Avoid the HP Officejet Pro L7780 All-in-One Printer Fax Copy Scanner

The biggest problem with the L7780 is that there’s nothing else out there to replace it with!

Actually, that’s not true. The biggest problem is that HP has released a product with a TON of fix-able bugs and, in over a year they haven’t fixed them. And, worse, many of these are KNOWN problems that they won’t reveal to you until you’ve spent DAYS on the phone with Hewlett-Packard’s support monkeys, who make you jump through the stupidest hoops known to man (can you say, “Move your printer to another room so we can make sure the electricity isn’t a problem”).

More stunning is the expensive (for them) “solution” of shipping out replacement printers… even though it’s a FIRMWARE problem not a hardware problem that’s the issue.

And, of course, this “solution” is massively expensive for the user, because setting up one of these HP L7780s can take 3 hours, easily — 20-30 min for the printer to initialize, 2+ hours for the bloatware software to install itself (and tons of crap you don’t need) onto your computer.

HP’s “Case Managers” are supposed to be the last resort for help; they’ll even tell you that there’s nobody above them to talk to… if they tell you that, they are lying directly to your face. And while they have the power to do *some* things, they seem not to have enough power to actually satisfy a customer.

I had one argument with my case manager, where he was offering to send me some ink cartridges to make up for the pain in the ass I’ve been going through… he claimed the value of the ink cartridges was about $80… even though the price on eBay is about $40, and if you use some coupons at OfficeMax or Staples, you can get them for about $20.

I told the CM that his offer was unacceptable, especially given the street price of the ink. He said he felt that it was a good offer.

I replied, “I don’t care what you FEEL; it’s a shitty offer. Besides, you clearly don’t care what I FEEL, so why should I care what you feel?”

I must say, I was impressed that he realized the double-standard and, at least for that moment, shut up.

Frankly, I can’t imagine HP will ever be able to compensate me for the time, effort, and frustration they’ve put me through — much of it documented, below.

And given that they’re selling a product with KNOWN defects, I think a class-action lawsuit is in order.

Seriously, this last L7780 printer HP sent is a dud. Here’s the latest:

The problem with the WRT54G is “fixed” (by getting a new router, which HP says they are reimbursing me for… once the check shows up and clears I’ll let you know if that happened).

Trying to install the software on 2 different computers, it will SOMETIMES install the FAX driver and sometimes not.

Then, after I got it installed, I’d see the drivers for the printer go offline for no reason. Then back online again for no reason.

Then I turned on my computer and there were, suddenly, NO DRIVERS listed in “Printers & Faxes.” None. Gone.

So, I reinstalled the drivers.

The printer driver installed just fine.

But after the install software added the FAX driver, 5 seconds later it added another. And then 5 seconds later, another… and another and another and another.

I rebooted my computer and when it turned on, every 5 seconds there was yet another FAX driver added.

Once again, I did a “Level 3 uninstall.”

And then I called HP who had VERY interesting (and by “interesting” I mean “Are you SERIOUS?!”) news…

In a nutshell, I would avoid this printer.

Read this blog to find out why.

I’ve probably wasted 2 weeks of my life dealing with the L7780 problems and the horrible tech support.

Here’s a review from Tiger Direct.

It’s true, all the features are really cool… IF THEY WORKED!

My Direct Filing didn’t work for a year (until they sent me my 4th printer).

Faxing from computer stopped working suddenly… and took 16 hours of reinstalling software until it would work again.

In other words, don’t believe everything you see/hear about how great this printer is.

Okay, it’s official. The most recent (the SIXTH) HP L7780 that HP has sent me is a dud.

After getting the software installed, and finally seeing both the printer driver and the fax driver, if I look in Printers & FAXes, I’ll see the printer just go offline every now and then, for no apparent reason. And then, just as randomly, it’ll come back online.

I’ve never seen anything like this.

So, I have the router issue fixed, but HP has been sending me REFURBISHED printers every time they think that I need a new printer.

They’ve sent me 6, I believe.

Now, they never needed to send me ANY because the problem was a known FIRMWARE issue, not a problem with hardware. But, leaving that for a moment…

The last refurbished L7780  they sent me SUCKS! During setup, it kept eating paper… and it still will have paper jams, which I NEVER had in the year I owned the previous units they sent me.

And when I install the software, the Fax drivers will only intermittently install.

I need to do a “level 3 uninstall” and then reinstall the software to test this (which takes about 3 hours, total) and, each time I get a different result.

My suspicion is that, for the first time, there actually is a problem with this particular printer!

Thanks to a kind switchboard operator at HP, I was able to bypass my case manager and get one level higher in the food chain.

After a week of back-and-forth phone calls — where my admonition to “call me on my CELL PHONE” apparently never made it to the right person, since I kept getting voicemails on my HOME phone — the case manager’s boss said to the case manager:

Am I understanding correctly that the L7780 is incompatible with the Linksys WRT54G router?

Yes, the CM answered.

And is it also correct that we don’t publish this on a spec sheet anywhere?

Correct, the CM answered.

Then the appropriate thing to do is reimburse Mr. Sashen for a router that WILL work with our printer.

And, I added, the ink cartridges that I wasted by repeatedly going through the useless restarting of the printer.

Agreed.

And so, the first step toward a resolution.

Now, that said, the printer still has a number of software glitches, including that you can use the Digital Filing button to send scanned images directly to your computer, but if you use the menus to do the EXACT SAME process, you get a “communications error” and the feature doesn’t work.

HP’s “offer” to me is:

Go buy another router and then we’ll give you some ink cartridges worth $100.

Too bad that’s the RETAIL price of the cartridges and that the STREET price is about $20… which is $30-80 less than the cost of the new router they want me to buy.

In other words, HP, by not revealing a known hardware incompatibility before, and often after, purchase… is essentially lying to consumers.

Here’s the problem:

HP knows that the L7780 does not work with the Linksys WRT54G.

BUT, they don’t tell you this before you purchase — there’s nothing on their website warning you about the incompatibility.

Further, AFTER you buy, you have to go through HOURS AND HOURS of time dealing with Tech Support people who have not been told about this problem… so they make you do stupid things like “move the printer to another room to make sure you have good electricity.”

EVENTUALLY, you may find a senior support person who knows about the problem. They’ll tell you that it’s a known issue and that HP will provide a fix in the near future.

That fix never comes.

Then, here’s the kicker, HP says the only “solution” is to go spend money to get a new router.

See, what they don’t understand is: Had they provided the information that they KNEW, I wouldn’t need a new router… because I would have returned the piece of crap printer and not been forced to spend almost a week dealing with their low-level tech support people… who COULD HAVE BEEN informed about this issue (how hard is it to build into their scripts: “Oh, you’re having wireless networking problems… do you have the WRT54G router?”)