New Instant Ink service aimed at consumers and small business.

 

HP’s launch in Australia earlier this month of the country’s first printer ink subscription service has rekindled concerns over the company’s recently introduced global distribution partner agreement known as Amplify.

 

While the new Instant Ink program has been in place overseas for some time, the Australian launch follows last year’s introduction of the Amplify program, which has been criticised by some distributors and IT channel commentators as not being in the best interests of resellers.

 

HP said Instant Ink was designed "to meet the increasing demand for printing and flexibility in hybrid working and learning."

 

Under the scheme, new ink cartridges will be delivered to customers’ doors before running out, while also saving them “up to 50 per cent” on ink costs.

 

HP is primarily targeting consumers with the Instant Ink offer but also small-to-medium businesses.

 

“Our home and office needs are continuing to change as we embrace hybrid working and learning, and this is seeing a surge in the demand for printing at home,” Paul Gracey, director of printing systems, HP Australia and New Zealand, said.

 

Dynamic Supplies' response

 

When HP announced the Amplify program late last year, Alex Piccinini, managing director Dynamic Supplies, wrote to the company’s customers in December advising them that while the company would continue to offer HP products, it would not participate in the Amplify program.

 

Piccinini said: “One of the conditions of the new Amplify program is the compulsory reporting to HP of extremely detailed private data including confidential customer and inventory related information. We are very concerned that HP want this information which includes your end-user drop ship information including customer names and addresses and purchase data, in addition to sell-through data on compatible versus HP original supplies.”

 

He added: “I write to you today to advise that Dynamic Supplies will not comply with this data collection program and will not at any stage provide your private customer data without your express consent.”

 

Piccinini’s comments were picked up by US tech industry commentator Ray Stasieczko, who featured the letter’s contents in one of his regular podcasts.See Ray Stasieczko's video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dope1KamOJI

 

Issues with Instant Ink

 

HP’s Instant Ink subscription service has been operating in the US for several years and while it has its supporters in relation to cost-savings not all customers are happy with the pricing model.

 

One customer tweeted that HP had remotely disabled his printer because he’d cancelled the Instant Ink subscription —a monthly service charge HP levies for using HP ink cartridges in certain printers. The customer had a printer full of ink, but it would not print until he reactivated his subscription through HP.