HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One

Pros: When it works the color is accurate and sharp. Ink usage is economical. One of the sturdiest machines I've owned. Seems bullet proof. We may actually find out.

Cons: Does not retrieve certain media from printer tray (see one line summary). This includes 110# card stock and 4x6 photo paper. It is also true of not one, but two of the same make and model in less than a month. Completely unacceptable.

Summary: The HP Officejet Pro 8600 (at least the pair that I've possessed in the past couple weeks) will not pick up 110# card stock from the printer tray. The support technician I spoke with—while he seemed knowledgeable enough—presented a language barrier that was, at times, difficult to overcome. In all fairness he did his best but, in the end and after an hour on the phone, his solutions for the issue (which included downloading new drivers—something that should never be necessary on a new machine) proved futile.

To further acerbate the aforementioned, I tried printing a 4x6 photo, but it took four (4) attempts before the printer acquired the photo paper from the tray.

Enter an escalation case manager who suggested that I simply change brands of card stock. Excuse me! I've been printing business cards on Staples 110# stock for myself and selected clients for years, using both Canon and Epson printers with never so much as a hiccup. And unless that's a ploy to get customers to buy HP media, it should never even have been a consideration on his part. If it is such a tactic...shame on HP.

While I recognize that it is this gentleman's job to appease customers and resolve any issues in presumably the most expeditious manner possible, by his own admission the person I talked with wasn't versed in the technical aspect of the problem.

That same escalation case manager—here again after spending far too much time on the phone—relented to the extent that he would issue a replacement printer which arrived a couple days later. It is the same make and model, and unfortunately suffers the same deficiency as the original. It will not readily retrieve 110# card stock or 4x6 photo paper from the tray for printing. This is not acceptable in that I require these features often. With an expert rating in both Adobe and Corel, this has been standard-operating-procedure for nearly ten years. Until now.

In addition, the replacement prints out draft copies at twice the specified size and in the lower right hand corner of a letter size paper, with approx 3/4 of the artwork cut off. This is unsatisfactory in any man's language. It also appears—after hours on the phone with tech support and "escalation"—that it exceeds the scope of HP's knowledge base at this time.

Updated on Apr 6, 2012

YIKES! When sending a review, never try to separate phrases with a long dash if you copy and paste from Microsoft Word. They all convert to —

My bad.