they are trying to bribe me to stay in the program with discounts, free cartridges, etc. Just buy cartridges at Costco.
I am very dissatisfied with the Instant Ink service and will try to let others. I ran out of ink 4 months before the scheduled delivery and attempted to contact them without luck.When I attempted to get help with this issue and had no options including a virtual assistant to do so. I have been paying since September! The fact that i can not cancel without agreeing to more payments is very poor customer service. This leaves a bad taste about HP in general.
Here’s the deal I bought the HP printer at a good price at Costco the ink lasted fairly long then I found out about HP instant ink and it sounded like a good idea. I researched it but obviously not good enough. I also saw the great deal on Amazon on ink so I bought some. When my original ink cartridges ran out of ink I put in my Amazon ink cartridges and guess what? They didn’t work. It didn’t work because HP lock them out. So I found out that since people complained there is a new driver set that you can upload and your computer and it will allow you to put in compatible ink cartridges. Unfortunately it forced me to continue with the instant ink plan. So I’m thinking about canceling the instant ink plan now that I can use compatible cartridges thanks to the new driver file that’s now available that will allow you to put in other cartridges. Not happy
Before I even had my computer for a month I received ink cartridges “just in case i ran out early, except they sent the wrong cartridges…they were def not for my printer. I ended up sending back the printer i bought because it stopped printing color after one week and very few prints but the levels were showing plenty ink. That was the recommended Canon Envy 8920 I think? But I got it from Ebay – supposed to be new.
I had a hard time canceling my subscription and I still have these ink cartridges they sent that I cant use. I hope its cancelled! I better check my bank statements.
I don’t recommend this service,i am so very sorry that i used this service and i will never use it again.
Just bought a new HP printer and was considering signing up for the Instant Ink subscription service. After doing the math, it is NOT a good deal. Using current prices at Best Buy, the 952 in for various OfficeJet Pro printers, the black ink costs 3.33 cents per page and the color cartridges cost 3 cents per page. This was determined by the price divided by the estimated number of pages you can expect to print as listed by HP in the technical specs for the ink. For black ink that is $32.99 divided by 1000 pages per cartridge or 3.33 cents per page. For colored inks that is $65.99 divided by 2100 pages (700 pages per color x 3) which is just over 3 cents per page.
Now let’s compare that to HP’s subscription service plans. For the 50 pages plan at $2.99 per month it works out to 6 cents per page. For the 100 page plan at $4.99 it works out to 5 cents per page. Finally, for the 300 pages plan at $9.99 per month it works out to 3.33 cents per page.
So except for the 300 pages subscription plan, it is cheaper to buy your own ink. Even for the 300 page plan, the subscription becomes more expensive if you go over your page limit because they charge you $1 more for each 15 pages which is 6.67 cents per page extra. Let’s say you go over by just 1 page, well that’s going to cost you $1 for that page.
HP and the other manufacturers would NOT be pushing their ink replenishment services if they were not a money maker for them. In general, we are doing more and more online and strong documents online. Even if you print photos there are online services for folks to use or they can go the local pharmacy or Wal Mart to print photos. Combine the cost issue with some of the other points in this article and the issues some people have run into with using this service, it makes more sense to buy my ink at the local Best Buy or other retail store.
One last note, I am considering the Easy Replenish ink program offered by Best Buy. It has no subscription fee, offers 10% off the ink, and has free shipping. It monitors your ink levels and sends the ink when it determines you are running low. Now that makes much more sense to me!
I’ve been on the InstantInk program for a couple of years and love it! I’ve always had ink on time and it is extremely economical. I’m on the moderate plan and it is great not to worry if you are going to run out of ink if you are printing, say, a photo or colour document. I have gone over my plan twice and on both occasions I was contacted to warn me and had the option of either the set no of pages for £1 or increasing my subscription. On the one occasion I paid the extra £1 because i only needed those few pages, and on the other, when I had a lot to print I upgraded for a month then downgraded at the end of that cycle. When or if you cancel you have the option of cancelling immediately or at the end of the billing cycle. That gives you the time to manage your switch back to “normal” cartridges. On the one occasion I had to contact HP they were extremely helpful and did all they could to assist. They also recredited me with extra pages to cover the test pages I printed during the call. It is strange the number of negative comments as I have recommended the service to many people. Of course I am in the UK so maybe we have better Customer Service!
Big time scam this HP Instant Ink thing is. The ink they send you will only work in the printer as long as your subscribed to their service. I cancelled and now the ink in my printer won’t work, nor will the ink they just sent me. On top of that if I print more than the allotted pages I get charged again. By the way a printed page is anytime even one spot of ink touches a page. I had difficulties with my previous HP printer too…last time I buy HP…
I too was very happy with the service for the first three months. I have an older HP Office Jet 4630e All-in-One, but has never given me any problems, EVER! I have raved about HP to friends for years.
I can’t say this for certain, I don’t have enough technical background. It occurred to me that since HP instant ink knows exactly what printer you have, then when THEY deem it “time to replace” your printer, all the sudden you have problems. Their help inevitably leads to ” if this isn’t under warranty, we’ll help you with upgrading to a new printer at the end of this call” setting you up for the sale.
I wonder if all the people having these issues got together how many would have my same story?
I do a lot of printing/copying, etc. and the Instant Ink program always seemed like a sucker deal to me. I signed up because they offered 3 – 6 free months of use, with a 700-image monthly limit until the overage charges would occur.
I signed up a week after I bought the printer (directly from HP), using the cartridges that came with the new printer, and when the Instant Ink cartridges came a week later, I put them aside. I installed them because I had an emergency copy assignment come in and the original black cartridge was depleted.
Midway through the copy job using the Instant Ink cartridges, I received a message that I had exceeded my “page limit”. I canceled the next day after buying a new set of store-bought. cartridges to install instead.
Online I saw that HP started the total page count from the DATE OF ENROLLMENT in the program in the count of the copies and prints I made a week BEFORE I received the new Instant Ink cartridges indicating the intent to charge $25 to my card in the next billing cycle. They also depleted the old color cartridges I had in the machine before installing the Instant Ink cartridges.
I was able to call HP and they agreed to reverse the CC charge if I called them after the next billing cycle.
This service wreck havoc to my printer. 1st issue was that it does not sense” when I’m printing pages. For 2 years I am under HP instaprint subscription but I still buy HP ink cartridges online. hen I cancelled my subscription, I still could not print because my printer display showed I have to subscribe to HP print in order for me to print. Really! This is monopoly . Do not subscribe to this service . It is a waste of your money and time, I spent the whole day on my day off trouble shooting to print and it still is not working. Better yet DO NOT BUY A HP Printer.
Changed bank, updated details they didnt take money out for subscription and have blocked my printer from working they have done this 6 times now and i always have money in my bank to cover the fee…I cant just run out and spend £30 on ink im a student living close to the breadline so i do depend on instant ink (silly i know) I have a 10 page assignment to print out and hand in tomorrow.. been on chat to instant ink for 25 minutes about not taking a payment and they are still working out why i haven’t been charged but have zero access to my printer.
To be fair when ive finished my course in Sept im getting a different brand of printer and stopping my instant ink.
The most ridiculous, WORST idea ever. It holds your printer hostage. HP should be boycotted for this. I will never buy an HP product again in my life.
DON’T DO IT! DON’T DO IT, DON’T DO IT! This company is full or it! They don’t tell you how the program really works. The manager lied to me about fixing my billing info. Made my payment may 28 and then turn around and asked for another payment. Please stay way from this. They don’t care about your needs only to make money!!!! Don’t do it. Just got off the phone with these people and nothing was fixed. Whoever the owner is you need to get a better group!!!! I wasted 50 min of my time. And Allen the manager id number 459295 is a JOKE!
GUYS!
You are NOT buying ink or cartridges.
You are buying a SERVICE!
Is that so hard to understand?
THIS: You go to a restaurant and you eat the food but you can’t take the plates home. And when you’re done, you wouldn’t think of asking to take more entrees home just because you paid for one meal.
The other problem with Instant Ink is that enrolling shuts off (at least on some printers) your ability to block automatic firmware updates. It is via updated firmware that HP blocks 3rd party ink cartridges. Be careful! Once new firmware is installed, you probably can’t undo it and go back to what worked.
HP INSTANT INK IS A SCAM
HP INSTANT INK is a complete scam!! Please do not sign up for this! They never send the Welcome Package they claim to send you will never receive ANY ink but.. you will pay monthly for this non-existent service. We have been paying monthly for almost two years and never received anything. Also, plan to spend over an hour being placed on hold and rerouted to multiple customer service agents in an attempt to cancel these non-existent services.
Good article with important heads up that we considered. However After 3 months, I can report that **we are satisfied ** with the Insta-Ink program. New HP Cartridges arrived well in advance of running out of ink and Rollover seems to be a more reasonable 100 pages even at the “occasional” $2.99 a month level.
My last printer was destroyed by a non-brand cartridge replacement unit which blew up all over the internal electronics after shoddy printing for months. They were Amazon recommended 3rd party printer cartridges so be careful. We rarely print so $3 a month is fine for an ink program. Program can be improved (lower cost, more privacy protection, more rollover pages, slightly more efficient sign up process) but so far so good.
What HP has done is disgraceful, not only have they found a way to control and monitor every single page we print, they also collect and sell our data. The real slap in the face happened prior to this printer “instant ink” kick-off. Just prior to the kick-off of this awful program HP increased printer cartridge store prices by 50% or greater. This drastic price increase at you’re local stores was an attempt to FORCE us to sign up for this privacy evading program.
They increased store prices by 50% or greater followed by “instant ink” mailed cartridge program with the claim of savings up to 50%. Yet another example of disgraceful corporate greed. I will never do business with this company again, I suggest you do the same! I hear that Samsung has printers that don’t collect your data for profit.
HP Instant Ink is actually HP instant RIPOFF. Do not sign up, in fact stay away from HP. Not only were they charging me for 18 months after I’d thrown their crap printer in the garbage, but they weren’t even sending the damn ink. I tried to cancel several times, when it finally went through they put through another instant payment the next day. They did kindly refund me for 3 months though…including the one that went through after the cancellation!!! so I paid for ink that I did not receive for 16 months and they will do nothing about it. Stay away from the HP instant farce.
Bought a new printer, very little in the way of instruction, but flooded with his ink malarkey. Went online to set up, again flooded with ink malarkey, to the point I felt unable to set printer up unless I subscribed to the ink plan. Fortunately, I’d had a Wi Fi printer before so was able to manually set it up. I will not be forced into one of these ink subscriptions!
Can anyone PLEASE-forward a phone number for these guys. My printer is locked up and I can’t find a number online to call these people. I want to cancel my subscription and I need them to release my printer. There should be a law against this practice where they have basically hijacked my printer. I’m so done wITH HP!🤬😡😤
Buyer be WARY and BEWARE. Yes, I got HP ink cartridges and they worked fine. I had a low-volume program since there are only a few things [all non-business, just personal as I am retired] I really want/need to be printed, on average. What happened though was actually a bit extraordinary and scary. The printer suddenly, in the middle of a 6-page printer, gave an error that said, basically, “the installed cartridges are only to be used with the HP Instant Ink [HPII] program”. Nothing would print. Rebooting and attempting to continue, this error message continued and the printer was frozen. So I got in touch with HP, of course, through their HPII program access phone numbers. Mind you, I was ALREADY in their program; HP had SENT me the current ink cartridges installed in my printer! [So what’s wrong with this picture??] Once I got a tech to whom I could explain the issue, I was asked for my name, telephone number, and address and assured by “we can fix this problem”. Relayed to another tech, I was instructed to go through several steps [get on the internet, go to a particular site, enter a code given via phone text, etc. ] and was asked for permission to examine my computer. THAT was suspicious and unnerving. I quickly closed sensitive information on the screen and watched the tech’s activity as various files were brought up. But it became apparent that this was going to be a “computer cleanup, non-free” service from some company other than HP, setting itself up as a trouble-shooting, computer tuning, for-fee service entity. I quickly disengaged and shut down the computer. I was not interested in a having software switched around, installed, or deleted, based on the printer “error” that triggered this exercise; I was concerned that my computer might have been exposed to an agency that could roam around in my computer’s files and take sensitive information under the guise of “fixing my problem”. After changing lots of passwords and getting some sleep, I am satisfied that nothing averse happened [so far at least]. It’s puzzling that such an infiltration of my printer and/or computer took place like that, and that this “solution” to the [inserted] issue [….that’s a guess on my part, but how DID the error message come up like that?] became the fee-based service that was offered. Maybe others have experienced this? Is this common or very very rare?
This is a very misleading program – it is not “InstantInk” because a) it is NOT instant and b) may not even be the right ink or operational. The true and correct description of this HP program could be summed up in calling it the “HP Total Print Control Program” because that is what it is. Such a scam and not worth the “convenience”. I cancelled and will not buy another HP product again due to these misleading sales practices.
They have locked up my printer as well. I can’t print I have cancelled my services with them and it’s still locked up . I am contacting bbb.
Amen to this article. TERRIBLE I REPEAT TERRIBLE. They hijack your printer and won’t let you print. They can kiss my big fat toe. And also ladies and gentlemen, I truly believe they use the software to give fake low levels of ink so it looks like you need more. But that’s just a insightful observation.
I had HP insta ink and canceled the service. After cancelation, my printer wouldn’t work with regular HP inkjets. SO 3 days after cancellation, I reinstated the subscription so I could print something my son needed for school. The HP insta ink cartridges that worked 3 days before no longer worked and I was told I had to wait for the welcome kit and would be charged for an entire month of printing. On the chat, I was told “not to worry” I could print for one month and then relog on and cancel again and then remove my printer from their servers. The chat also said ”
I’m sorry, Let me reinforce that for billing purposes the service can’t be fully canceled until the billing cycle gets completed.” I do not want the service, I can’t use the cartridges I have and they would not cancel after 3 minutes of enrolling. HP controls my printer without timely support -do not subscribe!
I use the service and have had no issues with and have printed over 2000 pages and had several ink replacements, they even seem to send the cartirdges in a way I can stock up on them. Great program, Alot of the complains are people that dont understand the program. If you cancel you Subscription, yes you cant print.. why because you have to go buy your own cartridge and then you can print again. Duh. Why would they continue to let you use the ink you only partially paid for..
worst thing I ever did. Got laid off so I cancelled my subscription and they cancelled my ability to print even though I had paid for 50 pages I only got to print 35. What a ripoff BEWARE
IT’S THE WORST! NEVER RECEIVED CARTRIDGES, RUINED PRINTER – WON’T REFUND. HAS NO RELATION WITH HP SUPPORT. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS!
Oh my! HP may be feeling a happy little surge of revenge over the fact that upon canceling my Instant Ink subscription with them, I also lost the ability to use my printer, but they have lost my business for life. I suppose one customer doesn’t make much difference though…
I moved last December, and a few months ago, when I finally needed to change my black ink cartridge, I couldn’t find it. Since, with the exception of maybe 2 months, I have never come close to using the monthly pages that I was allotted, I emailed and asked if they’d be willing to send me a replacement ink cartridge. I even said I’d be willing to pay for it if necessary, as I just wanted to get some things printed. I never got a response. So, after that frustrating lack of customer service, and my inability to print anything, I cancelled my subscription. And then, when the month’s subscription period that I’d paid for last ended, my printer would no longer print. It kept giving me the message, “You can not use this ink until you are subscribed to Instant Ink” or something similar.
So, I currently can’t use the ink that I more than paid for, nor can I use my printer, even though I took out the color HP cartridge and am trying to just use the black and white cartridge that I got on Amazon.
I am sorry I signed up with HP, and will know better in the future. Although it initially seemed like a lovely support for my busy, sometimes forgetful self, it ended up being much more of a headache than it was worth.
Trust me I have tried all the options(hp brand ink,off brand compatible ink, refilled the ink tanks etc…) and have used hp instant ink for several years and just love it. When you buy new and I mean brand new name brand hp ink from the store( you do not get what you pay for) the ink cartridges are not full and will not print no were near the estimated amount of pages. Also think about what you are printing>a photo takes a lot of ink and any kind of art work takes a lot of ink. As I said have done it and with instant ink you don’t have to worry about it> Just print what ever(photos, art work, iron-ons, etc…..) no problem on instant ink and with the online service you can track your page count and with your printer app you can keep a check on ink levels. I haven’t had any problem with running out of ink or printing over my page limit. Hp just sends me the ink when the printer lets them know when I am getting low>so simple and covenant. The only problem I had was not changing the cartridges when they sent them to me>( I was use to using them up and letting them run out before I would change them) but not with instant ink, just change them as soon as you get the new ones no matter how much ink they have left(who cares its there ink and I am not paying for it) Just keep the ink cumming HP and I’ll keep up with number of the pages I print and I am happy. O and by the way I have had roll over pages every month so haven’t had a problem with over charges. Just FYI I would spend more on ink from the store in a few months then I will spend on instant ink all year.
Big mistake. Cancelled today and I feel like I was ripped off. I have not used my printer in two months but they continued to charge like I was still printing.
Also hate the fact that once a certain day arrives the ink no longer works even though I have ink I paid for.
Never again
This is a great review which really provides a good overview of the pros and cons. Now, I have a Tango X printer, which I bought specifically to print photos (I also have an older Laserjet, which uses aftermarket supplies, where I print reports and other stuff). Now, having said that, InstanInk seems to be just right for my purposes. I actually got a one-year, 300-page-a-month free enrollment offer, which will allow me to take care of a backlog of years of digital photos. After that, I will stay in the low cost plan. So, basically, as our reviewer said, it is a matter of weighing what you need to print, how much, how often and balance that against the costs and convenience. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the service.
This is probably the worst agreement I have ever made. Since I print a good bit, I went for the $9.99 a month program. They instantly sent a set of cartiridges, and then another set (the “reserve”) quite soon after. So far, so good. Then it got tough. No matter how many times I requested new ink, because my printer said (correctly so), that I needed ink, HP said no, because “my internet connection wasn’t always on to indicate how many pages I had printed.” That is simply not true, because I have a wireless connection and cannot print unless my internet is on. So, off to the store to buy more ink (this happened three times in one year). Then, at Christmas, when I print a LOT, they still would not send more ink, insisting that I needed to “troubleshoot” – which was a joke, since everything was so faint, I couldn’t read anything. I had to have our Christmas letters printed by a local printer, Finally, they sent another set of ink (the THIRD in what was a year! — and I needed, and paid for, at least six). So, I gave up and cancelled. The third set is still in the printer, and HP had the nerve to tell me when the period I paid for is over (three days from today), I would not be able to print with the cartridges that are in the printer, because “you haven’t paid for them” I am totally and completely distrustful of them — to me, this whole problem is lying, cheating and them stealing. I am disgusted.
I agree and would NOT recommend subscribing to it. When I canceled, I purchased HP genuine ink #63 for the printer to now have error for the black ink that says “The indicated cartridges are not intended for use in this printer”. I get no support from HP. Trust me, it’s not worth the headache.
Don’t fall for this predatorial marketing scheme. I purchased my HP Office Jet Pro printer at Costco last month and noted on the box that I would get 8 months of ink when I redeemed my credit using the pin code provided. Big mistake!
When you redeem the credit you are offered plans for ink to be shipped based on usage. I saw I could get an 8 months supply –100 page plan for $4.99 per month. Sounds reasonable–I assumed I would get enough ink in the mail to cover about 100 pages per month and two weeks later I received cartridges.
In the meantime, I am used the printer with the cartridges that came with the printer. Several weeks ago (about a month after purchasing the printer, I had a message on my printer that said to go to my hpinstantink.com account because there is an issue and I may run out of ink. This, however, did not make sense to me because I knew I had received ink cartridges that I had not begun to use. Then on Friday night while printing important documents for a business trip, my printer stopped printing and I received a message “Cannot Print with HP Instant Ink cartridges. Payment method needs updating.”
Of course, there is no one at HP that can help you on Friday night so I was stuck and flew out during the weekend without much of my needed documents. I figured that HP monitors my usage and shut down the cartridge in my printer because what they are selling is a usage plan not cartridges. Apparently, I had exceeded my usage.
(Recall that this is the cartridge that came with the printer that HP is controlling externally. I had not yet begun to use the “8 months” supply that I redeemed and had been shipped to me. )
Today, I looked for about 40 minutes on all the HP sites to find a customer service phone number. Of course, you can’t find one. Finally, I had to Google to get the Palo Alto, CA office phone number. After a forty minute, conversation I was transferred to the hpinstantink group, where I learned that because of my usage I owed $65 and that they needed a credit card number. Only after several rounds of questioning did I get the representative to confirm that they had shut down my account and that they monitor usage, all the while she tried to set me up on a higher usage plan.
I told the representative, that HP’s practices are intrusive and predatorial and that I am returning my printer to Costco for a refund. No company should monitor how many documents I am printing or have the ability to shut off a printer in my home. Until HP changes its ways, I part as a customer.
HP use to be a company of very high integrity with its products and support of the communities in which it is nested. I can imagine how many people, especially older folks not aware of these practices incur unexpected expenses because of the misleading information in this promotion. I am in my 50s and work in biotech with a lot of technology related to computers. In this situation, I find myself feeling like my elderly parents, aunts and uncles, who share with me their frustrations and times when they fell victim to the predatorial marketing practices of companies. I really think, we can do much better than this in America.
Thanks for the warnings and work on a very comprehensive site. Only wish I had read it before subscribing to the service. I’ll stay around until my printer eventually needs replacing.
Absolute JOKE! Worst money I ever spent and they are literally ripping you off. In every way shape and form. They should be put out of business. Not only do they have COMPLETE control over YOUR printer YOU paid for amount of copies YOU pay for but also the ink YOU pay for. I went to cancel since I have had the subscription for over 4 years. Let me repeat FOUR years and they sent me 1 shipment of ink. Once I canceled they turned off my ink!! I paid OVER $200 in that time and used about $30 of ink. My cartridges are still half full. Fat lotta good they do since HP turned them off. I will NEVER again but an HP product. Very dissatisfied customer.
I used this service while I was at the university. I signed up 300 pages per month. Some months I had nothing to print as we were on break at the university but they still charged me.. Some months I had more to print because of exams etc. So they charged me over for extra printing and oh boy it was expensive when you go over. I cancelled it in the end as I don’t think you save money if you don’t print same every month.
These people will not let you unsubscribe. I have tried number of times and I still get a monthly bill, which I instruct my credit card co not to pay. Not at all reputable. They put me through to a lawyer, which I would have to pay $5.00 ! What ?
I have been used Instant Ink since June of 2017 and it is absolutely perfect for someone like me. I need a color printer infrequently but like to have it to use if I want. I try to use my HP printer when printing someone where I need color. If I were to buy a black cartridge and a color cartridge, it would cost me approximately $50. Using instant ink on the $2.99 (50 page per month) plan, I pay only $36 per year and have plenty of rollover if I need it. I have a laser printer that I use for my black and white copies; therefore, I have the best of two worlds. I have recommended the Instant Ink program to many of my friends.
Caution about disenrolling from instant ink: You might be unpleasantly surprized if you did not notice that your cartridges will be instantly disabled when your Instant Ink account is closed. They become useless, and hp does not offer another option as far aa I can tell. All a legal part of the contract, it seems, but also wasteful! Be sure to order your own cartridges before shutting down Instant Ink. I am 92 years old, and I don’t want to leave any subscription accounts open when I vacate this present world.
Big rip off. Cancelled but was not told my ink cartridges in my printer would no longer work. A few days later, printer totally not able to print as they control it with their cartridges in it. Due to Pandemic, have not been able to get new ones so stuck with no way to print. My cartridges were mailed November 2019 so I more than paid for them. Customer Service is useless.
Service was good UNTIL I needed to have a question answered. Very difficult to get a hold of a live person, they always push you to the virtual assist.
Here is the important part – once you cancel your subscription ANY INK LEFT HP does not let you print. You have to change all cartridges. I will never buy another HP Printer because HP INSTA INK is a TERRIBLE program. Oh BTW, the cartridges I was using were the original one I bought.
I have cancelled my subscription. If I do not connect my printer to the internet, how can they stop me from using the remainder of my ink?
I have used HP Instant Ink for 4 years and have never exceeded my monthly allotment. My main printer is in Oregon-the one I used for 4+ years. I currently am in Yuma and bought a new HP printer. I contacted HP Instant ink and was able to transfer my Oregon account to Yuma. HP then put my Oregon printer on standby (ie: 15 pages / month at NO Charge). I couldn’t be happier with HP Instant Ink. I am able to print an 8X10 color photo for the same as a one line page. I have never exceeded my monthly allotment. HP also has sent me new cartridges whenever mine get low-without me asking.
I also am a TracFone customer for 15 years and am on their auto renew plan for a cost of $6.50 per month. My wife and I each pay $6.50 per month and use the same Verizon towers you are using and paying $100+ per month.
Both HP and TracFone require the ability to comprehend and the intelligence to understand what you are doing. Most people aren’t able to think for themselves and consequently complain about both these services.
I was happy in the last 2 years subscription until now. HP Instant ink wait for your ink tank to run empty until they send replacement. Even if you advice them they won’t believe in your word but the data the printer sends. HP sent me a replacement when I can no longer print in April. Due to COVID i wasn’t able to receive the package til now. I called them to send it another way and asked them to reverse the payment but they said I’m not eligible. If that’s their poor judgement they can have their printer back and I make sure everyone of my friends and students in my class will know about this so they cannot do this crap to other customer.
I signed up for the Instant Ink program before reading this article and cancelled it the next day. I was told by a chat rep that I wouldn’t be charged if I didn’t use the cartridges sent to me and sent them back unused. A month later HP charges my credit card for additional pages that were over the first “free” fifteen pages and here’s why. The existing HP cartridges in my printer have the same chip in them so they immediately began counting pages and charging me! HP customer support is refunding the charge but this is a waste of time. This would actually be a good program if you printed very dense photos or copies that use a lot of ink since they charge by the copy and not for ink. Otherwise I don’t recommend it.
I cancelled my subscription after they charged me an extra $20.00 for printing out 100 sheets. Then I disscovered that my printer wont prtint at all unless I sign up again. They did something to my printer HP ENVY 5540 so that it would only work with their instant ink cartridge.
HP Instant Ink has proven to be a GARBAGE program. We subscribed almost two years ago as the financial math “made sense.” We got the cartridges in a timely fashion and all seemed well. Then, about a year ago, the printer informed me it was out of ink. What the actual? I contacted HP Instant Ink and a very helpful, very contrite agent promised ink was on the way. Three days later we had ink in the mail. Well, about three weeks ago the SAME THING happened. I cancelled my Instant Ink subscription and due to the billing cycle structure the subscription ended two days ago. Today I go to print a document and my printer informs me that I can’t because my cartridges are being held hostage by HP Instant Ink and I can’t use the remaining ink until I enroll in the Instant Ink program!
This has been an obnoxious waste of my time, has cost me something like a full day of productivity and frustration.
I’ll look for other forums in which to trumpet my experience.
I’m glad to see this service has worked for some. It has utterly failed me. DO NOT put yourself at risk for this overly-complicated broken service.
Terrible. I’ve been trying to cxl it for months and can’t. It’s always some automated “chat” that can never answer my questions. I just want to cxl it for gawd’s sake!!!
Kinda p#####. If I cancel the subscription, the ink cartridges stop working. Didn’t I already pay for them with the service feed I’ve been charged over the last 3 years??? If you do not use your printer often, definitely NOT worth the money.
What a complete scam. I have months worth of ink that has been rendered useless effective the end of July because I cancelled the service. Paid for over a year and now I have to go and purchase more ink that does not have a chip that enables HP to kill the printer.
DO NOT BUY THIS SERVICE.
It is saving me roughly $90 a month in ink cartidges. I have the largest plan as I do a lot of printing. The rollover feature works well for me. Certain months I use less. Others I use more. Spend $20 a month vs spending $110 a month is a huge savings. The only downside Is that since I dont trust them with a regular credit card I use a venmo debit card and I occasionally forget to leave money on the card. Once I see the first billing failed notice, I correct it. Other than that it has saved me a ton of money.
Here’s my thinking on this. Before I subscribed to the service every time I went to print something which I did rarely – sometimes not for months – the ink would be dried up and I would have to run out and buy $50 worth of ink cartridges just to print something I needed, which was usually time-sensitive, by the way, and then the next time I tried to print something months later it would be out again!
Since I signed up it’s been a year and the first cartridges they sent me are still half full. I NEVER got even 20 pages out of the cartridges you buy in the store. I also have been printing more than I used to, but have never gone over and always have the maximum rollover pages. I’ve spent about 2/3 of what I would have on one set of cartridges before at 2.99 a month for a year’s worth of printing with no fear of suddenly having to freakin’ take the bus to the store to get new ink cartridges.
I think the real problem is the cartridges you buy in the store don’t seem to actually print anywhere near what they say on the box for whatever reason, and I always bought HP new ones.
RIP OFF. DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THIS SERVICE
This company is NOT worth the TROUBLE. Getting any kind of Customer Support is unlikely. Ifeel they do not explain their program fully and then lock you into a SCAM program that will not suit your needs.The cancellation process it VERY LONG and DIFFICULT at the least. I recommend you stay away from this program and just go to OFFICE DEPOT and pay $15.00 for your ink cartridge.
I retired, so my printing dropped to next to nothing. I wanted to cancel my plan.
BEWARE! They use smart ink cartridges that will NOT print past your pre-paid date.
So even though I have more than paid the full amount of the cartridges over the last 6 almost print free months I can’t use the remaining ink in the cartridges.
So I have a three year old printer, with half full cartridges that are worthless.
Time to look at other printers.
Regards,
Kirby
I did not enroll in the instant ink program when my printer arrived last April, but I must have been pre-enrolled because shortly after the printer arrived, a black and color cartridge of instant ink arrived. A month or so later I tried to enroll, but kept getting an error message that my printer was not on line even though I had no problem printing via wifi from my laptop. Then emails started arriving from HP asking me to update my credit card info. My credit card had been hacked and replaced shortly after buying the printer on line. I assumed I wasn’t enrolled in instant ink, so why update my information. After three or four emails from HP, they disabled my printer. So I called or chatted and found that HP would not re-enable the printer until they had my credit card. So I’d been automatically enrolled. I think this may be illegal and will be consulting my state consumer protection department, but for the time being at least I had a working printer. Then last week, I finally installed the instant ink sent months ago. (I don’t use this printer often.) It didn’t work. I chatted with a tech person at HP for two hours. He finally agreed the cartridge was bad and arranged to send me a new one. I asked him if he would do me a favor and unsubscribed me from instant ink. He agreed and succeeded in freeing my printer from this scourge. But it didn’t. I installed the new cartridge today, and once again HP had disabled web services so my printer does not work. I have been on the phone with three HP customer care (Ha!) people and am holding to talk to a forth to see if I can get them to finally liberate my printer, which I paid for. My message: don’t subscribe to instant ink, and furthermore, look for an alternative to HP printers even if they cost more. I would have save myself about eight hours of sitting on the phone if someone had warned me.
I had been getting instant ink for a couple years after i canceled i have not been able to use my printer at all. It keeps telling me i have the wrong ink
It was the worst decision we made we had to buy ink in between because we had waited 6 week for ink to come (BEFORE COVID) once we finally received it we put it in and decided it wasn’t worth it after paying for 2 years and having one replacement only and so they cut us off and it was brand new – wish i had never installed it or purchased YES they charge per page if you do not print a lot don’t do it – they own the ink so therefore you have to have back up anyway – if you print over 50 pages a month by all means go ahead and pray they get you ink before it runs out
This is a fuken rip-off! You have to continue to pay monthly even if you don’t use the printer? We are in a pandemic and HP is taking advantage of people by forcing them to pay up monthly. This company SUCKS!
I have used HP Instant Ink for several years. I have not been able to print and had to purchase cartridges at office store because HP cannot get product and they are not willing to reimburse me. I am NOT happy.
HIJACKED! HP scammed us on the insta ink program. You cannot use ink purchased from another source as it will hijack your printer and not allow any printing. Its very annoying and I can only agree with all comments here. Wish I had known earlier. Its time to go to another company. If HP continues to push their ink program, all I can say is “goodbye and good riddance HP!”
Instant Ink was more of a nuisance than a convince. Ink never arrived when needed. Very often I had to run out and get ink because I had run out. Their customer service was terrible. After 2 hours of trying to get ink from them, I just canceled the account and I had to be forceful for them to cancel. I can’t imagine they will continue the program. It is poorly run!
The ABSOLUTE WORST system.
Once on this system it is virtually impossible to any cartridge other than Instant Ink products.
New HP cartridge and can’t use printer.
6 phone calls and still no access.
DON’T SIGN UP FOR INSTANT INK.
What a waste of money. First off, the new designed HP ENVY printers that primarily only use the Instantink service are plastic junk. I was wondering why I was having poor printing issues in black until I read this story. I checked my HP account and found my last black ink cartridge was delivered in August of 2019 (when checked it was today, November 2020). I came to the conclusion that although my printer ink level was showing good, the cartridge was probably drying out! I called today to demand a new cartridge. I am cancelling my Instantink account and when the ink runs out, I will buy a competitor where I can go to my local Staples or OfficeMax and buy the cartridges or bottles (depending on what I buy) that I need. Thank you LD for your helpful article.
HP Instant Ink is a complete scam. Don’t enroll unless you want to be locked in for life. They kept sending me ink when I didn’t need it, so I cancelled the service. Now I have 3 cartridges that HP won’t let me use, because I cancelled the subscription. Really creepy how they take this big brother approach and control your entire printing experience.
WARNING ……… WARNING ………WARNING …………WARNING
Instant Ink worked for a little while. Then I decided to move on.
They actually… SHUT OFF …the …..INK …..REMOTELY thru the internet….which DISABLED my Printer.
BE WARNED……..This could happen to YOU.
I knew that I would not be printing a great deal so I accepted the free plan. When the grandchildren visited numbers went up. I waited a year and did the math. My actual annual cost saved me $28. So it works for me. Every month there is an overage I get a request to upgrade which I silently laugh at and ignore.
Kasey
I regret using this service. When I signed up I thought it would solve the issues I had of having to seek out expensive ink, and not having it when I needed it. It was not clearly explained to me when I got it. We do not print often so I was using the lowest priced option, but then my college student was home, printed lots of pages, and we increased the rate we were paying, thinking it was just for the month. It stayed at the high price. We’d paid 60$ or more for printing maybe 200 pages. I feel misled by the service and would not recommend to anybody.
I will NEVER buy an HP printer again. It an absolute SCAM!!! It’s been a long time that I have ever been so ANGRY. I’m working from home and can’t even print my reports. HP Instant Ink shut down my entire ability to print. I’ve wasted over 3 hours with this BS!
Big mistake!!!!!! Tired of being nagged about giving a credit card. Glad I found out how controlling they were before gift card ran out. I cancelled and now I can’t use the remaining ink that I have paid for or the last box of ink they sent that I still hadn’t installed yet because the prior ink wasn’t used up. They are thieves!!!!!!!! Surely there is a legal process to do something about them.
HP Instant Ink is a total scam! They lie in the promotion and are vague at best. I ended up spending three times the amount than I would have if I had bought from Staples/Amazon. You have little control over when they send. And, if your printing usage changes, you will get screwed. They charge huge amounts for underestimating your monthly printing. HORRIBLE service – do not use it. Actually, it is surprising at how bad it is.
Before I bought this printer, I spent HOUS online trying to find a good printer I could buy and Not get trapped into this thing where they shut off your ink. They don’t call it “instant ink” online apparently when trying to hook you.I did not know about this “offer” until I got the printer. Correct me if I’m wrong please but it looks like the only way they really know what you are printing is if you either register your printer or sign up for instant ink. As soon as I saw the Apple and Google Play pix on the box I knew it was a bait and switch and am going to be really made if my printer shuts off when I’m printing. I don’t print that often but sometimes have something really big to print off and as I understand it, their black ink which is just tiny only prints of about 60 copies.
I’ve used hp ink service since 2013 and I guess i can call myself lucky because I’ve never had a problem with my ink getting dry and i honestly saved money with plan i used the 2.99 monthly thats 36 bucks a year. I liked my service because my copies run into next month which doubles sometimes. My ink hasn’t ever dried out and my prints comes out great. I’ll continue to use there service.
This service is a ripoff and HP is a dishonest company. The printer I paid with my own money is now in control of HP. I disconnected the printer from the internet, and then it stopped working. At the time I didn’t know it was because the printer was not online, so I called HP and their technicians logged into my computer to try and figure out the issue. Five technicians later, in five different days, in which of of these days one of the five techs deleted all my printers drivers and couldn’t figure out what to do to fix it. Btw their technicians are all not tech savy at all. Long story short, I will burn down the printer, record it and put up on social media for everyone to know why they SHOULD NEVER BUY AN HP PRODUCT ANYMORE. I am pretty sure HP does things to your printer so it wont work anymore once you cancel the subscription. They should be sued for causing people so much trouble.
Warning never join the HP Instant Ink service even if it’s free.
It is a scam to charge you monthly even if you print little or nothing.
And if you cancel the service, they will disable the ink in your printer even if they only sent you 1 set of cartridges in 6 months AND they are still full!
This service doesn’t save you 50% or anything! In fact it would cost me WAY more to continue this service than to buy the ink myself.
Their service dept. doesn’t respond to requests to resolve the situation, and they don’t even call you back.
I talking to 3 people and was on hold for over 2 hours, I’m done with them.
I hope I save other people the hassle of trying this rip off service.
Instant ink is garbage just like most “money saving” alternatives offered by corporations. Let’s give them a deal = here’s the lowest amount you’re going to be able to find this product for because we have the power to raise all prices everywhere
I canceled my HP insta ink account about a month ago. The cost is outrageous and they kept debiting my cc monthly for 50.00+ dollars. In addition, they kept sending me boxes of ink. I had 3 unused boxes of ink and just put a new one in my printer. Because my printer is connected to hp through hp smart they disabled my printer and would not allow me to print until I had resigned up for insta ink or replaced my ink with store-bought ink. It is a rip-off and they charged me monthly way over my plan with no notice of the extra charges to my account. 2 months later they had the audacity to charge my account an additional $36.00. I spoke to customer service and they were rude and not helpful at all. I am a real estate agent and had showings yesterday when my printer was highjacked by HP, I couldn’t print any documents need to do my business. It is a money-making rip-off. Customer beware!!! I will never use hp products again.
Of course they send a standard response to any and all complaints. Check it out. HP used to be a great company not any more. Do your research before buying in to the insta ink scam and check all the negative reviews. I wish I did before they took all my hard earned money!!!
Terrible mistake. 99 % of these reviews are NEGATIVE and there’s a good reason. Even if you understand your contract and carefully monitor your usage, you’re still being spied on and controlled by HP. And THEY SELL and/or report your information!
My relative that signed up for this service passed away and I’ve since talked to 3 people to explain that with the death their bank account was locked and the subscription would need to be cancelled as they could no longer automatically bill the account. They first gal gave great promises about a couple of free trial months to keep going and see if I myself liked the service (with no credit card given) and then by a certain date I would have to subscribe myself with my own account and credit card or officially cancel the service. I didn’t get what was promised and the printer never unlocked and delivered. The second guy hung up on me because I wouldn’t give him my credit card and the third guy was polite but totally unhelpful to resolve the issue, because there is no resolving the issues. It’s HP’s way or the highway. Now that I’ve read about how the service and contract works I won’t do it or advise others to. To add insult to injury, they bumped the cost of the service plans up by 33% without even a warning. From the 9.99 a month plan to charging my dad, $11.99 per month!! When I asked how this came about, all three of them could only say that there was a price increase. But get this!!!, I have since received two mailers at my own address that advertise the old rates. When I asked about that mailer and offering they were clueless and said there must be some mistake.. Plus, if you do the math using the Best Buy subscription plan or other options, as one person did here in the comments, it ends up costing you more. YOU WON’T LIKE IT WHEN YOUR COMPUTER GETS LOCKED UP AND YOU GET TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE ON TOP OF BEING HELD HOSTAGE!
H P Instant Ink is a huge ripoff and deceptive marketing/advertising. I was told told that it would cost me $11.99 per month but they billed me $204. Plus they lock your printer if you don’t continue to subscribe and it’s a huge invasion of your privacy. Don’t fall for their deceptive practices.
I just finished my trial subscription period so I guess we’ll see how the pay service goes. In these two months trial I have received more than a dozen cartridges, mostly color. My printer only goes online when it is doing a print job but even so, I have yet to run out of ink. I am at the top, business level for pages. I am an avid junk journaler and scrap booker.I regularly print between 400-650 pages a month. I was going through a fortune in ink so this has been a lifesaver for me. So far so good, no complaints here.
Oh, my goodness!! What a corporate ripoff !! I never thought, I’d ever say this about Hewlett-Packard. I have always been a HP guy. Used HP 3000 mini computers since 1980’s, HP printers, Mag-Tape Drives, Hard Drives, everything. I had HP home printers Officejets…. But that was past. Then I purchased HP Officejet Pro 9015 two years ago, and Instant Ink plan along with it. Didn’t do research, A BIG MISTAKE! This is an example of CORPORATE RIPOFF !! I started with the lowest amount of print, but they started charging me $1 for every 10 extra pages, so I upgraded to $499 plan. And I could never print the required amount of pages. So, after the first set of cartridges,which I had for almose 8 months, before replacing the spent initial cartridges, I was never sent another shipment for over a year and a half or so. But I was paying them $5 a month none the less. It just so happened that somebody hacked my credit card that was on their record, so I had to close that card. And I got reminder from Instant Ink. Today, when I called, I quickly figured out, that I will pay $5 monthly charges regardless of when I will really need new cartridges. In other words, If I don’t “NEED” new cartridges for next 10 years hypotheticallly, I will still pay them $5 a month, $600 for 10 years, before getting any replacement cartridges, if any. And if my printer dies before getting new cartridges, then, so be it! All the money I paid is gone into their bit-bucket !! Unaccounted for. I asked to talk to his superviser and after waiting on phone for good 15 minutes, I was told that, “She is currently busy, and cannot come to phone!” I am telling them to cancel my plan. I’d rather but remanufactured cartridges in the market than feed the scammers !!!
HP Instant ink is a rip off. They stab you in the back when you are not looking. I bought an HP printer two years ago, and HP instant ink I started with the free plan, but soon found they were charging a dollar or two every month for printing more sheets than in the plan. Then I upgraded to $5 plan. They kept charging their monthly $4.99 and because I could not finish the first set of cartridges, they never sent the new cartridges. They also still charged for pages printer over the limit. Every page that came out of printer, with or without ink on it was counted. Yet I had over 200 pages rolled over to next month. How can you be printing over your limit and yet have 200 pages rolled over to next month, is beyond me. So, I questioned their tactics. Their agengs had no straight answer. They said that they will charge me the monthly fee whether or not I print anything. In other words, if my cartrides do not depleat for two year, they will still charge me $120 for the plan, and if I cancel the plan, they will block usage of those cartridges at the end of billig cycle, whether the cartridges are still full. SO GUYS, BE VERY CAREFUL before you subscribe to this RIP OFF service. I am reporting this to Consumer Protection agency for a fare and just solution.
Yes was subscribed idk if I saved or not I cancelled now I can’t use my printer I’ve done paid for the one color ink they sent, I think it’s bs it’s my printer and WiFi HP had no right to not let me use my printer
I hate the Instant Ink program. I had to call repeatedly to get them to send my ink that I was entitled to receive. It takes forever to get the ink from them. I was working from home and needed my ink fast, they said they would send it next day. They didn’t. They blame this on Covid but I had to order from Staples and they delivered the next day. I refused to extend my subscription and I have 6 new cartridges that I can’t use because I refuse to allow them to extort any more money from me.
HP is impossible to deal with! I have been trying since September 2020 to cancel this program for a printer I no longer own, but the CHARGES KEEP COMING ON. There doesn’t seem to be any one or any system that can cancel the damn charges to my credit card, though I haven’t received any ink since last year. It’s a bloody life long commitment. SCAM!
Glad I read all of these great comments. Instant Ink had that mixed smell of good for me and really good for HP. Now it seems that it’s REALLY good for HP and REALLY BAD for customers. Thanks, All, for recounting your horror stories. My Canon 4370dn laser has served well at home for years, and now it’s time to buy a color college printer. Next stop on the interwebs is to see what Canon, Lexmark and Brother have to offer.
What a crock!!! We originally set this up because you could not find any ink locally and the only option available. I think its quiet odd that regular ink cartridges run out frequently even with not a lot of printing but after months of using these never do. We dont print much so cancelled our service. Now a few days later we cant use the printer at all unless we enroll again. Wished I’d known this sooner! What a bad way to do business!!!
biggest mistake I ever made. I’ve paid for ink for two printers, one at home and one in my office. I’ve paid out far more than I received, bearing in mind you make a monthly payment (all through lockdown, printers hardly used, especially in my office). It took ages to receive the ink for my home printer (printer telling me I’m out of ink, HP telling me I had plenty). I’ve cancelled the subscription for my office printer and, although I have plenty of ink in the printer, THEY HAVE STOPPED ME USING IT!!!!!! I don’t know how they can do that so if anyone has any tips on how to unblock their BLOCK I would greatly appreciate it.
HP+ is the worst thing to happen to HP since Carly Fiorina sending all the jobs overseas. You have to have an internet connection to allow for Big Brother HP “monitoring”. What if I want to use my printer at the cabin in the woods where there is no internet? Absolute piece of crap situation. This is a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. Should fall under “right to repair” or some other law. I cannto imagine the Europeans stand for this at all!
Awful service. I do not recommend. I have paid £55 across 3 months to have my ink shut off because I cancelled because the price was too high. I barely use it but had to print 300 pages which were sparse in printing but because it was a high amount of pages they charged me £40!! I haven’t even used the 1 set of ink cartridges so I have essentially paid £55 for half a cartridge.
I signed up in 2019 for instant ink because the idea seemed convenient, but my ink dries up after 8-9 months and it is a challenge to get them to send another cartridge – all three times, the same thing happens – I receive an error message that instructs me to keep removing and inserting the same cartridge every time I try to print. I call HP Instant Ink and they tell me my level is fine, then I have to clean the cartridge and reprint a page. This last time, I insisted on a new cartridge which came a few days later. Two cartridges cost about $42. At $63.72 a year and not having the freedom to have the ink when I need it, I am fed up with this frustrating program. I don’t print enough pages for the frustration and lack of freedom in this program. They are also charging for another month after the program ends on 12 December 2021 and I must return all of the used an new ink cartridges – at least they send an envelope. Good riddance to this overpriced scam!
Something interesting – if there’s a lag in time using your printer (health issue; a move; something that simply takes you away from that piece of technology), HP Instant Ink will begin to send you the wrong size ink – more than once – giving you the hint that it’s time to update your printer. Not a happy camper am I. Everything worked beautifully and it’s a pain to not find out that the ink cartridge is the incorrect size until you open the outer wrapper. Not nice, HP, not nice at all. AND I’ve been trying to get someone/something/somevirtualsupport/anything for a solid day (snow day, it’s fun) – and NOTHING. Perhaps it’s time to go Canon or Epson – always good to try new things . . .
DO NOT PAY FOR HP INSTANT INK SERVICE… even their lowest priced “plan” (for which rates can change arbitrarily at any time) is more expensive than buying your own cartridges on line (I bought a full set for $35). And when you try to cancel, they charge you for an additional month – regardless of how many pages less than your allowance you use! AND – they claim the cartridges and unused ink belong to HP, so you have to return them when you cancel your service! It is a rip-off from the minute you sign up. AND – should they find any reason, they have the ability to disable your printer (i.e., your credit card expires and you don’t update it in time).
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY… buy replacement cartridges on-line!!!!! They are just as good – if not better, than the marginally filled HP originals – AND – you own them! So whether you choose to buy new or refill / replace your existing cartridges on-line, it will be MUCH cheaper in the long run.
Question. If you don’t sign up for the instant ink program will the printer work ok? Or will it not work unless you sign up? I just bought my printer. After reading all the comments I have not signed to dot the printer program yet. But I don’t know if I should keep the printer or return it to the store? Everyone seemed to hate the hp printer completely but mostly due to the ink program, has anyone here not signed up and how did your printer work??? Please help.
I have used HP Instant Ink very successfully for the previous 3 or 4 years. Only ever had one problem, a faulty colour cartridge which was quickly replaced and I was able to continue printing with the black cartridge only whist waiting.
However, I have just bought a refurbished printer without ink as mine was having a few problems, exactly the same model, set it up OK, swapped over the cartridges, message “cartridges can only be used in the printer initially installed in” came up.
I was on the phone with HP for in excess of an hour and had to have the old printer cancelled from their system, the new one enrolled, and HP are sending out new cartridges. OK, thought I, I’ll put the cartridges back in the old printer so I can carry on working whilst awaiting the new ones. Oh no, as the old printer is no longer enrolled, the same message appeared. I guess I can go out and buy non instant ink cartridges if necessary but I wish I’d known about this “HP protection” problem beforehand.
Hands down this is the worst printer purchase (Envy 7155) I’ve ever made in over four decades of working with computers. I truly regret ever buying it. HP InstantInk is pure blackmail and involves spying on my printing. I’m going to buy reconditioned cartridges and cut this damn thing off my network. Never, never HP again.
This the worst service ever. HP doesn’t send the printer cartridges as stated and you end buying your own. I had the issue when I got hot as fire for being charged for printing over 100 pages and not receiving the ink I cancelled the program. I had two almost full cartridges and HP took control of my printer and would not allow mr to print anything, while still chagingin me $33.34 for any extra month of billing to finally close the account. So I had to go to Wal-mart and buy those two cartridges and replace them before MY printer would print again. I bought this printer outright, but with this farce Insta-Ink program it is like I am leasing the printer I bought. This should be unlawful. There are at least 423 people now that are dissatified with this program. I think we should start a Class Action Suit or at make the Better Business Beaureau aware of this ss that other consumers don’t get ripped off. I also think we should blast this rip-off on all Social Media Outlets we subscribe to until let others know about this terrible service. Becasue of this, I will not purchase another HP Product (Printer, Computer, Tablet, etc.)
It is a rip off of colossal proportions, developed by control freaks to stop the user having any ability to vary their printing needs / schedule without paying a fortune; and stopping printers from working at all if an alternative ink source is used.. Based on my abysmal experience with this service and the appallingly poor online support from HP, I have not only ended the subscription but also dumped (actually, smashed up) my HP printer and bought a Canon instead. I won’t buy any other items from these greedy bastards.
I’m thinking many people on here thought they would sign up get the ink and then cancel and presto they have free ink? Ha ha, the corps never enter an agreement where they lose, before I signed up and was buying generic ink brands they seemed to have some control over these brands because I had printing problems, forced play to buy into their product , I have to ask do I really own the printer?They’re a crafty bunch!
I’ve had instant ink for about 7 years. My printing habits before the subscription were few and far between. I would buy a cart for 30$ and print a few pages and then not print anything for a couple months. Then I would need to print a page and the ink would be dried up. It got to the point of spending 30$ every time I needed to print something. Enter Instant Ink. My ink is replaced once every three years and never dries out. I can print whenever I need to with no worry. All for 12$ a year. It’s been a wonderful service for my limited printing needs. One less thing to worry about.
HP is becoming way to intrusive with their instant ink program. They keep track of every page and document type you print. So much for any privacy anymore. I print a lot of financial documents and I certainly don’t need HP watching what I print. I should be able to print what I want when I want without HP keeping track of this. You may not even be able to use the printer if you are not connected tot he internet and/or logged into your HP account. I have specifically bought HP printers in the past but this will be my last HP printer, if I choose to keep it. I think I may just return it to Costco so I can buy another Brand. GREAT Job HP for Alienating your long time customers.
Do NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THIS SERVICE. We do not use our printer very often, but we kept paying that monthly fee until one day I realized I hadn’t been sent the black ink I needed. When I cancelled, I learned that I could not use the printer until I replaced the HP-provided colored cartridges they had sent with store-bought ones. I’ll bet I’d paid for those cartridges many times over. A company that would treat its customers this badly cannot be trusted.
It’s a complete scam and canceling could not be made more difficult. Watch your credit card statements, MONTHS after you thought you were out. HP will not be reimburse you. File with your credit card company. Good luck.
This is the biggest con job i have ever seen. Bought 2 printers and halfway through trial time they said 1 printer cannot be on the program as it is printing too much. I cannot even us e the printer anymore.
I just canceled my subscription because I just wasn’t printing enough to make it worth it. I was made aware that the ink cartridges in my printer (that are mostly full) will not work. I now have to buy brand new cartridges to print anything. Where is this written in the Terms of Service?? You’re led to believe that this is a risk-free subscription service. It’s definitely not. This program is such a scam. DO NOT ENROLL.
I have been using the Instant Ink program for several years now on several printers, both at home and at work. I have ZERO complaints!
This program is a trap. Once in they make it very hard to get out. You cannot use the products you have already paid for if you try to quit. They remotely control your printer and can lock you out of your own machine. My next printer will be anything but an HP
AVOID THE COME-on
Horrible imementation of a good idea. When there are no glitches and print volumes are constant, it works well. When print volumes spike, yku are left for days without being able to use your printer because the new cartridge has not arrived, and, you can’t use one purchased from the store to hold you over. If you have a hardware glitch with a cartridge, HP is neither sending me a new cartridge, nor can I request one. Furthermore, the troubleshooting guides, the app, the bot, etc, have been useless. Furthermore, I can’t contact a live person. I tried cancelling my subscription, but I have to wait till the end of the month until I can use my printer with store purchased cartridges, but neither will it print with the subscription cartridges. My only solution is to buy a new printer, which won’t be an HP
I have to say….Do Not use this service. Waste of your money. You pay a monthly service fee and if you don’t do a lot of printing then it is not worth the monthly fee. When you cancel, the monthly fee that you paid for your ink, is now non usable. Wouldn’t a person think that the ink should be good since you did pay for it? RIP OFF
So I had a problem with this service that you didn’t even cover; I signed up for the fewest pages/lowest amount because I just don’t print that much. My problems started with HP instant ink saying the printer was low on ink, and mailing out cartridge after cartridge and I didn’t need them. The printer ink levels were fine and I even tried sending this information to HP. I tried to pause my account but then they just shut off my printer and wouldn’t let me print. Huge mistake and such a controlling, manipulative program. I have 4 new cartridges sitting here I can’t use. I can’t use my printer. I don’t understand how they can be allowed to control so much. I’ll never buy an Hp machine of any kind again.
I agree with the comments below. Absolutely not worth it, and such a waste of time and money. I realized that I wasn’t using it enough to justify the cost so I canceled it. I guess I didn’t realize that when I did, I would not be able to use the ink cartridges they sent me. What a waste of time and money. HP lost a customer.
Instant ink is TOTALLY a scam!!! They slipped it in during printer installation, and by the time I got around to reviewing their billing a few months later, discovered they were charging me ONE DOLLAR PER PRINTED SHEET several months in a row! And OF COURSE they kept loading me up with “future use” cartridges– WHICH THEY SABOTAGED THE INSTANT I CANCELLED!!!
They even have the gall to demand that I “RETURN THE UNUSED CARTRIDGES OR BE CHARGED FULL RETAIL”
Month after month, HP STOLE MONEY FROM OUR 501c!!!
DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS FRAUDULENT SCHEME!! We had a free introductory period (at the beginning, who needs much ink anyway.) My printer ran out of ink, none was shipped to me. Then, I cancelled the subscription and they sent me a cartridge. Of course, a cancelled subscription renders the ink they send you obsolete. Bottom line is, you cannot print using the instant ink cartridge without a subscription. Furthermore, cancelled subscriptions interfere with the ability of the computer to communicate with the printer (at least with the instant ink cartridge installed.) You are better off purchasing ink through a mail service or at an office supply store. My computer blocks chats regarding the printer and I cannot get in touch with anyone at instant ink by telephone. TOTAL SCAM WITH BIG BROTHER TENDENCIES — THINK CHINESE DICATATOR-LIKE REGIME CONTROL!! INSANE!!
I hate this app. My printer keeps giving me an error message that I cannot use my cartidges because my printer is not connected to my HP Instant Ink Account. I have an Instant Ink Account, but the software does not recognize it. The trouble shooter tells me to shut down and restart my printer up to five time. This does not fix it.
HP Instant Ink
Beware
Once you cancel your HP Instant Ink subscription your ink cartridges will no longer work. So if you just received a new supply of Instant Ink cartridges after paying your monthly fees, they will not work after your subscription is cancelled.
I guess if you don’t mind being locked in to HP this program may work for you.
mr hewlett and mr packard started making tech devices in a garage many many years ago.
I have bought more hp printers than I can count, along with several laptops.
The printers have an uncanny sense of timing, typically becoming non-functional just after the 1-year warranty expires.
Like every Brother, Canon, Epson, and Kodak printer I have had.
The money flows to the company through the ridiculously expensive ink.
And my guess is the hp ink program began when some dark-thinker realized hp could offer lower replacement prices for ink if you get a monthly subscription.
What is not quite as clear is this: even if your printer is off-line/idle/sitting on a closet shelf as one of mine was for 13 months, hp reaches into your bank account and steals from you month after month after month.
And then, after conversations with several women operators who each time absolutely guarantee you it will stop, it does not.
And then when they admit to the error, they refund only about half of what they stole.
And then it starts again.
I’ve been a loyal HP customer for over 20 years. Since I need a new laser printer, I assumed I’d buy a basic HP. Fortunately, while I was reading reviews, I stumbled across the “subscription based service, and the problems associated with it. The nether region will freeze a thick coat of ice before I ever purchase another HP product. I’m presently looking at a little Brother monochrome laser printer that has a usb connection, comes with a 700 page cartridge, and doesn’t monitor or control the number of pages I print or don’t print from month to month. The reviews seem to confirm that it’s exactly what I need.
Is nice while you’re on free trial but after that it charges you to use the printer monthly and it adds up to me more expensive than just buying the ink your self. I had it on the cheapest plan for a year and after canceling my ink cartridges still had some left and exactly the day the plan was over my printer got error and didn’t wanted to print it said need instant ink service to print with the cartridges. Had to go buy new ones to see if that can work. Basically I just payed one year of service to print with my printer and my own paper. Crazy. Is more trouble to get instant ink so I don’t recommend it at all.
I HATE HEWLETT-PACKARD’s ink policy. I lost control of my own printing and have to bend to their whims. I am taking a loss on the numerous unnecessary ink cartridges that they sent to me but I will take it as a valuable lesson learned.
It’s not worth it at all. Once you start the instant ink you’re pretty much stuck. I’ve had my printer for 2yrs. The whole two yrs I only needed one set of ink sent to me. I did however had to change my subscription a couple times. The reason being is there would be some months I would only print out 1-2 pages. Then other months I was about to cover over my page limit. It was a waste of money. Especially to someone that is on a fixed income. Then on top of that they don’t even have the audacity to let you use what ink you have left. DON’T DO IT!!!!
I didn’t get my replacement ink until I had already purchased a replacement cartridge. I never even use to replacement ink. I’m paid for 3 months & I’m paid until the end of the month, yet I can’t use the 6 month late cartridge. This made me feel like I would NEVER spend another penny on a HP product. I feel like they set this system up to fail. I’m sure I’m not the only one that would like to go back to my Common printers.
Okay so if you do the math, the moderate plan which cost 4.99 for 100 printed pages, right. Well that calculates out to 4.99/100 = .0499 / page. The overage cost $1/20 pages, which calculates out to.05/page – that is if you actually print out 20 pages. so if you printed an extra 100 pages it will cost you $5 – .01 more than your subscription.
To that I gotta say Woow
Do you know basic math? $5 for 100 pages is 5 cents a page – NOT 50 cents LOL
Donna Dee… nowhere does it say 50 cents! I see “.0499” and “.05”. They both round to 5 cents or 0.05 dollars!
The HP Instant Ink is a big rip off. I’ve had the service for several years and they never sent me new ink cartridges. So what am I paying $2.99 a month for? They have total control over your printer. It’s my printer…..not theirs! It’s “big brother” controlling your printer. It’s cheaper to buy your ink on Amazon. Don’t let them fool you into thinking it’s a good idea. IT’S NOT!!!
Agree with your comment wholeheartedly.
HP failed to send ink cartridge twice! After the second time I was done. I have problems with my printer since I cancelled the service.
You are spot on I just spent 40 minutes on chat with HP Instant ink and we don’t see the same picture. It is MY printer, it is MY paper, and I paid for the ink, MY ink, so where do they get off charging me over usage charges for using the things I pay for. I don’t get and they did not see it my way. Where does a machine or another person who does not know me have the right to charge me for using MY things. Basically if I stay on the program I have to be careful how I use MY own printer. Yeah the over usage charge happened once because I was doing a birthday book BUT… this is wrong. So I will be cancelling MY subscription.
I have had at least 20 ink cartridges sent to me. I print only full page photos so it works out great for $120 a year .Because 2 ink cartridges cost $60 at wal mart.
I totally agree that it is a rip-off. I went 6 months without printing more than 2 or 3 pages a month and one month I had to print a large document and was charged $30.00. And try discontinuing the service. I finally had to cancel my credit card to get them to stop charging it.
This was the worst decision I’ve made. The ink NEVER came on time and i had to order my own from Amazon since I live very far from an office supply store. I can’t even disconnect from the internet and use my own printer! They just cut me off after I said I didn’t want to renew the instant ink process. If they’re so good at monitoring the # of pages I’m printing, they would’ve sent me out cartidges in time. I’m donating this printer and switching brands. horrible horrible for me, that is.
I totally agree. After the first shipment, they never sent me any ink, even when my black ink ran out. There is no number to call, so I you must sent an email to support. After one week, no one had responded. They have a chat option if you are contacting them during business hours, so I opened a chat. I told them I was out of black ink, and asked them to please send me the ink and after that I wanted to cancel my subscription. I was already $60.00 in at this point, and no ink. I was told that if I canceled, my ink would be inactivated and I would not be able to use it. This has soured my against HP in general. Looking for a new printer, and it won’t be HP.
I have read about 30 comments below and my conclusion is that those of you who complain about the program did not read the small print to see how the program works. You are buying a certain number of prints per month. As long as you have paid for the current month you can use the cartridges you have been sent on the program and Pay extra for printing over the max number of pages you paid for. You are not buying the ink. The ink cartridges do not belong to you. Once you cancel the program you cannot use the rest of the ink. You need to purchase cartridges that are not in this program. The rollover limit is one months worth of pages allowed on the program you have purchased. Once you opt out of the program all printing is not available to you on this program including the rollover pages you might have.
I hope this helps people understand how the program works. Discloser…i have not yet used the program but from reading the negative comments I can clearly see most are made by people who think they own the ink once it is sent to them.
I agree. I just canceled a couple of weeks ago. I print quite a bit but not using that much ink, they don’t charge for ink usage. They charge per page. A whole different story.
I also agree. Once you stop the service, you have to immediately go out and purchase cartridges for you can no longer use your printer until you remove their ink cartridges and put in new retail purchased ink cartridges.
Absolutely true! My debit card was stolen, and because I had not changed the number with HP Instant Ink, they held my damn printer HOSTAGE! I couldn’t print anything (even though I had been paying for TWO YEARS!!!) until I changed my debit card number with them so they could continue taking my money. Now I have cancelled HPII, and they will not allow my printer to print. I am taking this HP printer to the DUMP and never buying another of their products EVER! What a rip-off! And talk about Big Brother!!!
This is a total rip off! I cancelled my Instant Ink plan and two hours later my printer is unusable for anything – there is an error code flashing on the screen and absolutely no information online and no help available. I will NEVER buy another HP product again!
EXACTLY! HP instant ink surveillance program might seem good to people (on the surface) but do you really want your printing capability to be monitored and contrlled by HP, or any other company? It’s just the beginning people. You should be very reluctant to willingly allow this type of invasion into your home or office.
I have been on the instant ink program for about 2 years. I thought it was a good program, but when my printer stopped print color, I decided to use it for just B&W printing, so I purchased a B&W cartridge from Staples, and stopped my Instant Ink account. When I tried using my printer, I couldn’t because HP had taken over my printer and I got the message that I could’t use it until the I re-joined the Instant ink program. I’m am now buying a new printer. Be careful what you let HP do.
Agreed. Not worth the effort. If you cancel, then the service prevents cartridges from printing.
I joined, and I am going to try it. Thanks about the tip about Amazon.
I had canceled my hp insta print with HP and still could not print on my HP It was no problem do not want anyone controlling a printer that I bought, took it to the my dumpster in my apartment complex and threw it away , I will never buy anything HP I have a new Printer that I control not the manufacturer
I have had nothing but good to say. I have been a member for three years. I wanted to print a 40 page color document (life story) for my family, 50 copies. I signed up for the $15 per month. The cost was $1.20 per document in color. I called to let them know and they mailed ink ahead enough to finish the job. You can’t beat that deal anywhere. They kept sending me more ink even though I am on the $5 plan and I have 8 cartridges in my drawer (worth more than $200). I called them and they said not to worry, just keep them. I would like to find someone who can use them.
By chance do you know how to cancel ? I’ve been trying for days now to no avail. Very frustrating. Thanks for any help!
You must not use your printer that often. I recieve my cartridges.
Talk about bar games and this is right up there with the best. Always needing money!! Unmanageable as HP is keeping score. Right in the middle of big print project and Darn HP wants more money. Then get on chat and the robot on other end wins when you subscribe to higher priced plan. I’m done with HP Instant ink!
PLEASE KNOW that if you cancel your subscription, and still have the ink cartridges in your printer EVEN IF THEY ARE COMPLETELY FULL! Your printer will NOT work until you go to the store and by NEW ink cartridges that you didn’t get from their “subscription”!!!! Your printer will not print ANYTHING. It will tell you to go to hpinstantink.com so they can tell you exactly what I just said. Unless you are subscribing for the LIFE of your printer, DO NOT DO IT!!!
Yes, I agree that HP should make this very clear up-front. If this is known, then it is best to cancel the service when your ink is low. Why would you conclude that you need to subscribe for the life of the printer??
I just got hit with that. I was so pissed that they didn’t make this point clear UP FRONT! At the very least, a pop-up box when you cancel the service! Now I have to leave work, go buy ink cartridges, waste time and gas so I can complete my work. Grrrrr.
THAT^^^
WOW is that true? You mean if I went to Best Buy or Walmart the HP ink will not work on my HP printer? I want to buy some today and wait for my HP subscription to come, or if I want to cancel after I buy some I saw in the store for a good price I cannot use it?
Yes, the instant ink cartridges that you didn’t buy (they come with the 1st month’s subscription) stop working. How does that mean a sub is for the life of the printer? Just know that you need your own cartridges on hand when you cancel.
I agree they should be clearer about this. Also, it’s annoying that you can’t keep the set that comes with the printer un-used. You need to install the starter cartridges to even order the instant ink.
Sounds like it’s only a bad deal if you have surprise 200+ page jobs or have an ink shipping snafu. Usually if I had that big a job buying my own cartridges, I’d have to buy an extra set to get through it anyway.
The best deal is if you print some photos. If you’re just doing text, get a B&W laser printer. Or just get a $60 B&W laser along with the instant ink $3 plan for the best of both worlds. $60 is less than that one set of ink cartridges.
Yep, I have lots of cartridges left but had to stop subscription due to our purchasing cards being shut off.. Now I’m screwed unless I keep it current on my personal card.
I cancelled instant ink in august 2017 bought new cartridges at walmart and it still says I have to connect to instant ink.
Thanks for this info! I only just learned about this and thought it might be worth it, but clearly it is not. I appreciate the warning!
Agree -This program is not effective in my experience and a rip off. I also did not receive cartridges twice, Had to call to finally get them sent and finally canceled only to learn I have to buy new cartridges even though I have new full ones! I have never written a review or responded in a blog but felt compelled to share my experience . I am recently retired and absolutely disgusted the terms of this program. Whatever happened to real customer service?
Amen Tina, awesome advice.
This seemed like a great way to help my parents who were constantly running out of ink. Unfortunately, I ended up having to replace cartridges outside the subscription anyway. Waste of money.
This makes no sense to me. I signed up for Instant Ink so I could print a couple of thousand photos on paper I bought from Epson at pennies on the dollar of retail. I have the paper all I need is a lot of expensive ink if I have to but cartridges. I also need to print a few electronics service manuals so I can more easily use them at my workbench for microelectronics repairs, my computer is tied up with images from my microscope and there just is not room for another laptop on the bench as well as not good to reduce my video repair images to provide an area for the service manuals.
How do I cancel? Been trying for awhile now, and of course can’t ever get an actual human on the phone!
Horrible customer service. They will demand a credit card to charge monthly. If you use a pre-paid card and the money on it runs out, they will make it so you cannot use your own printer at home until they get paid the overage that THEY incurred themselves by overcharging your pre-paid card! I’m being held hostage by the HP police. I CANNOT USE MY PRINTER!!!! ONE BIG SCAM!!!
Horrible customer service!! Just to be informed I looked up “service.” Five choices among noun and verb. One offering is male mating with female!! I will accept your hardware as functional but you can omit the “service” part!! Please cancel my HP Instant Ink program!! Like I asked you several months ago!!
I love this service! I despise buying ink cartridges ($40-$50+) for 15-20 pages, and the ink dries up 3 months later when I go to print one page. For me it is worth it for home use. I have the low plan and my ink arrives well before the current cartridge is out. I have it set up on automatic pay with my debit card and I don’t have to get irritated when the ink dries up and I have to go to the store when I wasn’t planning on spending an extra $50 on ink. For me it is sooooo worth it.
Obviously you’re not on a budget… kudos for you… but like many of us it’s not the same… why aren’t you allow to use the printer you bought even if you don’t have the “instantink service”??? I was paying for 2.99$ a month because I don’t print like that… they only sent me ink one time and it’s understandable because like I said I don’t print like that… I cancelled the service and it will take up to my next bill cycle for them to cancel and my rollover pages I have will be taken away. So this month I can’t use my printer… neither my rollover pages… and will receive a bill to pay for something i didnt use… is it fair???
Same here! I’ve had it for over 2 years and no problems…
Hi Nancy, I have this service, your printer will work if you buy store bought ink.
Well, i wasn’t using the printer for a number of months. I am on the program. It will no longer print. Checked the cartridges and they….dried out!!!! The program will not replace since I have not printed 50 pages yet and can’t print pages without ink. Want to buy store bought and get out of the program but now worried based on comments that they will disable my printer and not allow me to use it at all. Ugh! Any advice out there?
Nancy, you can always use your printer. But not the Instant Ink cartridges if you do not pay the service.
Nancy, you say about being on a budget and not being able to use a service that you canceled because they took your rollover pages when they canceled the service as you requested and is it fair? Yes, its fair. Netflix charges you as long as your subscription is active, whether you watch it or not, whether you watch 1 show a month or binge watch 24/7. When you cancel, you cancel. You don’t get credit for unused time, roll over time, etc. They cancel your service and you can’t use Netflix anymore. Same with the HP ink service. you cancel your subscription to the ink, then you can’t print anymore until you go purchase your own cartridges that aren’t a part of the subscription.
I’ve had the service since 2016. I always get my cartridges before I need them and I’ve never had a problem with them. I’m on auto pay, so I’ve never had a problem with that. I use the 300 sheet subscription. Certain times of the year, I print a LOT of pages, so it helps me a lot. I actually don’t have anything bad to say about the program except while chatting with customer service one day, it took a half hour to clear up a two minute issue. I hope I never have to call or chat with them again!!! That’s for sure! My cartridges are $48 and $52 each last time I checked, so it’s well worth it to me.
I feel bad for those who had issues with the problem.
To all of you comparing printing services to NETFLIX, please stop. Once is a streaming entertainment service (app), the other is a home-based printer that requires paper, ink products to work and could impact someone’s business. These are what is called “click charges” – every time you use your printer you MUST stay within your allotted print pages allowed or you could be paying a good chunk ($1.00/page) of cash without knowing. If you are running a business and the print needs are inconsistent, this is not the service for you because ink dries, HP is slow to replace (if at all), and you MUST constantly check your monthly printed pages. If, you have the time (running a small business?) to keep checking on how many pages you’ve used to make sure you are within your allotted number of print pages. NETFLIX will cancel your subscription because it is an APP. A printer is not an app and should not be held hostage when things go awry – payment, wrong ink, or malfunction. Reading the “fine print” still does not explain “real-life” situations. It is a true waste of money and time (babysitting your page count montly).
Do your research before signing up for the hp instant ink scam.
After using the service you can buy your own BUT you have to buy a full set. You can’t have the one you purchased and an instant ink one installed. Won’t let you print. Buy both and your set.
Do I have to use Instant Ink when I buy a new HP printer with Instant Ink option?
Hey Richard! No you don’t. They only have it as an option but you can use OEM and compatibles as well. I hope this helps. Cheers!
It’s an option… you won’t be able to use Printer if you don’t use their services after you enroll and can’t pay the monthly charge… only can use Printer if you buy ink from somewhere else
you guys who are badmouthing it probably didnt read the terms. You cant have the ink from the program mixed with ink you purchase on your own. at the $2.99 rate, thats LESS than ONE REPLACEMNT PACK of ink bought anywhere USA.. Drawbacks are that you’re going to need to know how much you print, and you need to figure that out before enrolling. You can use ANY INK you want in HP printers. You just cant mix the program ink and store bought together or it will send an error message and you wont be able to print until you get ALL the same brand ink set back up with ZERO program ink mixed into the chamber. DUH! Some of you need to learn how to read a contract.
No. And I recommend that you do not sign up for it. In addition to the difficulties that others have mentioned, when you sign up for instant ink it will turn the cartridges that came with your printer into instant ink cartridges, so that when you do cancel and try to put them back in to replace the instant ink cartridges they send you, it will not work. You have to go out and again buy all new cartridges separately. Just to be clear, they will hijack the cartridges that came with your printer. No amount of begging for decent customer service will likely yield satisfaction. You just have to go spend another 100 bucks on ink at the store. Or maybe $100 on a printer from a competitor…
I’ve been using it for 7 months and found that it’s saved me money. I was forever buying cartridges for my HP Officejet 4650 printer which don’t seem to last 5 minutes. In the winter I opted for the 100 pages a month sub because this is when the society of which I’m secretary meets. During the summer I reduced it to 50 pages. Although much cheaper for my usage, I’ve now cancelled because of very poor service. I started to get an “incompatible cartridge” message and after spending hours looking on the Support pagesI filled out the Contact form. I waited in vain for someone to contact me and after several days I cancelled my sub.
It’s a total scam. I am also held hostage until I buy my own cartridge. I have been overpaying for this service for over 2 years, as I ended up not printing clise to ehat I paid for. My card info was stolen and they were unable to charge me this month. My daughter tried printing her homework and thats when I found out I am now held hostage. Even though I paid for 300 pages last month that I didn’t use, I cannot print at all. So they just took my money without providing services promised. The online chat with Pia made no sense. You think your paying for ink, but no pages. Pages in which you pay for on a printer you paid for. They only provide the ink, so you think you paid for the ink. Guess again. I have ink in my printer and a new one that is now useless along with my printer. Sounds like fraud more than anything. They tell you they can’t help you without a credit card, they have no corporate office, the supervisor’s can’t nor will help. I will not sign up again nor recommend this service. Beware!
I’ve been just doing some home accounting, trying to figure out ways to save money since my landlady put the kibosh on my Airbnb. Decided to look into this little friendly service. As far as I can tell when I do the math, it seems it would be cheaper to go off of plan. I started off at the medium rate and didn’t really use it enough so switched down to $2.99 plan when I found out you can change plans instantly, if you need to print more pages than your plan, by just going online or calling them. (A great way to avoid overages.) I am a little confused by how many pages each cartridge is supposed to be able to print. It seems that in 2 years, I have only replaced cartridges once! That seems weird. But it also makes it seem like I don’t need the service, since I signed up mainly to avoid annoying errand of replacing printer cartridges which I seemed constantly to be doing with my other printer. So my question to the community is the following: is there a difference in the specs of cartridge you buy retail (e.g. prints less pages)? Also, re the very helpful comment that when you stop service, you can’t print, I obviously need to be prepared with back up cartridges in hand as the old one becomes depleted. All of which leads me back to the question of whether it is worth the hassle to save $20 a year (my guesstimate for how much extra I am paying, although it is pretty hard to figure exactly as the whole “pages” thing seems to be a subterfuge). Any numbers, experiences, recommendations–as long as you don’t call me an idiot–are welcome. Currently, I seem to print about 35 pages a month on average. That could change on a dime though as I am in gig-job economy limbo. Thanks in advance!
I stumbled across your question while reading reviews – regarding cartridge capacity, HP states on their Website that the subscription cartridges do indeed have a larger capacity than even the retail XL ones.
So are you saying, HP, that I buy your printer with this service with a free trial, with the monthly ink, with my printing usage being monitored? I do not like this framework because the service is only as good as maintaining my subscription and the usage of the printer that I have paid for along with printing paper. In other words, I would have to update my credit card information in order to use my printer under the ink service? I had high hopes that this would better my personal situation. But instead, I’ve wasted money on this program along with the product. I have decided to look for possible and stable solutions that can better my position with myself and the people I interact on a daily basis. The customer service is horrendous to where it be little the common man instead of offering solution in a professional manner. I for one will not take this form of indigency and I will no longer give a positive recommendation to my clients.
Amen, RUN!
How much does hp charge for their cartridges under this plan? Are they competetive?
You don’t pay anything for the cartridges under the plan. They ship you a set of XXL ones that only work with the subscription and send you more sets when they predict you’ll need them. If you want to cancel or have a billing snafu and can’t wait to print, then you’re back to buying your own cartridges, the instant ink ones are technically “HP property” and won’t work if the sub isn’t working.
You pay for the service not the cartridges. $2.99, $4.99 or $9.99. You keep it connected to the internet and it talks to the company and sends cartridges when you start getting low.It is based on how many pages you print and it tracks and charges accordingly if you go over. They spell it out pretty clearly, but read the fine print. I love it, by my eyes are wide open to the pitfalls.
Instant Ink customer service is the worst of the worst! Lengthy hold times. People that you can’t understand. Promises made, thought never kept. Terrible!!! Really, really, really terrible!!!!
Curious…I signed up and got my free first order…when the black ink I had ran out, I still had one HP ink cartridge I bought at Costco. I figured I’d use this before using the cartridge from the Instant Ink program…but the Costco bought HP cartridge would work…sheet came out blank…figured the printer, 3 years old, was dying…happened to take Costco cartridge out and try Instant Ink cartridge, which is slightly larger than even the standard 61XL cartridge..it worked immediately…Question..can HP shut down an ink cartridge, even one of their own, if you are signed up to the Instant Ink program? Never happened before, so it seems more than just a coincidence.
Yes Ron they can and do. I needed a replacement HP printer (warranty), and the instant ink cartridges from the original printer do not work in the replacement printer. We found this out while going through seemingly unending troubleshooting on the replacement for the SECOND time -when the callback from a Case Manager promised did not materialize. We had to break out a new InstantInk cartridge to try in the replacement printer, and we tested with it. Unfortunately, the printer they sent us as a replacement doesn’t work, so now we’re waiting on yet another one….”ma’am we only replace with refurbished units for warranty” – obviously not refurbished well…we’ll see what happens tomorrow.
We have invested hours (no exaggeration) working with their Tech Support, who are very nice, in the past two weeks. However, I finally had to get angry to get it escalated to someone who would send out yet the 2nd replacement! I am so disappointed in HP, as everything has to be triaged through Instant Ink first, who can’t do anything about the printer issues (if you are an II subscriber). This just lengthens the less than stellar service “experience.”
Be very careful with the Instant Ink. If you print EXACTLY the number of pages you sign up for, then it’s a good deal. They monitor your usage and ship ink cartridges well before you need them, so you’ll never run out. BUT, if you use more, or less than the amount you signed up for, the program quickly becomes very expensive, especially if you go over the number of pages. For example, if you sign up for the 100 page/month plan, you can only roll over a maximum of 100 pages. So, if you’ve been using an average of 20 pages/month for 10 months, you paid for 800 pages of ink that you didn’t use. Now, go over 200 pages in one month, and you’ll end up paying exorbitant prices for the overage – even though you paid for much more than you’ve used. The bottom line is that for most people whose usage is variable, you’re better off buying ink yourself. Also, and this is important, if you’ve signed up for the instant ink program, and change your mind and cancel it, you better have replacement cartridges, that you purchased yourself – not through instant ink – on hand because HP believes that they own the cartridges in your printer and will turn them off. So, you’ll have to replace them with your own cartridges in order to keep printing.
Tried the Instant Ink Service and learned the company uses page counts, not actual ink usage. This renders the service totally useless. I canceled my service and HP disabled my computer. Can I replace the Instant Ink cartridges with regular cartridges. I learned the printer will not accept unbranded replacement cartridges.
Now… that’s something new to me… so I bought a printer that I can’t use unbranded ink at that if I don’t have the service!!! My printer is disabled because of my bill… you can’t print unless you have their cartridges… they monitor your printer and know if the ink is the one they sent you
Sorry, I meant HP disabled my printer, not my computer.
Exactly… I still have new ink in my printer and I can’t use it… I have to buy new ink from amazon so it can print… total scam
I tried signing up for hpinstantink and because the Wi Fi was not operational I was sent a case number and phone numbers and web addresses to get back to them to finish signing up. When I tried getting back to them all I got was an automated statement which didn’t solve the problem. NO human support!! Lots of wrong departments (automated statements and “holds”). If a big business like HP can’t get their act together I decided NOT to deal with them. All that time and effort wasted. I think many big businesses are succumbing to robot ism and disregard to customers.
Reading these comments does not leave me with a good feeling about this. My printer ran out of ink over the weekend and they have yet to send me new cartridges. I was going to give them a call today, but now I hope I don’t get the robot runaround
I have had very good service from go with this program it does take a little bit for them to get you the ink. It is not overnighted delivery.
I’ve been enrolled in the instant ink program for nearly 4 years. I was paying the monthly fee, ranging from $3.34/month to $6.53. My black ink was replaced once. So, I paid roughly $155. I can get an ink cartridge at Office Depost (one with extra ink) for $40. When I cancelled, the ink in my printer, that was still good, and not depleted would not work any more. I received the message that I needed to renew my subscription with HP Instant Ink in order to print.
Total rip off! Don’t do it!
Amy, the ink in your printer is part of a subscription. You don’t get to keep their ink because it’s not the regular or XL ink that you can buy in stores or online. Their ink can last for several months! I know they last for a long time because when I first signed up last year in September I received my first reorder of ink in December. To solve your problem, go buy new cartridges at the store or online, take out the Instant Ink cartridge(s), and return any used or unused HP Instant Ink cartridge(s) back to them. I can guarantee your printer will print again. Before I subscribed to the Instant Ink monthly subscription, I purchased HP ink in many stores, and my printer worked perfectly fine.
The overwhelming number of negative comments about instant ink ordering process has made me think it is not worth the time and frustration of the program. I have just bought a HP 6970 and installed the packaged ink cartridges that came with the printer. At this point I have NOT signed up for instant ink delivery. So my question is when my ink supply runs low or out will the ink cartridges I can get from online or Best Buy work? Since I have not given HP my credit card info, seems all I would have to do is send back the originals and use my own. Does this pass the common sense test?
It’s a total scam. I am also held hostage until I buy my own cartridge. The only way to stop this process is to have my credit card company fight to stop the billing. I have cancelled the service for three months and they still bill my CC. BTW i was suppose to get three months free service. Tell everyone not to use this service. The printer i purchased just over a year ago. They have replaced it twice. The printer just stopped working. May have to go back to my old reliable Epson.
Demoman, when I first signed up for HP Instant Ink, I got 3 months for free, and I got billed $0.00 . The problem why your printer stopped is because you have Instant Ink cartridges in your printer, and you haven’t returned any used or unused ink back to them. I bet once you follow the steps above, and purchase new ink cartridges that your printer will work, and you won’t feel like an hostage to HP Instant Ink.
I really was hoping to try this program.. i dont consider you not being able to use their cartridges to print a scam.. its actually quiet smart if you think about it? My ink runs me anywhere between $30-$60. For what i print i can maybe get 30 pages before my color runs out. So, i was thinking about signing up for 100 pages for 5$ give or take fees… In this case im glad they go by pages versus ink cartridges otherwise it would be pointless. my only fear is.. technical support, which, i have been using twitter to collect information from hp.. and they have been going back and forth with me for a few days, including the weekend. what other issues? i saw credit card information, and also credit cards still being charged.. what about timing.. how often are you receiving ink.. i can print 30 pages in one day and be out of ink? does that mean i have to wait 2,3, days? a week? im just curious because that will determine for me if its worth it. if i run out in a day and it takes a week? that means i can roughly get 2-3 inks a month? mmm idk. $30 for ink 30 pages.. or more ink for 100 pages a month for $5? im so up in the air!
Jessica, I works for me. I don’t know how many pages can be printed per cartridge. I print a LOT of color pages and it well worth it not to have to purchase the cartridges. I have never been without ink. Every time I replace the cartridge when informed, that same day I receive an email that particular cartridge has been shipped. NEVER missed a beat. Because I am ok paying by the page, I try not to print less than half page, but I will if I need one word.
This is a complete rip-off! I installed the trial ink that came with the printer. However, I was still charged a 5 page overage last month (my 1st month on the plan). I then realized this was a scam and cancelled it. However, they continued keeping track and 1 month later I was charged yet another overage and they claim that NOW my subscription is cancelked.. I’ve still never installed their ink and was using the trial ink that came with the printer. How is that Right? I have tried, but I can’t get a hold of anyone to help. It will be interesting to see if I start having issues with the printer. Oh, and don’t forget to send back any unused ink csrtrudges, or they will keep billing you!!
That’s just wrong. You shouldn’t be charged overages if the instant ink cartridges aren’t installed. I’d try to get the credit card company to help.
I’m still using the starter/trial cartridges and haven’t opened the 1st set of instant ink. I’m “subscribed” but have never been charged for months now. That’s how it is supposed to work.
I LOVE THE HP INSTANT INK SERVICE!!! Have not had one negative experience. I have never run out of ink. For the past two years, every month except one I printed my 300 copies. I may start the month off slow and end up having to print 500 copies, I do not worry about ink. I am thrilled that I don’t have to go to the store and purchase ink. I believe what I pay for overages balances out when compared to purchasing the cartridges. IT WORKS FOR ME!!!! It does pay to read information before you purchase/sign on because like most things, you don’t know about what it doesn’t cover until you have an issue.
I agree, Edna. The plan rules are very clear and the system works as intended. The service may or may not be cost-effective for some users, but then people should think about the cost per page and sign up only if it is a good fit. If you are paying for 100 pages and only using 20, then you have made a bad decision. It’s not HP’s fault. If you choose the wrong plan and get hit with a lot of extra charges, then that’s your fault, not HP’s. I am in my third month with the 300 page plan, and so far I believe it is a significantly less expensive way to print than running to Staples to buy new cartridges. In addition, instead of printing everything in draft mode to reduce ink usage, I can print everything in normal quality and get better looking results.
Good luck, trying to cancel the ink subscription after your printer is long gone. it’s a complete scam and canceling could not be made more difficult. Watch your credit card statements MONTHS after you thought you were out.
I am hearing a lot of negatives here. I do not print 50 pages per month so $2.99 a month covers a year at $35.88 and if I purchased two 61 XL cartridges I would pay about $70, which would cover almost 2 years. I believe if you go through HP you also receive a $20 credit===Someone please explain to me how this is a BIG rip off
I only use about 1 to 5 pages a month. No color. I was thinking what if I start printing photos? Will it be worth it. It is not worth if for me to print 5 pages one month and not printer activity for two months and still have to pay the low cost plan of $2.99 a month. Still printing photos would not add up to it. I really don’t want them monitoring my activity. I think it is privacy invasion. Still I am confused. It is convenient not to have to go to Walmart. May be better to go to the library that is 2 blocks away and 10 cents a page. I never know when I am going to Walmart. I may go the same day the ink came. It sound like a rip off at the same time as convenience.
If you print photos every month then the subscription should be a good deal. I think part of the reason for it is to encourage people to print more photos. They put all this research into photo printing, but when a few 8×10 photos goes through $60 worth of ink, nobody wants to print them.
For 5 pages a month of B&W, you’re better off with a cheap laser printer that won’t dry out on you.
You’ll have FREE INK for life, thanks to free tier of 15 page/month with 1€/10pages in case of overage.
They just monitor how many pages you print. Also you can connect the printer to the internet say once a week and all week’s jobs will be accounted on ‘connection day’. So I’ll go for nstant-ink. In case you have a big one-time job you could go to the copy-shop or to the public library and print it (that’s because once you switch to a paid plan you cannot go back to free tier)
18 days since order and the ink has not yet arrived! Very Frustrating!!!!!!!!!
This company provides the worst service ever – wish I had never bought it.
Printer stops printing, when it thinks there is not enough ink.
I cant even print B/W because it deems Cyan is out, which it is not. It might be low, but could still print.
I live far from an ink supplier and cant print important meeting notes.
Instant Ink was not even shipped until 12 days after ordering it and has not yet arrived 18 days later.
What kind of service is this?
I DON’T RECOMMEND HP for anything!
I currently run my printer with the black cartridge, and my printer runs fine. I get an occasional error message that states “You are printing with a single cartridge,” and I hit the OK button on the screen, and the printer continues to print in black and white. I also could print when either color was low or one was completely out. I turn off the printer, unplug it from the outlet for 2-3 minutes and plug it back up, turn it back on, and print a test page. This works for me.
My old Epson would ask if I wanted to make black from a combination of colors, if my black cartridge ran out. Since I hardly used color printing, this worked out well for me. It gave me time to buy another black cartridge. Since the Epson, neither the Kodak (great until the paper feed stopped working), or now an inexpensive HP 2540 All-in-one, do this color mixing.. I do more scanning than printing, so I can post photos on social media, but do need to print an occasional document. I certainly don’t need the InstantInk program. My beef with HP is that nothing will print if even one color is low, or the black is low.
I currently run my printer with the black cartridge, and my printer runs fine. I get an occasional error message that states “You are printing with a single cartridge,” and I hit the OK button on the screen, and the printer continues to print in black and white.
I have used an HP printer for years. I had to finally buy a new one this year and it has come with an eligibility for instant ink. I am reading/researching to decide if it is worth it for me, and which plan might suit me best. I have read several threads on these forums, and several other forums. There are some common themes.
Clearly many people have not read the terms and conditions, or basically do not understand how the scheme works. They signed up and only later find out how some of the issues/features affect them. THEN they complain at being ripped off, or that the scheme is unsuitable for them. It is a subscription service – if you think you might like it, read exactly what it entails before joining up. It is not simply a “discounted ink, automatically sent ” service – you pay according to how many pages you print, not on how much ink you use.
I completely agree! I pay the $9.99/month. I am a school teacher and the program is golden for me. I considered backing down to fewer copies but changed my mind. I have had this for over a year. My cartridges are always early before I need them. I even lost one and they overnighted one at no charge. I found CS to be terrific. I only paid $79 on Amazon for the printer with three free months. If I quit tomorrow and had to get a new printer, I feel that I have already gotten my money’s worth. I completely understand the frustrations. I did not know it would quit if you stopped the subscription. I don’t like that one page with a single line counts the same as a full solid page, but I still love the program and my eyes are open to its flaws. The company is in it to make money in the end. The printer is super inexpensive and it makes sense for the big brother issues. I have to say again. I LOVE the program anyway. I love how easy the machine copies, scans and prints and as a teacher, it has saved me a fortune. One day, I may go down to $2.99 a month if my copy rates decrease. Some months are heavier than others, but I only went over once. I regret hearing about the problems. But nothing is perfect and the terms explaining that it won’t work without the service should be upfront, if they are not. I like knowing I can print whenever I need to and that I have a cartridge waiting when I need it. The instant ink ones that I get are very large and hold a lot. I would recommend not putting in the disk to set up your computer upon purchase. I got a tip on here to just let my computer search and add it on. I did not get any pop ups or add-ons that I have heard come with downloading from the disk that comes with it. That was great advice. Hopefully, it will help someone. I still think its the best thing going for my needs. I remain a fan.
New to this forum but just signed up for HP Instant Ink for my HP 3637 and there was a FREE option if you print less than 15 pages a month. No monthly charge unless you go over and then $1.00 for the next 10 pages. Free ink under this plan and unused pages will NOT rollover, but that’s okay. My needs are minimal and I bought it strictly for the WiFi option. Fingers crossed it was a good decision. More people will write of a bad experience than a good one, so hope this balances the scales a little!!
The program has worked for me so far. I am retired so opted for the free 15 page/month plan. My previous printer cost $30 but I had to pay a heart-stopping $75 each time I replaced the ink and it was never a convenient time.
With HP most months I am under 15 pages then it is only a dollar for an extra set with some rollover. The cartridges hold more ink so need changing less often and arrive in advance. They let me know if I am about to go over the free set. I was warned by them that I had to keep the printer online to stay with the plan.
It is good to know from the complaints that you need to buy cartridges before stopping the plan.
My only downside so far with HP was about a year ago they announced my free pages would end and I would have to pay for every set. I thought this a bit dubious. Someone must have advised them that they would breach their contract by doing this and it was quickly reversed back to 15 pages free again.
Almost all of the complaints I have read about in comments were covered up front. I usually call rather than use chat. Customer service has always been ok. I have gone over my 300 page limit and been charged what they told me I would be. No problems here.
I cancelled Instant Ink because of having problems with wireless connection. Now it is printing but keeps coming up unable to connect to instant ink. I don’t need it to, but it is now saying that I soon will not be able to print. Do I just need to purchase new ink cartridges? Driving me nuts.
Yes, you need to buy new cartridges, and take out the ones from HP Instant Ink. It seems to me that your continued use of the Instant Ink will incur you charges on your credit card that’s on file. So the best chain of action is to discontinue using HP Instant Ink cartridges and return any used or unused ink to them.
I just purchased the 4650 and will the ink cartridges that come with it… will they work? I’m hoping the ink cartridges are not those associated with their plan for I don’t plan to sign up considering all I just read. I haven’t received my printer, it’s in route and I’m now wondering if the ink it comes with is going to require me to sign up.
I purchased a different printer fa rom you so I can’t guarnatee it works the same, but the cartridges with my printer were not instant ink, they were just normal cartridges. Signing up is completely optional and if you do sign up that is when they will send you the special instant ink cartridges.
As for all the negative comments here, it seems to me most of them are people who didn’t read the terms to understand what they are signing up for. I don’t think it is fair to call something a scam when it works exactly as advertised. The biggest complaint seems to be that when you cancel you can no longer use your cartridges. But you aren’t buying the ink, you are paying for the convenience and if you stop paying you no longer have rights to the ink.
I have been very happy with this service. I print a lot of color full page items and photos and if I was paying for the ink, it would probably cost me $30 a month, and instead I am paying $3 a month and my ink is always delivered well before I need it. The savings aren’t as good if you are printing less ink intensive pages, but I think it is worth looking into. The only downside for me, is I have to be more conscious of what I print and keep track of how many pages I have left for the month, which isn’t always that bad.
I bought an HP 7640. Was looking at instant ink, but all the feedback cleared up many questions
I had an old HP printer before this one & never had a problem printing w just black. Now it’s telling me that the color is low & it will not print only black . Does not print at all.There is still ink in the color cartridge, how can I solve this problem? So am I replacing a cartridge that still has ink left ? How is that cost effective.?!! Oh yeah this printer will not work w çostco filled cartridges. Only HP!!
VERY FRUSTRATING! !!!!!
We just cancelled our subscription because we still ran out of ink due to not receiving a timely shipment and NOW… the ink that we’ve already paid for won’t work. Such a scam!
Simple question.. If you need a new ink cartridge will it be sent to you free or is there is a charge for each black or color cartridge? Yes I see people have commented on how you don’t pay for “ink” but for pages according to the plan you choose.. But as we all know if you have no ink left in the printer then you can’t print a damm thing so what good is having “pages” left on your account?
I would definitely only print under 50 pages a month since all I would use it for is to print coupons or recipes so the $2.99 a month plan would be the route i go for..
As well do these HP Instant Ink cartridges last longer than the standard HP ink cartridges you can buy in any store?
I would be curious to know how much you actually pay for each cartridge and is the black and color cartridges the same price?
I’m thinking of buying a HP Officejet 3830 All-in One Inkjet Printer from Staples where it is on sale for $39.96 which comes with
HP 63 black and tricolor cartridges included and it has wireless and mobile capability.
The fee that they charge includes everything. The cartridges when you need it, the shipping and everything else. The only thing is that you won’t get a new cartridge every month as some people think. It will come to your door on an as needed basis. Also the Instant Ink cartridges are about a XXL or XXL which you cannot buy in any other store.
Cartridges are sent free. I also paid $2.99 a month. In my situation, the printer (purchased 8/2016) indicated a problem. When checking, I found the genuine HP cartridge leaked and I had no replacement on hand. I called instant ink, understanding the predicament, the representative stated that shipment would be “expedited.” It took a week to receive the ink. After 3 days of technical support, it was determined that the HP Office Jet Pro 6968 had a hardware problem and was not fixable. I immediately cancelled instant ink because I wasn’t going to be printing on the printer anymore. I received an email indicating that I was welcome to use the cartridges until the end of the billing cycle, at which time they will cease to work and should be returned. Yes, I will be stuffing all the cartridges in the bag and mailing it back to them. The technical support was difficult to understand, I was transferred from one department to another and had to repeat the situation over and over and over, even if I gave them a case #. Instant ink is not for me and neither is HP.
As I read all the comments, I am still leaning towards purchasing the instant ink plan. I have a question, when on the plan, in any given month, can one exchange the plans cartridges with self purchased cartridges to complete a printing project? Said another way, will on the instant ink cartridges be the only ones to work in the printer when you are on the plan? I am thinking HP will not allow any other cartridges to work.
Yes you can. I’ve had to do that several times where I had to print a surprising amount of colored pages. You can use regular HP cartridges if your Instant Ink cartridges go out quicker than expected, It’ll just let you know that they are not the Instant Ink cartridges but genuine HP cartridges.
ok so here’s how i see it. I buy Envy 5466 in the UK for £46 (with jan sale discount). Sign up for 9 months of free ink (up to 300 pages per month). when 9 months up, I cancel and throw the printer away. Total cost £46 for virtually unlimited ink for 9 months.
Very poor customer service in my opinion. They were either unresponsive to consumer complaints or combative. I will never buy their products again. Beware of their friendly style with advertising without having any true representation to support their friendly style in advertising. It’s a big company showing it will spend a lot of money to advertise and sell it’s product and then not assist the consumer who supported it. .
My question to everyone is,
If I cancel my subscription, can I take my existing cartridges and continue to use them? If not why not?
Why can’t I disconnect the printer from the wi-fi? If the printer is not communcating with HP why wouldn’t it not print?
Also can’t I disconnect the paper counter from transmitting? Does anyone know how that is done?
What needs to be done to cancel the service and continue to use the existing cartridges?
Any update on this issue? Did disconnecting the printer from wifi allow you to continue to use the ink?
I cancelled my service and now ink I bought in the store will not work, Really, so now my printer is useless?
try cutting off web services in your printer settings and see if that helps, set printers default settings and re-install your driver and software.
I just bought the HP8715. I am so confused.
I am trying to set the printer up but it won’t connect to my WiFi?
I do not want to participate in the Instant Ink program. Therefore, should I NOT of inserted the cartridges that came with the printer?
Also, did someone say that I CANNOT use regular ink cartridges purchased at Walmart?
How do I get around the Instant Ink program when setting up my printer?
Thank you!
You do not have to enroll in instant ink, it is entirely voluntary. If you do not enroll, the cartridges purchased at Walmart or anywhere will work fine. When you setup the printer if asked to sign up for instant ink, simply decline and do not connect to the HP website. I had printers that were not signed up for instant ink and they worked fine with store bought ink. For me though the program was worth the cost and I have had zero issues using or receiving instant ink cartridges. To each their own. The following text is from an HP rep on their web site…
“When you are setting up the printer for the first time you must install the SETUP ink cartridges that came with your printer.
If the Setup Cartridges are HP Instant Ink compatible Setup Cartridges you will be given the chance to accept or decline the HP Instant Ink service on the printer’s display before installing the drivers and software onto your PC. So, decline the Instant Ink service and continue with the setup.
If you are unable to bypass, try to restart the printer and check.”
Did anyone use one PC with two printers in the network, one printer uses instant ink, the other uses your own ink cartridge, so that you can choose which printer to print? No problem?
Years gone past I had an Epson printer with those cursed chips. The write up said the chip could read the cartridge ink levels. I was curious as to how this was achieved so I cut open the cartridge, no such level detecting was seen. I then did a test.. Inserted new full chipped cartridges and made the printer print BLANK pages until the printer said there is no ink. . The printer just counts the number of pages and NOTHING to do do with the ink level. The printer then locks out with new full cartridges until you buy new or reset the chips. HP have gone one step further to have your computer read the printed pages or blank and at your cost upload it to HP. As has been said the printer is said to belong to the purchaser but NOT the cartridges. However if you were to refill the HP cartridges then with HP Instant ink they would know you are refilling and then at that point lock off your printer. I don’t like any one being able to know what I do with MY PRINTER, I won’t buy a HP Printer.
This seems like a great deal after reading through the requirements and details. I also read all of this forum and I see similar issues, most of which seems to imply a misunderstanding of paying per print versus Ink. I also see a misunderstanding about stopping the plan and buying your own ink cartridges.
I do not have an issue with the above, I will be concerned about delays in shipping perhaps.
I pay 60.00 if I buy black/colored ink each time and (2.99/mo) 35.00 a year with this plan. If I ONLY get two refills I will have saved: 120. — 35. = 85.00 a year. But I know i use more than 2 of each cartridge a year.
I signed up for this and it was a mistake. Unbelievable rip off. I will just get my cartridges through Amazon.com. You don’t get the cartridges when you need them and if you make a mistake on a document you print and have to reprint it, you get charged for that. This is unreasonable considering how many times documents today need to be redone.
This plan isn’t for everyone. I mean if you print a maximum of 50 pages a month, you’ll spend $36 +tax a year for ink, shipping and it being delivered to your door. But you can go through Amazon and spend more $$ than that throughout the year.
Do not make the mistake of signing up for this awful service. Never received cartridges in circa 18 months. Subsequently had to buy my own HP OEM cartridges. Then got a message on my printer unit ‘incompatible cartridge’, thus rendering my 18 months old printer unit useless. I have cancelled my subscription. Laughably got an email from HP which among other aspects requests that I return used cartridges in their ‘recycle’ bag. Which obviously I had never received. I had no cartridges to return as HP had never sent me any in the first place. Given the device is now useless I’ve had to take it to the tip and dump it. It was not cheap to purchase either.
Since the service is charging you per page wouldn’t it be a smart idea to have two printers? One printer with the service (for heavy ink prints) One printer for backup / light ink prints using traditional cartridges.
I have tossed in my mind if I should quit the plan, but I never do because I have been concerned that I will run into problems. It looks like that is true. The thing is, right now, I am not printing much at all. I am writing a book so I know that I will have to print out pages to look over and proofread and edit as much as I can before submitting it to another editor. It sounds to me as if I just have to keep paying the monthly fee and when I do get to printing, I will be okay to print. I like HP in many ways, compared with some other brands of printers I have used in the past. However, if I buy another HP printer, I most likely will not join this plan. I am on the 50 page plan as I no longer print for my career. I am retired now and I am trying to cut back on printing as much as possible.
Marilyn, you’ll be ok to print when you’re ready to proofread. I would suggest that when you are ready to do some mass printing change your plan to accommodate the extra pages or purchase some non instant ink cartridges to print “offline”. If you do quit the plan you must swap out the cartridges for the printer to work and remember to send HP their cartridges back. Good luck with the book.
I just did some simple math.
Sams Club has the ink in XL sizes for about $136 (CMYK). The yields is rated at ~1600 pages. That’s .085 per page. If I get the “frequent” plan for $10 I get the first 300 for $10 and the remaining 1300 for $52. So for $62 I get 1600 prints. That, of course, assumes I am printing all of that in a month. I’ve never, ever used an XL cartridge in a month. Never.
I don’t know how much I will be printing, but I figure it will occasionally be more than 300 pages and usually a little less. So regardless I’m in for $120 per year, plus my “overage” fees – which I’m going to take a stab at being about $10 to $30 for 3 to 5 months per year.
So more realistically the numbers will be the $120 per year, plus a worst-case-scenario of $150 in overage – or $270 per year.
I would likely be buying two XL sets per year ($136 x 2 = $272) – for all intents and purposes this is the same cost of the Instant Ink program!
The exception is that I’m less likely to economize when I am running low on ink with Instant Ink – which is where HP wants me to be.
Believe me – the accountants and business psychologists at HP have done the math and behavioral analysis. They know their margin and have set the price to keep us in the program because that’s how the value of the business is set now-a-days. It’s all about recurring revenue while keeping your margin intact.
I do take issue with their claim that it “saves you money.” I don’t think your ink spend will be significantly different with, or without Instant Ink.
Now – to throw a monkey wrench into all of this… Factor in Costco refilled cartridges and…
I print many 4×6 full color photo and occasionally print 5×7 and 8×10, The program has saved me a lot of money for color prints. I always buy the photo paper when it is BOGO free.
I bought an inexpensive printer which I print black and white pages and low color amount pages on. It works really well because I can keep my subscription count for heavy color intensive prints.
Save money my rear end! Also, when you cancel your subscription they hold your printer hostage by not allowing you to print with one of the cartridges they already sold you. It is flat out stealing!
DO NOT BUY AN HP PRODUCT.
Technically, you signed up for a “plan”. The ink cartridge is part of that plan. HP did not sell you the cartridge – they provide it for you to use under the agreements of their plan. When you cancelled your subscription to the “plan”, you are no longer paying the fee to use the cartridge that goes with the plan. If you had purchased that same cartridge at the store, it would be much more expensive. Signing up for HP instant ink is not for everyone, which is why it’s important to read all the information before signing up. On the other hand, HP instant ink works great for me. I print 300 full color pages each month – I would spend much more than 9.99 on ink.
All I will say is this: any people who may be considering the HP Instant Ink “plan”, run, I am telling you, RUN, do not walk in the opposite direction. It is a horrible, HORRIBLE SCAM. HP not only makes money off of you, they control you, and I am not exaggerating in the slightest. I will not be redundant with all the reasons why, but just sample some of the comments on this site and it should be reason enough, but it is astonishing to me a company like HP, which has a stalwart reputation, would do something like this to their customer base. It is insane.
BIG BIG BIG SCAM. Should never have started. Tried to change down to a lower price, would not let me. So figured I’d cancel and restart. There is nothing to tell you if anything I did even worked. Finally got through to a rep, canceled service. It also took them over a month almost to the day according to the history link I finally found to change to the lower price and they still charged me the higher amount. I now have two boxes of both inks that I can’t use as the ink belongs to HP and MUST be returned. I started thinking this would be a big saving in money and time. It really does not save anything. Going back to ordering my ink from either Amazon or Walmart.
RUN DO NOT GET INSTANT INK PLAN. I made the mistake in trusting HP, never will again. When this printer breaks down will NOT get another HP
I do not reccomend they took my money and shut my printer down ! Basically Stealing I paid for something I did not get and customer service is awful! Horrible
It’s not really stealing when your signing up for a monthly service plan. You are basically paying to print so many pages a month with the ink cartridge they send you. If you do not use that many pages, they will roll over so many of them. When you cancel your plan, HP isn’t going to allow you to keep using the same ink cartridge that you were using for you plan. With HP instant Ink, your basically “renting” an ink cartridge to print a certain amount of pages each month. You don’t “own” the cartridge.
If you read all these comments, with the sentiments mixed, it is clear that some feel that “reading the fine print” was what the negative comments based on. The issue I had is that I bought my printer at Best Buy and they sold me on the “instant ink” benefit. HP monitors and sends more ink (sometimes) when they “see” you are running low – sales pitch, which sold me. But, the title of the program is misleading – it is NOT about the ink at all. It is about the number of pages you print, including pages that print poorly, paper jams, etc. So, it should be the “Pay to Print” program which is what it is – HP takes control of your printer via the ink. But, it is the pages (paper) that are the key and they do not provide paper, just the ink which may be an issue if they send the wrong ink or it is faulty (thus spending time printing pages to get it right and you are paying for each page – good or bad). I READ the fine print and do not print alot but had to reprint things because of the print quality or did not need to print “all pages” which messed up my pages/month count. This is about keeping a close count of how many pages you print and in my industry, that is impossible to know month by month (documents 1-55 pages). So, it is not INK (as the misleading name of the program), it is the pages and you will need to monitor very closely if you rely on a printer for business. Reminds me alot of Verizon and their misleading, greed tactics…..it will fail in the long run. DO NOT DO this unless you buy above what you know confidently you will need. And, ignore those who seem to think it is as simple as “not reading the fine print” – ignorance is bliss for some and judgement comes so easy in America.
Horrible services. I stopped my subscription and now after 4 chats and 6 phone calls my printer is basically useless because every time I try to print an error box comes up telling me I need to connect to the internet for ink service. When i close the box it just pops up again blocking my ability to print. Then I have to physically press OK on the printer before the job will print. This has been going on for 6 months. SO FRUSTRATING! And they can’t resolve it. DON’T TRUST THEM.
It sounds to me like you need to connect your printer to the internet… It’s pretty simple. Just follow the directions on your printer. Once you are connected to the internet, HP will be able to unblock your ability to print because it will be able to monitor the number of pages you have printed under your plan. Without this, HP cannot track the number of pages you have printed which is how they provide their service. Also, connecting to the internet is not something HP can fix – you have to do this.
the service is worthless. my ink is dry and they have no way for me to tell them they need to send another cartridge. 3 years its been and its drying out even though its not empty.
The program is a scam! They charge you by the page to use a printer that you’ve already purchased. They should be charging for ink not how many pages are printed off of MY printer. If HP cared about its customers it would monitor my ink levels and send me new ink, not bill me for using a printer that I already purchased from them. As if that weren’t enough, if you cancel, they also bend you over by putting an expiration date on the ink that you’ve already purchased from them. I put the last of my brand new in into my printer today and canceled my service. Then they told me those brand new cartridges would stop working in three days.Total lack of concern for their customers. I am going out to purchase anew printer just so that I don’t have to deal with them.
Well, they explain very clear that they charge the number of pages, not the amount of ink you use. So, it´s not a scam. It´s a fact of people enrolling services that do not understand or do not need. If you print photos, it´s great because you will earn lots of money. If you print envelopes, it will not work because every envelope will be counted as a page. And, of course, Instant Ink cartridges only work in printers that are enrolled in Instant Ink, they also explain you that. So if your printer is no longer enrolled, buy standard carts and everything resolved 😉
I feel I was deceived and I do read the fine print but the sales person pretty much assured me that I would be notified if my usage was over my normal paper use and I could call and increase the limit before they charged me. THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN! It’s another way for HP to make money. The ink prices are already high but I under that is the cost of doing business. I would recommend that you do not get on this program. Save your money for the ink. Also, once you cancel, the ink you have in your printer and new ink can not be used. They basically lock you out of your printer. I give them a -1 out of 10. )-;
The service buys you prints. Not ink cartridges. Those are the terms.
As for not being notified about overage charges, have you tried contacting HP to find out why?
it’s a rip off. sign up for too little and you go over, big cost. sign up for too much and you spend for more than you need. like most people, my printing at home has general low usage and spikes a few times per year. That type of usage does not work well with this program. I spent nearly $300 and got $100 worth of cartridges. when I cancelled the service, the cartridges stopped working. So, I’m out $200.
I’ve had with this rip off! I’m going to purchase a new printer tomorrow…not HP! Totally disconnecting from HP-Big Brother. And, to make myself happy, I’m going to throw away their NEW cartridges. At least I’ll get some satisfaction out of screwing them back!
Does anyone know how to completely sever all ties with HP and get them out of MY printer? I wonder if it’s even possible. There were so many Internet, password, and account information entries as part of the printer setup, even before signing up for the stupid Instant Ink program.
HP instant ink cumbersome to use. After sending a print job to the printer it takes 30 – 60 seconds before the printer begins to print. When low on remaining pages it will not print until I accept the additional fee for going over my allotted pages or upgrade my plan. I do not recommend it.
[…] The HP Envy 5055 replaces the HP Envy 4520 and it now has Bluetooth, improved Wi-Fi connectivity, faster print speeds & more! It’s just $89 making for a very budget friendly printer, although they do make you sign up to ‘Instant Ink’ ink subscription plans which has its downfalls. Make sure you read 8 things you must know before you sign up to HP Instant Ink. […]
This is a suckie program. I warn, do not sign up with HP for ink. Should you decide to discontinue the program they disable the printer and you cannot print as the ink cartriges are not compatable anymore. I am now stuck without a printer that works. I will have to spend more money for cartriges that will replace the ones HP sent. This is a rip off to consumers. Do not do business with this company and their ridiculous ink programs.
The service does not buy you ink cartridges. It buys you prints. The ink cartridges are the means by which the service provides you prints. Those are the terms.
Are unused ink cartridges a waste? Sure. But nevertheless, those are the terms. Take it or leave it.
I’ve had this service for three years. I’ve made 12,000 copies. Total cost has been $437. I have been sent 25 ink cartridges. If I did my math correctly, that comes to four cents a copy. I would usually have to drive a total of 30 miles to get new ink – something I didn’t like to do and it wasted time and money (for gas)! I had one occasion when I did a lot of printing and ran out of ink. I made a phone call and they sent a cartridge in just a few days. I have no complaints about this program that HP offers. I have had absolutely no problems with the printer (Envy 7640). Just do your “homework” and make sure this program will work for you. I’m on the 300 pages a month.
Thank you for this post, you brought up some good points to consider.
This post is quite dated now so perhaps what I’m about to comment on is no longer applicable. There are recent replies however, so I will press on. You neglected to mention that while HP does charge for page overages they do allow the user to upgrade their plan effective immediately or at the start of the next billing cycle. So there is a little flexibility with the overages, an important point for anyone to consider when making their decision.
I am disappointed that most of the comments did not add anything of value to the post. Instead it became a sort of HP complaint dumping ground.
About 90% of the comments demonstrated that the poster did not have knowledge about how the instaink program actually works. A startling amount of people simply signed up without reading the terms of service or apparently even reading through the FAQs.
I implore those who visit this blog to not use most of the comments when making a decision to go with the HP InstaInk service. Instead get the plan pricing and do your own math to determine if the subscription service is the right choice for you from a pricing standpoint. Then consider how much any possible delay in getting your subscription ink could inconvenience you or interrupt your work and/or print jobs. You could give it a go for a short trial and if it doesn’t work for you get rid of it. Sometimes they offer a free trial so you can try the service without having to pay.
It is important to note and understand that if you choose to subscribe you are paying on a per page basis. If you stop your subscription the ink cartridge will stop working. Much like how you own your tv but your cable won’t work if you don’t pay your bill. Yes, the tv is yours but the cable you are subscribing to is not. Hopefully this analogy will help people understand how the HP ink service works. If you cancel your subscription you will have use of your printer as soon as you replace the subscription ink cartridge with a regular retail cartridge.
I think that those who print photos or in colour on any sort of regular basis will get the most value out of the service.
It is painfully and sometimes hilariously obvious that most people did not bother to read up on what they were buying before signing up. A small percentage of comments are from informed individuals who understand the service and are sharing genuine and valid concerns/complaints/points.
I do NOT work for HP nor would I want to. I am simply promoting the notion that one should have enough knowledge and understanding of a product or service before offering their two cents.
I am ready to throw my printer out the window! It is sending multiple messages to my computer telling me to sign up for Instant Ink but when I go there I learn that Instant Ink is not available for my model. If I leave my computer for any length of time, I come back to find pop-up ads telling me, AGAIN, that I should sign up for instant ink. In fact, as I was typing this I was interrupted by yet another one. I sometimes find DOZENS of these. ARRGHH!!
I’m enrolled on the 15 pages per month free subscription. I have my own colour cartridge in the printer which the printer does not recognise and therefore not under the subscription. However, the black cartridge is an instant ink recognised cartridge.
I have printed 14 pages and have one page left till 20 September. If I take out the black cartridge and replace with my own, I am assuming that the printer will stop recognising that I am under the program and I can print at will until my cartridges run out. Meanwhile, I should expect to receive a shipment of black and colour cartridges under the program and am wondering if I insert the spare instant ink cartridges after my own supply runs out whether the plan will recommence for one month ( 15 pages) again from the time I reinsert the spare cartridges?
I have an HP low cost black and white printer and just purchased an Office Jet 3833 that offers this Instant Ink. So I gather, I can just use the laser for anything black and white and the Office Jet for color and photos and get by with the free plan!
The low cost laser was 100$ CDN 7 years ago and a toner was 17$ and I still have some left.
I Thanks you all for the comments. Still I do not know if I am going to subscribe to Instant Ink.
Useless. Tried for a month then cancelled. Lost control of my own printer. Wanted to DELETE my accpunt with them along with all my personal payment details but dont seem to be able to do so. Support from HP absolutely useless.
My printer now will not work (instant ink cartridges) so going to try shop bought ones and reset print. Hope it works !!
This program is worthless and a waste of money. I used the program for a couple of years and cancelled it due to the restrictions. I then find out that the cartridges sent to me (I only used up a black cartridge during the time I subscribed) cannot be used after I cancel the subscription. This is a service that des not meet the HP standards I have been pleased with in the past. Definitely a negative consideration for future purchases.
Lynn
Instant Ink is a clumsy and awkward attempt to move printing closer to the SAAS model (but with hardware you must buy). The margin on ink is obscene and the fact that my new HP8720 no longer has any practical way to cancel a print job. My previous HP had a big “cancel” button on the front – now HP says I have to go to the printer queue in Windows to cancel a print job. Sadly, by the time you click, click, click, click, click your way into the printer queue the whole job is already spooled to the printer and it’s fast enough that a mistakenly large print job just exhausted your monthly allotment of prints. My tin-foil supposition is that this was done entirely on purpose. Instant Ink is a bad deal no matter what angle you take.
Anyone thinking about doing this… DONT. Simple as that. DONT! Read all of the negative comments and I dont need to say anything more. This is a total waste of money. Goto a Walmart or office supply store and buy your own ink!!!
Epson XP442. Installed compatible (non-Epson) cartridges. The Printer does not recognise them – can I override to use the ink I purchased?
Ross.
Hi Ross!
Compatible cartridges should come with a chip to avoid this error from coming up. Before doing anything else, check to see if your cartridges are installed properly, if the contacts are clean, and also make sure you remove packaging completely but at the same time don’t remove seals or labels that aren’t meant to be removed as this may cause your cartridge to leak. Doing this will help rule out installation errors. If you’re positive that your cartridges are installed correctly, try this fix:
Go to Control Panel > Printer on your computer.
Right click on the Epson printer icon then go to Printer preferences.
Go to the Speed and Progress tab > Epson printer monitor box
Check the “Disable Epson status monitor” setting to turn off ink monitor system
Save your changes. Try printing with your printer.
Best of luck!
I didn’t want their ink service to begin with but there was no way around it, they force you to sign up. I have cancelled their service, installed my store bought cartridges and they are still controlling my printer, IT WON’T WORK. I am so ANGRY!!!
I’ve always liked HP but this one is going back to the store tomorrow and I will never buy HP again!
How does a once prestigious electronics instrumentation company loose its way and become an ink cartridge scam shop? Over a year of payments and I too am hostage to HP for cancelling. This is the final nail in the HP coffin. Time to buy a non-HP printer and be done with them for good. If I wanted the buying the used car treatment I would go buy a used car! This is not the behavior I had with HP over the years when they were a fevered brand.
I am furious I was told when I purchased my printer not even two months ago after looking into the Instant Ink program that I could use my starter ink and not be charged until I put my new ink cartridges in that they would send me, well I dont use my printer for much just time to time, all of a sudden I got a bill through my email from HP and I am still on my starter ink I called and they said my starter in had something in it that was triggered when I signed up for this account. Well that did not sit with me and I cancelled the account because that is not what I was told. I felt I was held hostage by HP and was not able to use my account because they said because I cancelled my account after the billing cycle that they would continue to log my printer usage and charge me so I felt I could not use my printer. Well I thought how dare they to tell me how much I could use my printer on my still free starter ink, called them and made sure I was not charged as I was not going to pay they did something that made sure I was not charged. HP you have lost a customer that always bought my ink from you online and will not buy and future products from you. You need to train your staff better, felt like I was tricked into this program I am not longer with.
My printer does’t work, even though I’m using my own ink cartridge. This is outrageous!
PLEASE WHAT IS THE SOLUTION??
Thank you
I had to remove all wireless settings on the printer, and I think I made some changes with the printer settings on the PC too. That fixed it and I just use my old printers USB to print. Only super annoying part is every print requires me to press OK on the printer’s screen to by pass their request to connect to Instant Ink. So, you can’t set it to print multiple copies, then leave the printer for a few minutes and come back to a finished print job. You have to stand there and press OK on every single copy. :O But, that worked for me.
Oh I forgot one thing. I removed any eprint/wireless printer drivers.
having bought a printer and ink i cant use because they are telling me to contact you i cannot use it how do i go about it please help
I recently got a printer as a gift. It came with ink of course and it made me sign up for the instant ink. I decided I didn’t want to be signed up so I finally saw where I could cancel it online. Am I to understand that I won’t be able to use the ink that actually came in the box when I got the printer?? (obviously i haven’t tried to print again since cancelling)
When I bought my HP printer, they worker told me to use all the ink in the cartridges that come in the printer because those initial ones, while they are lower volume, contain lubricants??? so I did, no biggie. They did not tell me about the Instant Ink offer inside the box, so I bought $95 worth of ink…which I returned when I signed up for Instant Ink once I used up the initial. That was two years ago and my experience has been perfect. Mine did not “make” me sign up for Instant Ink at all, like you mention…I had to go out of my way and log into the website to sign up to utilize the offer that came in my packaging….. ?! Maybe it has changed since I bought my HP printer…
I cancelled my HPInstant ink subscription because it just wasn’t working out. I wasn’t using the printer enough to justify the ink sent. I have two full boxes of color and black ink so there’s something wrong with their “accounting of my printing”.
I set my cancel date for a week ahead and the day after that date they charged me for another month.
In order to use my printer with the newly purchased NON instant ink cartridge I deleted the printer from my computer and internet system, took out the offending instant ink cartridge and reinstalled the printer using USB connection. Problem solved.
Now I get to demand that they return my $10.69 and send back all the ink that’s sitting in my office…… Won’t make that mistake again!
My CC expired and my bank failed to send me a new card. You guys expired the account which was fine, but you also locked up my printer. The printer will no longer print and it give me an error message now. This is completely unacceptable to me. You have basically locked up a piece of equipment that I own. Not acceptable!!!! I liked the service and would have stayed enrolled but you jerkwads locked up my printer. Not cool and I will tell everyone about this terrible experience with you.
I haven’t bought ink for almost two years, and HP has always sent my cartridges before mine have fully exhausted, so no worries there. BTW, the cartridges are very long lasting, better than the XL versions I used to buy in the stores. I’ve been using HP Insta Ink for about 2 years. I have not had to shell out $80 for ink cartridges every few months like I did in the past. Honestly, I’m thrilled with my plan. I print low volumes for work from home affairs and kids homework, coupons, etc….HP sends me an email when I’m nearing my limit, so I’ve never had a surprise. I’m definitely saving at least $80/year and I do not need to wait in line at an office supply store or risk getting imitation quality buy buying ink online!!! Surprised by the bad comments. I do think if a person prints high volume, this may not be best. If I have a month I know I need to print more for work, I can go in and change my plan for just that month, then change it back to the basic plan if I won’t be printing much the next. It’s been very easy-most of all, I love how long the cartridges last. Do not stop using your installed cartridges until you see a change in print quality. My iPad warns I’m low on ink for a long time before these actually need replaced!!! I also print on best quality and color since I’m not buying the ink, but every page counts, might as well be good quality! Worth a try, can always cancel and go back to buying your ink anytime if it’s not for you 😉
I am not able to reach my account page as each attempt takes me to the sign up page and not the sign in page so I can look at my account and as directed. TOTALLY frustrated with this service
I was considering the ink program but after seeing how HP took control of my printer stopping me from printing with after market ink that btw saves me a lot of money since I am on the permanent disability budget and CAN NOT afford the HP original cartridges for the 4 HP printers I own. I think it’s disgusting that a company wants to control what I as the consumer does with a printer that I paid for and is OUT OF WARRANTY anyway, that’s to much control and should not be allowed. I have disconnected ALL my HP printers and uninstalled the programs with the intention of never using HP printers again after 20+ years of loyalty but Susan Whitings comment changed my mind and I will be doing the same USB installation she did to take back my control. We have to remember that “some things are just to good to be true”. Happy printing!
Just got done opening my new printer and reading the card on this . Thank the good Lord I read these reviews, I’m avoiding this like the plague ! ! ! ! I get my ink on eBay or Walmart. When I want and as much as I need, Not going to have someone dictate to me and watching over my shoulder all the time. Thanks fo much for letting me know. So sorry you folks had to learn the hard way.
Waste of money, even at the lowest price point. It is also not easy to cancel online – even the HP rep I spoke to admitted that you have to call to ensure cancellation.
Note that YOU MUST REMOVE ALL HP instant ink cartridges if you don’t want to get charged beyond the cancellation date. It seems you rent, not buy the cartridges. Worse, the ink dries out in the cartridges if you do not print often, yet the “smart” chip they contain will continue to show that the cartridges are full and thus not eligible for replacement. They would not reverse the monthly charges I paid during the 3 months that I thought the service was cancelled because I made the mistake of only replacing the cartridge that was empty. Don’t subscribe.
We actually enjoy the instant ink, we made sure to read all the small print first, this will save us almost $50 a year, we are totally fine with that.
No one has mentioned the junk pages my printer kicks out – telling me the printer has just received an update, etc. Are these counted towards my free/month? HP says there is no way to turn off these random, unrequested print jobs.
This sounds like a great thing for someone like me — I have a laser printer for my regular print jobs. I just want a color printer for photos and crafts which probably won’t exceed 15 pages a month. Even if I’m paying a dime per page in overage, it’s a secondary printer that will sit for weeks at a time.
Thoroughly annoyed! I had been on the plan on th elower plan I have had to increase it to the top tier as my printer needs have changed and I need to print now large amount of important duplicates of forms. So I change my plan, but do you think I can use it?? No! Its my printer why can I not change the plan with immediate effect allowing me to print what i need today! This is my printer HP! Not yours and I didnt have a choice. If I had known i have to wait until the end of this month for the new plan to take effect why should I bother?? Try to contact someone on support do you think theres any one there i can talk to No! Only £33.00 for a one of chat. Im fumming!!!!!
Does anyone know here how i can increase my planm with immediate effect so I can use MY PRINTER!!!!!
Wow! So many negative comments! Every time I have to buy ink, I cringe. My last ink buying campaign, led me to buying a new printer because it costs the same! This is when I took the idea of an ink subscription seriously. I have been using the ink subscription for almost a year, and it has been pretty successful. I am 41 years old, taking college courses. When I use many sheets of paper for certain courses, I change my subscription. When I need less, I change it again. It’s worked well. The use your average printing habits to decide when to send the ink. I am always trying to calculate the costs to make sure it’s paying off. That’s how I ended up on this site!
I recently bought an HP ENVY 5055 Photosmart printer. The dales people tried their best to get me to sign up hor HP’s instant ink. I declined. I turned off the wifi on the printer and made sure my router didn’t recognize the ip address of the printer. I still am getting messages from HP to subscribe to their instant ink program. I occasionally get messages from HP that there is a new update to download for my printer. When I try to download and install the new update, I receive a message stating that the update failed. I contacted HP support and I was told that because I was not subscribed to their instant ink program that I couldn’t download any new updates for my new printer. I glad that this was an inexpensive printer. This printer uses HP 65 ink cartridges that are rather costly. this printer drinks ink like no other printer I’ve ever owned before. I’ve tried using refurbished ink cartridges to see if the printer will use less ink but there wasn’t any difference. There also wasn’t any difference when I refilled the original HP cartridges either. I talked to an HP representative from the electronics store where I purchased the printer and was told that almost all of the new HP printers are designed to use more ink than the older HP printer models used. So, now I’m done with HP for good! I have a new printer that is not under Big Brother’ (HP) control. As far as I’m concerned, HP is doing their best to lose customers.
Was considering getting the instant ink as well $9.99 package, I have went through 3 ink cartridge number 65 color & black I have only had the printer since 02/19/19 so not even a month,but when I do get it to finally print it prints the same thing over and over again at 23 pages each time I too I’m writing a novel, I have restarted printer unplug let sit for a few days but every time I start it back up it starts printing like crazy, I cancel the prints but it still prints hints why I run out of ink quickly so that’s why I was considering instant ink, but these reviews not helping in the matter. Thinking about buying a new printer all together this one was kind of cheap $50.00 at Wal-Mart HP Deskjet 2652
If you are printing a lot of text, you might consider buying a monochrome laser printer instead of instant ink. The printers are a bit more expensive upfront but they provide more prints per cartridge than most inkjet printers, making them a better value in the long term, and the cartridges won’t dry out over time like an inkjet printer. Check out our article on Inkjet vs. Laser Printers: https://www.ldproducts.com/blog/pros-cons-of-inkjet-and-laser-printers/ to see if a laser printer is right for you! Hope this helps!
I have been charged twice and never received any cartridges!
i have just fixed up my printer and the grandchildren have just put the inks in and i have printed the test page dose this mean i am now signed up . or can i just get on with other inks I thought i had to go on line to sign up for the instant ink plan . I would be gutted if i never had a choice before I started .
Hi George,
You need to enroll in the instant ink program, you won’t be signed up automatically!
It amazes me how people don’t seem to read the details before going with the program. Then people on here explain it over and over again and the same complaints are still made. Simple to understand and the process is not unreasonable, it is fair unless HP does not supply the ink as advertised. The same complaints about not being able to use the ink that was paid for are ridiculous as are other parts of the complaints.
The concern I have is if the ink dries up. I called HP and was directed to that department and I asked them about what would happen if the ink dried up. I explained that it says the cartridges are bigger than the XL and someone not printing a lot would not even come close to using that much ink in a years time. I specifically asked her what would happen if the ink dried up. She said the ink was good for 2 years and that if the ink dried up, you could request replacement ink but I am not so sure it would work like that.
I would fall under the free plan for 15 pages a month and a dollar for every 10 pages over that. With that cartridge size, I would not use all the ink in 2 years, probably not even close to it. The printer tells them when the ink is low and they ship it but if there was a lot of ink left and it was dried up, the printer would not send a low ink message and if the cartridge was not near expiration I don’t know what would happen. That is a situation that you would have to wait until it happened to know exactly how they would handle it.
I use the frequent plan, £7.99 a month. I am regularly printing full-page 5×7 and A4 photos. I am sent probably 4 – 5 sets of ink cartridges a month. They have wayyy more capacity than an XL cartridge. I worked out, it would cost me around £200+ a month to purchase those cartridges. Sometimes i have to message them to ship some if they do not ship fast enough. I had a recent print job that consumed all my pages (a visa application for my partner), with over 150 pages to print + photocopy though I had been away and the rollover pages saved up worked well.
I regularly come close to my limit. Social evenings are now printed and given to friends directly. I find the paper (premium plus) costs more than the ink.
My black-and-white is still done via darkroom and in trays, but HP instant ink has changed the way I print photos. It is great. And it is genuine ink, so no risk of your photos fading after years. I had changed my debit card and got it locked down once (locks the instant ink carts, not the printer, standard ones still work) but it was restored within minutes of paying.
It has saved me no end of money, and now I can print photos without worrying. It MAY be cheaper to get another printer if just printing text, but for photo printing in good quality, you cannot beat genuine HP ink with good papers, which seems to have low-fading based on the Wilhelm institute, something cheap re manufactured ink does not have. I have documents done on refilled cartridges from years ago that have faded very badly.
If you print photos, or are a moderate user, instant ink is very good. If you are a high powered user going through thousands of pages a month, this is not the service for you. If your an occasional user, paying £2 a month for 50 or so pages is worth it, as inkjets often stop working and they will cover you if the cartridges fail due to drying out for free. You pay to have it there when you need it.
It is a good service, and finally genuine ink to print photos at a price I can afford.
I like the service just because I’ll never run out of ink. Also price, if plan is choosen well, will not be high: just 0,05€/page for 100page plan + paper (4€/500sheet) ~0,01€/sheet so 6cent per page IN COLOUR is quite a good deal.
Most print-shop will charge about 20 cent per page if printed in colour and 5cents if B/W. On standard cartridges I will just pay more, mostly because if I run out of a single colour I’ll have to buy a new cartridge. With Instant ink, I got the replacement even if I run out only blue.
I think connected/not connected issue is not a real issue because printer are usually not carried around and office internet connection is reliable (last time I got an outage it was years ago and lasted a couple of hhours, nothing in comparison to 2-months pre-order that HP claims).
The only thing that scares me is if ink dries and HP will never send a replacement cartridge claiming it’s not jet over. But I think that with my printing level (100p/month) I ‘ll never run in that condition.
Hello. This article was extremely informative. I just bought my printer (in Canada) and signed up fo $5:99 per month. I think I have a trial period, and I can change my subscription at any time. I’ll check out all of my options. I have run out of ink already, and hope to have my ink soon. The refurbished cartridges also sound like a good option to me, so that I can have ink on hand.
Thanks again.
Rip off. I still have ink but the printer blocks me because I lost my credit card. SCAM!
HP has several Links that states to sign into your account go to hpinstantink.com/signin. Every attempt to reach my account to sign in has resulted in me being direct to a page to open an account.
This is a scam. We had free months as a promotion, called and changed our plan to a 50 page, it was never updated, and I didn’t check, so we were paying for the top plan. Then when you cancel your plan, because it’s a scam and not with what you pay, you can’t use your printer. You have to go buy ink. I have never paid for a “subscription” and then couldn’t use the product I received during the time I paid for the product. SCAM. Never will buy an HP product again.
Can I replace the instant ink cartridge for my personal hp cartridge I bought at staples when my pages count finish? Then put it back next month?
I can’t have control of my pages. I can go 0 pages in months or 500 on other months and anything in between on any given month.
I would advise everyone tempted to join the instant ink program to reconsider. At first there was no problem and all worked well; great! A year later my credit card expired, I had a new card with the same number but received no contact from HP. Their story is that they had the wrong e-mail address and could not contact me to advise me that the card expired. Long story shortened for the sake of sanity they shut off my printer remotely… apparently you only rent the cartridges and they feel obliged to shut off the cartridges at will. I object but I understand how cutthroat tactics in the computer field are tolerated. I am perplexed however that no other method of contacting me was made, no text message, no card in the mail saying oops, nothing, just disable my printer. I spoke to a nice young man in the call center and he explained that their system is not sophisticated enough to determine when an email account bounces back and then resorts to another contact method. Consider the irony, Hewlett-Packard, the preeminent computer manufacturing company chose to not have a system that operates in a sophisticated manner to secure what must be a business that generates hundreds of millions of dollars. Let that sink in for a moment. I cancelled and paid for 2 months service and was told that my cartridges would be turned on until the end of the month and then shut off. I bought 2 cartridges off of eBay and will not look back, I suggest you do likewise.
Is there a way to purchase and use the un-used cartridges from HP AFTER cancelling the Instant Ink subscription?
I don’t think you can use the Instant Ink cartridges after you cancel. You’d have to buy regular cartridges.
I enrolled in the Instant Ink Program as in Canada ink replacement is huge cost. Upwards of $100 for black and Color set. Paying $60 CAD per year and they send me ink when it runs low, pretty much a no brainer.
All the people complaining should re-think their printing needs and really look hard at the convenience and cost savings. I may add the program may not be perfect, but hell of lot better than shelling out $100 for ink out of my own pocket.
About 99.9% of these complaints are people who have not the slightest idea how Instant Ink works at all. If everyone would just READ the plain English, not even in small type, instructions and FAQ for the service, you will see that HP isn’t tricking you with anything. You are NOT paying for ink with this service. So of COURSE if you cancel you won’t be able to print. Think of it this way. You pay a monthly subscription fee to print pages. HP sends you the ink for free and makes sure you always have enough ink to print whatever amount if pages your subscription is for. Your paying to make sure you never have to buy ink, you are NOT paying for the ink itself. If you cancel, you can BY ALL MEANS go to wal mart or wherever and buy a new cartridges, put them in your printer, and print away. In fact you can do this even if you DONT cancel. When you cancel the service you are canceling the ability of the free ink they send you to work…. because you didn’t pay for it. They are by no means taking your printer hostage… they are only RIGHTFULLY taking their cartridges (that they sent you free) back.
HP makes this very clear before you sign up on how it works, it’s just some people in today’s world fail to read EVERYTHING and instead just skim over it… or they fail to understand what is being said. This is not HPs fault, it’s your fault for not reading and or lack or reading comprehension…PERIOD!
THIS IS A SCAM!!! I bought this stupid printer May 2018 but did not activate the insta ink because I had so many left over cartridges from my previous printer that i needed to get through. One year later, May 17, 2019!, I activate the insta print and purchased the $2.99 for 50 pages a month. I printed maybe one page and the following morning i got a message that I had used up all 50 of my print pages for the month. I called them immediately. It took me hours to get to someone who could try to help and she put me into a 700 page a month plan for free. Within one week, it was saying I was reaching my 700 page plan. Yet, I still had the same package of paper (500 sheets) and had maybe printed 10 things single sided. Within another week, I looked and it said I printed 1700 pages. Not only do I not have that much paper in my house but I still had the majority of a 500 page package of paper. Then on the day after this it said, I printed 2000 pages. I called them up and told them this is absolutely impossible. They have refused to accept that clearly there is something wrong with the printer mechanisms that send the information to them. I even bought an extended warrantee through square trade and am now having to fight with them about getting me a new printer. This is a total disaster and the cost is outrageous for something I have not been printed. THIS IS A SCAM!!!
I signed up for this program to test it out. I get a 3 month free trial.period. Although it was a free trial period, my daughter printed 10 copies for her school work. Although the printer said it printed 10 copies, there were no copies printed. She re-printed, and gain, printer said printed 10 copies, but nothing came out. So again, re-printed, and noticed that the printer is out of ink. So I called Customer Service. And I said I do not want to be billed for 30 printouts if we only wanted 10, and the printer keep saying it printed 10 pages, although there was no ink in the printer. Customer Service tech was not caring at all, they said “So what do you want me to do, you want me to give you credit ?” And I said, that is not the issue since I am still in the trial period. My issue was that the printer had no ink, but the software still said we printed 10 pages. It is a glitch. And then he became defensive and said “Our software has no glitch”… I said, if the printer has no ink, your software does not detect it, and still bills me for extra pages that did not print out. I just cancelled today, and would rather buy my own ink and do my own printing instead of depending on a software that is not linked to the processes and function of the printer. Seems like it was a good notion at the time since we do not print alot, but since that incident, I am not sure I can trust HP Ink and the software they use to monitor that print process.
It may not suit everyone, but my experience has been just fine. My print demand varies, but has always stayed within the plan’s volume parameters, so I’ve never had to buy extra pages. Ink has always arrived in time. Recycling bags are provided. It’s all convenient. And a key value point: you can access free phone support, which normally stops after the end of the warranty period.
Totally unhappy with HP Instant Ink; cancelled my program; and my HP Pro is still locked into HP Instant Ink! Been on the phone for half an hour and still on hold!! Don’t like the idea that they can control what I’m printing!
I do not have HP Instant Ink but am considering it. After reading through all of these posts twice, it seems that the majority of complaints are based on total consumer ignorance. As others have stated, you are not buying ink cartridges, you are buying printed pages.
And, in order to get those printed pages, and for HP to know how many printed pages they’ve provided to you, you need not only ink but ink that is supplied in special cartridges that are capable of counting the number of pages printed and relaying that info back to HP.
They send you the cartridges, ie, provide you with ink, to print the pages you desire. If you cancel their service, of course you should not get to use the remaining ink. It belongs to HP, not you. I don’t understand why people here have such a hard time grasping this concept and are so incredibly outraged when they incorrectly claim that they should be able to continue printing without continuing to pay for the service. If you’re no longer paying for the service of printed pages, then “no”, you should not still be able to print those pages for free using the ink HP provided as part of that service.
It is no different than going to any copy center like Kinko’s or Staple’s and asking them to print out pages for you. They print them using their own ink, not yours, and you pay them for the copies per page. Just because you pay Kinko’s or Staple’s five cents per page to print something out for you, DOES NOT mean that you own the ink cartridge they used to print the documents or that you are able to go back again and have additional pages printed free of charge just because you paid them once for copies previously.
This HP Ink program is no different than buying copies at a copy shop, except that you have the huge added convenience of generating them on your own printer and so never have to bother to leave your house.
As for those who have complained that they are constantly asked about “HP Ink” after cancelling and switching back to cartridges they’ve purchased on their own, it seems only reasonable that if you had to install drivers on your device to get the HP Ink program to correctly work for you in the first place, that you should uninstall those drivers to make the program stop working and return you to your previous state.
I’m willing to bet that most of the people complaining here never took a second to think about or understand what they were signing up for and spent zero time reading any documentation that explained it. Again, I do not have the service but am considering it. I read through the info once and clearly understood what I’d be buying. For those who didn’t, you can’t blame that on HP, and you need to stop whining & violently complaining that it’s HP’s fault rather than your own failure to understand what you were signing up for.
Your analysis is quite simplistic. Firstly, ink cost is not truly related to the number of pages one prints. It has to do with the type of printing and its drain on the ink supply. Going to a store to print is not the same as owning your own printer. You pay extra for the store’s operating costs. That is not the same as the cost for using your own machine.
Any company that points to the “fine print” and bases their marketing on a “Buyer Beware” policy is suspect. THIS is the foundation of the Instant Ink program. Beware of all the hidden ways in this program that HP has taken advantage of the trust of people who had come to trust the company.
Once you sign up for the “Free Trial” period, you will be looped into a purchase plan totally controlled by HP. If you cancel the program, any ink HP sent is not usable. WHY? That’s the ultimate surprise. HP has its hooks into your computer, controlling its operation. You will be sitting at your desk, unable to print…until HP releases its tentacles.
Nowhere, as you move along, does HP enclose a disclosure with the ink it sends. Their disclosure should read: THESE CARTRIDGES WILL ONLY WORK IF YOU ARE ENROLLED IN INSTANT INK. HP WILL DISABLE YOUR PRINTER IF YOU ARE NOT ENROLLED. If your calculation of use of ink is off, you will pay for cartridges to sit in your closet for months – and when you finally need the ink – HP will turn off your printer if you have finally cancelled your subscription.
How much ink does it take for HP to spell out the terms of this program in the box that delivers the ink cartridges?
Buyer Beware. This is a scam program with absolutely no regard for the interests of the consumer.
Don’t do it
I have bought more hp printers than I can count, along with several laptops.
The printers have an uncanny sense of timing, typically becoming non-functional just after the 1-year warranty expires.
Like every Brother, Canon, Epson, and Kodak printer I have had.
The money flows to the company through the ridiculously expensive ink.
And my guess is the hp ink program began when some dark-thinker realized hp could offer lower replacement prices for ink if you get a monthly subscription.
What is not quite as clear is this: even if your printer is off-line/idle/sitting on a closet shelf as one of mine was for 13 months, hp reaches into your bank account and steals from you month after month after month.
And then, after conversations with several women operators who each time absolutely guarantee you it will stop, it does not.
And then when they admit to the error, they refund only about half of what they stole.
And then it starts again.
This is a horrible program! I cancelled my service and now I can’t print anything – coincidence, I think not! I can copy, scan but not print because of the settings from the Instant Ink program. And since my printer is no longer under warranty I have to pay to get HP to fix the problem they’ve created. Customer Service is not helpful at all. I was a loyal HP customer, not anymore. I do not recommend this program!
no more HP for me again. Had about 1/2 cartridge’s of ink when I stopped instaink. Could not use the remainder since HP controls you printer . Had to buy new cartridges to get printer to work
Do not use this program – I agree with the comments. Also, now that I have stopped the program, I keep getting pop-ups wanting me to sign up when I print. HP big brother never goes away
Wow, that was quick. I enrolled for ink delivery when I bought my Envy printer and was very happy with my initial delivery that first week. As the weeks went by, however, no replacement ink was sent, and I was getting close to a deadline for which the ink was crucial. I called HP and asked for more ink and was told that their readings indicated that I had plenty and I probably just needed to look around my workspace to find out. I assured them that I did not (!) and was told that new ink was on its way. Days later I called to find out where it was and was told that BLACK ink was on its way. As my deadline at work was now two days off, I asked why colour ink had not also been sent and was told that their readings indicated I had plenty of colour ink and it was probably around my workspace and all I had to was have a look for it. Now I started to steam. I explained AGAIN that my prints were magenta and that my printer actually said, Colour Ink Level is Low, and please, please could I have more ink. It was dispatched but with no more time to meet my work deadline, I went out and bought ink myself. I then requested a refund for the £19.99 it cost me (not the hours of work I lost, however) and was told no, but that I could have free ink. As I am already guaranteed free ink until April 2020 (assuming it arrives) this was hardly helpful. While I am happy with my printer, please note that you cannot rely on delivery of ink based on the system and may have to pay out of pocket for ink.
That is the ONLY issue that I have with HP. I totally ran out of color ink and could not print an important color ink job. I got on their chat line to ask for a shipment. They told me that I had received a shipment of one color and one black ink cartridge previously. I answered that there were two BLACK cartridges in that shipment and NO color cartridges. She then told me to look around my workspace to find the other color cartridge that they were sure that they had sent. (She must think that I have a very untidy workspace). That got me “steaming” so I had to repeat what I had already told her about receiving two blacks and no colors. I must have told her three times that I didn’t have a color cartridge and needed her to send me two new color cartridges in order to ensure that I would not run out in future. 6 days later I received a shipment of ONE color cartridge. I now am quite nervous about running out of ink while printing an important job. But that is my only gripe; so maybe covid is to blame and I should be more understanding. I Do save money on this program as the cartridges that are sold in the stores have very limited ink supplies, far less than is claimed on the packages. Thus I will continue with the HP Instant Ink program.
My old HP ENVY 4500 died this week, and to replace it I was trying to make up my mind between HP ENVY5030 and Canon TS5150. After reading all the fuss for HP Instant Ink program, I am certainly going for Canon. I don’t want to find myself in the hypothetical position of being somehow forced to enroll in this Instant Ink program in the future.
1. Google “HP Instant Ink Terms of Service.” Most of the detractors here of the Instant Ink service clearly had delusional concept of how the program works. Don’t let their confusion be a guide to making an informed decision yourself.
2. Any error messages on printer? Or other problems? Immediately search the error on support.hp.com or google. Failing that, call tech support.
3. No ink? Check your account page. Does it say you’re low on ink and can replace? That would mean they’ve sent ink and it should be on hand for you to install. Check your ink shipments… packages do get lost. If there’s no errors and it says ink levels are good… at least do a cartridge or print head cleaning through the printer’s menu. Don’t know how… google or search support.hp.com or call tech support. It’s not rocket science.
4. Billing issues. Check your account page. Whether it’s your cable, gas, or hydro, services get cut off when you don’t pay your bill. Update payment method.
5. Savings. Check your account page and make adjustments if needed. A $2.99/50 page plan might work 11 months of the year for some people, but then something comes up… just change your plan for your current month the immediately downgrade it back to normal for the next. 300 pages printed on a 300 page plan is cheaper then doing it on a 50 page plan.
6. HP makes more money from ink purchased in the store, so calculate that into any scam theories.
VERY HAPPY WITH 4inkjets. Thanks for crediting me for unused cartridges when I had to get anew printer.Do you want used cartridges? Thanks Patrick
You can drop off empty ink cartridges at Target or Staples.
the problem with the HP printer and the ink cartridges
used, do not last long, as I can confirm, I have kept
a log every time I print a page, and never they last
the 500 they claim. And these cartridges are very
expensive, if I recall cheapest are
$24.00 dollars.
There must be a least expensive printer,and ink.
I have to star checking
HP instant ink works for me. The number of pages I print varies from season to season. On the occasions where I print lots, HP sends me a notice that I have gone over my limit and can change my plan mid-stream. So I do that for the rest of that month, then change back at the end of the month. I save time and money. And the new cartridges have always come in plenty of time. One t ip: check your doc before printing and, if reasonable, change the margins or a few spaces in order to eliminate pages with just one or two lines of printing. That is a good idea for the environment as well.
My dad had a subscription to HP ink. Several months after he passed we cancelled his subscription. Now the printer doesn’t work and we have another set of cartridges we can’t use. Thanks HP
Absolutely unethical company. Do NOT use HPInstant Ink. It’s ridiculous, and seeing how many people have been scammed by HP I’m surprised they are even in business any more. I’ll certainly NEVER buy another HP printer, and will strongly advise against it by friends and co-workers!
Absolutely stupid analogy using pages printed to evaluate ink usage. I may have only 2 sentences on a page….then 42 sentences on another page. Does ANYONE believe those two pages used the same amount of ink????
Then I was told ,”we are not charging you for INK but number of PAGES printed”! Well, in my calculation it is the INK that makes the printing on the PAGES!
Then after I asked to be removed from this asinine program I was told my existing cartridges would quit working and any other that they sent (and I paid for) would also NOT WORK!
My confidence in HP has plummeted over the last 6 months after having 3 printers either quit printing or wouldn’t print at all…mailing each one back because they refused to give me a refund. Now they say the ink cartridges they sent me with the printers cannot be used because I want to withdraw from the stupid program.
After being a die hard customer of HP for years I will now never buy another item from them and I can assure you the stupidity of that INSTANT INK PROGRAM will be discussed and shared freely.
If you measured the INK consumption instead of the paper then I would agree that would make more sense!
Further more, the person I spoke with said himself that I was probably better off without the program and told me I had to send the cartridges back to HP at my expense NO REFUNDS!!
Someone needs to explain this concept to whomever came up with this program because as it stands it is a rip off and very biased in HP’s favor….. NOT the consumer.
HP might want to take a look at their reviews…….that will tell them how the general public feels about the program.
Instead of following the “How to get rich at the expense of the public”, they need to read “How to make friends and influence people”, and reform this faulty program. Jan Funk
ps. I was told I would get a call from a supervisor today at 10: 00…. We shall see.
I do hope they read this before they call….maybe a light will switch on in their heads and see the flaws of the program.
Like many, I am locked out of my own printer. When I bought the printer and subscribed to instantink, I was using my home office twice a week. In the last 6 months, I have barely used my home office, so opted not to renew the cc info and now I’m locked out of my own printer. I hope that buying aftermarket cartridges will give me control of my printer again.
Shame on you HP. Good business, not only depends on a great product, but also on adapting to your customers’ needs.
[…] The HP Envy 5055 replaces the HP Envy 4520 and it now has Bluetooth, improved Wi-Fi connectivity, faster print speeds & more! It’s just $89 making for a very budget friendly printer, although they do make you sign up to ‘Instant Ink’ ink subscription plans which has its downfalls. Make sure you read 8 things you must know before you sign up to HP Instant Ink. […]
So I know that the people who love it are often saying things about the negative comments coming from people who don’t read the fine print. Here’s my situation. I was looking into Instant Ink and thought it sounded great, so I was considering it anyway. So I went out and bought a printer that said all over the box that if I sign up within a certain timeframe of buying the blasted printer, I would get 2 free months. So I’m pretty happy at that point. So I sign up the next day (clearly in the timeframe) and I think I’m doing okay. Except… the printer only prints half a page, spits it out and then reprints the same half page, and again and again. I’m looking all over and finally find the settings where I tell the stupid printer to spool the document before printing so it doesn’t just think that a slow connection equals try again and waste another “print” and piece of my paper!! And all is great…. except I don’t see where it shows that I have 2 free months, but after emailing, I get a response saying that it won’t say anything about my free month until the time when I get charged. Fast forward one month…. and I get charged and I go on the account thing and it still says nothing about my free months. So I email and get a dumb answer that is exactly like the first, even though I clearly stated that I’ve been charged and I don’t see my free months as promised. (and you’ve read this far… what do you think? Am I articulate enough to explain my issue with getting charged? – I should mention that I didn’t say anything about the spooling issue because I have that solved… I thought)
So I call the number and apparently I didn’t call at the right time of day or proper day or whatever. (I don’t recall the issue 100% because this was a few months ago)
The lady argues with me about when I bought the printer…. it says when I plugged the printer in on Instant Ink, so I’m not sure where she was getting that information that I bought it more than a month before I signed up to the program. Then she finally (after wasting more of my time) agrees to credit my account for the 2 free months (and at this point, I’m wondering why for good customer service she wouldn’t give me 3 months or something) except she says she can’t make it take effect immediately and that it may take one or two billing cycles to give me the 2 months free. I’m pretty upset and she transfers me to someone who can make it take effect with this next cycle and then I get to explain it all again.
At some point, in frustration, I say something about not really liking the printer, and suddenly, they want to “walk me through” some troubleshooting junk and remote control my printer and such. And I said, no, I already fixed it for the most part. So I thought we were done with problems finally.
Nope. The printer driver or firmware or some such has to update and guess what? It resets to factory settings and it’s no longer spooling documents before printing, so I print a bigger document and suddenly we’re wasting my paper by printing the top half of the first page over and over……
Overall…… I should have never dumped my Brother printer. I loved it, it was reliable. I just thought this ink program would be nice. Live and learn. I can hardly wait for this printer to die so I can get another Brother printer.
Why would anyone sign up for this “service” when Amazon will send you a genuine HP laser cartridge overnight at less cost? I always order a spare when I install a new cartridge. And, yes, I stick with OEM cartridges because they have never given me any problems in the 30 years that I’ve been using HP LaserJet printers in my business.
I just signed up for the program, as a heavy user (1000 plus pages per month) the savings are substantial. 35€ vs 150€ or more!
Last month I ordered 6 cartridges (2 no name which didn’t work) and 4 genuine HP ones at 25€ each.
I’ll update in a few monrhs
LOST $70!!! And a whole bunch of TIME!!
I signed up for the Insta Ink when I purchased my HP printer at BestBuy. I paid $5 for the “service”. I put in the ink that came with the “Intsa Ink” kit when I got home. A few months in, I received a box of colored ink, and a week later, my black ink ran out. So….they sent the wrong color ink. I did NOT need (and still don’t need) color ink. So, I cancelled the service and ordered the black ink from Amazon, which I received the day I ordered it! I went to use my printer after putting in the Amazon purchased HP ink and my printer didn’t work. That’s when I realized the color ink cartridges and the brand new box of cartidges DON’T WORK if you are not paying for the service!! So, I had to order the Amazon color cartridges. I finally got them in and am now able to use my printer. And now they are asking me to send back all the cartridges – new or used!?!?!?!?!?! On MY dime!
But I am OUT $70 for the stupid ink and “service” that I paid for.
BIG FAIL BOAT, HP!!
Never again!
Disgusted with this service!! It is not a service, just a con! I was made redundant and could no longer pay for anything frivolous like ink for our printer. We didn’t use it much any way but when I tried to use it with full cartridges they had locked me out of my own printer and haven’t been able to use it at all for months! I cannot believe this is legal?! Will never buy hp anything ever again, I am absolutely gobsmacked that they are able to do this!!
It’s been 3 months and my printer is still locked. I paid for a service when my printer was not being used for 4 months I closed my bank account so HP locked my printer. I canceled service to then find out the ink i had been paying for still wont work. They way to send back the cartridges ok where shall i send them? I will never purchase another HP funny how you can pay way to much for ink at the store and get so many pages and HP can send you the same size cartridges and you supposedly get more pages. I took all the ink out of these cartridges and put into a friend’s cartridges so they wont have to buy ink for a while cuz they ARE full
I have a question: I canceled my hp they said I need to send the ink back that`s fine & dandy but I sent them an e-mail asking if I could use the other type of ink refurbished or if I had to use HP ink haven`t received a e-mail back does anyone know if I can or not.
any information would be apperiated
Hi, you can use any type of ink you like, as long as you are using the right cartridge model number for your specific printer. Refurbished ink will work just fine!
Not for me, only the real ones work 🙁
I just discovered in reviewing credit card usage that HP Instant Ink has been charging me the standard $10.76 fee every month for the past 18 MONTHS when the printer was never connected. I had called and cancelled, but the agent never cancelled the plan. Now I am out hundreds of dollars due to this fraud, and hoping Amex helps me straighten it out. No ink shipments were ever sent, and nothing was cancelled after I called and requested the account be closed.
Incredible. I hope AMEX helps you out with this. HP Instant Ink should be blacklisted from all credit companies. I’ve had a similar experience with them and my VISA. Canceled the plan; paid my card in full; then realized HP had continued to charge my account. Thinking it was at a zero balance, I didn’t look at statements for months until I received calls from VISA. The late fees alone were over $100. Totally criminal.
DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS UNTIL YOU READ THIS!!!!
Let me tell you my story: I bought the printer at Staples, the salesman convinced me Instant Ink was a good program so I enrolled. I rarely use my printer much. Later on down the road, I started a business and had quite a bit to print and I ran out of ink. I hadn’t received any more from HP, but I had been doing a lot of printing over a day or so, flyers and signs take took a lot of ink so I wasn’t upset or anything, I assumed more would be coming. But I needed to print so I went and bought more ink, HP brand, at Staples. HP Instant ink disabled my color cartridges because they weren’t specifically from Instant Ink. I ended up canceling the program. Now, they’ve disabled my printer again, saying I can’t use the ink they sent because I’m no longer enrolled. On both occasions I spoke with customer service and they refused to help. I will never use HP again, ever. I’m even throwing the printer away and buying a new brand. The massive inconvenience from this and lack of support is simply astonishing and the very idea that they can remotely sabotage my printer is scary.
Total waste of money, including the HP Envy printer. It doesn’t print any better than a bad color photocopy so I don’t use for anything critical. When I tried to cancel the ink plan, it was going to incapacitate my current cartridges and I would have to go buy all new cartridges. The user has no control over the printer…. it’s a new low for HP.
Ran out of ink a week ago so may just buy a new printer with ink and cancel cant ne paying for both and not sure I have saved as I never use much except this month but that’s because the prints were so bad and I had to chuck them so paid for bad prints as well
I’m adding this to the lengthy record here if only to increase the data points that confirm this is a terrible service and in no way a benefit to the customer. My experiences echo many of those expressed here. Don’t do it. What they are getting away with in this scam should be against the law if it isn’t already. Dr. B
Thanks for all the replies. My mind was made up after reading only a few. I have not been impressed with HPs customer service for my laptop and printer. And there is no way I can’t afford to allow a 3rd party ink vendor to lock any of my HP machines. There should be a law against allowing this type of practice.
I wish this article had been around before I signed on for this scam. At first, it seemed like a good idea. But nobody ever told me that this means that HP controls your printer, EVEN IF YOU TR TO USE RETAIL INK.
It worked fine for a couple of years, then the printer started having problems with the WiFi. It would say that it was connected to the network, but HP claimed they could not detect it. Meanwhile, as we were still paying for the servuce, it was still letting us print.
Then it got to the point where NONE of our devices could detect the printer at all. The printer still claimed that it was connected. I tried all the troubleshooting tips on HP’s website and elsewhere, but nothing. My husband really needed to print something, so I found a USB cable from an older HP printer and connected this printer to his computer. It totally ignored the USB connection and the computer could not detect the printer. I shut the WiFi on the printer off completely, and only then did it work, with the Instant Ink cartridges in it.
He tried it again a few days later, and this time, it did not work. I canceled the service and purchased HP retail cartrisges so that we could at least use the printer as a wired printer. I put these new cartridges into the printer and it complained because they were not Instant Ink. The printer was also not connected to the WiFi at the time. I thought that if I left it unconnected to the WiFo, I could still use it as an old school wired printer. Not so easy. I had to remove the retail cartridges and replace them a few time before it finally recognized them.
It is working for now, but every time he tries to print something, the thing tells him that he has to connect to HP innorder to print. We found that by pushng the OK button, it will print, but this isstill a very scammy way to make people think they have to turn on the WiFi and connect to HP in order to print at all. I mean, if the printer is not connected to the internet, and connect to a computer via a cable, and it contains regular retail ink, you shold be able to just print, without it telling you what to do.
Screw this. I needed a decent WiFi printer for myself, and bought a Canon. I’ll just order the ink from Amazon before I need it, so I’ll never run out, or get any error message crap trying to get m to sign up for a subscription. Now I have full control over the printer I bought and paid for.
Meanwhile, I had a debit card as my payment method there. Changed it to credit so I’d have an easier time disputing with the bank should these people take another dime of my money. I am also sharing this article on my social media so that others can avoid the hassle that we had to deal with.
ENVY 5540 works fine when it has ink. XXL cartridges? Not in my experience – I ran out of ink after only 30 pages. I chat with Virtual Assistant (aka Robot) but animated unisex character can only respond to about 5 issues. I say I need ink NOW. A month later still no ink. I call HPII (HP Instant Ink) after spending 50 minutes locating a phone number to call for assistance. Man tells me I have plenty of ink. Also says I have non-II ink installed so II cannot verify ink levels. Which is it? Gives me case number & says ink will arrive within 2 weeks. I say to ship immediately & he says OK. Many emails from them later, it says case successfully resolved, case closed. Still no ink yet 3 times I have told VA Robot to ship ink. How can HP have “unsophisticated” software? They are HP! Actually, they have very sophisticated software that can give you false reads at their whim. You get fed up & eventually buy ink elsewhere while waiting for ink to arrive via USPS. Why does it take up to 10 days to arrive in the first place? How inefficient of HP, especially when you consider that Amazon can deliver anything overnight from anywhere, including China. I feel sorry for HP employees who are programmed to believe only what HP wants them to & are not privy to the way it really is. They hear complaints all day & are unable to help even when they want to & try their best. Those of you who accuse victims of not reading the fine print or understanding pages vs ink used are missing the point. This program is unethical, as is the way they mistreat their Customer Service staff by withholding FAQ of how the ink/page tracking chip in the “free” cartridges actually works & what the chip is capable of doing. Sending the “empties” back allows them to re-use &/or re-ship most of ink in their advertised XXL cartridges. This theory explains why a printer would be “out of ink” after only 30 pages. The chip releases just enough ink to register pages for its count & the printer works fine but the page itself is useless. (There’s the shades of gray!* See below.)
Virtual gaslighting & control by sabotage via chip. Virtual anything possesses no emotion & no empathy & is programmed to be narcissistic (Google NPD). You cannot reason with a robotic entity. Virtual reality is a nightmare & not unlike trying to communicate a different point of view with a narcissist. Black or white – no grey (dark)* or gray (light)* (This comment corrected above). HPII is a scam & a scandalous way of doing business. Was it designed by Corporate robots the public does not know exist? Or Trump? I will never buy another HP product again nor will I return their “empty” cartridges, based upon principle & HP’s lack of integrity. They lost yet another loyal customer – virtually & literally & that is reality. Print that, HP!
I have used HP ink service for the last few years and have generally been happy. There have been a few issues where they didn’t ship any ink and I actually ran out and had to run to the store to get ink.
I am currently at the highest level . . . 700 pages for $19.99. If you look at the price per page for the lowest level, it is about 6 cents per print. Yet, when going from 300 pages per month (@ $9.99) to 500 pages per month ($14.99) the cost savings per print is $0.0033 and even a smaller difference between 500 and 700 pages. There is very little savings for their highest users. Doesn’t seem fair or right. I would have expected to see 800 pages for 19.99, not 700 pages. Of course I overran during the trial period but got no “rollover” pages on the months I didn’t use all of my “free” allotment.
As is typical, most of the people that write reviews are the unhappy ones. I’d be curious to know how many subscribers they have in total and what the percentage of “people happy with the service” is. I for one have not had any issues. It is way cheaper for me to use this than pay the $200 for cartridges that I spent last year..($60 with instant ink this year) I am amoderate user. If you are a light user and 100 pages is sufficient for you, just do the math . . . $36 a year as opposed to $50+ when buying your own is pretty much a “no-brainer”. I know that should I ever cancel (not that I plan to) I will run out and spend $50 for a new cartridge before cancelling. I can’t use what I don’t own.
A very satisfied HP instant ink user.
It seems like most of the nay sayers don’t understand that they are not buying the ink. What they are buying is some # of printed pages per month … very similar to what happens when you go to the copy store and copy or print something. At the quick copy/print store you are charged per page copied/printed even if that page is completely empty. Instant Ink is the same way. You pay a monthly fee for a certain # of prints and then you pay a fee for any overage, but you also have some roll-over. If you cancel, then that’s it. You don’t “own” the left over ink. You just go and buy a full set of cartridges which you do own, and then your printer keeps right on working.
Like many who posted here, my printer got locked out. I hadn’t received any ink cartridges in months. When I went to the HP customer service site, it read that my questions would be answered if I paid $1. HP printer is headed for the landfill. Some folks vote with their wallet, as I will do. No more purchases from HP.
Don’t get involved with his scheme!!!
For all those people that say it is a service like a restaurant, well if you if you don’t go to the restaurant you are not stopped from buying food at another restaurant. It is NOT like a copy store which charges the same or lower for volume printing. The overage charges are just plain wrong! Control of the “printer” I purchased belongs to me!!!
this thing is going to the thriftshop, I’ll stick with my Cannon MG 7520. Big rip off!!!!
Agreed don’t bother folks. My first colour cartridge didn’t work so I bought one. This meant it no longer told HP that I needed a new one so I was condemned to buying new ones forever. Then when I tried to resolve this it took ages before I was told they were compromised by Coronavirus and couldn’t respond. Don’t waste your money
I have really liked this relatively new HP Office Jet Pro 8610.
But Really Sorry i got mixed up with the instant Ink deal. Put in a new cartridge and printer tells me the Printhead appears to be missing, not detected or missing.
I have tried every option to repair for days and now have tried to call and email support. They just give you the run around with the “virtual agent.”
So I am in desperate need of a printer in middle of a project. A printer that was worth $300 + and now is useless.
We have been satisfied and loyal to HP over the years.
VERY disappointed with HP and customer service.
I have been using instant ink for about 2 years and i love it. I always print something instantly and never run out of ink. Ink arrives before i need it.idont have to put it until the printer tels me. I find it is much better than paying 80 to130 dollars and having it all dry out before i get to use it.i haten’t accounted for each payment but i have never ruin out of ink and i haven.t thought i paid as much as i have paid on the fly.
i love my HP ENVY 7645 prints fax scans copys prints e-mail has it’s own e-mail address and with instant ink always ready always works.
i love my HP ENVY 7645 prints fax scans copys prints e-mail has it’s own e-mail address and with instant ink always ready always works.Never published . What field did I fail to
I’d like to hear from anyone who has purchased an HP all-in-one and did not sign up for instant ink EVER. Are you happy with the ink cost and how long it lasts?
I purchased hp all in one did not get instant ink. Instead, I bought a 3 pack of non-OEM XL cartridges they work in printer fine no problems, got 3 black and 3 of each color for 200 dollars. Then get them refilled at ink island or Costco for 45 dollars a set. they are lasting about 10-12 months of printing. They can be refiled 8-10 times they said so they will last longer than the printer. In the end, I am spending less than 50 dollars a year to get ink. It would be even cheaper if I decide to get the refill kit and do it myself watched the video it is not very hard I am just lazy. instant ink not worth for average users who just print mostly documents and I use ink-saving features that come with the printer on most documents. Only use high-quality ink on pictures which is less than 20% of my usage. Page usage over 12000 pages a year.
[…] The HP Envy 5055 replaces the HP Envy 4520 and it now has Bluetooth, improved Wi-Fi connectivity, faster print speeds & more! It’s just $89 making for a very budget friendly printer, although they do make you sign up to ‘Instant Ink’ ink subscription plans which has its downfalls. Make sure you read 8 things you must know before you sign up to HP Instant Ink. […]
Instant Ink program is not worth it, AT ALL. My printing requirements changed as I began to work at home, cartridge would run out and I wouldn’t be sent a new one. Had to purchase at store, but HP would still charge me and jack up what I was charged per page, but never sent me ink or notified me. Tried to remedy and was told can’t reimburse but can get me into a better plan. When I canceled was told the cartridge would not longer work (even though I paid for it). What a joke. Sour on all HP products moving forward.
BUYER BEWARE
My wife signed up for Instant Ink in 2018. we received 3 cartridges and then something went wrong. We were charged on the credit card monthly for about 2 years before I noticed the charge among the hundred transactions we have monthly. I called and they said they sent emails(which went into my spam folder and never saw) THEY AGREED TO REFUND ME $9.00 My total charges were close to $100 and they said it was my responsibility to contact them when something was wrong with the account.
Do not get this service, its a scam. I am sure they rely on many accounts like mine that stop getting ink delivered and keep paying a monthly fee.
I have used this service about 9 months and have been pleased. My sister has used hers for the past two years and has excellent customer service experiences. First, most of the complaints seem to come from people not realizing this is a subscription SERVICE and not a subscription for ink cartridges, per se. So if you have cartridges in your machine and cancel the service, it no longer works. Other complaints I read seem to be about not using it one month and you got charged anyway! Again it is a subscription, monthly, regardless of how much you use. I generally don’t go over my allotted amount, but this past month I had a lot of printing and went over it quite a bit. I expected additional charge, now next month I’ll be back to normal. Maybe people generally just do not understand what they signed up for. My only concern has been if I did decide to cancel the service, remove their cartridges, could I buy my own and use and from what I read here, yes I can. Other than that, I think it so far has been what I anticipated it to be.
BEWARE of this SCAM!! I wish that I would have found this out before enrolling in this HP SCAM. They up-charged every month and now I am stuck with all of this extra ink. They claim that you don’t pay for ink but I was charged an extra $30 each month and keep sending you ink. This should be illegal. NO MORE HP!!!
Fact or Fiction? ***4 year STATS to demonstrate FOR the program**300 pages and below
I hope this feed makes it to the TOP to help provide clarity…
Non-Subscriber years Costs:
2020 – non calculating because I have 4 years to sum things up and should give you a great picture.
2019 – $179.00
2018 – $204.72
2017 – $233.34
2016 – $207.57
TOTAL – $824.63 div by 4 years = $206.16 per year = $17.18 per month!
*My HP7640 has to-date – > 8-21-2020 – > 5,745 – (roughly 100 ppm – Jan–August – removing -800 pages – just to factor 4 years only) – 4945 prints div 48 months (4 years) = 103.03 pages per month.
Moderate Plan = $4.99 (100 pages). I’m over the average just by several pages, but I get 15 pages for a $1. (about .07 pp). So add $4.99 plus a dollar and I’m still under $17.18 per month I’ve averaged.
Frequent Plan = $9.99 (300 pages!). Well, I don’t print that much, but let’s say I go with $9.99 per month to give me free reign??? $9.99 is less than my current $17.18 plus the headache of purchasing several times a year (time=money), I’m still saving $7.19 per month .
Is $120.00 per year for 300 pages per month, instant ink to your door (supposedly and timely) reasonable? I’d say YES. $206.16 yr avg. – $120.00 (Frequent Plan) = I’m saving $86.16 each year or 42% savings over all.
I could save more by considering to go with the Moderate $4.99 plan (which HP stats suggested for me up to this point), but to just to consider the still less expensive option of the Frequent Plan, go 300 Pages and relax, care free. I know I can get to Printer page stats and look at monthly usages at least online portal so if I think I’ll print more than 300 pages, maybe I upgrade for a month to the Business plan. Highly unlikely considering my 4 year audit here.
I sure hope this helps SOMEBODY because there are a lot of NAY Sayers here, but I don’t think they went to this level to see what things cost and look like. In the end….you have a Frequent Plan at $120 bucks a year with 300 pages (.033 cents pp). Is that really out of whack for folks? Yes, I know the internet is a must. I appreciate any feedback as I’ve NOT signed up for the service yet, but it feels promising. What say you out there? What might I be missing?
You’re not missing anything. If you sign up for the 300pg/mo plan and use 300pg/mo, you’ll definitely benefit
If you sign up for 300pg/mo and use 25 pages a month … which I’m guessing they hope you do … then you’re not benefitting.
The service works wonderfully for me because I have a laser printer for my black and white printouts and I use my HP inkjet with instant ink for color printouts and photo printouts only — which would be expensive if I were constantly replacing color ink cartridges. I have the old free plan where you get 15 pages per month (which is now 99 cents a month). I’ve owned the printer over 2 years and have only gone over my 15 pages per month once.
I cancelled as it was a rip off. I have two of the same printer in 2 homes. Can never get customer service. I will use these two printers until they die. They will be the last HP printers I ever purchase again, 20 plus years a loyal customer. Enjoy the money you stole from me HP
Don’t get involved with Instant Ink! It will haunt you forever! I bought a new printer and signed up for instant ink. I had installed the ink cartridges that came with my printer. I used it for a month before receiving and installing the instant ink cartridges. HP charged me for the month that I used my own ink and cartridges. Then they told me if I cancel I won’t be able to use my original cartridges as they were now marked as Instant Ink cartridges! The whole concept is a rip off!!!! They stole my own cartridges and ink from me and now are telling me that I need to wait a month and pay before I can have control of my printer again!!!! If it was their printer and I was renting it from them I could understand, but I own the printer and the original cartridges and they are stealing from me!!!
[…] 12. 8 Things You Should Know About HP® Instant Ink® Before … […]
I understand how the program works … they own the cartridges and ink, not me. And there is a privacy issue. I will be printing almost exclusively color, so it certainly seems like a money saver. But since they are connected to your printer and know quite a bit about it, what prevents them from seeing/knowing what you print?
This is an absolutely ridiculous “service”. I am completely 100% out of ink -I received an email indicating the ink was on its way, only to be followed by an email indicating 2-3 weeks, due to “delays”. Customer Service says it will be 3-4 weeks before I get any, because they are out of a colour. I don’t care, just sent me black, that’s all I really need. Nope – everyone I speak with has a different answer and different promises. Have spoken with 2 Supervisors….. Unfortunately all my local stores are out of the ink I need, so I am stuck with an expensive paper weight. Fortunately I bought this paperweight at Costco, so it will be going back and HP has lost a customer. Worst experience ever!
How about this one… We have been out of state for 6 months and returned to our Instant Ink plan three days ago. Our HP laptop will not print so we have had to use an ipad for our few printed pages (maybe 20 at most). HP claims we have printed 112 pages in the last 3 days. We didn’t even have that many pieces of paper. I have now been on hold with HP Support for 47 minutes and counting because they are “experiencing higher than expected call volumes” When are they going to adjust their expectations and staff up to solve the problems they cause?
HP once was a terrific company, but have lost their way after paying millions and millions of dollars to useless senior management. What a shame!
Well, I don’t think I can say anything more that the previous 300 negative customers noted. :). The program is a rip off. They held my printer hostage and I couldn’t use it until I found non-Instantink cartridges. Which, sadly, is pretty challenging during a pandemic when everyone is working from home. I may have to renew just so I can finish printing some documents. But the program is misleading and even if I were to save a few dollars, they make it so confusing and have so many fine print rules that I’d much rather have control of my own printer, which I paid for. I will not purchase an HP printer again.
I have had nothing but good luck so far with HP Instant Ink. I use it for my small business and it works exactly to my needs and for MUCH cheaper than purchasing ink outright. On top of that you recycle the old cartridges!
Terrible service from HP.
First printer died after 9 months and was eventually replaced with a different model. I was sent an Envy photo 6232 … literally 3 weeks after the warranty ran out I was having problems so decided to reset the printer, from this day on nothing worked after 6 weeks many many phonecalls HP decided it was my router which amazingly works well with every other item in my house and refused to help me any further other than to tell me that the printer was ok to use but not with instant ink.
I made the mistake of signing up for the instant ink service. I was a fan of HP, but after using their service, I’ll never buy anything HP again. They upset me to the point where I will avoid all of their products, I even threw the HP printer I had away and bought a Canon Eco Print.
What a complete disaster this service of instant ink is.
I lost internet connection they stop my printer from working .
Totally rubbish service I will be cancelling it .
Take my advice pay the extra few quid for the ink and keep control of your own printer.
They can stick their instant ink and their rubbish service where the sun dont shine.
Thank you to all the people who posted their experience with this service. My general impression is that HP probably is aware that a significant number of it’s customers could not benefit from this program yet they were pressured into buying it.
I just completed some research into a couple of HP printers, one was under $100 and another was about three times that price and both had an odd part in the description that stated that the printers will only print out 100 pages per month meaning that if I plop down $250 for a new printer and then pay another roughly $100 for a year of their service I will only get up to 1200 pages printed in that time period. That comes to mover than 29 cents per printed page. The UPS store charges 25 cents per copy and the public library charges 20 cents per copy and both are within walking distance of where I live. While inconvenient, if it costs more to own your own printer than to use a public printer then it makes no sense to do so, at least for me.
In any case I cannot predict my monthly usage. Some months I might print 2 pages and other months I might print 2000 pages. If no HP printer can be made to print more than 100 pages per month no matter what you do then why buy a service like this and pay for 2-3 times that many when you still won’t be able to use all that?
I am reminded of the time many years ago when I bought an HP computer and then six months later got a letter from an attorney informing me of a class action lawsuit where HP was being sued for using recycled computer parts taken from returned computers and installing them on the boards of computers sold as brand new. They settled out of court and the law firm got hundreds of millions of dollars and consumers got a coupon for $7 off their next purchase of an HP product priced above $1000. In other words, if you do business with HP then no matter what you do they will seek out new ways to screw you over and then hide behind the fine print that usually begins: “By purchasing this product you agree to turn over your soul, first born child…”
I am amazed at how many people don’t understand the hp instant ink plan. Do you people not get what a subscription service is? If you do not use your electricity or water this month you are still going to get charged a monthly fee. Try not watching anything on Netflix for a month and see if they give you a refund. I love the instant ink plan. I get 50 pages a month for 4.99. If I don’t use all 50 pages I get rollover pages added the next month! One month I decided to do an experiment and every day printed 2 full pages of color photos. By the 18th day HP sensed I was running low on color ink and sent me new color cartridges. Try printing 50 full color pages and see what that costs you without the plan. Cancelling the plan is easy. If you do, of course you can no longer use HP instant ink cartridges. Don’t you get it, you are not paying for ink, you are paying for pages. And for you people complaining about HP infringing on your freedoms and privacy, you must be kidding. Do you guys use Facebook, or Amazon, or especially Google. They know everything you have ever done on the computer. Are you cancelling your accounts with them?
Exactly this! Instant Ink have completely removed the stress of wasting ink for me. I print art, which uses a ton of ink, and I’m sent new cartridges very often, and so far they have never been late. No doubt a money saver if you use it in this way. If you only print black and white text documents though, I don’t think HP ink is worth it.
I signed up for Instant Ink when it was free if you stayed under the 10 or so pages per month. I don’t think I ever went over that threshold, and never received a single Instant Ink cartridge since I already had nearly new, large retail-purchased cartridges in the printer.
BIG MISTAKE, signing up when I had my own cartridges in use.
Last month I got an email from HP that they were changing the program and it would no longer be free no matter how few pages I printed. I cancelled the membership.
Then discovered my printer would not work. Error message said I had Instant Ink cartridges – having never received one??? – and had to be enrolled in Instant Ink to be able to print.
On searching the website I discovered that my personally purchased, regular ink cartridges that cost me around $60 are now useless since they have been used in the printer while it was signed on to Instant Ink, unless I sign up again, which I refuse to do.
So HP has ripped me off for the cost of those cartridges plus the time and hassle and cost of replacing them. And who knows what trouble the printer will now continue to give me, and what other scams HP will come up with in the future.
My next printer will not be an HP.
Definitely do not recommend HP Instant Ink.
Their system does not work and does not ship ink in time, stranding you without the ability to print.
They should let you go buy ink and reimburse you for it when that happens but they don’t.
You are stuck buying cartridges to keep on printing while still paying for their service that has left you stranded.
Totally unimpressed with HP.
DO NOT GET IT! I started my own business a bought an HP Deskjet printer hoping I could save money on a printer until I could get my business going and get a better one. I signed for the instant ink thinking it would help. They charged me almost $100 bucks and then I lost a client because my printer decided it didn’t like the cartridges I put in it (the instant ink cartridges). I’ve stayed away from HP for a long time because of crap hardware and crap service. This takes the cake and I will make sure to never try to buy any of their products again.
I am an old age pensioner hp ink took money from my bank account for over 12 months but got no ink HP ink makes dick turpin look like father kelly
The HP model I just bought was marked $44 but at checkout I was charged only $26 at Walmart and the Free Instant Ink period is 5 months. I printed for 5 days and ran out of ink. I’ve been waiting 2 weeks for more ink. I bought another HP WIFI printer for $5 at a thrift store. It came with 4 61XL black and 3 XL color ink cartridges. Its my third HP thrift store printer under $10 in 5 years and the last two worked great for a couple of years.. If this new Instant Ink printer even looks at me sideways I’ll chuck it in the dumpster so fast it’ll make its spooler spin!
I am among those who have experienced difficulty with the InstantINK Plan! Yeah, the program worked well for a while! Somewhere along the way, the Printer, the PC, of course Myself we all messed up! Who would ever imagine, the lowly credit card required an update for the expiration date, etc. All these would be simple tactics to change…But this is not the solution for the Program. Its solution is to lock your printer and forbid you access for updating or correcting any issues that you incurred.
Some of you may get a kick out of this, other won’t know the meaning. InstantINK imposed “The Mark of the Beast”. My connection from PC to Printer is locked and documented as such!
The “frustration” expressed in the comments is the control HP imposed over you and your property!!.
I got the Instant Ink service when we purchased the printer and it worked fabulously until….I never received my Oct. 2020 shipment and didn’t pay attention to what was going on. Until I ran out of ink and foolishly and in a panic bought regular ink off the HP site. That cut me off from the service so I tried dealing with the “virtual agent” which is frustratingly useless. So I called; four times, four different reps. All polite to the extreme. They told me they’d do an “acceleration” on shipping me the Instant Ink I needed and get me back to being monitored (ink usage). I got a black ink cartridge but not the tricolor cartridge! They told me it was on back order and then I was informed there was a “problem with my account”. Now I did get some emails from them, but I get them so frequently I don’t read them all so maybe there was a heads up in one of them. Finally I just cancelled. I’d paid for three months and no ink received, so they offered me two free months. I said that was very nice, but what I needed was ink! So I cancelled. Shame it was a great deal, but the customer service was a sham; but those people were so polite, excessively so I guess because they knew they could not help me anyway.
HP has made it very difficult to use 3rd party aftermarket cartridges. All cartridges for certain HP printers now contain a chip, and I have found it hard to get aftermarket cartridges to work with my OfficeJet Pro 8740 even if the chips are supposdly of the “updated” variety and are supposed to work. So I have subscribed to a moderate usage Instant Ink plan. The total yearly cost is reasonable and is a good solution at this point. However, my next printer will be a Canon or an Epson. I don’t like being held captive to HP’s genuine cartridges because of the chips.
That’s it my done with HP. Thieve prying into my printer. I am discussed their CEO is not behind bars.
This was my first time using the Instant Ink service. They overcharged me for pages that were double fed by their inferior product, AND I found that they went up on the monthly cost halfway through my contract year. I’ve had HP printers for years, mostly because they’re inexpensive- but you get what you pay for. I’ve had so much trouble with them. The last one The Office Jet9015 had n output tray so short that my documents either went flying off the tray or were fed back into the feeder if the catch was up. When this one breaks (they typically only last a couple years- I too and through with HP.!
If you want to cancel, good luck at getting through. I had to keep changing my password that they said was not correct. Looking online for a phone number was a challenge as there are several, all of which don’t work. I finally got through to 1-855-785-2777. I had Instant Ink for some time when I printed more, but just do a few pages now and then so I wanted to cancel.
[…] https://www.ldproducts.com/blog/the-fine-print-8-things-you-should-know-before-signing-up-for-hp-ins… […]
The HP Instant Ink program is a real scam They entice you with a free 5 months program. I also fell for it. Will never buy a HP product again. It is cost effective to buy brands other than HP and use store brought ink cartridges. The initial 5 months I barely printed anything. Then from the 6 month onwards charges started popping up on my credit card. Later on I had a new credit card and the card number was not updated on the HP instant ink account. The printer was remotely locked by HP till I paid the dues for the unused months service. 7 months and no ink cartridges were shipped to me but I still had to pay $2.99 every month.
My advice: Stay away from HP printers. Not worth it. I wish I saw this article before I purchased the HP printer.
[…] 8 Things You Should Know About HP® Instant Ink® Before Signing Up […]
[…] The Envy 5055 is an all-in-one printer that compared to many of the other options we’re featuring, is inexpensive in comparison. It’s that fact and the features the printer offers for your home office that secure it a spot. With all the standard AIO features, the Envy 5055 comes packed with built-in dual-band Wi-Fi, which makes operating the printer even easier with HP’s excellent printer app for iOS/Android devices. While replacing the ink will end up costing more than you’ll spend on the printer, using HP’s Instant Ink subscription service can make that cost more manageable. Make sure you read 8 things you must know before you sign up to HP Instant Ink. […]
I have had very good luck with this instant ink program. We have used this program for over a year, and changed our usage amounts depending on what we need. It makes it easier than going to Walmart and having to find the cartridge (which is out of stock half of the time). I easily return the empty cartridges in the pre-paid envelopes and they send me a new one. I love it and I plan to continue. I have nothing bad to say about it- never had a problem!
If you print a lot of text documents, Instant Ink is not worth it. You use little ink and a lot of pages. On the other hand, if you print full on images dripping with ink, then instant ink is DEFINITELY worth it. You pay for pages, not ink. So in short, worth it for people who prints photographs/art.
I am so glad to get the chance to review HP Instant Ink — DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS SERVICE. It could be cost-effective, but if you ever have a problem, there is absolutely no way to fix it. I ran into a problem with my printer not talking to the computer and the router. Thus all the information was wrong regarding my page usage. I didn’t get ink when I needed it and had to buy non-Instant Ink. Then my printer was locked. I’ve tried to cancel, and I’ve removed all Instant Ink cartridges. But I’m still being charged!!! And the service representatives are uninformed at best and disrespectful at worst. In theory this is a good idea, but in practice, the amount of frustration is not worth the price — ANY price.
INSTANT INK HAS HIJACKED MY PRINTER. I SWITCHED INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS AND SINCE THEN, THE PRINTER CAN’T KEEP A STABLE CONNECTION WITH MY ROUTER SO I KEEP GETTING “NEED TO CONNECT TO WEB SERVER” ERROR MESSAGES. CAN’T GET THIS PROBLEM FIXED. HP IS NO HELP. EVEN MY IT GUY COULDN’T FIGURE IT OUT. SO I CANCELLED INSTANT INK, THINKING THAT I COULD JUST DO IT OLD SCHOOL. NOW THE PRINTER WON’T PRINT ANYTHING BECAUSE I HAVE INSTANT INK CARTRIDGES AND YOU HAVE TO BE ENROLLED IN ORDER TO USE THEM. I WAS NEVER INFORMED OF THIS WHEN I PURCHASED THE PRINTER FROM BEST BUY.
I WILL NEVER BUY HP AGAIN.
What printer did you buy ?
WOW!
Now here’s a story for the masses. I inherited a HP printer from a friend who inherited it from someone who DIED a few years ago! The prior person never used it and it just gathered dust (no pun intended). Since I had no knowledge of this printer I thought I would try to see if the printer still works. Well… that was a big mistake.
The error messages I was getting was “The printer could not connect to Web Services. The server might be busy or temporarily unavailable.” After some searching I found some obscure references on the net to the HP Instant Ink program. Luckily I was screen capturing during the firmware update otherwise I never would have known where to start. After a few videos and other search results I ended up here to this magical article which lays it down clearly (Thank you).
So long story short… why on earth would anyone want this program? If it saves some money it might be useful for constant printing. I most certainly wouldn’t (and usually I avoid inkjet printers) and I find it ironic that this “end use case” scenario makes the printer unusable and untestable without buying non-instantink cartridges just to see if it is still working.
At the very least they could allow an alignment page to be printed for the next person in line. HP has really gone overboard with their inept process.
Btw all future printers I purchase for my Company and recommendations for Individuals will be to avoid HP. There are other issues with other HP printers that I have run across as well but this is the icing on the cake.
[…] 6. 8 Things You Should Know About HP® Instant Ink® Before … […]
The worst thing is that if your cartridge gets damaged or stop working or is faulty, HP won’t replace it even if you attempt to send it back — they basically will do nothing. This happened to me so I cancelled my instant ink contract and buy cartridges as and when I need them.
Instant Ink — more like instant stink!
Works great, good service.
[…] 11. 8 Things You Should Know About HP® Instant Ink® Before … […]
I have a solution that works for me. I am replacing my HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus all in one color printer, which does not quality for HP+ or instant ink, and will be buying a printer not made by HP. I am done with them and will never buy HP again.
I was an Instant Ink subscriber for years. But lately Instank Ink, and HP in general are really taking a nosedive. To start I keep getting charged for printing here and there I didn’t do. I have a small medical billing business, so everything on my network is secure, crazy pw etc. not visible to the outside network. I was suspecting I was being overcharged but was printing a lot and couldn’t tell. Until we were gone for a week, and I printed then. Like, 20 or so pages. On top of that, I had been rearranging so the printer was unplugged, on the floor. So, they’re just full of it. Called, and they didn’t care, still charged me and did nothing about. And, I’ve never called to question it ever, in the past let alone ask for a credit. And still no courtesy. Then, today I was trying to pay my bill and didn’t have but a bit over the cost for the instant ink in my business checking. It wouldn’t go through or Update. Had to call, be transferred, and then they tell me that although it says I owe one amount on the screen that’s for the “current” cycle……(no sh*t sherlock) He goes on…but you owe two separate and additiional payments (more than double the current bill mind you) from April and May. I’m like, okay no. Idk where you get that I dont see that and to the contrary my cycle ends on the 19th of every month. Last month, I was late, and paid on the 28th of June, 8 DAYS AFTER the previous cycle ended and you charge me. I dont dictate the charges, HP does. I can’t pay whatever amount I would like, HP charges my card what I owe. Now, you’re telling me that when you charged my card, YOUR SET AMOUNT for bills that were due and “paid” 3 and 4 months ago. And, I just paid a larger bill than what you say I owe (still june 28th) and was printing for the month of July’s cycle, then that’s your problem. That’s your billing issue, it lacks transparency and I don’t want to pay it. It’s ridiculous. I had to talk to 4 reps last month (July cycle) to “unsuspend” my instant ink from a late payment, then. I did it seemed fine but wasn’t. I had to call HP and got transferred to 4 different reps, none of whom mentioned that I owe all this money you didn’t charge me for? He then says, “I know I’m confused by it too” ok then, so I felt we may be getting somewhere. I say look Brad, when I log in it says previous charges $0.00, Current monthy or Plan says it’s $29.99 (whatever it was) and the “Account details on the right of the screen they match $29.99 that is showing not due until the 19th. but they match, with no prior balance. If you’re telling me I owe twice that much for months you charged me for, not reflected here….isn’t that an HP issue that isn’t mine? He agreed, then went on to say there was nothing he could do at all about it, that it’s really just how it was his hands were tied. I was like….Brad, you friggin nerd with the nerd voice I thought we agreed? I thought we were on the same page “Well it is confusing but we still can’t do anything about it’. I was like are you friggin kidding me? If this were my friggin client, i would blame the rain, moon or stars, Brad I would blame your mom, if I needed to apologize, AND MAKE IT RIGHT FOR MY CLIENT. You’re telling me I just have to pay what I don’t feel I owe and you failed to charge me, failed to show me in my account, it lacks transparency, it lacks ethics, and frankly Brad HP IS TRASH! They used to be great, and instant ink saved my life as a student and business person. But you know what Brad, I’ve been eyeing an Epson with the tanks, and the only reason I haven’t fired that missle is becuase I am a loyalist. But Frankly, Brad you’re cool (Actually he was mediocre at best but I’m not rude) But tell HP it’s UP THEIRS, THEY SUCK! from my last printer purchase that kept going off line i had to return, to the instant ink pages i let go even though you were stealing from me and nobody cared. But now, again, you slap my face and I’m supposed to keep paying you to do it? HP YOU’RE TRASH! IDK WHAT YOU’VE DONE BUT YOU SCREWED YOURSELVES. A GREAT BONUS HERE IS THAT I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER HP LAPTOP, OR DESKTOP, AND I’VE BOUGHT SEVERAL BRAND NEW. BECAUSE I DISCOVERED APPLE SO BOOM, THAT TOOK CARE OF THAT. AND NOW I WILL NEVER BY ANOTHER HP PRINTER. WINDOWS IS TRASH (ANOTHER STORY) HP IS TRASH, INSTANT INK IS TRASH, AND THEIR ENTIRE CUSTOMER SVC TEAMS IN THE US AND OFFSHORE ARE ALL TRASH! Epson Tank thing….you may be next! Or Cannon we’ll see. but never an HP!
I bought an HP printer that had a big sticker on it that said I get two years of free ink with the purchase of this particular printer. I called HP to confirm it. After I got the printer home, I found out I had to sign up for the instant ink program. Then I was billed for huge overages of printing. All I heard was that everything was free. I had no idea I had to estimate the amount we would print on a monthly basis or we would be charged. When I called customer service, they said it was my fault for signing up for the wrong program. I received one black ink cartridge and the start up ink. I adjusted my account up and paid more. After a few months of paying overages I cancelled the program. Now I see I cannot use the instant ink I paid dearly for that was supposed to be free. So, the ink was in fact NOT free despite what the sticker on the printer says and what I confirmed with HP, and I did NOT receive “two years of free ink” as advertised. I have 3 printers in my business, two of which are HPs. Never again. I’m done with HP.
[…] 6. 8 Things You Should Know About HP® Instant Ink® Before … […]
There’s yet another problem with HP and their instant ink program. I purchased my HP printer in Germany. It was a dual voltage printer and I was told it would work in the US. I signed up for the FREE instant ink, which of course, was not free. Then we moved back to the States. HP instant ink could see that the printer was no longer in Germany so they stopped my ability to print. I even updated the billing address on my card that I had used to pay for instant ink. That did not work. I called HP instant ink and they said I had to cancel my instant ink account in Germany, which I did. The I was told I would have to wait for approximately three weeks until the end of the HP instant ink billing cycle and that after the billing cycle closed, I could reenroll in the US instant ink program or purchase regular ink. It was not an option to just enroll in the US program, I had to wait until the German program closed out in three weeks. I wanted nothing to do with instant ink after that whole experience, so I waited until the end of the cycle, purchased regular ink and installed it a few days after the billing cycle closed. It still would not print! I called HP. I was transferred to six different departments. Finally I was told that my printer had to be “regionalized” because it was no longer in Germany. They tried to do that. It did not work either. Then they offered me a discount on another HP printer. I said no thanks. I dumped the entire printer in the garbage, along with the new regular ink I had purchased and now I am researching what printer to purchase. I do not know much about what printer to purchase yet, but I do know it will not be an HP printer!
HP are not recognising my password. I cannot retype new number fast enough before it runs out so unable to view ANYTHING. PLEASE HELP.
I also feel that for everyday printing, HP Instant Ink is a lousy service, but there are a few use case scenarios that it makes perfect sense, and provides incredible value. I pay a couple bucks a month in page overage fees, but my account is grandfathered from the days that the 15-page monthly usage level was free.
Roughly 99% of what I print on this HP printer is photographs. Now, there are inkjet printers much more capable for photo printing than this one, but this one does a competent job considering the photos are of kids and for kids, not designed to be kept forever, and certainly not going to be examined with a jeweler’s loupe. They’re passable, actual photos printed on photo paper with Instant Ink, and they might as well be free!
On average, I pay $5 a month to print a total of 80 or 90 sheets, which works out to around 350 photos. Were I buying my own ink, I’d be spending $100 a month or more, but since HP counts a line of text, just the same as a full color full page photo, as one page, my 85 pages a month costs me five bucks. HP picks up the cost of the ink. Thanks, guys.
I should also mention that at any time, I usually have two unopened color cartridges on hand, and I have yet to run out of color ink.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that HP created this program just for me, but let’s not delude ourselves; I’m surprised they haven’t shut me down yet. After all, their own telematics tell me that I’ve saved over $5000 in just a couple years.
All that said, I also had a printer I used for everyday printing, and for that Instant Ink royally sucked. I give a thumbs down on the service, especially now that there is no free option, except for the very niche use case I described herein. And now, with the advent of EcoTank value, cost per page is at least in the same ball park as my setup.
In August ’21 I bought a HP Envy 7155 to replace a 10-year old inkjet that had seen better days. I’m STILL afraid to plug it in because of the Instant Ink controversy. I just took it out of the box yesterday 10/1/21 and stared at it today LoL. I knew it was Instant Ink capable, but I didn’t buy it for that. I bought it for the flatbed scanner, the separate paper and photo paper trays, duplex printing, and envelope printing. I have prepared for problems by buying extra HP ink cartridges, just in case the 2 carts they sent with printer don’t work. I also have a USB printer cable to plug into one of my laptops because I’m afraid to use the Dual WIFI setup. Here’s the thing: I bought my printer free and clear. I will never buy into a program that controls how many pages I can print in a given month; it varies too much for me to even consider one of the plans. I refuse to give them a CC. I don’t want them holding MY printer hostage for some unforseen issue. What I’ve been searching for in the past 2 months is clear instructions on how to set up my new printer without accidentally signing up for the Instant Ink plan, or allowing them to exert ANY control over MY printer. SO, I have my USB cable, extra store-bought carts, and a heck of a lot of anxiety. It’s completely silly to be this nervous about plugging in a New Printer! I have been a HP customer since 2002, between Desktops, Laptops, and Printers. Now, I’m beyond disgusted reading the stories and my love affair with HP has ended. If I can get this printer running w/o any hassles, great, but where do I find this info? I just cruise through threads to pick up any small piece of advice to help me get this new printer running WITHOUT Instant Ink. I’ll buy my own carts as I deem I need it, and I’ll be damned if HP is going to force me to choose how many print jobs I need to run! I didn’t buy a printer so a large corporation can control it! That’s my opinion and if anyone can steer me to sources that explain how to bypass signing up for HPII, I’ll be eternally grateful. Thank you.
I forgot to add: For those who are replying to this article and comparing Instant Ink to a Netflix sub, it’s apples and oranges. Let’s use logic: Assume I watched 3 Netflix shows last month, then this month I binge for hours and hours. Netflix doesn’t charge me extra for the heavy usage or disable my TV. Now, compare that with the Instant Ink sub: The agreement is you are allowed X number of pages by the plan you choose. You print more… you’re charged more. WHY would most of us BUY a printer then allow a company to essentially rent it to us, and render it useless at their whim? I’d NEVER give that control to any company. It’s so obviously clear after reading hundreds of posts that the ones who have zero complaints are the high volume top-tier users who are coddled by HP. Those with “free” or low tier plans are bullied by HP.
[…] However, this printer can be an expensive option in the long run. If you plan on printing items regularly, refilling the ink for this printer can end up costing you more than the printer itself! But not to worry, if you take part in HP’s Instant Ink subscription program, this can be an affordable option (you can read more about that here). […]
[…] strongly recommend you sign up for HP’s Instant Ink subscription (which you can read more about here). But overall, the HP OfficeJet 3830 is a smart buy for those looking for the most affordable card […]
I signed up to Instant Ink a couple of years ago when I bought a new Officejet.. I opted for the minimum payment as I print very little. Recently, the printer started jamming the paper so I cancelled the monthly payment as I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get the printer working again. HP then stopped me being able to print, so testing the printer was difficult. I then realised that they had introduced a lesser monthy subsciption but didn’t have the customer car skills to let me know that I might be able to save money.
I continued to use the printer for scanning. However, I have now lost the wifi connection to the printer and my computer can no longer detect it. I can no longer use it for scanning. Is this something that HP have done ?
Effectively, the printer is now headed for scrap including all the cartridges that HP have sent me..
I have an HP Officejet 6310 All In One printer which I purchased about 12 years ago. My printer is never connected to the internet or WIFI, it is connected to my laptop via a USB cable. I have been using reconditioned cartridges for some time but about a three weeks ago I received a message on my computer screen from HP recommending that I update my HP printer software by clicking on the message. There was no explanation why it should be updated or warning of the consequences but it is generally accepted that if you fail to follow an instruction from a manufacturer you could be exposed to some problem or other. I was unable to determine the reason for the recommended update or challenge it so I accepted the instruction. Since then I have been having various cartridge and printer error messages and problems printing. My printer finally stopped printing and said incorrect cartridges were installed and they were both empty. I removed the cartridges and noticed that the cartridge bay and moving parts were covered in ink. HP have damaged my printer. MY PROPERTY. I have the original hard copy 2006 USER MANUAL I received with the printer and nowhere does it say that HP have the right to disable or damage my printer if I decide to use non HP cartridges. Does this amount to criminal damage.?
Did the math as well, For average users the instant ink program is not really saving much. And for the extra time to manage page usage is not really worth it.
For example, I have had a hp 8600 pro for now more than10 years. The family used it for mostly school and work. We bought 2 sets of the OEM high-capacity ink cartridges (they still work to this day after numerous refills the Quality of ink was great). Then used Costo to refill them for 10 dollars each, so 40 bucks for A set. Most of the school and office printing is double-sided and in draft mode or eco color mode. Not very often use Supper high-quality printing. cartridges set lasted about on average 7-10 months black even longer 10-12 months.
But the number of pages the family printed was well over 12000 pages a year. For Example, The $5.99 plan for 100 pages a month will cost you 71.88 a year to get 12000 pages. In the end, the number of pages you print does not really relate very well to how much ink you use especially if you are using ink-saving features. And If you double siding or printing on legal instead of letter size. Or you doing labels or letters. If you use lots of ink on larger sheets of each paper and on both sides and in High-quality mode printing. You will definitely save money. However, for our family, 80% of the things the family printed were things that print quality really did not matter, or for school, which at end of the school year all that printed stuff was shredded (kids). The program would work better if they based it on ink usage, not paper usage. Which the printer does record. How often does it happen that you need to reprint something because the format is wrong or the printer prints out an extra couple of characters on the last page? or did not print the right document. We just bought a new printer and it asked do I want HP+ which means you must sign up for the ink program. For me, It is a strong NO the extra Time to manage paper usage of the whole family and what plan would be the best for maximum paper printing usage. Also giving HP control over my printer and its data of how much I am printing and hope they manage my subscription correctly without any problems (e.g getting new ink ontime). The people who will benefit from this program are people who use lots of ink and high-quality color per page. I would consider the program if it was truly using my ink usage as the means of pricing my subscriptions.
Not A very good program for average users.
I understand why the price of inkjet printers is so low- it is the Gillete safety razor model of the 1900’s: Give the holders away and they have to buy Gillette blades forever! But with the cost of an HP Deskjet Plus 4121 at $78 I would be better off to buy a new printer each time I needed a cartridge! Replacement HP cartridges for this printer are around $97 for a combination of 400 page black and 200 page colour cartridges.
The world cannot sustain such madness!
Very disappointed with HP’s Instant Ink Plan. HP HELD MY PRINTER HOSTAGE ON 3 SEPARATE OCCASIONS. The first time was because they said I did not have an internet connection – which was inaccurate. A day later I was able to print again and no changes were made. About a month later the printer stopped printing and told me I had to enroll in the HP Instant Ink program to be able to continue printing. So I enrolled, was billed the subscription fee and for a complete new pack of all ink colors. After enrolling (a month later) the printer stopped again saying I had to enroll in the Instant Ink Plan before I could print. This was becoming old!! Since I was already enrolled in the plan I decided to cancel it……poof wallah….. it started printing again. Until today! Today I received a message saying I could not print until I enrolled in HP Instant Ink program. Frustrated, I called HP Customer Service….only to become more frustrated. The representative informed me I could not print or even use the ink HP sent me unless I re-enrolled in the Instant Ink Plan. This is a joke! I DO NOT RECOMMEND THE HP INSTANT INK PROGRAM AND WILL NEVER USE IT AGAIN. There was no savings, only aggravation and frustration. In fact I’m out over $100 and HP would not let me return the unused ink cartridges.
We fell for the instant ink program. My wife uses the printer for her job. She prints an average of 200 pages per month. The cost of the program was NOT worth it one bit! We ended the program after one year which forced us to buy new ink. The cost of the ink is high, but it is still way cheaper than the charges we occurred using the program. We started out at a monthly rate which we thought would work out for us, however every month the charges were higher.
BUYER BEWARE!
HP is obviously running a scam since it would be so simple to send cartridges when they’re needed and charge for the cartridges, not pages printed. I’m seriously considering buying another brand of printer and throwing the hp in the trash bin.
Worse decision I made was to sign up for the Instant Ink program. It is almost impossible to cancel the program once you start.
I lost an entire afternoon out of my life, trying to cancel the program. I have only had the printer a month. Think long and hard before you sign up for this program as it is EXTREMELY difficult to get out of it.
I am still getting error messages on my printer and the cancellation which was initiated two weeks ago is still “In Process” in the HP records.
BUYER BEWARE
In have been an Instant Ink user for about 6 years. Overall was happy with service and am able to tweak the plan as printing requirements change. There appears to be some shipping issues and I recently ran out of ink. I had to go out and buy a cartridge myself to finish some urgent printing. HP is going to send a new set via a different shipper (4-5 days) and credit my current month, but that still leaves me 40.00 out of pocket for the cartridge I had to buy. Not happy as that is their selling point (don’t worry about ink, they’ll ship before you need it). I was thinking about switching over to an Epson ECOTank but I may pull the trigger now. High initial cost but should pay for itself in 2-3 years (as long as Epson keeps the refill ink cost reasonable).
how do I get away from this mess They take total control of my printer, they shut my printer down and I couldn`t use it until I increased my plan for more pages ,and once again I`m shut out of my printer I can`t use it. please help me get away from them
DON’T DO IT!!! Signing on to this program was by far one of the worst decisions I have made. Any issues are handled offshore and there is great difficulty understanding the agents. The last straw was when one of the cartridges became incompatible with my printer. When I called about it the agent had me do some diagnostics which had nothing to do with the cartridge. He also had me hit the default printer settings, which I realized too late wiped out my wifi password. Then he wanted me to pay $19.95 for technical support. With no help from him, I input my wifi password and the printer came back online, then I bought a new cartridge which works perfectly. I kept telling him the cartridge is defective until I finally hung up. I cancelled my subscription immediately. If you want someone repeating back to you what you say to him over and over again, sign up. It would actually be funny if it wasn’t so frustrating. You can buy cartridges from Amazon and have them delivered the next day, which is what I did. Problem solved and now I will monitor my credit card to make sure I am not billed any more.
Like everyone else, I too wish I did some basic research before signing up for this service. For some reason, HP can’t charge my new bank card, so I can’t use my all-in-one printer anymore for printing or SCANNING!!!! Now I have to waste a lot of time to make HP charge my account, understand how to cancel the service properly and regain control of my printer and of course file a complaint with consumer protection because there’s no way in this world this is legal.
I’m brand-loyal to the extreme and have been purchasing HP laptops, printers and PC for years, but this experience has put me off HP forever.
Do NOT use HP Instant Ink. Here’s why:
I have an HP Officejet Pro 6830. I’ve had HP Instant Ink subscription since I’ve bought it. I canceled the subscription this month and apparently you are not allowed to use any HP Instant Ink still in your printer, and you CAN’T use any unused HP Instant Ink that was sent to you, regardless if you paid for it.
I already talked to their unhelpful customer service. You’ll notice it’s hard to find their direct phone number to make complaints. So here it is: 855.785.277
I used HP Instant Ink for a couple of years before my printer broke. I found the ink service to be very convenient. I printed tons of pages and only paid about $17 per month ($204 annual) for the ink. HP regularly sent me new cartridges before I ran out, so I was never without ink. When my printer broke, I thought I would try a new brand and bought an Epson printer. The ink ran out after only 6 weeks and I didn’t do much printing during that time. It’s $75 for four new cartridges. I have to travel to the store to buy the Epson cartridges. Instead of paying $75 every other month ($450 annual) for ink, I’m going to buy a new printer and this time, I’m going back to HP. I like the Instant Ink program.
Same with us, we used to pay $150 a year for ink just for 1 of our printers, we now pay $71, we’ve only ever had them forget to send ink twice, 1 time on each printer on our account and that was years ago, since then, never had any issues, we’ve been using the service now for many years.
I’m the kind of person who ends up buying vaccum bags every time I vaccuum because I can’t find them. So buying a bunch of anything doesn’t do me any good. It never did me any good to own a printer before, because if I wanted to print, usually the old ink was dried up, and I had no idea what kind of ink or where to get it and it usually cost me $20 not to mention time and headache to get the ink.. either waiting for delivery or having to load a car full of kids just to drive to the store for ink.
With instant ink, when the odd thought of printing hits me, all I have to do is message them that I lost my last ink shipment, and I have ink at my door within 2 days, sometimes within 24 hours. For me it is cheaper per page printed, but the real value is in not having to deal with the headache.. just depends on if you are the type of person who likes to change your own oil or not.
I’m reporting @HP (@HP Insta Ink). This is fraud and they should be held accountable! I called to update my billing info and somehow I was transferred to the fraud unit who was supposed to fix the problem BUT it was a scam team. My CU acct is overdraft $916.00. I suggest NEVER ENROLL IN THIS PROGRAM. Over the past 3-4 years it’s been one thing after the other. The line was drawn when the customer service people hung up on me twice today!
The cost of the best sublimation printer program was NOT worth it one bit! We ended the program after one year which forced us to buy new ink. The cost of the ink is high, but it is still way cheaper than the charges we occurred using the program. We started out at a monthly rate which we thought would work out for us, however every month the charges were higher.
BUYER BEWARE!
I have just boought an HP OJPRO 8024e. I was prompted to sign up for instant ink, but decided to look at pros and cons first. I am so glad I did! I cannot imagine the problems and stress caused by not being able to use your printer, that someone knowing all your business and information. I am pleased with my printer and will be getting ink independantly
THEY DONT LET YOU USE YOUR REMAINING CARTRIDGES AFTER YOU STOP THE SERVICE. THEY ALMOST FORCE YOU TO REGISTER. THE CARTRIDGES DONT SHOW UP. THEN YOU CANCEL BECAUSE THEY ARE CHARGING YOU MONTHLY FOR PRINTING EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE USING STORE BOUGHT CARTRIDGES. YOU CANCEL AND THE CARTRIGES SHOW UP BUT YOU CAN’T USE THEM BECAUSE YOU CANCELLED. ANY IF YOU REGISTER AGAIN THEN YOU ARE CHARGED FOR THE CARTRIDIGES YOU PREVIOUSLY PAID FOR.
CLASS ACTION SUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN ANY LAWYERS OUT THERE?
This is such a crooked practice and they should be ashamed of themselves. I need to cancel my subscription for just a couple months because of back surgery and not able to work. Yet if I cancel (even though I have been with them since 2019) and even if it is just for a couple months, they will lock my printer so I can’t print anything. I agree with you, they should be sued for their horrible practices. If anyone does file a lawsuit, I would gladly join in – They SUCK
HP Instant Ink is nothing but a scam. Don’t sign up for it. The print counts are not accurate, they are inflated. The proof is when they send you new cartridges when you don’t need them. You don’t notice it at first until the unopened cartridges start stacking up.
The next thing that happens is your plan is bumped to the top automatically, that’s when the extra cartridges stop coming and you are left with paying for printing that you never used. Most people don’t have time to audit all their subscriptions against their credit cards, and dirty companies like HP know that.
DON’T BE AN HP CASH COW!!!!
I HATE HATE HATE HATE Instant Ink.
My computer had gone offline with them for a while and I ran out of ink. This was like a year ago. They sent me two replacements, I thought that was nice…. BUT- now I’m down in bed with a broken back and needing surgery. I can’t work and therefore can’t afford their services for a month or two. So, if I cancel my service, even though I have ink in my printer and extra ink ready to install (Ink I have PAID for at $18.99 per month since 2019) – even though all of that, if I cancel my service for a couple months while I recover and get back to work, my printer will not work. I will not be able to print anything. This is the printer my kids use for school too. But HP could care less. I think I’m just throwing this stupid printer in the garbage and buying a different brand. HP has lost my business forever. I hate big companies that treat their customers like crap.
I hate this product. They control your printer like rogue government. It’s quite creepy, actually. If you cancel, make sure you have other printer cartridges to replace theirs with, otherwise, you will not be able to use your printer. I WILL NEVER SIGN UP FOR THIS AGAIN!
Oh my gosh, all these horrible comments. You guys are scaring me. I have an older, very inexpensive HP printer. Since I make journals and cards out of digital papers, I print a lot every month using lots of color. Cartridges were costing me over $40 each. So $80 for a black one and a color one. And then I could only print maybe 70 pages? It was outrageous. HP offered me this plan that included the first 4 months for free and then 3.99 a month for 50 pages. Seemed about right. I jumped on it. So far they are sending me cartridges too often. I have printed many color rich Halloween digitals, and I still have half full cartridges. And more free cartridges arrived today. An email last week said to please change my cartridges. But they are nowhere near empty and are printing just fine. I had no idea about the locking your printer issues. But I am following the rules, so far.
Hewlett Packard’s Instant Ink is a complete con. I bought a printer, which stopped working ages ago – I have never received a single cartridge from them and trying to get the account cancelled is a massive drain on time. They’re customer service is very poor. Even when the account was cancelled they carried on taking the money and I had to go back to them again. The first customer service agent I spoke to said she would ask about my getting a refund, but didn’t get back to me during which time two payments were taken from my account. The 2nd customer service claimed the first one had tried to call me several time, but I had no missed calls at all. He came back to me after leaving me on hold for ages with a pathetic offer of 4 months refund and said that was the most they were prepared to give back. When I protested, he was rude, condescending and unhelpful. Apparently the customer always being right is an out of date concept and the customer is now wrong! Appalling attitude. I work with customers all of the time and I would be sacked if I spoke to a customer like that. AVOID! We have a lovely Epsom printer now – it is compact and works perfectly. AVOID HP!
I am so disgusted with this company and service!!!
My HP printer broke out of the blue in December and because I had about 800 pages of instant Ink printing already paid for and not used I ended up with another HP printer. This printer came with 2 ink cartridges and 9 months of free instant ink service.
On Dec 30, 2022, I called customer service to set this printer up to ensure I would NOT lose my 800 pages and still benefit from the 9 free months. I was told that I would be sent more ink immediately. While on the call I also tried inputting the cartridges from the broken printer to see if I could still use them – the new printer did not recognize them and indicated on the screen that I had no ink (even though they were pretty much full as I had just put them into the broken printer shortly before it broke). I told the call agent all this and said that since they are not useful to me I would ship them back along with 1 unopened cartridge.
Yesterday (Jan 8th) the printer indicated that the colour cartridge was empty (after 30 pages of printing) and the printer is telling me that the black ink cartridge is almost done too (so maybe I’ll get 40 pages of printing from the black ink … really?????)
The call agent I spoke to on Dec 30 sent out 2 cartridges and only the black one has arrived. So as of today when I need ink, I have no colour replacement and the black cartridge that was sent is the wrong one – it is not recognized by my printer. (I tried twice putting it into my printer and both times the printer said I have no black ink. I put the almost empty cartridge back in and it shows that I have 1 line of ink left.). So I have NO instant ink for my printer even though I was told on December 30th that the correct cartridges will be shipped.
Well that hasn’t happened.
I called the HP call centre again and was on the call for over 3 hours today: I was told by the first agent, Margot, that you can not overnight ship ink … and Kirsten the supervisor told me that it won’t take just 4-5 days for me to get it (which Margot said) but it will take 5-7 days for ink to arrive in Canada. So why is that?????? I bought the printer in Canada … I can order the ink from Staples (which is what I’ve had to do) so the ink exists in Canada, but HP Canada can not ship Canadian customers ink??????? Really?????
So both Margot and Kirsten told me the following over our 3 hour call: not once did someone apologize for the error that was made on Dec 30th … not once did someone empathize with me and try to make it right. Instead I was fed a bunch of lines that were repeated over and over during the 3 hours. I was offered 2 free months – tacked onto my already 9 months of free ink service I received by purchasing the printer. Free months of ink don’t help if you don’t provide the ink!!!!!!!!! Asking a small business to wait 7 days to print is NOT acceptable!
I asked several times to speak to a manager … after quite a long wait I was told “all the managers are in a meeting”. One of them couldn’t break away to deal with an irate customer???? Really? I then asked to speak to anyone who had the capacity to make a decision. After about 90 minutes I ended up with a supervisor (Kirsten) who also has no decision making ability and was even more annoying than the call agent.
I had to spend $62.85 for ink cartridges that Staples will send me tomorrow. If Staples can do it, why can’t HP do it??????? I asked Kirsten to reimburse me for my expense due to HP’s error. She said she couldn’t – I had already received 2 free months of ink – which does not equal what I spent.
I asked for the CEO’s name and number and was told “it is not company policy to provide that information”. Really?????
Just what sort of customer service does HP provide, especially when an error has been made by HP and it’s costing the customer to fix it?
Basically I’ve been told to “like it or lump it” and HP doesn’t really care about your opinion, your business, or what you need.
Really???
This printer service isnt worth it i used to like it but not now because they put a warranty on the printers and when its up you cant use the printer you half to buy a new one i had my printer a few years and my warranty expired and the customer service lady told me it would no longer work and she could sell me another printer with a 2 year warranty so i get a pri ter for 2 years then its junk to and on top of that i had just payed my monthly payment for the ink and i could still print through wifi direct well after talking to the lady i tried to print something through the wifi direct and it no longer worked so i figured ok ill use the scanner to scan and print it printed about 5 pages then the printed started blinking and was showing i had no ink even tho i just put new ones in so they shut that down to i would think i just paid my monthly payment and got new ink i should of been able to use it nope cause they want me to buy another printer i will never buy a hp printer again waste of money when they control everything and wont let me use ink i paid for.
I bought an HP Envy some time ago, just got round to setting it up. I really wish I hadn’t, I signed up to the instant ink on an impulse, then cancelled it. Too late, I have to pay a billing cycle, worse still, the cartridges that came included with the printer out of the box are now under the instant ink control, which means that in 4 weeks time, they won’t work. They will be less than half empty as we don’t use the printer that often, which is extremely annoying, given I already paid for them when I bought them with the printer, and what a ridiculously environmentally unfriendly concept. Whoever thought this up at HP needs some correction therapy.
I’ve had my HP Envy for a few years now and the experience with this company hasn’t been a good one. I barely use my printer but from time to time I see multiple withdrawals being pulled from my bank account, therefore I took my bank card off of there system because why would any company be pulling multiple times within a month from someone’s bank account? It seems pretty illegal if you ask me. They have even sent out ink that I dont need because I’m sometimes not using my printer for months and we’re talking about 6 plus months possible more. So when I have gone to delete my bank account from there platform because I don’t like to see multiple charges in a single month, they have sent a signal to my printer to block it from printing. Such a scam.
Why all the whining and hating? Brush up on your reading comprehension and math skills. You all agreed to let them charge you every month, even if you didn’t print your set number of pages, and you all agreed to let them charge you extra if you went over. You all agreed that you are paying for a printing service and will be using their ink in your printer, up until the point at which you cancel. You all agreed to keep your printer connected to the net, and not use other ink cartridges. You all agreed to all of it!
I came here to research this out while I am selecting my next printer. I print 800-900 pages a month, mostly black. If they offered a plan that matched my numbers, I’d sign up this minute. The inkjet plans top out at 700/month right now, so overages would eat up any savings I would realize, so I’m on the fence. As for privacy, well, they have to monitor your page count so they will know when to send out new cartridges. Most of you used real names, and you likely fakebook, tweet, chat, and who knows what else, so “The Man” already knows all about you.
Criminy, people these days…
I have used the Instant Ink program for about 2 years now. I closely monitory my printing and adjust the plan based on the next months usage. The rollover pages are a nice way to keep from going over your limit. I just upped to the 1500 page plan for this billing cycle as I am expecting a large amount of pages (I went through 700 pages in 2 days) and have a nice build up of rollover pages. However I expect to need 2-3 complete sets of cartridges, I have some spare that I have built up waiting on the shipping. I have calculated that I am getting my enough cartridges per month to cover the monthly expense 2-3 times.
To let you know, if you do high volume printing, you will save lots of money on this. If you do small amounts of printing, then this is not the path you should take.
I don’t have broadband internet. I have to use my phone’s inet access as a WiFi source. Therefore inet would not be constant for the printer connection.
Will this disqualify me from using the HP ink system?