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> Looking at their cheapest plan which is $7 a month for 20 pages.

And if you cancel within a year you pay a $120 fee ($60 if more than a year and less than two years). Meanwhile, you could get an identical-except-the-serial-number printer model (ENVY 6065e) from Best Buy for $71.

  What if I want to cancel my printer plan?

  You can cancel anytime. However, if you cancel after the first 30 days but still within the first two years, there is a cancellation fee.

  Printer 
  HP ENVY 6020e

  After 30 days and up to 12 months from enrollment date 
  $120

  After 12 months and up to 24 months from enrollment date
  $60

Yes they have a cancelation fee and that part sucks, I am not disputing that.

But part of looking at this should be looking at your current printing habbits, if I already go to staples on a monthly basis and print 20ish pages. This is cheaper unless those pages are black and white. If I print 50 its cheaper no matter what.

And yes I know you can go buy the printer, but lets not forget that this monthly cost also includes the ink and warranty if anything goes wrong.

Again here, I am not saying it is the best deal. But the math is not as bad as people are jumping at if you already know what your printing habits are and you just want to bring it home.

> Looking at their cheapest plan which is $7 a month for 20 pages

Clarification, $7 a month for 0-20 pages. That is crazy.

That... isnt really a correction?

You get 20 pages credit, which btw carries over to 3 times your monthly plan. So if you know your going to be printing somewhat consistently (which I said in my original comment) and you will use the pages the math lines up.

Even if we just look at the fact that it adds 10-15 pages (I don't know why its a range) of $1 after you use your pages that is still cheaper than going to staples.

My 20 year old HP laser jet costs me a minimum of $0 to run per month. And if I go 6 months without printing, it still costs me $0 a month. The math doesn’t line up, it’s a cash grab plain and simple.

You can still buy their printers though.

I am comparing this to going out and getting prints from staples. because thats what this is, this is a subscription service meant to target infrequent (but consistent) printing that people may just go to staples for.

People that may not want to think about wether their printer works (this includes a warranty btw), what their ink level is and not need to drop a decent amount of money on ink when they run out, etc.

The simple fact is, this is cheaper going to those stores to print. That alone means it is competitively priced.

If it isn't for you, thats fine. But it would not be hard to justify this compared going to staples on a regular basis. Especially if you don't already have a printer.

I know everyone hates subscriptions, and it sucks how much friction is being put in the way of folks who don't want it. But I've loved having an HP Smart plan. Most of the time I don't print a ton so I pay $1.50/month for the random items that come up in my life. Then every August I bump up the plan since my wife is a teacher and prints a lot more in preparation for the school year. I've gotten 3 ink refills which would cost ~$210, vs ~$90 for the subscription in the past 3.5 years and I never had the annoying moment of needing to print something but being low on cyan and having to run to Staples.

Don't get me wrong, they are likely doing the same thing that many other subscriptions do. Hoping you sign up and you forget that you have it and they just bring in the money.

But if you know you are going to use it (like maybe you already take a regular trip to a printer), you know how much you are going to print, it isnt horrible.

Sure being locked in for 2 years sucks, but given they are sending you hardware some sort of contract is likely required.

I assume it's a mix of that gym model and the fact that ink is just overpriced so they can take less margin in exchange for the more stable revenue.