What are your thoughts about HP Instant Ink?
-
He could easily say "given that I've acknowledged that third party ink makes sense for normal printing, I will recommend that to others now that I've realized that OEM ink is wasteful." And then said "but for me, I just like OEM ink and it is my own money, so irrational though it be, that's fine." Nothing wrong with that.
What makes this important and why ignoring the discussion is important is that both here and in real life he advises people on ink to buy. He's shown that, except for doing photo printing which is not a normal task, third party ink is the better choice. He's stated it in the thread above (not in so many words, but he agreed that it was the better business decision) but then went on to keep promoting what was them a known bad decision. That's the concern. If I was a customer and read his comments here, then had him tell me to get OEM ink I would feel that he was scamming me - knowing that third party was better but intentionally giving bad advice.
We are IT professionals. Ignoring what we know to be true, ignoring logic and common sense, isn't about what we buy at home. It's about the advice we give to others. Agreeing to disagree or "intentionally giving bad advice" isn't a trivial thing in many cases. This is other people's money, other people's jobs, that we put on the line. People entrust us to at least attempt to make good decisions and advise them honestly. What we do matters. If it didn't, why do people hire IT pros rather than just making random decisions on their own?
There are only two choices of ink most of the time, one is cost effective, one is not, relatively. If we intentionally give the wrong advice we aren't just failing to give the best advice, we are deciding to intentionally give the worst advice. Sure, the worst advice is probably not the end of the world, but it is bad advice nonetheless and it matters.
And when you work in a printer-centric role like he does, that could, in an extreme case, end up mattering a few times per day. If we say it impacts one person per day at $300 per person savings, that is $1,500 per week or around $70,000 per year (spread over many people, of course) it savings OR loss that that advice would provide just for one person.
Even if this one decision is seen as trivial at this time, learning to recognize good decision making versus bad decision making is a critical IT skill. Without it, we risk not only lacking the value that IT normally has but actually becoming of negative value to the organization.
-
So I did some math on this and I've revised my view on this program...
For people with fairly efficient printers, so 8600s basically, if you buy OEM XL cartridges, it's 1.7¢/page for black and 5.8¢/page for color. If you print almost exclusively black and just enough color to keep the cartridges good, as a general rule, it's cheap to buy the cartridges outright. However, the average person, so including non-IT people, go weeks between printing, or go to FL for six months a year and they have their ink dry up, etc. I think the program is great for the list tiers. If you're printing more than the 300 pages/month, the advantage in price starts to disappear. However, for the average person, the HP Ink program is actually a good value.
-
Also, they mail the cartridges to you. If you sign up as soon as you buy the printer, they immediately send you a backup set of cartridges to replace your starters when they are used up. Then, as soon as the system detects you've installed that replacement, it automatically sends you a replacement for your hot spare. All that being said, I like this program a lot.
-
So I learned from the HP rep who comes to Staples that, to date, over 95% of people who have signed up for the HP instant ink program, which to be fair is relatively new, have kept the subscription so far. Personally, especially for people who are snowbirds or do very minimal printing, this is a very cost-effective solution. The only downside is the printer must maintain an active internet connection for it to work. While this isn't really an issue for most home users, I could see it being an issue, potentially.
-
@thanksajdotcom Good to know. Thanks
-
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
-
@BMarie said:
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
I've seen their web interface for tracking it too. It's actually pretty neat and clean.
-
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
I've seen their web interface for tracking it too. It's actually pretty neat and clean.
I'll have to check it out.
-
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
I've seen their web interface for tracking it too. It's actually pretty neat and clean.
I'll have to check it out.
If you currently have an HP printer, you'd have to buy a new one, unless your current one is less than 6 months old. It only works on their newest printers.
-
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
I've seen their web interface for tracking it too. It's actually pretty neat and clean.
I'll have to check it out.
If you currently have an HP printer, you'd have to buy a new one, unless your current one is less than 6 months old. It only works on their newest printers.
Don't have a printer at all atm
-
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
I've seen their web interface for tracking it too. It's actually pretty neat and clean.
I'll have to check it out.
If you currently have an HP printer, you'd have to buy a new one, unless your current one is less than 6 months old. It only works on their newest printers.
Don't have a printer at all atm
Well okay then.
-
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
I've seen their web interface for tracking it too. It's actually pretty neat and clean.
I'll have to check it out.
If you currently have an HP printer, you'd have to buy a new one, unless your current one is less than 6 months old. It only works on their newest printers.
Don't have a printer at all atm
Neither do I!
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
@BMarie said:
That's actually pretty cool, but a bit scary to......Paranoia kicking in
I've seen their web interface for tracking it too. It's actually pretty neat and clean.
I'll have to check it out.
If you currently have an HP printer, you'd have to buy a new one, unless your current one is less than 6 months old. It only works on their newest printers.
Don't have a printer at all atm
Neither do I!
Well, you have a printer, but it's across the pond...
-
Hardcopy needs to cease being a thing.
-
