The HP con goes beyond stopping the printer with expired ink. My B9180 will happily let me print after warning the ink has expired, but it purposely degrades the print quality in a way that looks just like blocked print heads. I have proved this by replacing all the inks and setting the computer clock 2 years in the future... at which point the printing becomes poor. Then simply putting the date back and rebooting and the printing is fine. This can be repeated time and time again. I am so annoyed I'm going to buy a new Epson printer just so I don't have to let HP have any more of my money. I always have kept a good stock of spare inks and it has completely backfired on me, having now had to throw out 6 brand new inks!
Tags: con, degrade, expired, HP, ink, performance, print, printers