Tanks Much, Epson: Your New Printer Rocks!

Typical HP. My year-old HP printer indicated that three of its five inkjet cartridges were empty. I shlep to Costco, pay $110 for color and black cartridges, rush home to install them and finish my urgent print job, and the printer won’t operate because of an error message. I call the company’s help desk. The rep, who by the way tells me he is overseas, asks a few qualifying questions. Anything he suggests I do I’ve either already tried with no success or it won’t work when I try it now. He’s clearly in over his head. When I question if he understands what’s going on, he pompously tells me he will have this fixed within five minutes. Ten minutes later, he advises me that the printer is broken and out-of-warranty, and tries to sell me a new unit over the phone in which he’ll “throw in free inkjet cartridges.” I ask: “You mean like the ones that come free already when I buy the same printer you’re pushing for half the price at Costco?” No, he insists, and then admits he doesn’t know what Costco is. I have a half-hour invested in this idiot, and politely hang up. I return the new cartridges to Costco where the clerk hears my story and avers “HP customer service is a joke. I would never call them.” My solution: I fill up the three empty cartridges at Costco’s photo desk for $30 and they now work fine. Guess my printer isn’t broken after all, Mr. Pompous. This is not my first or even fifth time dealing with unknowledgable HP reps, for what it’s worth.