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

I figured out why HP refused to continue to support my HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 and insisted that I send it back and that they would refund my purchase price (minus $40+ in tax).

To avoid a lawsuit!

I caught them red-handed in a legally indefensible place — they are knowingly selling a product with a known incompatibility that causes customers tons of wasted time, effort, and money. They are deliberately not revealing this information (not only to the customer, but they don’t tell their tech support people either!), costing the customer more wasted time and money. And they don’t publish this information ANYWHERE.

But, if they buy my printer back from me, I don’t have much of a leg to stand on in a lawsuit.

Clever move, guys and gals.

So, check this out… after HP agrees to give me the MONEY to buy a new router, one that is compatible with their printer, and to send me some ink to replace all that I used in the repeated setups, I’m left with a printer that’s a lemon!

This is the 7th HP Officejet Pro L7780 All-in-One that they’ve sent me. The last 4 have been refurbs.

This one has problem with the paper feed, and it randomly goes offline for no apparent reason.

So, I call my case manager and ask him what to do, given that the refurb has a 90-day warranty.

He says, “We’re no longer supporting your printers.”

“WHAT?!”

“We’ve done everything we can and we’ve sent you 7 printers.”

“But,” I said, “you’ve only sent me 7 printers because you were pretending that the printer was the problem, when it was ALWAYS a firmware issue… now, I have an ACTUAL LEMON and you won’t fix the problem?!”

“Correct. We’ll buy the printer back from you.”

“Huh?”

“Send us the printer and a copy of the receipt and we’ll send you the purchase price… MINUS the tax.”

Can you say “You have got to be kidding?”

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.

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?”)

So, last week I got a message (because HP called my landline, when I asked them to call me on my cell instead), and said, “So, it seems like this problem will be fixed if you just upgrade the firmware on your router, the printer and have the latest XP service pack.”

I nearly went through the roof.

This is the same cock-and-bull story I was told A YEAR AGO!

It wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now.

I have the latest of everything one can have the latest of.

That does not fix SOFTWARE (firmware) problems in the HP L7780.

This is classic.

HP promised that they would send me yet another replacement (refurbished) L7780 since the LAST replacement they sent has a fondness for eating paper and jamming.

So, I called today and asked about the status of this replacement (my 5th or 6th) and was told, “Oh, we’re not sending you another because you said in a previous call that you were getting lawyers involved.”

So the fact that I said something means they will:

a) Stop providing support

b) Not TELL ME they stopped providing support (unless I find out by following up with them and asking).

This is the most ridiculous “support” policy I’ve ever heard.

A couple months ago, I noticed that every page was coming out of the printer with a giant blue splotch on it.

I tried all the self-tests, alignment, cleaning, and everything else built in to the printer.

Per HP’s instructions, I installed a brand new cyan ink cartridge (the old one was still usable… until I replaced it!)

No difference.

The problem?

The printhead had, basically, exploded.

So, now I have 2 open cyan cartridges… I hope they don’t dry out (I put them in a plastic bag).

In this case, it seems likely that HP knew these things were a problem… because they instantly replaced it without my even asking.

Let me ask you a question:

If someone offers you something… anything… say, a new car, and the sticker price is $25,000… but you know a guy who owns a dealership and you can get the car for $10,000, what’s the value TO YOU of the car?

$10,000, right?

OF course.

So check this out:

HP Tech support says that if I go and buy a new router to replace the Linksys WRT54G, they’ll give me 2 sets of ink cartridges to make up for my trouble and expense.

They say that the value of their offer is over $200.

Except for this fact:

I’ve never paid more than $8 for an ink cartridge, sometimes less. So the value of their offer, to me, is about $60, which is LESS than the cost of a replacement router!

And when I point this out to them, they say they’re doing me a FAVOR!

A favor? Correct me if I’m mistaken, but:

1. The only reason they even NEED to offer me this favor is that they sell a printer with a KNOWN incompatibility, don’t list this issue on their website, don’t have any of their Level 1 support staff informed about it, and haven’t fixed the problem in over a year! and;
2. This doesn’t account for the set of ink cartridges I burned through going through the L7780’s setup, time and time again. And;
3. This does not even come CLOSE to making up for the DAYS AND DAYS of crap they’ve put me through — from needlessly moving my printer from room to room, as if “different electricity” would fix the problem, to making me un- and re-install their bloated software, which takes 1-2 hours each time (I’ve been asked to do it 3 times in the last week alone)

It amazes me when a company doesn’t grasp how inexpensive it can be to make an unhappy customer happy… and how expensive it can be to not make that small expenditure.

I think it’s time to get my lawyers involved.

HP is about to send my 5th or 6th L7780… as if replacing the hardware is a solution for software that’s never been fixed.

Worse, they’ve been sending me REFURBISHED printers.

Just what I need, a printer that was already returned because it didn’t work.

When they revealed that the HP Officejet L7780 was not compatible with my router, the popular (sold on the HP website!) Linksys WRT54G, their solution:

“Buy another router.”

Excuse me?!

I just spent an extra $100 to get a printer with wireless networking and now I’m supposed to spend MORE MONEY to get DIFFERENT HARDWARE?

Are you insane?

My CELL PHONE can talk to the router… but this $500 printer can’t?!

WHAT?