HP OfficeJet Pro 6968 All In One Printer

I have owned this printer for almost a year and I hate it. I actually HATE it, I wish I could give this printer negative stars it's THAT bad and it's become THAT annoying, and I want to take it out in a field and smash it repeatedly with a baseball bat like in that awesome scene from the movie "Office Space" where they trash the fax machine that keeps giving them the cryptic "PC Load Letter" error!!! Also, just in case you want to dismiss this review and not listen to the truths I'm sharing here, you should know that I don't usually write a lot of product reviews unless they're positive, but this time I just can't not write a review to share my experience. I really want to save you from making the same mistake here as I did, so I'm not some troll out here wasting your time and this is a legitimate product review. I have actually been an HP fan for many years. I placed a high level of trust in the brand because, until recently, I was able to confidently rely on getting a quality product and great tech support. So I bought this printer thinking it was going to be a good solution based on all the positive reviews I read about it at the time. However, outside of the first month I've used this printer I've had nothing but issues with it, so now I've been driven to this point and I'm officially breaking up with HP. Here's my "Dear John" letter: Dear HP, I thought this printer would provide easy printing and scanning capabilities at home, and I even loved the idea of your ink auto shipping options when the printer sensed low ink levels -- so convenient! I love that I NEVER ran out of ink at inconvenient times, and that you were so considerate of my needs. I thought we were having an awesome time together, but then your printer suddenly became too high-maintenance and I can't take it anymore. For the past 10 months all I've experienced with this equipment is wifi connectivity issues, and I just want you to know I'm over it! And don't even get me really started on how awful your web help interface has become in the last year, or your ridiculous virtual "assistant" that just teases me and leads me in circles. I am a good, tech-savvy person, a digital native, and I actually GET how this stuff is supposed to work and connect, so I put up with your shenanigans far longer than I probably should have, and I'm realizing now that I deserve better. Granted, now, I'm only out like $70, but this is about the principle of the matter at this point. If you're going to market a printer/scanner/fax machine that is cross-platform, you actually need to make it BE cross platform in all it's nuances. This is not a complicated idea -- deliver on your promise. If my various computers, TV, gaming console, tablets and cell phones (all different brands) can ALL connect to my wireless network without issue every time, the wifi and router or the printer's proximity to said wifi are not the issue. I get that there's a chance it could be, so I appreciate being presented with that information and instructions about those procedures as one option should it actually be the issue, and I get that you were probably only trying to help, but that can't be the ONLY solution you offer! When I go online to get help reconnecting the printer to my wifi network, and the only solution you present in your official capacity and help forums is to perform complex, time-consuming wifi networking diagnostics, but you fail to provide any solutions for actually rebuilding the printer drivers or updating the printer firmware, where am I supposed to go after the networking diagnostics prove that the wifi and router are not the issue as I knew they wouldn't be? When I email you, and you tell me to re-download the driver to reinstall and reconfigure the printer on my computer, but I can't because the computer can't sense the printer what do I do next? I'll tell you; I resort to I trying to reestablish connectivity by dragging out my ancient, dusty ethernet cord and connecting physically to the printer, but even this solution is only successful after spending like an hour each time fiddling with it. This is simply unacceptable, I'm tired of it, and we're done. Sincerely, Completely Disillusioned HP Fan At this point, considering the problems I continue to have, this can not be considered a wireless capable device anymore, so I'm just going to stop the charade. The developers at HP need to get smarter and detatch the requirement that the computer "sense" the printer in order to reinstall the driver because it's an impenetrable wall you can't get past when you're having wireless connectivity issues, so there is no way to troubleshoot beyond this point! Here's the bottom line: This printer will work fine for you for the first few weeks, then it will suddenly decide it's done helping you and start hurting you by becoming an insanity-inducing, high maintenance, time-succubus. It will deign to let you get it working again very sporadically, but about 98% of the time it's going to make you really work for it. And good luck trying to reason out WHY this is happening, or what's the root cause of the issues to try and find or cobble together some kind of solution, because one day this thing is fine, and the next it won't connect to your wireless network even though nothing about the network has changed! You'll also get no help from HP, only runaround and mind-numbing frustration both virtually and in-person. It's just bad programming (period) paired with cheap manufacturing paired with really bad tech support, and I think this is a fundamental business problem; this rant is not about my personal preferences. Basically, the TWO simple things this machine is supposed to do, it won't do easily or well most of the time without some sort of connectivity issue and hours of troubleshooting, which means it's really just a very large doorstop masquerading as a printer. If I could actually troubleshoot the thing I could probably have been nicer about this, but it seems to me that HP is edging themselves out of the hardware game and morphing their company into an ink management service (which is the only thing that did work throughout this experience) by continuing to manufacture crummy equipment they can't or won't support. After all, it's 2018 and we're sending rovers to Mars, but I can't scan or print one little piece of paper? Really?