Was the HP salesman a repuke?

[Deja Q]

I was at compusa today and looking at printers; particularly a non-HP model.

In comes a HP shill (salesman) and, talking to me as if I was a computer illiterate rube hypes up their printers (whose quality is good for $120 but you can still see the individual dots, making it worth $0 as a photo-quality printer)... Even the high-end printer was the usual 3 cartridge if-one-ink-runs-out-replace-the-entire-bugger-for-a-high-cost variety; just as the $120 version was and we all know that HP more than makes up the TCO and ROI via ink sales*.

I noticed that HP 13x19" matte paper, at 50 page quantity, was about FORTY PERCENT cheaper than Epson's! That's when he chimed in about the wonderfulness of having competition in this country. (of course, does he know a damn thing about Epson brand inks? Of course not, he's a shill for HP. He wants your business. He does not want you to THINK, which is the greatest weapon any person can wield... Epson's 13x19 is forumated to last 100 years+ with their ultrachrome pigment inks. HP's inks are still dye-based and prone to all of those problems (fading, smearing, et al...)

+ based on synthetic tests but I've made bumper stickers and had them up for 18 months in outdoors bright sunny conditions and wouldn't even begin to fade; and the paper I used had a disclaimer saying "for temporary use, inks will typically fade after a few weeks."

I had to bite my lip regarding HP's ex-CEO and her attitude toward hard working American workers. I also had to bite my lip about offshoring; meaning the lost jobs in the USA prevented people from BUYING THE DAMN THING AT ALL. I also had to bit my lip regarding how those who make the printers can't even begin to afford them either... Never mind the increasing ability of communist china to take over the United States thanks to corporate-america.

In short, I'm too much a coward and mediator-type to confront these programmed jingoistic lunatic lemmings about just how brainwashed they are.




* In ANY POST I make, when I refer to ROI and TCO and all that, I am typically (yet coyly) insulting our economic system... especially when it comes to hyrbrids...

[DS1]

1. Anyone that knowingly sells HP printers is questionable from the outset

[nookiemonster]

2. Yes, my cowardice was apparent,

by just purchasing a new HP Laserjet.

I'm sorry, they're just damn good printers. I was weak.

:cry:

[Deja Q]

3. I was talking about not confronting the shill, not HP quality...

But now I'm on it, I had a HP 1220C color printer. After 3 years of LIGHT use (and a month after the 3 year warranty plan ended) the main roller jammed and blew lots of thin black paper-like rubber pieces everywhere when I did try to print, and my $500 printer became a $0 boat anchor. And that's under light use. What a crock.

Since then I refuse to buy another HP printer and discovered Epson. Of course, Epson's latest models, especially the 2400 that gives the impression it'd be even better at b/w photos than the 2200, isn't worth frozen snot according to numerous reviews. My next printer shall therefore be the Canon i9900.

BTW: I saw your hidden dig at me too. Very human of you.

[nookiemonster]

4. BTW: I saw your hidden dig at me too. Very human of you

I don't understand. I hate the bigbox fuckers too that try to tell me what little they know. I was just admitting that I was a coward when I bought an HP printer even though they've just laid off a shitload of workers. Is that the "dig" that you're referring to?

I use them at work, and I've been happy with their performance.

Sorry about the problems you've had.

[WCGreen]

5. I have had laser jets for fifteen years now

and print high quantities of tax returns on them....

They run well, seldom jam and the ink cart are easy to find...

Color printers....

Never had one, not looking to get one soon.....

Printed over 7500 on my newest laser jet, two years old and still going strong

[nookiemonster]

6. I prefer to stick with just black ink also.

As far as HP's business practices go, yeah they suck, BAD! Of course if we used that criteria for all the companies that fuck their employess over....well...I might as well be using an Etch-O-Sketch.

[WCGreen]

8. Really....

Until the distribution of the other companies change, well we just have to do with what is there.....

[jobycom]

7. Who know, who cares? Now tell me about how you make bumper stickers

Just kidding about not caring. When I did sales, I tried to spout out a few mainstream jargon lines now and then, to sound wise. During the 80s and all that Buy American nonsense, I'd show our flimsy American made product (Samsonite, for the record) and compare it to the better made and better priced French equivalent (Delsey). It was an easy choice unless you liked picking your clothes up off the conveyor belt and stiffing them back into the two halves of your caved in case, but still some people would start the whole "Buy American" nonsense and go with the Samsonite. So my standard response, before they could mention it, was "You know, I'm all for buying American, but I won't reward a company who makes inferior merchandise just because it's made here."

So who knows why he was saying that. It may just be some selling point in the literature they send out. I've known many a salesperson who sold stuff they didn't believe in.

Now, about the ink and the bumper-stickers. How do you make your own? What kind of paper, do you have to laminate them, what kid of ink, etc? I've got a cheap Epson printer (and an HP printer, but I'm afraid to mention it now). Clue me in!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Hi HypnoToad....

I recently told my husband that I'd love to have a color laser printer...

After he stopped blanching...he told me that he'd be willing to shell out the large amts. of cold hard cash for one that we could share...

So now we are the very happy owners of an HP Color Laserjet 2550 PCL6 color printer...so far so good...It has worked without problems...

Of course I can't use it to print pictures...but for that and for my own routine printing, I have:

a little HP Deskjet 5650 printer...it works perfectly for photos, and my routine copying...

As for papers: I buy mine at Costco, or Fry's...I use the HP premium glossy, 10 mil stuff...works beautifully...yes it is expensive, but I don't print that many pics...

And for all our routine printing, we use Xerox's 24 lb. premium multi-purpose stuff...

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with that salesman...he does sound like a repuke to me...:hi:

[Deja Q]

10. Why is everybody responding about HP quality?

I thought the salesman would have been more interesting...

I also implore folks who own HP inkjets (especially the sub-$300 units) to tally up the cost of ink. Then have a medical kit ready for when you may or may not have a heart attack. :evilgrin:

Maybe I just had a bad 1220C, I don't know... maybe it's a coincidence that my ipaq 3955 started freezing of its own accord (don't give me tech tips, I outfoxed the so-called techs at both best buy and HP direct though I needn't have wasted my time with those fruitcakes...)