Disappeared News: One less headache

Thursday, October 16, 2008

One less headache

by Larry Geller

I returned an HP OfficeJet L7555 to Costco two days ago. Trying to get it running (see earlier article) has been a trial. Costco again earns my admiration for making the return experience totally painless.

I actually thought it was working, at least with one of our computers, but when I scanned an eight-page document and it only gave me five pages, I realized that all the bulk scanning I had done that day was probably defective. And so it was. Three pages delivered out of a five-page document, etc. Good thing I had not yet thrown away the originals. I have to do them all over again. The whole heap.

I won’t bore you with details. The machine never worked, and with the “help” of HP techs in India, one of our computers was rendered useless, requiring many hours to get things going again. Time is valuable. I’ve spent too much on this machine, far more than it originally costs.

In Googling for a solution to the problem, I came to a forum on HP class-action lawsuits and from there a link to this post where users discussed problems with HP printers very similar to what I have experienced. If only I had seen that before buying!

Anyway, Costco took it back. I am now peering into the box of a Canon Pixma MX850 and wondering how to unpack it. It doesn’t have the features of the HP OfficeJet series, but maybe, just maybe, the features it does have will work for me.

Oh… it was listed for in-store pickup at Best Buy for $189.99, a wee bit cheaper than other stores nearby. When I got to the checkout it rang up as $249.99. I protested, of course. The cashier knocked down the price to $189.99. Caveat emptor. Suppose I had not researched it before walking into the store???

Anyway, now to dig into the box and see how this one works.