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(More customer reviews)Please note: In order to post this review, I HAD to give this printer one star. This printer deserves NO STARS.
The HP1522nf had everything I was looking for--Fax, Scan, laser printing, feeder, PPM requirements--and what I thought was HP quality. Although we purchased it from Amazon.com on 4/17, the printer was not placed into use until 5/1 because we were still in construction mode on our business. On May 1, I spent several hours on the phone with HP tech support...in India...and I couldn't understand most of what they said. Worse, they couldn't understand *me.* And I speak very clearly.
I was told that the printer could not be plugged into a surge protector--has to be plugged straight into the wall, and they eventually decided that I needed to download the printer software from HP's website to cure the fact that the printer simply would not operate after printing one page.
I uninstalled the software that I'd installed from HP's disc. The problem here is that the uninstall doesn't remove all of the software it's installed. It leaves tons of junk on the computer. I reinstalled with the fresh download and the printer worked for about a week. The scan and FAX functions refused to work, but I had a business to open and didn't have time to sit on the phone with HP tech support for hour after hour.
On May 20th, I called HP tech support and the first question I asked was why they had never checked back with me as they said they'd do. The response was that they'd closed the file as "successfully handled" because (they claimed) when tech support tried to call me back, they found my number disconnected. My number was NOT disconnected, but the number they were calling had absolutely not one digit in common with my number.
I spent two days on the phone with tech support, uninstalling and reinstalling the software over and over, coaxing the printer to please do something right, trying to understand what the HP tech support people were saying... It was MEGA-frustrating.
The problems? The printer would print once, and then turn itself off. HP absurdly placed the switch in the back (lower left side), so in order to power cycle the printer, it's really handy if you know how to do yoga. However, power cycling it would do nothing after awhile. The printer turned itself off and stayed off.
HP tech support asked me to FAX them the receipt, which I did (before the printer finally decided to stay dead), and HP's tech support had the gall to complain that it was too blurry to read. Having been sent with one of their printers and received on their equipment, the quality of the FAX would be HP's problem--not mine.
The machine would not scan. Trying to run the scan software resulted in a pop-up window telling me that the scan had failed, did I want to try again. It never scanned.
The computer I installed the software on unfortunately runs Vista. I asked if this could be the problem. HP tech support thought not. However, when trying to input data into the FAX feature on the computer, I ran into a series of annoying problems. For example, inputting the business name required that I input one letter and then the HP software would spit up a yellow caution sign window with the letter and a question mark. I'd click "OK," and then enter another letter, at which point HP software would spit up the same yellow caution sign with the new letter and a question mark. I'd click "OK"...and this is how the entire business name had to be entered! One letter at a time and no spaces. Hitting the space bar would bounce the cursor back to the beginning. I kludged that problem by inserting an underscore between words. It's insane!
Finally HP tech support decided it was a bad printer and that they needed to replace my brand new straigh-out-of-the-box printer with a used refurbished one! That's when I blew up. And that's when HP lost me as a customer.
I complained vociferously. They said they'd review the issues, but replacing with a used refurbished unit was all HP policy allows.
I wrote scathing emails to HP tech support and to HP's CEO (whose email address is on the HP website if you're patient enough to search for it). I decided to cc Amazon.com as well.
Next morning, I received a wonderful email from Amazon telling me that due to the extenuating circumstances, they'd already shipped me a new printer and sent a label for the return of the non-functional unit. Amazon ROCKS!
Then I received a call from HP tech support telling me in pidgin English that they'd reviewed the situation and would send me a used refurbished unit. It was great fun to tell them to go pound sand.
My new printer arrived as scheduled. I spent hours on my computer--weeding through folders, uninstalling every particle of HP software I could find--looking in hidden folders (they're in there too), as well as taking ownership of items and changing permissions in order to dump eons of the nasty buggers. I plugged the printer INTO THE WALL RECEPTICLE. I installed the software from a fresh download.
It works. It FAXes. (The first two FAXes failed, but after that it worked. I still had to enter the business name header one letter at a time, each letter followed by the annoying sign and clicking "OK.") It scans. It prints. It doesn't turn itself off. BUT--after reading these reviews, I have to wonder how long this "success" will hold.
I wish I'd bought any other brand printer. Brother printers seem to be garnering good reviews, but based on past experience with having to kick those suckers to print, I decided against Brother. Epson seems to be having success. Really, ANYTHING has to be better than an HP printer.
Until HP gets its act together with technically-correct software and printers that work, and more importantly--MOVES THEIR TECH SUPPORT BACK TO THE UNITED STATES--I refuse to do business with them. I've bought probably 10 HP printers over the past few years. Maybe more. I don't mind spending a little time on the phone with tech support for minor issues. But in the past two years--it's happened with every single printer with every single set-up, and it's gotten old. So long, HP. Your printers don't work. Your software doesn't work. And your tech support is atrocious.
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HP Laserjet M1522NF PrinterHP M1522nf LaserJet Multifunction Printer Fax Bundle. Need a little elbow room. HPs surprisingly compact all in one LaserJet M1522nf Printer has a flatbed design that can copy and scan a variety of documents; it also sends faxes and its networkable. You will get sharp looking text in speeds as fast as 24 pages per minute. This model also includes one RJ 11 fax port, as well as an RJ 11 line out telephone port.
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