There's No Such Thing as a Fixed Price Printer, or the Dark Pattern of the Subscription Economy

For the last four years, I owned two HP printers, one at home and one in the office. Though setting up and maintaining printers is far from my favorite task, I am proficient at it. As the primary IT support for my family, troubleshooting printers becomes second nature. From paper jams to cartridge issues, I had handled it all, even before the advent of AI chatbots.

I did this before AI and even before the days of trial and error (remember those?). Today, if you own an HP printer within the last five years, you are familiar with the app HP Smart and the feature called Instant Ink. When I initially bought these printers four years ago, I subscribed to Instant Ink for each printer, paying $5 a month for each.

However, after about a year, I only received one shipment of cartridges. "That's odd," I thought. Shouldn't these cartridges be delivered monthly or regularly? Given our remote location, we often face shipping issues, so I cancelled one of the subscriptions. However, the monthly charges continued to appear on my credit card. Over the past four years, I have asked my assistant to cancel HP subscriptions numerous times, each time facing an annoying process with multiple delays and calls to both human and AI agents.

Eventually, the charges stopped. Throughout this time, I continued to print and troubleshoot printers, which are notoriously finicky and moody creatures. A small amount of lint could wreak havoc on their mechanics. But now, I had encountered a new problem. Last week, during a troubleshooting session, the printer displayed an error code that indicated there was a problem with the ink cartridges.

I tried all the usual troubleshooting methods, from cleaning to replacing cartridges, even using brand-new cartridges. The error codes kept switching between E3, E1, and eventually an enigmatic E0. The AI assistance finally suggested buying a new printer. Then, I tried a last-ditch effort by switching the home printer with the office printer, thinking there might be a hardware defect with the former.

I carried the "bad" printer to the garage, preparing it for recycling. And that's when it dawned on me. After four years, we had stopped subscribing for the office printer in June and for the home printer in September, just last week—right when each printer stopped printing. I begrudgingly resubscribed to the lowest tier of Instant Ink.

And sure enough, as soon as I did, the error disappeared, and the printer began printing again. Instant Ink? More like instant CHA CHING! I couldn't help but think that these cartridges inside my printer were not truly mine. HP's own support documentation states that when you cancel Instant Ink, the subscription cartridges eventually stop working.

To continue printing without the subscription, you must remove them and install normal retail cartridges. So, effectively, by stopping the subscription, HP remotely made the ink already inside my printer unusable. I had spent hours troubleshooting what appeared to be a broken printer, only for HP to fix it by remotely disabling the ink.

Is there any other word for this frustrating user experience other than a Dark Pattern? I don't think so. These Instant Ink cartridges inside my printer were not truly "mine" in the conventional sense. HP's support documentation states that when you cancel Instant Ink, the subscription cartridges eventually cease functioning. To continue printing without the subscription, you need to remove them and install conventional retail cartridges.

In essence, by discontinuing the subscription, HP has effectively rendered the ink inside my printer unusable. I had invested hours in troubleshooting what seemed like a broken printer, only for HP to resolve it by remotely disabling the ink. Is there any other term for this exasperating user experience other than a Dark Pattern? I don't believe so.