- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 112 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
18 out of 18 people found this review helpful
1.0 stars
"Too many idiosyncrasies deserves a low rating. Over-rated in review in our viewpoint."
Pros: You can get it to print, copy, fax, and scan. In color too.
Cons: Not reliable and high maintenance cost. Erodes confidence in HP product.
Summary: We have a professional services practice with currrently 10 HP printers, and have purchased 75-100 over the last 15 years. That should speak for itself. When purchasing this printer we were concerned about some of the reviews, but after reading the CNET review, we decided to purchase. We made a bad decision and are trying to return the printer.
We've had many issues, some if not most of them minor. All these minor issues now make the printer a major issue for our business where we need productivity and reliablity. We have neither with this printer.
When having a problem, and calling technical support, there is little. Hours as are described by others, about 7-7 M-F, CST, which for the most part is okay with us, but was not clearly stated in the literature. We found this out the hard way when we tried to install it over the weekend or evening as we didn't want to use productive time to install.
Install did not go easy for us, as with the windows firewall would not allow the install of all the features. We had to have tech support walk us step by step through the install. Firmware and software needed upgrades and they had to send out a new install CD. Tech support staff not well trained. Most didn't know anything about the printer. We would call and then hang-up until we finally found someone who knew something about it.
Tech support is in Canada, which is one big step better than the nimrods in India. Why all these big companies go to India is beyond me. Has anyone ever tried to call them to really get support? The staff in Canada are friendly, but very few have knowledge of this printer. Not unusual to have 1-2 hour phone calls. We have logged probably about 30 hours of tech support calls since October 2005.
Initial install on USB was unstable, and printer would act erratic. After a few months of this and several phone calls to tech support, they determined that our main pc (new Intel P4 3.2 Ghz, 1 GB Ram, etc...) had an incompatable USB Intel chip driver (or something) and HP recommended we use the network port instead. After installing on network port, machine has stabilized behavior. Apparently is sensitive when using USB, but not all the tech guys know this.
Faxing: We have had no problem with inbound or outbound faxes. Gets light use. Faxes have been around for 20+ years, so this should be standard anyway.
Calibration Mode: Yes, quite cumbersome and tempermental. For a while when operating on USB we would have to reboot the printer 5-10 times per day, and then the calibration would kick in automatically after 15 minutes. The calibration will interrupt your print job, and the print job will not resume from where it left off. Go figure. Knotheads. Best to turn off really.
Scanning: Weak. Clarity not real good. We had almost no compatibility with image and text scans or pdf scans, mostly since the USB issue. After connecting to the network port (printer is not networked, we just use the network port) the scanning improved (not quality wise, just not as tempermental). Scanning now seems fine with the scan software, and scanning to jpg, text, or pdf. Quality is poor. We have other HP scanners that do a much better job. Scan to pdf from automatic document feed works well. Nice feature, although this didn't work through our USB.
Printing: Slow, but that is widely known. It is noisy compared to what you might expect or from experience with other printers. Not like a 747 taking off, but it is noticeable. You do get used to it nevertheless. Quality, I would rate not bad. Any worse, and it would be scrapped. Not as good as our other HP BW laserjets.
Copying: Fine. Auto document feed works fine. Jams about 5% of the time, but we are getting used to this with this machine. I guess we learned a higher level of tolerance.
Toner Use: This is quite interesting. There is HP Director software that is loaded on the hard drive upon install. The HP Director doesn't always work when you mouse click on it. When you do get it to work, it does allow you to make many settings on the printer, and allows you to check the status of the toner cartridges. One negative is when the machine states the toner is low/out (black toner), the machine will quit printing. There is an electronic lock/freeze put on the machine until you replace the toner cartridge. Even if there is toner left, it won't let you print. Once the electronic calculator says you're out, you're done. Color toner, somewhat the same. When it says it's done, it is. Will automatically convert to printing only in BW, even though you might have some color toner left.
The Drum is another negative issue. Posted that it should last 20,000 pages. Not true. As other's have posted, may only electronically last 5,000 if you use color as color makes more electronic revolutions so even if printing a colored dot, it counts as multiple page revolutions. As I write this, we are being notified by the printer we need a new drum. We have about 7,000 pages on the drum since new. We have been told by HP that when the electronic counter on the machine hits zero, the machine will stop printing. Even though the machine has been printing fine, if the counter calculates its time to change, then you must. Fork out about $175.
When I called to complain to HP about this, I was put on hold for about an hour while they researched this. They said it is a benefit to the customer to shut down the machine so you don't make bad prints. I said we can look and figure that out. HP said it's just like a car when it runs out of gas, it quits. I said that analogy is like paper to a printer, not the drum. More accurate would be, and I asked the HP Tech Rep this, how would they like it if at the exact time you were supposed to change oil on your car, what if your car shut down in the middle of your driving and refused to do anything until it's oil was changed? That's what HP is now doing to their customers--shutting down the machine when the counter says to. We're business guys, and we know why HP is doing this. Because they think they can, and we as ignorant customers will take it. They are trying to gouge the customer again to increase their profits.
We printed about 7000 pages at a maintenance cost of about $600--4 toner cartridges and 1 drum. No heavy color either. Not what we budgeted for.
Bottom line if this was the only printer in the world, we would rate it higher. We are seeking to return this printer, and will use our previous HP BW printers, and plan to purchase a different brand of color lasers. We won't look at a multi-function any more as this machine has tainted us. We already have a fax, a scanner, etc... We do need a color laser, but will not buy HP at this point as we lost confidence in their product, and we have been told they use a lot of the same print engines in their machines.
Probably the tipping point came in the last few days when we again found out the hard way that this machine will stop printing when it in its sole discretion decides the drum has had enough revolutions and/or the toner is out. Previously the user could determine this by observation which would allow the user to get maximum useful life from the disposables. Now, life is determined by the machine, and in some cases simply by revolutions regardless of the volume of print.
If there are any entrepreneurs out there who know color laser technology and believe they can build a better machine, they should give it a good run, and keep your tech support in the USA where we can communicate with one another.
This is just our experiences and may not relate to the experiences of others. Good luck.
- 4 replies to this review
-
Detail is persuasive and appreciated
-
Thank you for the great review. This helps. Did you find anything to replace this unit?
-
You sound very knowedgable, so do you have any better options?
-
Looking for an AIO color laser. Thought it would be easier. My experiences with HP inkjets left a lot to be desired with the exception of my first, a Deskjet 550c which was great. The 855C that replaced it never worked well, then I made the mistake of shelling out $800 for an Officejet 7110 AIO which has given me so much grief I am truly ready to take it to the gun range. And it may have only printed as few as 150 pages in its pathetic life.
Anyway, techhead001, THANK YOU for a GREAT write up, I can only hope that your dealings with HP were as well thought out and concise.
I have supported HP products for years and only had bad luck on a personal level (figures!), I think it's time to try a different brand and before I do, I will let HP know that I think the idea that the printer determines consumables life in addition to the myriad of other issues I have read about on this forum make it impossible to buy HP again.
Where to buy
HP Color LaserJet 2840:
$399.00 - $1,401.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Amazon.com Marketplace
|
$1,401.99 | See Site |
|
|
$1,057.50 | Yes |
|
|
$698.26 | Yes |
|
|
$499.99 | No |
|
|
EnterComputers.com
|
$858.00 | Yes |
|
