It’s no secret that the business model of many modern products – primarily services – has moved from a one-time purchase to a subscription system: when you seem to spend less, but make regular payments and, in fact, are not the owner of the product you purchased.
This has been working on the internet for many years, but now companies are gradually starting to transfer this model to the real world. For example, here is a viral TikTok video from the user @hunterlollo, who recently faced the need to subscribe… to a printer. Don’t believe me? Then let’s read on!
More info: TikTok
The author of the post has a printer and she recently found out that it works on a subscription model
The woman claims that with this discovery her ‘last shred of sainty is gone’
So, the Original Poster (OP) introduces herself as a wife and mom, she usually posts about her life and everything related, and the video we’re talking about today has gone really viral, with 1.8M views and 316.7K likes as of today. The poster claims that her ‘last shred of saints is gone’ – well, let’s try to figure out what’s going on here.
The woman got angry with this discovery and poured out her wrath on the whole modern business model
So, in her video, the original poster lashed out at the entire modern world – and more specifically, at capitalism, accusing her printer, which, as it turns out, works on a subscription model.
Based on the author’s responses in the comments, she purchased the printer a relatively long time ago and didn’t even notice at first that it, it turns out, works on a subscription system. At the same time, in about a year of use, the author, according to her own words, had printed only about three pages or so.
The woman asks a very reasonable question – when will they introduce a subscription for the air we breathe? According to the original poster, it is $5 per month – despite the fact that she has already purchased the printer.
The subscription model for the printer had actually been introduced earlier this year
Apparently (and the commenters under the original video agree with this) we are talking about the HP All-In Plan, launched earlier this year. Within the framework of this plan, in the case of the cheapest subscription, there is a HP Envy printer for rent, and the cost starts at $6.99 per month. In this case, you only need to pay for the number of printed pages (the first 20 pages are included in the plan).
At the same time, as the ArsTechnica website notes, the company requires that the printer regularly maintain an internet connection. According to the company’s statements, this is done so that it can monitor the ink level and whatnot – but we all know how and to what extent corporations monitor our lives nowadays!
You can take a look at the original video here
@hunterlollo My last shred of sanity is gone. Everything is a subscription #subscription #fyp #foryou #printer ♬ original sound – Hunter
In addition, the subscription terms also state that the company may “transfer information about you to advertising partners” so that they can “recognize your devices,” perform targeted advertising, and, potentially, “combine information about you with information from other companies in data sharing cooperatives” that HP participates in.
And the best part is that the company can charge subscribers who cancel before the end date up to $270 plus taxes. This “penalty” doesn’t apply if you return the printer within 10 days of signing up. But this, apparently, is clearly not the case with the original poster…
Many commenters on the video also note that this is most likely this subscription program. “Tell me you have an HP printer without telling me you have an HP printer,” one of the responders wrote quite sarcastically. By the way, the author of the video also liked this comment, which once again confirms that we were right in our guess.
Some people in the comments also simply believe that this is just the world we live in. “In late-stage capitalism, your consumerism is no longer enough, extortion is now required,” someone added both sadly and angrily. And what do you, our dear readers, think about this story?
People in the comments sided with the author and also tried to guess which exactly model of printer she had
