DManzaluni wrote:
Some years ago, I read an article, and if I am not mistaken HP was one
of the companies mentioned which had gone to a new and popular
philosophy regarding customer complains. Some "genius" consultants
determined that certain clients were more costly than the income they
generated for a company, in fact, they basically lost the company money.

So, this consultant decided to train companies in how to recognize these
customers who would never be satisfied and would just become a lost
cause to them. The consultant suggested that rather than sinking money
into customer service, and assorted other costs in trying to fix the
problem, companies should do whatever they could to have the customer
not only no longer use that companies products, but actually to use this
to the company's advantage by leading the difficult client to the
company's competitors, so they could also lose money.

There is, however, one flaw in this logic. Often, the reason this
client became "difficult" and ultimately costly to the company, is
because the company made bad into worse, by not listening to the client,
not correcting the defects in the product or service, and by becoming
intransigent about not doing the right thing.

This client often became not a burden to their competitors, but, if
treated reasonably, a cheerleader for their competitor and a major
detractor to the original company.

Personally, HP (particularly their camera and scanner division) and
Nikon, to a lesser extent, both of which I used to comfortably support
and speak well of, left me annoyed and feeling disrespected. I moved to
Canon and Polaroid at the time (before they went into bankruptcy) and
found both companies a lot less arrogant.

Epson is yet another company which I have been left quite disappointed
in, which I used to be quite pleased with.

Very few companies are black or white, but they do show different
degrees of grey. I think when we speak with our wallets we tell these
companies what our values are and what our expectations are.

Since corporations are monolithic and non-human institutions, they often
only respond to the bottom line, so that is often the only way to make
your opinion known.

Art


Is there a Canon which does photos as well as the HPs at the
Canon had the right idea because in theory, if the dot size is small
enough, only 4 colors are really required. More colors lead to more ink
use and waste, and that is probably as much or more the driver than any
possible improvement to the image.



Canon spent a fortune on redesigning their heads and printer mechanics,
and did a good job of it. They aren't great for inks which aren't dye
colorant based, still. They do have a few pigment colorant inkset,
however. When the heads do fail, the cost is not cheap to replace them.

Art

Hi!

I don't know what the two problems have to do with one another. If you
have the wrong cartridges, get the right ones. Or is there more to the
story that leads up to this?

I don't know what they meant by "region", but I strongly suspicion
that you were being told something that was not true. Perhaps it was
an outright fabrication by someone who didn't know better and simply
wanted you off the phone. (This is a running theme with HP tech
support, at least as far as printers are concerned.)

The Gutenprint drivers ought to work fine for older printers such as
these. I'm sure the DeskJet 932 would be fully functional. Don't know
about the Photosmart 7550.

Did the HP web site state that it did? What about third parties that
reviewed the printer?

It really is inexcusable that HP hasn't developed drivers for an
operating system that has been out for several months now!

How long have you had the printer they sold you? If it hasn't been
very long (less than 30 days if you're in the US), just arrange to
return it. No need to tell them what's wrong, just exercise your
option to send it back. If they insist upon having a reason, tell them
simply that "it did not work".

Or failing that, did you pay for this printer with a credit card?
Dispute the charges. The credit card company will back you up on this,
and it ought to get HP's attention when nothing else will.

And then, when you've returned that printer, do your homework! Read
product reviews, look on user to user forums and on newsgroups such as
this one. The money, time and frustration you save could well be your
own!

William

Hi!

Wouldn't it be more correct to say that Bill and Dave's company is now
known as "Agilent"?

I'm not sure how much of a role Bill and Dave still had in the
business by the time HP diversified into computers and printers.

William

OK I get the message, dump Hewlett Packard, issue in Small Claims for
the trouble they have caused and switch manufacturer

Problem is, what on earth to buy instead? The Canon PIXMA IP4700 (and
similar Lexmark which has only half the DPI) only get very lukewarm
reviews everywhere in sight while the 7560 (which apparently only
PRETENDS to be wireless) is seem by the reviewers as producing photos
of "near professional quality" compared with pharmacy-produced photos.
It seems to be the only one which isnt described as 'great for a
budget printer'

Has any site done any genuine comparative reviews of the photo quality
of the best printers out there? I dont need larger format than 8x10
and I emphatically dont want yet another all-in-one to go with my
humongous Canon ImageClass 8180c which dominates my office so the
Kodak seems to be out.

Or is there now really no difference in picture quality between all
these budget printers and supposedly 'professional' ones?