Okay, let me explain this analogy because I think that I am not communicating clearly
There are two components that you are paying for here:
- For the car analogy - purchasing the car outright (not leasing!) and a maintenance plan for the car (which requires you to pay for and lays out a set of conditions for maintenance - bring the car in every X miles for an oil change, etc)
- In the printer case - purchasing the printer outright (not leasing!) and the ink plan for the printer (which requires you to pay for and lays out a set of conditions for maintenance - limited number of pages before refills, etc)
In the first case, since you purchased the car outright, you would expect to be able to operate the car after the maintenance agreement expires - with you paying out of pocket for the cost of maintenance, of course. It would be asinine to assume that you lose the ability to use your car if the maintenance plan goes away - that's now how purchasing items works.
In the second case, you purchased the printer outright - it's not advertised as renting or leasing a printer, it's advertised as a sale. It is asinine to assume that you would lose the ability to use the printer after the automated ink refills end since you bought the printer outright, and bought for a price not for significantly less than the competitors printers without this service.
Another example that's closer to the model that HP is trying to mimic - razors and razor blades. Assume you sign up for a shave club that sends you blades and shaving cream every month with the purchase of a razor handle and a fee. If you cancel the shave club they don't ask you to send the razor back, and if anyone tried to enter your home and take it from you then you'd be well within your rights to involve the police for burglary and theft.
If HP doesn't want to get backlash for this then they need to clearly advertise their printers are leased and are bricks if you ever sign up for their instant ink and cancel. Otherwise they are being completely unreasonable, no matter what cutesy language they want to hide behind in whatever contract the user is not free to negotiate or is forced into arbitration if there are disputes.
They're a big boy company, no more lying to their customers.
If we're going to strain the car analogy (car analogies always get strained), this is more like:
Buying a car outright, then buying an "InstantGasoline" plan where you pay per month and get a tanker of gasoline delivered to your house, but if you go over 500 miles in any given month, they remotely disable your car and the tanker's gasoline pump. So you thought you were buying gasoline (given the marketing name "InstantGasoline") but instead have a useless car and locked gasoline tanker.
This is definitely a case of deceptive marketing, and people are defending them because what the company is actually providing is spelled out on page 72 of some dense, single-spaced contract somewhere.
There are two components that you are paying for here:
In the first case, since you purchased the car outright, you would expect to be able to operate the car after the maintenance agreement expires - with you paying out of pocket for the cost of maintenance, of course. It would be asinine to assume that you lose the ability to use your car if the maintenance plan goes away - that's now how purchasing items works.In the second case, you purchased the printer outright - it's not advertised as renting or leasing a printer, it's advertised as a sale. It is asinine to assume that you would lose the ability to use the printer after the automated ink refills end since you bought the printer outright, and bought for a price not for significantly less than the competitors printers without this service.
Another example that's closer to the model that HP is trying to mimic - razors and razor blades. Assume you sign up for a shave club that sends you blades and shaving cream every month with the purchase of a razor handle and a fee. If you cancel the shave club they don't ask you to send the razor back, and if anyone tried to enter your home and take it from you then you'd be well within your rights to involve the police for burglary and theft.
If HP doesn't want to get backlash for this then they need to clearly advertise their printers are leased and are bricks if you ever sign up for their instant ink and cancel. Otherwise they are being completely unreasonable, no matter what cutesy language they want to hide behind in whatever contract the user is not free to negotiate or is forced into arbitration if there are disputes.
They're a big boy company, no more lying to their customers.