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"Such a Disappointment" on by KidfreeKaye
Pros: The sleek size and classy look.
Cons: Ink consumption, Bad Photo quality, Noise, Technical Problems, Ink smudging/smearing, Poor text scanning quality.
Summary: In two weeks have had MANY problems. The first was a technical problem with Macintosh iPhoto compatibility. It simply wouldn't print on the photo paper in the photo tray, but always on the plain paper. After an hour on phone with HP tech (being transferred to many dept.s), it turns out you have to go thru 2 extra steps to print a photo if you are using iPhoto! (i.e. go into "Advanced" select photo tray, etc.) So, I thought I could live with that, but then noticed a lot of NOISE after each printing, and speed was not so good. Then, I noticed when I printed out my chapters (I'm a writer) to send to publishers, the black ink smeared on several pages. Printed them again, still happened! Then, 7 days after using the printer, the black ink ran out. Bought more, and the next day the Cyan ink was low. Then, after printing TWO black & white 4X6 photos, the photo black ink ran out, plus the regular black again! (2 days after I had replaced it!) So, a total of 4 ink cartridges ($40) needed to be replaced within 9 days of buying the computer. My 13-year old Epson took MONTHS before I'd replace ink. Then, it doesn't speak to Macintosh or Word software well. When I click "Reverse Print Order" (which I've been doing for years), this printer will not reverse it, no matter what I do. The scanner is fun to work with (editing, cropping, etc), but scanned TEXT from articles (that I need to send to potential publishers) is unclear and hard to read. Lastly, the photo quality is not great. Color photos are a little dark, not crisp or bright, and Black & White photos don't have good contrast. The good news is, Office Max said I can return it for a different printer tomorrow (because I bought the service agreement.) I only wish I could have found a review on this product before buying it. (I guess it was too new.) So I was the Guinea Pig for all of you!
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"I'll explain the widely mixed reviews" on by lw1999
Pros: Prints quickly, easy to use, good images, fair enough ink usage (in my opinion).
Cons: I cannot fit the number of cons in this space. The printer worked beautifully...until the day that it died, after 6 months of use. Turned out the power cable was bad, but do you think HP Tech support was helpful in this matter? No! More below!
Summary: We have a 3 yr extended warranty. Instead of tech support sending us a power cable first, they sent us a refurbished replacement printer with no peripheral equipment. They had us retain our ink cartridges, power cable, paper tray--everything--but send back our original printer. Surprise! The 2nd one did not work b/c of our faulty power cord. THEN they sent us a new power cord, and did that second printer (refurbished, remember?) work? NO! The holder for the ink cartridges kept sliding back and forth and would not stop and let us install them. Spent more hours on the phone explaining this to tech support (always having to go back to SQUARE ONE in our story, since no one had a clue what was going on with our case) and they finally sent us a second replacement printer--refurbished, again. Did it work? NO! It refused to print in color, and would not complete the setup alignment process. Called again, and requested a *NEW IN BOX* replacement, since their factory refurbished machines were coming to us broken. By this time we had logged, seriously, about 6 hours phone time with tech support and the Customer Complaint Department.
When the *new in box* replacement came, guess what? The little flip-up screen was broken, before we even turned it on! Back on the phone, asking AGAIN for another printer. Now we have what I thought was finally a working model. But, after about 1 month usage, I'm suddenly haven't a strange problem that seems to be out-of-the-blue, about the spooler being shut down. It refuses to print anything I send it. Hopefully there is a solution, but you can imagine that I'm extremely wary at this point. The last thing I want to do is talk to anyone in HP tech support EVER AGAIN, but I don't think this looks promising.
To be perfectly frank, the wait time for customer support is WAY too long, and then you invariably get a tech support person whose first language is NOT English. They are reading off a script and the solutions they waste your time with attempting to fix your problem are things we ALL KNOW ALREADY, like rebooting the machine. The more you try to explain the unique details of your problem, the less they seem able to help you or to even know anything about your particular model. For instance, during one call, the tech support woman asked, "Are the ink cartridges new?" Then she said, "Did you remember to peel the stickers off the cartridges?" There are no stickers on this model's cartridges. They are plastic caps that you twist and snap off. You cannot even put them into the cartridge-holder without removing the caps.
I really have no faith in HP to help me with any technical problem in the future, warranty or no. And regarding this product specifically, I'm afraid it's a dud. The reason for the widely mixed reviews is simple--those who have reviewed it positively have just not had theirs break--YET. Like I said at the beginning, this printer does work very nicely, when it works. I think our experience has proved that we didn't just get one bad lemon.
Buyer beware. -
"It prints & scans very well & the networking is solid." on by Jussi49840
Pros: It prints and scans very well. Color is very good on pictures and and text is clear and sharp. Menus are easily understood and easy to use. I have had this unit for several months and have not had any problems with it.
Cons: It goes through a noisy approx.30 sec. prep time before each print job. Once it starts printing it is relatively fast. The included cartridges are too small. I have bought the XL cartridges and find them to last long enough. I print pictures & text.
Summary: From my experience I think you get a lot of value for the money with this printer. I have had no problems with the networking through my Linksys Wireless-N router. I have, through the years, owned & used many brands of printers and for 9 years printed a 24 page newsletter 3 times a year. This is my first multifunction unit and, after being leery of 'all-in-ones' because of the experience of others I know, I am very pleased with this machine. It prints very clear text and also does an excellent job on photos. The scanner has enough dpi capability for most any type of job you could think of. The scanning software allows you to scan multiple images at once and give them each separate file names. That is a great time-saving feature. In general, I am very pleased with this machine. It has exceeded my expectations for a printer/copier/scanner in this price range.
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"Waste of money" on by sabatu1
Pros: Nothing, absolutely nothing. It functioned as a printer for about 3 days, then over the next month about 5 different things have gone wrong with it. Now its an oversized paperweight.
Cons: It reports a paper jam when their is no paper jam. The wireless functionality constantly fluctuates, it 'forgets' wireless network functionality. It uses an insane amount of ink when it does work.
Summary: Don't buy this printer. Please don't buy it. Its a waste of your time and money. I can't believe its actually legal for them to sell this piece of **** then not take it back.
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"Worst printer I've ever owned" on by violetandcharlie
Pros: It has only jammed once and was easy to fix.
Cons: Noisy, ink hog, expensive ink, picture quality, long and noisy delays when turning on or off and between jobs, shakes terribly when turning on or off and between jobs, inaccurate "low ink" warnings
Summary: This printer issues low ink warnings much too soon. When it does run out of ink, it often doesn't say a word. To see which ink really ran out, I often have to print a color wheel, which uses even more of the ridiculously expensive ink. After a few rounds of this, I seriously regretted buying this printer.
Ink cartridges run out after just a few prints. The ink is far too expensive. The extra large cartridges cost a fortune, and they don't last long, either.
It rattles and shakes quite vigorously and noisily for several seconds. It does that every time it's turned on or off. It can print an entire job without shaking again, but it goes through the whole process all over again between jobs. There is no such thing as making a print quickly.
It is difficult or impossible to look error messages up online.
I can't imagine how HP thought the public would be happy with this aggravating, expensive, time-consuming, noisy piece of junk. The fact that they put such a monstrosity on the market is enough to keep me from ever buying HP again.
HP Photosmart C6380 all-in-one user reviews
