[Resolved]  HP Printer — reginalization

I agree. I've had numerous contacts with HP regarding the fact that my HP Photosmart c6188 all-in-one printer is regionalized. Since I recently moved from country of purchase (China, 801 ink cartridges) to a different country (USA, 02 cartridges), it will not accept the cartridges which are identical in all respects except programming. HP has done worse than refuse to help me. They gave me the "run around" and are wasting my time.

First of all, HP never mentioned in their promotional literature or packaging that the printer was regionalized. I paid full price at a European based store in order to get a truly international, quality machine. If they had told me that their very own programming would cripple the machine for international use, since I was an expatriate planning to move back to home country eventually, I would of course never have purchased the printer. So in the first place, I feel I've been lied to.

But I did like the printer and wanted to keep it. Like most HP printers I've owned, it was a little workhorse and functions well. It's wireless, convenient. I liked it enough that I air shipped it back to my home country (cost about $300 to airship, about $100 less than the cost of replacing the entire thing).

When I arrived in the USA, of course the cartridges didn't run out of ink all at once. When I went to replace the first one, I was surprised to find the cartridges had a different number. I purchased them because they looked identical. These are cartridges that cost about $10 each.

Eventually, I purchased cartridges through the HP online store. At a cost of about $80 total to replace all the cartridges. When I tried to plug in the new one, that was the first I heard that the printer would only work with cartridges purchased in China.

By email, HP told me it was "too complicated" to send me instructions how to reset the regionalization. They said I would have to do it by phone. Okay, can you reset it or not, right? They told me it could only be reset a max of three times. I said OKAY. Half an hour.

By phone, the first thing was that they charged me $40 for technical support on the basis that my printer was "out of warranty". Well, yes, it is out of warranty but there is nothing wrong with it except the way YOU PROGRAMMED IT! Life is full of frustrations, some things you just let go of. I paid the money. Half hour down the drain.

But in the meantime, I had misplaced one of the new cartridges when I had put the old ones back in to use the printer (while it still had some ink in the old cartridges). Over the phone, they said to put the new ones in and hopefully it would reset itself. I had to hang up to find the new ones. When I plugged them all in, the printer still didn't work. Another hour down the drain.

The next time I called, they first verified I had paid for their d*mn technical service fee. Fifteen minutes on hold and to verify that they had gotten my money.

Then, they transferred me to a guy overseas who said it was impossible to reprogram. He said I would have to purchase a new printer. He really wanted me to buy a new printer and spent a lot of time trying to convince me to. One hour down the tube.

So far, I'm two and a half or so hours into this, have spent $80 on new printer cartridges, $40 on the service fee, and still have no printer that works.

I WILL NEVER BUY FROM HP AGAIN. If anyone ever sues these people with a class action lawsuit, let me in on the deal! [protected]@hotmail.com

same story here!! bought my C6283 from Saudi Arabia. Moved back home to the UK. The ink of only one cartridge has run out. I cannot simply replace with HP ink from UK...No! - I will have to get the priner regionalised and then shell out a load to replace ALL cartridges. AND i will have to pay HP for them to fanny about and do what is probably a 30 second job to regionalise my printer to UK (Im out of warranty)...I might throw the printer in the reception of HP in UK -

Same for me. I bought C4380 from Canada and after I came to India, I bought the cartridges as per the HP cust care suggestion and then they gave me the story of regionalization and evetually they came up by giving me an offer of replacing my existing printer with a similar printer of Indian version at a cost of Rs 7500. The the best part of the story is, the C4380 printer I bought for CAD 120, which is apprx Rs 6000 only. Not sure how a company like HP can have such corrupt business strategies.

I have same story.
I bought All-in-one 3180 deskjet printer in Japan. It worked well there then it worked well in Australia. Now it's working ok, well till last week. Now my Yellow ink is gone. I called HP and they first told me, no they don't have the 177 ink. The tech support referred me to Online Cartridge call center then they bounced me back to tech support.
Now First she refused to help me as mine is out of warranty. Then after insisting that i only need cartridge and my printer is working fine, she put me on hold, 5 minute she came back ok we can do it, you need to change all 6 ink set. after i said yes, she disappeared again for 5 minutes appeard again to print a test page with pressing cancel and ok together. Done. disappeared again for 5 minutes and said, i need to buy all new pack of six for HP801, send them receipt and my airwaybill with description of transfer from other company. Hell, why they need it only god knows, i don't have any, it was air cargo. Now, I am suppose to call them back with in 3 days and to send purchase receipt of new ink then they will tell me how to reset the code.
Not asked money till now. Not sure if they will ask me money AFTER i buy it.
Any one ready for filing at consumer court? Please let me know. I still have no idea how things work in India now as i came back after 12 years.
Any help is appreciated.

HP / Inkjet Printer — Concealing the fact about cartridges in new printers

Sir I would like to point out that HP sells its Inkjet Printers with Introductory cartriges, which are actually demo cartridges and very limited number of printouts are possible from this. This fact is not highlighted anywhere, even the dealers are not aware of this fact (They just hide this fact in the technical Specifications and on the printer box - which very few people read and it is not always possible to read).
The same printers (Probably a different model) are available in US at a lower price than in India, but they carry original cartridges.
Is this a FAIR Practice?, Whenever any feature which is existent is withdrawn is it not legally binding on the part of a Multi-National Co." like HP to bring it to the notice of it's customers?
I sincerely request some Govt. Organisation to intervene and ensure that these Multi-Nationals do not take India for granted and do whatever they wish to.

I just run into the same problem. I brought a C6188 in China, just moved back to US a month ago. I run out of the black ink yesterday and went to a store to get a ink. I was told to get a HP 02 ink. After putting it into the C6188, I was suprised to get an error message that I have to use HP 801 ink. I looked for the HP 801 ink in a few stores in my city and none of them have HP 801 ink. I tried to look for a solution online and realized that I have to change the regional code for the printer, I was pissed off. HP is too greedy.

HP are in the business of fleecing consumers. I have had the same experience movingt from Australia to then UK. We need a good lawyer to sue for the time we and many others have wasted on these products,