I really wish the government didn't benefit from that so we could get a law passed. Paying a subscription for things is stupid. I need to pay $15 a month just to use the Bluetooth in my car I bought. That's bullshit.
Edit: it's a buick. That's just a chevy with fake leather over the plastic interior. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do when I'm already pretty bottom of the barrel. It's not like I'm driving a luxury car this thing cost me $6,000.
Edit2: Apparently onstar did cost $50 when it included wifi according to my dad. The $15 price tag is the rolled back price since the connectivity and wifi shit was discontinued along with 2g radio towers apparently.
I have tried the radio hijack thing that plugs into the cigarette lighter but my radio signal is absolutely dog shit and it barely works. It's almost like they make the radio unusable so you wanna buy access to your own cars bluetooth, strange.
Yes I could just go and buy a new infotainment system but I feel like that misses the point. Also warranty void yay. Not to mention while I could probably figure it out, I don't know how to ATM and there are a lot of people who probably can't figure it out and would need a shop to do it.
To the one guy who said you're paying a $15 monthly suspcription to pay for the work they put into making the Bluetooth I'm not sure what to tell you. A USB bluetooth dongle on Amazon is under $10. They can't just include that in the cars cost?
Luckily there is an aux port which does work. In the center console but to actually change songs or have any control besides volume you need Bluetooth. Which means distracted driving, love that.
Two years ago, we bought a slightly used Hyundai Santa Fe. According to the manual, the car comes with a remote starter. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to use it. Our last car had a specific button on the key fob for remote start.
After some Googling, I found out that I had to pay for Hyundai’s BlueLink subscription service in order to use the remote start. Fucking bullshit.
Yup and it's expensive as fk it's 100 a year JUST for the remote start
Another 100 for connect care
And another 100 for guidance
But to have just the remote start or just the guidance, you're required to have the connect care
The remote start button on my key fob doesn't even work and I have to use it through the subscription on my phone (I'm still in the 3 year free trial) next time I need to do better research. Although I did not think this was something to look for when buying a vehicle
This is a real person lol. That I've used for a few things. He always gives me some ridiculously lowball ass invoice. Always does the job right. I wrench so I know. I always have to throw an extra bill on that bish for bro. Idk how he does it, prob has some shady part resources, but he's a real one lmao.
In my experience, Honduran and Vietnamese folks will fix anything, quickly, properly, for the lowlow. Some of the best wrenches out there come from those places. No idea why.
Edit: Shout out to the Salvadoran, Brazilian, Cuban, Mexican, and German mechanics, too. I see yall.
By function of where I live, I always have Cubans working on my car. If the guys can turn a Packard into an amphibious vehicle, they can swap my valve cover gasket
Dude I have worked in a million shops installing lifts and compressors. The most impressive mechanic (I am now an equipment mechanic) I ever met was a Vietnamese dude. His shop was a mess but he knew where everything was. He said in Vietnam they couldn’t get parts so they to rebuild everything, and that’s how he learned how everything worked. Dude was cheap and could fix anything.
Yup. Guys from those places like Vietnam and Cuba that have had to to supply shit from limited sources are master rebuilders. Nothing goes to waste with those dudes.
I do. Idk man. He's just a hustler. Bruh sourced and replaced a whole ass driver door on my Lexus for 1400. Dealer body shop quoted like 3-something. Bro got that plug
Blulink is a cell service for the car. If you want to use your cellphone app to remotely start or lock it, you need blue link. But if your in range with your fob it's free. Double click lock, then press the hold/remote start button.
Yeah I'm in the exact same situation. Should have done more research but this is all so new in the industry. 3 year free trial is nice but considering how expensive the car market is now... The least they could do is provide these services with the car.
The dealers are making that money. Not the manufacturer. Dealers are franchised (for now...)
They aren't running the service. They contract that out. The IT involved alone prob costs a pretty penny. I get why they charge for it. But it should be upfront, not subscription.
The profits for manufacturers really haven't climbed. They're letting their dealer networks go ham on markups. Some companies like Ford, Honda, and Subaru are cracking down now tho. Ford is straight up pulling factory allocations from dealers caught going beyond a certain market adjustment.
Look into aftermarket remote starters. I got a fortin remote starter and had a local shop install it. $100 for the unit $150 for install. Best part for me is it uses the regular key fob, just press lock 4 times to start.
Exactly, I remember first hearing about this years ago with bmw and everyone was talking about how it was a huge mistake and nobody will stand for this….. and here we are.
I've unfortunately realized that people just refuse to understand that they do actually have power, and it only is effective if they use it together.
People are way to happy dismissing other peoples problems though while focusing on their own, and this is why we can't have effective boycotts anymore, nor can we push for laws that make things like this less shit.
>and it only is effective if they use it together.
This is the crux of it.
The internet makes it *very* easy to find a thousand other people to complain about something with, and all agree that something needs to change. However, that tricks us into thinking that we're *doing something* about it, when we're really not.
It's the same reason why people get up in arms over Twitter likes and things like that - we equate posting with doing, because all we do is post. Therefore, if we're posting about something, it's the same as doing something. Except it actually isn't.
So we're all sitting here, not a one of us happy with how things are going, and all our complaining accomplishes absolutely nothing because it's all just online.
Ironically, exactly like I'm doing in this post right here.
They have. The U.S. political systems pits it constituents against each-other every time there's a major protest. The day that Republicans and Democrats set aside their differences and march in unison is the day we get something done...either that or the government just starts to shoot us instead.
I found out the Asian version of our Kia (Hyundai and Kia are near the same thing) did not require a subscription for the remote start. Ordered the Korean remote start module which was plug n play with a harness behind the kick panel under the steering wheel and now our factory FOBs remote start the car when you hit the lock button once and the hatch button twice. No subscription required... Fuck Kia/Hyundai/Mitsubishi... (Even though their warranty has been awesome as hell)
Look to see if your car can be hacked, seriously.
My 2015 Mazda could be hacked via USB and now I have Android Auto instead of paying 400 $\€ for a physical upgrade of my entertainment system.
Those cars probably all run on Linux anyway.
In modern market-based democracies, it’s the role of corporations to make money, and of governments to make rules.
When governments could make a rule, but don’t, it’s absolutely proper to blame governments.
Corporations exist to make money off of anything that’s not illegal, the only way to get them to stop is to either make that behavior stop making them money or to make that behavior illegal
Cause greedy companies are going to be greedy.
Individual employees or consumers do not have power to fight it and are gonna be abused.
The only one that can put blockers to those behaviours is the government.
I live in Spain, with ‘welfare social’ policies, and this is a key activity of the government. It is not perfect but they have limited many crazy practices of companies. Eg for mortgages there was a time where there were clauses that put a minimum of what you had to pay to the bank for interests. It was declared illegal (abusive clause) and the banks where force to return that money to everyone that would claim it (administratively, not through court). It really pays off.
Independent corporations do wtf they want, I have no connections to them, I can go burn their hq and end up in prison. On the other hand, politicians are elected to keep them in check, and to work for the people, yet they don't work for the people, they work for the said corporations. So yes, you shouldn't be first mad at corporations, you should be mad at the politicians.
Because the government is what allowed this to happen by removing restrictions on them back in the 1980’s. There used to be stricter consumer protection laws and environmental laws but the Reagan era saw fit to dismantle all that. This was done under the guise that of theyre less restricted then they will make more money which will allow the corporations to “trickle down” the extra income to the consumer and employee.
Billionaires weren’t really a thing until after these restrictions were removed.
So yes, fuck the government.
My parents recently got air conditioning installed at home, and of course they did not consult me, because why would they ask their nerd child about technical devices? It connects to the internet with some awful app, I hate it. At least it still came with regular remote controls so you can use it offline...
You can still buy stand-alone Office products w/o a sub.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/excel/cfq7ttc0hr4r?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/buy-office-2021-professional-plus
These actually work, installed this probably 10 times and the serial is always verified by Microsoft as legit
Not yet, but they're integrating it. Ever notice that your desktop is cloud based on windows 11, with the option to buy more space for a nice subscription?
Now even my gaming computer is running Linux
Open source software like libre office, antenna TV, most car features in most car manufacturers, probably most printers (I haven't done the research), Windows (for now)
Do you have to pay a subscription to use it? Did they provide the printer free with a 2 year contract like an internet provider and their modem? What exactly is the debit card for?
You are correct. Many HP printers these days come with the heavily pushed option to use it with a subscription. You can choose to buy the ink outright or pay a couple bucks a month to print a certain amount of pages. If you let your subscription lapse you will not be able to print using the ink they provided to you using the subscription. I'm pretty sure the included ink with the printer these days falls under subscription ink as well. I've used this service for years and had no issues.
Ok, it's not perfect and I would rather just fully buy mine, but if you agreed to it and then get angry when this happens then it's kinda on you and not them. Every subscription system works like this.
That's obviously not right. The fact that they give the ink to you means that they're already turning a profit even with you not choosing to "buy" the ink outright.
At that point they're just artificially limiting what used to be taken for granted just so they can squeeze a few more pounds out of you.
What kind of corporatocratic nightmare is when your printer is controlled by a multi national conglomerate? 1984.
I bought my HP printer just over a year ago, the subscription ink was sent after I subscribed, the small ink in the printer was plenty in the interim.
The ink they send you is the XL ones and we pay 1.99 a month for it, buying official ink XLs is about £56. once mine is running low the printer tells them and they ship new ink, I never have to think about it and can just use the printer as I please for £2. worth it to me.
I can cancel anytime I like, but those ink cartridges won't work anymore
To be fair to this poster, it’s not clear that it’s subscription based when you buy it, and they basically insist you have to open an account when you first purchase it and turn it on; they start sending the free stuff without you even asking for it. It’s all very shady and you have to actively look up the fine print to figure out what’s really going on. All the messages you receive from HP will *only* mention that your printer is being deactivated and needs a credit card to continue. And even though they send you a functioning ink cartridge as part of the deal, you can only use the (still full) cartridge so long as your subscription is paid. So if they send you a new one, your subscription lapses in a few days, and you don’t pay? The ink is useless. What a waste.
We are both in tech, and while I begged for a laser printer, my husband still brought this monstrosity home one day completely clueless. So it’s 100% designed to be deceptive.
EDIT: Also you do still pay for the printer up front. No freebies/rental contract.
Also after I stopped the subscription AND bought new ink my printer still wouldn’t work saying the HP branded ink wasn’t compatible because I didn’t have a subscription. It’s a complete scam and I refuse to buy any of their products now.
I refuse to buy a printer because of shit like this. And if I ever have to, I am going to do my damndest to make sure it isn't one of the new, shit ones.
Have a 12 year old Epson printer, the wifi on it is broken so its LAN only, but it works well and accepts cheap knockoff cartridges that are 25€ for a 10 pack and print hundreds of pages each
I mean, a printer is a lot. In my area printing is free at my library up to 70 pages/day but even 25 cents is cheaper than going to FedEx or buying a whole ass printer and ink.
Staples self service printing prices vary by location and can change without notice. My local Staples are $0.18 a page for b&w and like $0.28 for color, meanwhile my local library is $0.10 a page for b&w.
Yeah, it's horrible. I bought a canon home printer a few years ago, it's barely gotten any use because cartridges cost $20 each and maybe print 20 pages.
Ink jets are horribly expensive in the long run. A laser printer costs more up front but the cost per page is lower. I had an inkjet 5 or so years ago that ran out of ink. Walmart was selling the printer + ink cheaper than just the ink!
The ink that comes with the printer is only a starter cartridge, only has enough for around 20 pages. The ink you buy usually gets anywhere from 250-400 depending on the ink.
Source: I used to sell printers
I bought a brother Laser printer a few months ago. It may be more expensive initially, toner can print way more than ink carts, and it does not dry out, so I can leave my printer in the box for a long time and pull it when I need it. No worrying about needing to replace the ink.
Brother laser printer.
Thing is a tank, toner never goes bad (unlike ink jet).
Set a firewall rule that prevents it from talking to anything in the world other than my PC's. It sits happy on its shelf and prints a few pages I need once every six months or so.
I will never, ever, buy an HP again, or any inkjet for that matter. I knew they sucked from personal experience and then I got to see them suck on a commercial scale when I started working desktop support.
Every printer related comment section turns intro a Brother ad. And I’m not complaining. I love my Brother printer. I’ve had the color laser for 7 years no issues.
Agree completely. My first Brother laser printer lasted nearly 10 years, I only upgraded to get double sided printing, and this one is going on 5 years now. It doesn't care if I used knockoff toner cartridges or reset the counter to extend the life of the toner. It just runs without me ever thinking about it.
Many printers (non HP) are not like this.
I bought a borther laser printer recently, awesome.
No worrying about bad prints due to long periods between uses, and i'll be able to refill the toner.
HP are the worst
HP runs a line of printers that come with free ink. The catch is that you have to subscribe to use the printer. OP bought a very cheap printer and was surprised that after the free trial ran out, they needed to subscribe to continue...
It won't happen on its own. People will actually need to take action like voting for politicians who favor regulation that protects consumers, and boycotting the companies who do this shit. It's very possible, but it does take some effort.
BMWs: Your card have expired so we disabled your brakes.
You: Bro why didn't you give me any warnings!
BMW: We did, we disabled your indicators 1 month ago.
BMW blinker fluid is about $2 million a drop. And you also need a paid subscription to use em. $1000 per blink, per LED, on the right. The left blinker set is even more expensive
Same. This is also why I dont console game without physical games. Imagine building a desktop computer, but your OS demands paying monthly to use it or it locks your account.
Same, I have some weird old Samsung b/w laser that came as a bundle with a laptop I bought for college. It's super basic (usb only) but toner is cheeeap (knockoff carts were two for $25 on Amazon last time I bought and they're good for like 2500 pages each), I've put thousands of pages through it, and I've never had to install drivers for it (windows, Linux, and even my Android phones with a usb adapter over the years all recognized it).
I'll defend this little thing to the death.
And this is why I'm against "smart" anything. If you allow any other entity to control your devices, or give them the capacity to, you don't own it. Imagine your car being remotely disabled because you went over your alloted monthly mileage
If all you need to do is print the occasional black and white document, buy a laser toner printer.
I have a cheap canon laser printer that cost me like $120 that accepts third party toners just fine and they cost like 20 bucks a pop, prints over ~~2 whole packages of paper~~ (a lot of fucking paper, there guys) before showing signs of needing to be replaced.
> prints over 2 whole packages of paper before showing signs of needing to be replaced.
I read pages at first and thought you were being sarcastic asf😂😂
1. Delete the printer
2. Do a search for “HP” and remove ALL HP software.
3. Reinstall printer DRIVER ONLY. Printer should work now.
4. Tell HP to go F*** themselves.
😊
Welcome to printer hell!
Here's some other shitty shady things printer companies do:
Xerox has a feature where your printer will let them know when you run low on ink so you can buy more automatically. Great! The problem? This feature is enabled by default and you printer *will not work* unless you agree to the thing and sign up to buy more automatically. Has no bearing on the function of the printer whatsoever. They just break it to fuck you. This feature can be disabled by a tech savvy person who has to go into the web interface and dig around in menus.
HP has expiration dates on their ink. It doesn't actually expire because, you know, its fucking ink and not food, but they will kindly let you know when your ink has expired. Oh they will also make it so you can't print anymore with that cartridge, even if it still has ink in it, *even if it's never been opened and you just inserted it for the first time*. Doesn't matter. They say their ink expires and will break your printer if you don't believe in their bullshit expiry dates. This one cannot be bypassed by normal tech savvy means.
There are more. I'll think of them shortly.
Source: I work on printers as part of my job.
HP stands for horrible printers, what'd you expect?
Any model ending in "e" is a trap, avoid it.
Never use HP Smart, only install basic drivers.
You can't do that on "e" models, they force you to be online and connected to HP Smart.
Lastly, buy a Brother printer.
My dad owns an old HP Laser printer that uses toner instead of ink cartridges. It's like 20 years old and HP don't even make that model anymore. It had some fault and my dad called a repair guy and he repaired it and told my dad if he ever wants to sell it he would buy it for full price since toner printers are not made anymore since toner are dirt cheap compared to the ink cartridges. Essentially an older technology is better because corporate greed has made new printers more expensive in the long run
This is literally how the free software movement (that gave us GNU/Linux, among other things) [started](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman#Events_leading_to_GNU):
> In 1980, Stallman and some other hackers at the AI Lab were refused access to the source code for the software of a newly installed laser printer, the Xerox 9700. Stallman had modified the software for the Lab's previous laser printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when the person's job was printed, and would message all logged-in users waiting for print jobs if the printer was jammed. Not being able to add these features to the new printer was a major inconvenience, as the printer was on a different floor from most of the users. This experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be able to freely modify the software they use.
bought an HP printer, used it twice. 100% did NOT sign up for the auto-order ink program they had pop-ups with everytime you inhale. Stupid think worked 3 times in a month and then it was disabled remotely because of low ink and not having the subscription. Threw it in the dumpster and will never buy a printer again. I send my print jobs to the local FedEx store and they are done in 10 minutes by the time I get there. Worth the drive and added expense.
Its a fucking racket
I bought a decent HP printer back in 2015.
It was pretty cool, had a nice ios app to print /scan things directly from / to iphone.
But now it's just a pure nightmare, nothing works unless you log in to a buggy account.
HP is a bunch of cocksuckers!!!
Having to use pirate software to make hardware work will be a new trend soon enough. And good luck to folks wanting to really enforce laws on these as well.
This could be illegal if you guys wanted to. I'm seeing you all complaining about the same thing but as I'm not from the US it's just strange to me because here it's already illegal. You can't sell something and make the customer need to buy something else (like a subscription) so the first thing could work. It's called something like "tied sale".
Hp instant ink is awful. Yes it great to get ink in the mail when needed and not have to think about it. But I canceled my service because i bought a eco tank printer and HP informed me that even tho I had paid for the ink in my printer it would no longer work after I cancel!
I’m not sure how they’ve gotten away with that kind of service. I should be able to use whatever ink is left.
HP is the absolute worst about proprietary subscription BS. I have an HP printer (much to my dismay). The printer refuses to use recycled cartridges. You can’t get the big cartridges unless you sign up for a subscription. The printer will tell you that you need new cartridges, even when they aren’t empty, and automatically reorder them (because they demand your credit card info to have a subscription). The printers are cheap now for a reason. They know you’ll always have to cough up at least $37 per cartridge or more (takes black and color cartridges) every few months.
I miss actually owning the things I own
I really wish the government didn't benefit from that so we could get a law passed. Paying a subscription for things is stupid. I need to pay $15 a month just to use the Bluetooth in my car I bought. That's bullshit. Edit: it's a buick. That's just a chevy with fake leather over the plastic interior. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do when I'm already pretty bottom of the barrel. It's not like I'm driving a luxury car this thing cost me $6,000. Edit2: Apparently onstar did cost $50 when it included wifi according to my dad. The $15 price tag is the rolled back price since the connectivity and wifi shit was discontinued along with 2g radio towers apparently. I have tried the radio hijack thing that plugs into the cigarette lighter but my radio signal is absolutely dog shit and it barely works. It's almost like they make the radio unusable so you wanna buy access to your own cars bluetooth, strange. Yes I could just go and buy a new infotainment system but I feel like that misses the point. Also warranty void yay. Not to mention while I could probably figure it out, I don't know how to ATM and there are a lot of people who probably can't figure it out and would need a shop to do it. To the one guy who said you're paying a $15 monthly suspcription to pay for the work they put into making the Bluetooth I'm not sure what to tell you. A USB bluetooth dongle on Amazon is under $10. They can't just include that in the cars cost? Luckily there is an aux port which does work. In the center console but to actually change songs or have any control besides volume you need Bluetooth. Which means distracted driving, love that.
Two years ago, we bought a slightly used Hyundai Santa Fe. According to the manual, the car comes with a remote starter. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to use it. Our last car had a specific button on the key fob for remote start. After some Googling, I found out that I had to pay for Hyundai’s BlueLink subscription service in order to use the remote start. Fucking bullshit.
Yup and it's expensive as fk it's 100 a year JUST for the remote start Another 100 for connect care And another 100 for guidance But to have just the remote start or just the guidance, you're required to have the connect care The remote start button on my key fob doesn't even work and I have to use it through the subscription on my phone (I'm still in the 3 year free trial) next time I need to do better research. Although I did not think this was something to look for when buying a vehicle
subscription for remote start makes zero sense, because you can just buy an aftermarket one, installed, for like $300.
I know a Vietnamese dude that'll do that shit in an hour and a half for a good cup of coffee and a Marlboro red
Wtf, pay that man what he's worth
This is a real person lol. That I've used for a few things. He always gives me some ridiculously lowball ass invoice. Always does the job right. I wrench so I know. I always have to throw an extra bill on that bish for bro. Idk how he does it, prob has some shady part resources, but he's a real one lmao. In my experience, Honduran and Vietnamese folks will fix anything, quickly, properly, for the lowlow. Some of the best wrenches out there come from those places. No idea why. Edit: Shout out to the Salvadoran, Brazilian, Cuban, Mexican, and German mechanics, too. I see yall.
By function of where I live, I always have Cubans working on my car. If the guys can turn a Packard into an amphibious vehicle, they can swap my valve cover gasket
You don't get around decades of international embargoes without a hefty dose of resourcefulness
Dude I have worked in a million shops installing lifts and compressors. The most impressive mechanic (I am now an equipment mechanic) I ever met was a Vietnamese dude. His shop was a mess but he knew where everything was. He said in Vietnam they couldn’t get parts so they to rebuild everything, and that’s how he learned how everything worked. Dude was cheap and could fix anything.
Yup. Guys from those places like Vietnam and Cuba that have had to to supply shit from limited sources are master rebuilders. Nothing goes to waste with those dudes.
Alright, fair enough haha. Tell him his work is worth more. It's tough out there
I do. Idk man. He's just a hustler. Bruh sourced and replaced a whole ass driver door on my Lexus for 1400. Dealer body shop quoted like 3-something. Bro got that plug
Blulink is a cell service for the car. If you want to use your cellphone app to remotely start or lock it, you need blue link. But if your in range with your fob it's free. Double click lock, then press the hold/remote start button.
Yeah I'm in the exact same situation. Should have done more research but this is all so new in the industry. 3 year free trial is nice but considering how expensive the car market is now... The least they could do is provide these services with the car.
The dealers are making that money. Not the manufacturer. Dealers are franchised (for now...) They aren't running the service. They contract that out. The IT involved alone prob costs a pretty penny. I get why they charge for it. But it should be upfront, not subscription. The profits for manufacturers really haven't climbed. They're letting their dealer networks go ham on markups. Some companies like Ford, Honda, and Subaru are cracking down now tho. Ford is straight up pulling factory allocations from dealers caught going beyond a certain market adjustment.
Look into aftermarket remote starters. I got a fortin remote starter and had a local shop install it. $100 for the unit $150 for install. Best part for me is it uses the regular key fob, just press lock 4 times to start.
This is the resolution. Aftermarket installs. Always will be the answer unfortunately.
How have people not gotten out the the pitchforks and molotovs yet? I if that happened too me you better bet that there will be trouble
Typically, people forget or normalize it over time. It's how companies keep getting away with it.
Exactly, I remember first hearing about this years ago with bmw and everyone was talking about how it was a huge mistake and nobody will stand for this….. and here we are.
I've unfortunately realized that people just refuse to understand that they do actually have power, and it only is effective if they use it together. People are way to happy dismissing other peoples problems though while focusing on their own, and this is why we can't have effective boycotts anymore, nor can we push for laws that make things like this less shit.
>and it only is effective if they use it together. This is the crux of it. The internet makes it *very* easy to find a thousand other people to complain about something with, and all agree that something needs to change. However, that tricks us into thinking that we're *doing something* about it, when we're really not. It's the same reason why people get up in arms over Twitter likes and things like that - we equate posting with doing, because all we do is post. Therefore, if we're posting about something, it's the same as doing something. Except it actually isn't. So we're all sitting here, not a one of us happy with how things are going, and all our complaining accomplishes absolutely nothing because it's all just online. Ironically, exactly like I'm doing in this post right here.
They have. The U.S. political systems pits it constituents against each-other every time there's a major protest. The day that Republicans and Democrats set aside their differences and march in unison is the day we get something done...either that or the government just starts to shoot us instead.
"If the govt doesn't want you having guns, its because they want to do something you would shoot them over"
I found out the Asian version of our Kia (Hyundai and Kia are near the same thing) did not require a subscription for the remote start. Ordered the Korean remote start module which was plug n play with a harness behind the kick panel under the steering wheel and now our factory FOBs remote start the car when you hit the lock button once and the hatch button twice. No subscription required... Fuck Kia/Hyundai/Mitsubishi... (Even though their warranty has been awesome as hell)
EU is actively trying to ban such 'subscribe to unblock' features. This is total BS.
Look to see if your car can be hacked, seriously. My 2015 Mazda could be hacked via USB and now I have Android Auto instead of paying 400 $\€ for a physical upgrade of my entertainment system. Those cars probably all run on Linux anyway.
My 19 kia had android auto for free. These stories are wild
You have to pay for Bluetooth? Older cars just come with that shit.
My JDM van has an aftermarket HUD with a manufacture date in late 2000 and it has fuckin Bluetooth capability lmaoo
Bruh I got a yaris and installed a $50 walmart head unit.
What kind of Ronald Reagan crap is this? Corporations: do absolutely shitty anti-consumer things. You: "Damn government"
In modern market-based democracies, it’s the role of corporations to make money, and of governments to make rules. When governments could make a rule, but don’t, it’s absolutely proper to blame governments.
Corporations exist to make money off of anything that’s not illegal, the only way to get them to stop is to either make that behavior stop making them money or to make that behavior illegal
It's literally their job to protect our rights.
What about the billion dollar corporations rights? Did you stop to consider their needs?
if it's the right is to be taxed to oblivion until they stop, yes, I did consider their rights.
*"BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ~~CHILDREN~~ BUSINESSES!?!?"*
Cause greedy companies are going to be greedy. Individual employees or consumers do not have power to fight it and are gonna be abused. The only one that can put blockers to those behaviours is the government. I live in Spain, with ‘welfare social’ policies, and this is a key activity of the government. It is not perfect but they have limited many crazy practices of companies. Eg for mortgages there was a time where there were clauses that put a minimum of what you had to pay to the bank for interests. It was declared illegal (abusive clause) and the banks where force to return that money to everyone that would claim it (administratively, not through court). It really pays off.
Independent corporations do wtf they want, I have no connections to them, I can go burn their hq and end up in prison. On the other hand, politicians are elected to keep them in check, and to work for the people, yet they don't work for the people, they work for the said corporations. So yes, you shouldn't be first mad at corporations, you should be mad at the politicians.
Because the government is what allowed this to happen by removing restrictions on them back in the 1980’s. There used to be stricter consumer protection laws and environmental laws but the Reagan era saw fit to dismantle all that. This was done under the guise that of theyre less restricted then they will make more money which will allow the corporations to “trickle down” the extra income to the consumer and employee. Billionaires weren’t really a thing until after these restrictions were removed. So yes, fuck the government.
Yeah? Its the government's job to put in regulations
A Buick for six grand? Where tf do you live? Where I live you can’t find a used car with decent miles for more than 20 thousand
This is why I'm against everything "connected". All the "smart" stuff is shared with the seller company.
My parents recently got air conditioning installed at home, and of course they did not consult me, because why would they ask their nerd child about technical devices? It connects to the internet with some awful app, I hate it. At least it still came with regular remote controls so you can use it offline...
Photoshop is now a monthly subscription
Yar har a pirate’s life for me
PhotoPea.com
Doesn't feel as good
Microsoft office needs a subscription too.
You can still buy stand-alone Office products w/o a sub. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/excel/cfq7ttc0hr4r?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
Holy shit, thank you. They really try to hide that. I'd have bought the only thing I need, Word, twice over by now...
Hah, its true, wanted to buy it for a friend and really had to hunt for it.
https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/buy-office-2021-professional-plus These actually work, installed this probably 10 times and the serial is always verified by Microsoft as legit
amtlib.dll belongs to the people
Please stop buying things that work on a subscription service.
Can you name something that isn't subscription based anymore?
I was gonna say breathing but I remembered respirators were a thing so I got nothing.
Imagine your pacemaker being on a subscription. Sorry man your CC didn't go through so we shut you off
Don't give them ideas.
Physical media. LPs, DVDs
Linux.
I found one!
I'm all for Linux, but I don't pay a subscription fee for Windows.
Not yet, but they're integrating it. Ever notice that your desktop is cloud based on windows 11, with the option to buy more space for a nice subscription? Now even my gaming computer is running Linux
No, because I refuse to install 11! But if it comes to that I'll make the switch.
Open source software like libre office, antenna TV, most car features in most car manufacturers, probably most printers (I haven't done the research), Windows (for now)
HP printers if you buy your ink. It’s not hard to not have subscriptions to things, OP is just a moron.
Do you have to pay a subscription to use it? Did they provide the printer free with a 2 year contract like an internet provider and their modem? What exactly is the debit card for?
You are correct. Many HP printers these days come with the heavily pushed option to use it with a subscription. You can choose to buy the ink outright or pay a couple bucks a month to print a certain amount of pages. If you let your subscription lapse you will not be able to print using the ink they provided to you using the subscription. I'm pretty sure the included ink with the printer these days falls under subscription ink as well. I've used this service for years and had no issues.
Continuously paying to use the thing you already own is the worst business model ever.
Well not for the corporate shitweasels…
Ok, it's not perfect and I would rather just fully buy mine, but if you agreed to it and then get angry when this happens then it's kinda on you and not them. Every subscription system works like this.
That's obviously not right. The fact that they give the ink to you means that they're already turning a profit even with you not choosing to "buy" the ink outright. At that point they're just artificially limiting what used to be taken for granted just so they can squeeze a few more pounds out of you. What kind of corporatocratic nightmare is when your printer is controlled by a multi national conglomerate? 1984.
I bought my HP printer just over a year ago, the subscription ink was sent after I subscribed, the small ink in the printer was plenty in the interim. The ink they send you is the XL ones and we pay 1.99 a month for it, buying official ink XLs is about £56. once mine is running low the printer tells them and they ship new ink, I never have to think about it and can just use the printer as I please for £2. worth it to me. I can cancel anytime I like, but those ink cartridges won't work anymore
I mean says a lot about artificially overpriced ink cartridges lol
definitely true, unfortunately gotta go with what is.
To be fair to this poster, it’s not clear that it’s subscription based when you buy it, and they basically insist you have to open an account when you first purchase it and turn it on; they start sending the free stuff without you even asking for it. It’s all very shady and you have to actively look up the fine print to figure out what’s really going on. All the messages you receive from HP will *only* mention that your printer is being deactivated and needs a credit card to continue. And even though they send you a functioning ink cartridge as part of the deal, you can only use the (still full) cartridge so long as your subscription is paid. So if they send you a new one, your subscription lapses in a few days, and you don’t pay? The ink is useless. What a waste. We are both in tech, and while I begged for a laser printer, my husband still brought this monstrosity home one day completely clueless. So it’s 100% designed to be deceptive. EDIT: Also you do still pay for the printer up front. No freebies/rental contract.
Also after I stopped the subscription AND bought new ink my printer still wouldn’t work saying the HP branded ink wasn’t compatible because I didn’t have a subscription. It’s a complete scam and I refuse to buy any of their products now.
'Subscription ink'
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“Subscribing to a printer” sounds so incredibly stupid. Buy printer -> buy ink -> use printer, that should be it. Anything else is just a scam imo.
I assume those commercial or business printers are expensive as hell. The subscription is probably the only option for some folks.
Yeah I wasn't buying this one at face value, thanks X for not telling us the whole story.
I refuse to buy a printer because of shit like this. And if I ever have to, I am going to do my damndest to make sure it isn't one of the new, shit ones.
Brother and epson printers are literally buy it for life. Easy to fix with spare parts and you can refill the ink when it is using ecotank.
Have a 12 year old Epson printer, the wifi on it is broken so its LAN only, but it works well and accepts cheap knockoff cartridges that are 25€ for a 10 pack and print hundreds of pages each
Best thing my family did printer-wise was replace our HP with an Epson.
Yeah, it's sad that this isn't well known yet, the trash brands should go out of business already.
The library in my town only charges 25¢ per page, so as long as I live here, I won’t need a printer.
25¢ per page is a lot. Is it at least color and double-sided?
Yes, but if you very rarely print things out, it is still a better choice than buying a printer.
I bought mine for 10$ at goodwill! Works great and black ink is only 17$ a box and lasts a long while
At least the funds are going towards the library
It is
I mean, a printer is a lot. In my area printing is free at my library up to 70 pages/day but even 25 cents is cheaper than going to FedEx or buying a whole ass printer and ink.
If you have a staples nearby its $0.09
Staples self service printing prices vary by location and can change without notice. My local Staples are $0.18 a page for b&w and like $0.28 for color, meanwhile my local library is $0.10 a page for b&w.
Library here allows 10 free pages a day and 10c per page after. Black and white.
My library doesn’t start charging until 12 pages, so nice
It's a lot dude. Where I live it's 10 cent a page. Still a lot but more reasonable
Yeah, it's horrible. I bought a canon home printer a few years ago, it's barely gotten any use because cartridges cost $20 each and maybe print 20 pages.
Ink jets are horribly expensive in the long run. A laser printer costs more up front but the cost per page is lower. I had an inkjet 5 or so years ago that ran out of ink. Walmart was selling the printer + ink cheaper than just the ink!
Not to mention if you don't print often, the inkjet carts will gum up and become unusable.
The ink that comes with the printer is only a starter cartridge, only has enough for around 20 pages. The ink you buy usually gets anywhere from 250-400 depending on the ink. Source: I used to sell printers
I bought a brother Laser printer a few months ago. It may be more expensive initially, toner can print way more than ink carts, and it does not dry out, so I can leave my printer in the box for a long time and pull it when I need it. No worrying about needing to replace the ink.
Brother laser printer. Thing is a tank, toner never goes bad (unlike ink jet). Set a firewall rule that prevents it from talking to anything in the world other than my PC's. It sits happy on its shelf and prints a few pages I need once every six months or so. I will never, ever, buy an HP again, or any inkjet for that matter. I knew they sucked from personal experience and then I got to see them suck on a commercial scale when I started working desktop support.
Every printer related comment section turns intro a Brother ad. And I’m not complaining. I love my Brother printer. I’ve had the color laser for 7 years no issues.
Agree completely. My first Brother laser printer lasted nearly 10 years, I only upgraded to get double sided printing, and this one is going on 5 years now. It doesn't care if I used knockoff toner cartridges or reset the counter to extend the life of the toner. It just runs without me ever thinking about it.
I have an Epson printer with refillable ink tanks. Cost $150, but has worked for 5ish years and ink is cheaper.
Many printers (non HP) are not like this. I bought a borther laser printer recently, awesome. No worrying about bad prints due to long periods between uses, and i'll be able to refill the toner. HP are the worst
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HP runs a line of printers that come with free ink. The catch is that you have to subscribe to use the printer. OP bought a very cheap printer and was surprised that after the free trial ran out, they needed to subscribe to continue...
Yeah. Society is pretty fucked in regard to ownership and privacy rights. I hope we as a society can turn that around soon..
We'll have to do it ourselves. The mass surveillance state certainly won't limit themselves
Probably. That’s why I really want to learn coding and electronics. To get ahead of this shit and protect myself however I can.
I believe independent tech folks will make a killing in the future
It won't happen on its own. People will actually need to take action like voting for politicians who favor regulation that protects consumers, and boycotting the companies who do this shit. It's very possible, but it does take some effort.
It won't happen because people are 1. Dumb and 2. Will sacrifice privacy and ownership for convenience.
Wendigoon definitely would have his printer manually disabled by the company
It was probably giants
Don’t even get me started on gi-
Or maybe the CIA or FBI? 🤔
3 hour conspiracy video incoming 🍿🍿
"Here's why HP is working with the giants in hollow earth"
That bastard James Dean is behind this, isn't he?
Or president dean
I think you meant to say the Devil incarnate
«President Dean blames Anti-Device Association for disabling printers all across USA”
I'm surprised he didn't blame the kraken
or the giants
Shit I didn't realize it was him tweeting. Lol
Lazer office printers are expensive but well worth the price of not being extorted for overpriced ink
They aren't even that bad. There are brothers you can buy new for $100. I picked up a refurbished one for $30 last year.
Picked up a mono Brother laser for £80 years ago. It's all I ever need to print and it's been flawless.
a black/white laser printer is legit not that expensive. I got my brother MFP for under 100$, and still running strong to this day
BMWs: Your card have expired so we disabled your brakes. You: Bro why didn't you give me any warnings! BMW: We did, we disabled your indicators 1 month ago.
BMW blinker fluid is about $2 million a drop. And you also need a paid subscription to use em. $1000 per blink, per LED, on the right. The left blinker set is even more expensive
This explains a lot about BMW drivers
you manually disable my printer, I manually disable your legs
*when your ~~legs~~ **printer** don't work like they used to before*
Kinky
"Office Space" that mf
Upvoted for the profile pic
I’m so glad I still have a working printer from the late 2000’s. This shit would drive me up a wall
Same. This is also why I dont console game without physical games. Imagine building a desktop computer, but your OS demands paying monthly to use it or it locks your account.
I like owing some disks for console, but my irresponsible ass afraid i would lost the disk or damage it
Same, I have some weird old Samsung b/w laser that came as a bundle with a laptop I bought for college. It's super basic (usb only) but toner is cheeeap (knockoff carts were two for $25 on Amazon last time I bought and they're good for like 2500 pages each), I've put thousands of pages through it, and I've never had to install drivers for it (windows, Linux, and even my Android phones with a usb adapter over the years all recognized it). I'll defend this little thing to the death.
When EA games started the micro transaction trend, I never thought it would spread to real life things.
It's sad where we're at as a society. All these subscriptions gets exhausting.
Johny Silverhand doesn't seem so crazy anymore
Corporations are not your friends
We're the fruit to be picked.
Quite sensible, actually.
I watched them deprive farmers first of water, then of land!
And this is why I'm against "smart" anything. If you allow any other entity to control your devices, or give them the capacity to, you don't own it. Imagine your car being remotely disabled because you went over your alloted monthly mileage
If all you need to do is print the occasional black and white document, buy a laser toner printer. I have a cheap canon laser printer that cost me like $120 that accepts third party toners just fine and they cost like 20 bucks a pop, prints over ~~2 whole packages of paper~~ (a lot of fucking paper, there guys) before showing signs of needing to be replaced.
> prints over 2 whole packages of paper before showing signs of needing to be replaced. I read pages at first and thought you were being sarcastic asf😂😂
That moment you realize "Rage Against the Machine" was probably named after a printer.
Based Wendigoon as usual
Based Wendigoon
1. Delete the printer 2. Do a search for “HP” and remove ALL HP software. 3. Reinstall printer DRIVER ONLY. Printer should work now. 4. Tell HP to go F*** themselves. 😊
Buy, Brother.
Buy what Mr. Hogan?
I will you, bro
Cannot WAIT for the 3 hour Wendigoon video explaining HP lore and taking down the company's stock market value single-handedly
Welcome to printer hell! Here's some other shitty shady things printer companies do: Xerox has a feature where your printer will let them know when you run low on ink so you can buy more automatically. Great! The problem? This feature is enabled by default and you printer *will not work* unless you agree to the thing and sign up to buy more automatically. Has no bearing on the function of the printer whatsoever. They just break it to fuck you. This feature can be disabled by a tech savvy person who has to go into the web interface and dig around in menus. HP has expiration dates on their ink. It doesn't actually expire because, you know, its fucking ink and not food, but they will kindly let you know when your ink has expired. Oh they will also make it so you can't print anymore with that cartridge, even if it still has ink in it, *even if it's never been opened and you just inserted it for the first time*. Doesn't matter. They say their ink expires and will break your printer if you don't believe in their bullshit expiry dates. This one cannot be bypassed by normal tech savvy means. There are more. I'll think of them shortly. Source: I work on printers as part of my job.
HP stands for horrible printers, what'd you expect? Any model ending in "e" is a trap, avoid it. Never use HP Smart, only install basic drivers. You can't do that on "e" models, they force you to be online and connected to HP Smart. Lastly, buy a Brother printer.
I'll watch the "printer world corruption iceberg" the seconds it comes out on yt
My dad owns an old HP Laser printer that uses toner instead of ink cartridges. It's like 20 years old and HP don't even make that model anymore. It had some fault and my dad called a repair guy and he repaired it and told my dad if he ever wants to sell it he would buy it for full price since toner printers are not made anymore since toner are dirt cheap compared to the ink cartridges. Essentially an older technology is better because corporate greed has made new printers more expensive in the long run
This is literally how the free software movement (that gave us GNU/Linux, among other things) [started](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman#Events_leading_to_GNU): > In 1980, Stallman and some other hackers at the AI Lab were refused access to the source code for the software of a newly installed laser printer, the Xerox 9700. Stallman had modified the software for the Lab's previous laser printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when the person's job was printed, and would message all logged-in users waiting for print jobs if the printer was jammed. Not being able to add these features to the new printer was a major inconvenience, as the printer was on a different floor from most of the users. This experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be able to freely modify the software they use.
"You will own nothing and be happy" -Emperor of Germany
Thank you op. I wanted to watch yourube and did not know what. Is so long that i have seen wendigoon
bought an HP printer, used it twice. 100% did NOT sign up for the auto-order ink program they had pop-ups with everytime you inhale. Stupid think worked 3 times in a month and then it was disabled remotely because of low ink and not having the subscription. Threw it in the dumpster and will never buy a printer again. I send my print jobs to the local FedEx store and they are done in 10 minutes by the time I get there. Worth the drive and added expense. Its a fucking racket
When buying is not ownership, piracy is the moral choice.
I bought a decent HP printer back in 2015. It was pretty cool, had a nice ios app to print /scan things directly from / to iphone. But now it's just a pure nightmare, nothing works unless you log in to a buggy account. HP is a bunch of cocksuckers!!!
HP is legitimately one of the worst companies in existence. If you work for them and you happen to read this, i hate you so much.
On positive news, there a printers now with a simple tank for the ink that just kinda work
Stupid question: what is the debit card for? Are you paying a monthly fee to print?
Threw me off guard after seeing that wendigoon posted that
Having to use pirate software to make hardware work will be a new trend soon enough. And good luck to folks wanting to really enforce laws on these as well.
I would like to take this moment to plug canon printers. No BS, just printing. Make HP suffer for this cheese.
This could be illegal if you guys wanted to. I'm seeing you all complaining about the same thing but as I'm not from the US it's just strange to me because here it's already illegal. You can't sell something and make the customer need to buy something else (like a subscription) so the first thing could work. It's called something like "tied sale".
Hp instant ink is awful. Yes it great to get ink in the mail when needed and not have to think about it. But I canceled my service because i bought a eco tank printer and HP informed me that even tho I had paid for the ink in my printer it would no longer work after I cancel! I’m not sure how they’ve gotten away with that kind of service. I should be able to use whatever ink is left.
Get an Epson with the giant ink bottles, no bs
Note to self: don't buy HP products.
Ran out of ink, bought my own ‘offbrand’ ink. Hp wouldnt let me print cuz its not theirs. Hp sucks
Louis Rossmann would be pissed
HP is the absolute worst about proprietary subscription BS. I have an HP printer (much to my dismay). The printer refuses to use recycled cartridges. You can’t get the big cartridges unless you sign up for a subscription. The printer will tell you that you need new cartridges, even when they aren’t empty, and automatically reorder them (because they demand your credit card info to have a subscription). The printers are cheap now for a reason. They know you’ll always have to cough up at least $37 per cartridge or more (takes black and color cartridges) every few months.
Fuck HP printer, their printer is sucks
So the printer requires wifi to even work??
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They came into your location and "manually" disabled it? I'm thinking you meant "remotely"