Dear Hewlett-Packard ...

[pimentoLoaf]

... Do any of your programmers actually work with Macintosh computers on anything other than a part-time basis?

I wanna scan something into my all-in-one and then have it print out. That's all. I don't want your so-called updated drivers telling me a) the printer is not connected, or b) the scanner isn't supported by my particular model of printer, or c) spit out incomprehensible error diagnostic codes so fast I cannot read them, as if you're ashamed to admit you don't know what the bleep is going on.

UPDATE: I'm looking at 2 programs launching when I want to print something. One is a generic print utility (Apple's ??), and the other is HP Device Manager. Are these conflicting, confusing the printer or the computer as to what's supposed to be "in charge" of printing?

AND WHY WHEN THE PRINTER IS FIRST TURNED ON YOU waste A SHEET with too much ink PRINTING A TEST PAGE I'M SUPPOSED TO RE-ALIGN MY SCANNER WITH and ... what happens after I scan it? Will you print out yet another page? Are you that pressed for cash that you force me to buy another print cartridge?

 

[maflynn]

Of all the issues with dealing with Macs, I find printer/driver support to be the most frustrating. I've been a Mac user since system 7 and I can safely say that I've always had some issue with a printer, or found the driver and software lacking in some form, especially if compared to what they offer on the peecee side.

 

[macgrl]

I agree, that is happening to me with my new HP, the insistence on printing a test page every time it connects is getting a bit irritating now

 

[designgeek]

I hate printers

I've had knock-down drag-out fights with the printer Apple sent me for free with rebate of course but still. I'm usually in a hurry when I'm printing something, I don't know why but that's always the case, and every single time it freaks out and my MBP won't read it and the the Canon all in one won't respond, and I have to download the drivers from the website and restart. What is this restart? Micro$oft all of a sudden?

I don't print that often (might go through one cartridge a year) but this happens every single time and it should just work.

 

[maflynn]

This is a little disconcerting as I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a HP 8850, a very expensive printer. I don't want to be plunking down close to 5 bills on a printer just to have compatibility issues.

As my earlier post states, its been something that we mac users have had to deal with but if its getting worse, I'll have to rethink my decision.

 

[ski2moro]

I HATE HP, too.

I just got an HP all in one, Photosmart 309. Scanning is so frustrating. It doesn't work from the printer control panel itself, it has to use the software interface on the computer.

Then the scanning software selects the area it THINKS I want to scan and gives me a choice to change the size. But there is a glitch and it prints out the smaller version AND the whole page.

It's not fast, though. It took 7 minutes and 32 seconds to scan a picture to an image file. I got both the whole page I wanted AND the predicted, cropped image that I tried to resize.

I called HP (with their offshore customer service, got a woman who barely speaks English) because I wanted to eliminate the Auto Cropping (just like it says I can do in the manual). The tech person told me that I cannot turn off the auto cropping because I have a Mac. It will only shut off the predictive cropping if I have a PC. It's not in the Mac software.

And another gripe is that their website will not work with Safari, only IE and Firefox. WTF?