A week or two ago I went to unpack the printer.  I installed everything and went through the entire setup process, which completed successfully, except when it printed there was little to no ink on the page.  After inspecting the print cartridges it appeared that they had expired.  No problem, I went down to our local computer store and picked out a brand new set of series 02 ink cartridges.   These are the individual color cartridges – five of them – plus black.   I brought the old cartridges to the store to ensure I got the right ones.  After the purchase I tossed the old ones in the trash at the store.

Back at my office, I installed the new print cartridges.  Immediately I was presented with an error “Wrong Ink Cartridges Installed” on the control panel display.  A bit confused, I decided to google the issue.  I found this HP knowledge base article.  This page indicated:

This error normally occurs when print cartridges that did not come with the printer are installed during initial printer setup. The print cartridges that come with the printer are called introductory print cartridges . Introductory print cartridges carry special ink formulations required for printer initialization.

A bit surprised I decided to contact their support via the chat feature.  What follows is a brief transcript from that chat session:

Gypsy : i would like to inform you that this message displays when the orginal cartrtidges are not being used up with the new printer
JP Maxwell : I bought HP cartridges
JP Maxwell : specifically for the 8250
JP Maxwell : it says so on the box
Gypsy : please provide me few moents to use my resources to resolve thsi issue
JP Maxwell : ok thank you
Gypsy : thank you
Gypsy : please let me know the date of purchase of this printer
Gypsy : please let me know are you receiving my responces.
Gypsy : Not to rush are you still online iwth me.
Gypsy : with*
JP Maxwell : it was about 36 months ago
Gypsy : yes and teh warranty has been expired
JP Maxwell : yes I’m sure
Gypsy : and the installed cartridges were not working because you were not using the printer
Gypsy : so they dried up.
JP Maxwell : probably
JP Maxwell : so what can I do
JP Maxwell : should I just throw the printer away?
Gypsy : you can go for trade in option
Gypsy : and get a new printer from hp
Gypsy : as we have great offers
JP Maxwell : is there a way I can order new initial cartridges
Gypsy : sorry
JP Maxwell : so you’re telling me
JP Maxwell : that because the initial cartridges didn’t work
JP Maxwell : the entire printer is worthless?
JP Maxwell : I mean this printer is completely uselss?
Gypsy : yes, but you can go for trade in option on the printer

He offered to have his supervisor contact me to discuss the trade in options.  He offered me the HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 Wireless Printer for $179.99 plus a $50 rebate if I sent in my useless photosmart printer.  That would be a total of $129.99.   A quick search on Amazon showed the same printer brand new retailing for $91.77.  Obviously the trade in wasn’t a good deal.

I then asked him about the issue w/ the photosmart printer and if I couldn’t just order the initial cartridges.  He informed me that it was impossible.  And he said that all cartridges that ship w/ these HP printers expire after 1 year.  I asked him if that then meant that the printers effectively self-destructed after a year?  So, all printers that HP ships w/ these cartridges are completely useless if they aren’t used within a year?  He informed me that was correct.

So there you have it folks.  Unbelievable.  Because the initial ink cartridges expire after 1 year.  And because they are impossible to replace.  HP leaves you w/ a completely inoperable device and w/ no apologies or options beyond over paying for yet another HP printer.  So in essence, all these printer ship w/ a self destruct mechanism that if they aren’t used they destroy themselves. Don’t know about you, but think I’ll be going with a different brand from here on out.

Tomorrow is the quarter end for WebEx. If you are interested in our core service of Meeting Center, I can offer you your first month of service for free if you sign up by tomorrow.

Great!  They’re being pro-active, they want my business both good signs for a ongoing service relationship.  I had him sign me up.  During that first month I was in the process of moving and didn’t get chance to use it too much.  During the second month I setup a handful of webex conferences.  Each time, something else went wrong.

Bad Service

One time, my screen wouldn’t refresh for anyone viewing it unless I accessed a drop down menu.  So every time I navigated to a new page I had to go up to the drop down and ask everyone on the call if they could now see the updated screen.  Made for a very painful demo.

The next time the teleconferencing was horrible.  There were massive delays, one person would finish and different people would hear that person at different times.  Everybody was unsure of when to speak and people kept getting cut off.

Variations of these problems continued.  Ok, not so great a service.  It’s not good, but not the end of the world.  I’ll keep using it as I shop around for an alternative.

Bad Usability

Throughout the service it had been difficult to navigate.  The meeting organization system seemed very clunky.  When the usability (or lack there of) really shined though was when we got a paper invoice.  That’s right, for a web service that we signed up for online they sent us a paper invoice.  How annoying.  And for $69.  Ok, let’s go setup paperless billing and pay this w/ a credit card.   After what can only be described as a process I get to the point where you have to register to be able to see / pay your invoice online.  Yes, that’s right, I already have a login, am the only user aka the admin and have a complete control panel (confusing as it may be), but now I have to register.  Ok, fine.

Yup.  The error message says it all.  After going through several web interfaces to try to get to support, I finally dig up a sign up e-mail giving me my user name that has a direct support e-mail address in it and send them an e-mail letting them know of my problem.   As of starting this post, I had received no response.  In the middle of writing it I got a response telling me that they had now associated my e-mail address w/ their billing system.  This was 5 days later.

Bad Support

In the mean time, given the bad service and terrible usability of the service, I decided it was best if I just flat out cancel it.  Well, this is when I really got irritated.  One of the worst things a web service can do, in my opinion, is make it difficult or impossible to cancel.  There is no information online that I could find on how to go about this.  There was a lot that talked about MeetMeNow (their other product), but nothing for meeting center.  Finally, I decided to just fill out the support form.  In the middle of it, when I selected it was an “emergency,” it popped up w/ a phone number.  I decided to just expedite this process and pick up the phone.

I was directed to a call center in India.  The representative told me I had called support and I needed to talk to another department.  Thankfully he transferred me.  When the other representative was on the phone the accent was so thick I could barely understand what he was saying.   Not that it matters a lot, but in my current mood it really made the process even more unpleasant.

After telling him I wanted to cancel and after being asked telling him all the problems I’ve had with the service, he agreed to go ahead and cancel it.  He then came back and said, ok, you need to give 30 days and then it extends to the end of the next billing cycle, so the soonest I can cancel the service is on July 27.  Are you kidding?  I responded.

No, sadly he was not kidding.  So, they’re milking me for another $140 for a service that never even worked for me in the first place.

I write all this for one simple reason.  If you are weighing your options and considering one of these services, heed my experience and do not use webex meeting center.  I have subsequently had serveral good experiences w/ citrix go to meeting and would recommend them any day over the webex product.