As I wrote about in a previous post, I decided that I should purchase a HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus because, after looking at the HP website and making a few inquiries on a few social medial tech pages, that HP had a good reputation for printers and, for my needs, and inkjet would work just fine.
So, I shelled out the bucks and got the all-in-one delivered.
That’s when the HP Customer Service Experience began.
- The website is virtually useless. No way to contact support and some user forums that require registration and may or may not be able to answer a question in any sort of timely fashion.
- The User Manual – downloadable in .pdf format is also just about worthless.
- The black ink cartridge that came with the all-in-one that should have lasted me for my first 1000 pages or so didn’t work. The printer told me it didn’t work and it would accept it.
- Trying to set it up with the included software and drivers was not at all intuitive and the adhesive graphic covering the touch panel was deceptive. In short, there was a sequence to follow but neither the start up guide, the User Manual or anywhere else helped with the right sequence.
- I wanted to try and print legal size paper and realized it couldn’t be done. At least, not any way I could figure out. Envelopes required taking all the paper out of the tray, inserting the envelopes and resizing the paper guides, printing the envelope (or more than one) and then re-inserting the letter size paper. Talk about a pain in the ass.
- Finally, there was Twitter. Many times large corporations pay attention to Twitter. They have a presence and they usually respond on Twitter faster than any other method. After about a day, @HPSupport tweeted that I should follow them and DM with them to resolve the issue.
Of course, I did DM back to them – twice – but have never received a response. Never. Just to simple question –
It makes you stop and think. Do these guys even care?
Evidently not.
Maybe this will help? http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/us/en/ep/articles/handle-legal-sized-documents.html (see “Prepare to print with legal paper” and “Make legal-sized the default paper setting”).
HP’s website is not very intuitive. I spent more time that I would have liked on there today finding a part for a client’s laptop. I definitely seen better.
Maria recently posted..More 59 Seconds
Thank you, Maria, for pointing me in the right direction.
The paper tray that came with my HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus does not handle legal size paper at all. The 8.5″ x 14″ is physically too long for the paper tray. I checked out the surplus tray for the all-in-one (currently out of stock). Unfortunately, it doesn’t indicate if it handle 8.5″ x 14″ (legal size) paper and I am loathe to spend another $80 just to find out it doesn’t work.
What I thought you be a cost effective alternative to buying genuine Oklidata parts to see if I could get my Okidata C6050 printing properly again has turned into a nightmare of being nickle and dimed with more expenses (the ink cartridge, for one) and not being able to easily use a lot of features I have come to expect in a printer.
Thank you, though, for pointing me to a help page. That, in and of itself, was a big help!