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So I've got an hp LaserJet 1320 that's about two years old now. The toner cartridges last absurdly long, and so it only finally ran out of toner about a week ago. It was sitting, blinking the "error" light and shining the "toner out" light.
So I went to Staples and bought a new toner cartridge. I took it out of the package, removed all the plastic strips and covers, and swapped it for the empty one. But the printer's "error" light still flashed.
So I did what anyone would do: I called tech support. I got to talk to someone, and I explained the problem, and he asked for my serial number and product number. I read them, and he said my printer was out of warranty. I said that's fine, I'll worry about that if I need to replace a part. Now, he said, I had some "options" to choose from: I could go to hp's web site, or I could pay $40 to talk to a tech. I explained that I didn't want to commit to repair services, I just wanted troubleshooting help. He said that just to talk to someone, it would cost $40.
I talked to a supervisor, and, indeed, hp wanted to charge me $40 to figure out what my dad figured out within a couple minutes--that the error LED was blinking not because the new cartridge was broken but because the printer was out of paper.
I'm unhappy, because my experience with in-warranty hp support has been great, and I know I was being an idiot, but for a company that seems to put so much effort into creating easy-to-use products for their users, it seems foolish of hp to refuse tech support just because a product is out of warranty.
(Coincidentally, I would suggest that a printer like the hp LaserJet 2420dn, which has a nice LCD display to show messages like "TRAY 2 LOAD LETTER", "TONER EMPTY", or (when I'm remotely controlling it) "GAME OVER" "0 CREDITS" "INSERT $0.25 TO CONTINUE".)
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Questions? Comments? Flames? Email me!