Photosmart Premium C309a

HP, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF. HOW COULD YOU SELL A PRODUCT LIKE THIS PIECE OF JUNK? WHY?
THERE IS NOT ENOUGH SPACE TO NAME THE PROBLEMS!

I had high hopes for this all-in-one printer but I was let down over and over. Now I'm ready to throw it in the trash. I've had this printer for 2 1/2 years and it has been nothing but problems for me. This is about the 5th time that it just stops printing - the paper is pulled through but nothing prints. I've wasted a ridiculous amount of money on ink cartridges, done all the diagnostic checks (which uses up all the ink) cleaned the print heads and printer assembly and still it keeps happening. This printer is junk.

I totally agree with previous 2 reviews. Have had this piece of trash for over a year and have had NOTHING but trouble with it. It has been unusable for 80% of the time.

Worst printer ever. HP should be ashamed of themselves. Wireless function never works and the cartridge system is a shameless moneygrab on the backs of once-loyal consumers. The software they provide with it is awful, complete with needless browser toolbars and constant redirection to their online store. HP has taken the easy, reliable process of desktop printing and turned it into an incredibly painful experience designed to separate consumers from their money. Fail. Someone needs to rethink printing and do better than this - Apple?

The only thing it does well is copy!

My printer lasted 2 years and 9 months, so reasonable life span. Printer does a lot of warming up before printing which can be frustrating. Also scanner was very slow. Agree it shakes a lot too.

The c309 is the only printer I have ever owned that is pure JUNK. I will not even use it as a door stop. Quality and HP are not synonymous! This printer has completely isolated HP from me for any potential future purchases. I have had six different HP printers and never experienced as many problems before. Rubbish is the only use for this printer.

is there a video out there on the internet to teach you how to put back the adf? auto doc feeder. I open the top to clear paper jam and the whole thing came off.

pls post your answer on this web page I have no email id.

Any help appreciated thanks
thanks

This printer sucks. It worked well for a few weeks. Being a casual user, when I went to print just a text document several weeks later, the ink was "empty" (dried out?). Bought new ink. A few months later, same thing. Sorry, this printer is an ink scam. I'm taking the entire printer--as is, don't know if it's working normally or not ("normally" meaning "suck"), and throwing it in the trash.

Buyer beware - wish I had read reviews before I bought. Wireless stopped working after warranty expired (per reviews - this is fairly typical). Then I decided to print up a program for my daughters violin recital. I got some neat paper with a dark border and the printer would only print in it in cyan (print the same document on plain paper and it came out black). Eventually managed to get it to print in black, but then it moved the text a couple of inches down the paper. an hour later I finished up my print job and have made a vow to never spend money on an HP product again.

Bought it a year ago, about 250$

Off and on great performance on all counts, now that the wireless radio has crapped out, it would take about 200 bucks to fix- I say go with Dell and Brother, better service, and more reliable.

I am on the second HP C309A now and I am only 13 months into this. Got a warranty replacement because the wireless radio went out in the first one and HP made me pay for the shipping! Then they suggested I get an extended warranty on the replacement because it came with only the remaining warranty on the first one, so that was another $45.00! I continuously have to re-establish the connection to the network to print wirelessly from my laptop. I have spent countless hours on the phone with HP (India)because of paper mismatch errors when trying to print envelopes. The last time I got into a shouting match with the poor guy because I told him to just send me a printer that works--he said he could not until we trouble-shooted the printer again. How may times do I need to trouble shoot this thing before HP just decides to replace everyone's C309A with a model that works? This thing takes forever to start up, is full of noise, the Xl cartridges seem to last no longer than the others and I have never been unhappier with an HP product as I am with this one. I still need to call them back but I don't have enough time in the day to sit on the phone while they run me through all the things I went through already. They have installed so many copies of this device on my PC that I am not even sure which one to use anymore! Going to look at a Cannon I fear.

This is really a fairly worthless unit - the printer is tolerable everything else is terrible
The set up, interfaces, support from HP etc.
Won't scan wirelessly, doesn't work well over wireless network
Useless features work, anything that would be useful seems to not work

I have now had my printer changed by HP twice and now after an automated upgrade (silly, I know) the printer software does not recognise that it is supposedly able to print onto CDs - the message is that the c190a is not capable ... so why does it have the CD tray ? and speaking to HP is a waste as they will not help as the thing is out of warrantee - it is their fault and they are not willing to accept their mistake. I will never be buying a HP again and I have told everyone close enough to listen to buy Canon or Brother or anything but HP.

I can only repeat what I've read. The day after the warranty expired so did the blue tooth. Now, none of the buttons on the control panel work. I went to HP to download the driver for it, you can no longer get it. I just put in new inks. I tell it to print in black and white only and get color. I also purchased an HP notebook. Keys are already falling off. Will never buy HP again!

Biggest piece of junk that I have ever bought. Looks great but as a printer it struggles with even the simplest thing like printing photos. Needs to be reset every time you need to print. Spent an hour trying to print one photo tonight on HP photo quality paper that it simply refused to recognise, but it did print when the paper was inserted incorrectly. Thankfully I still have my old Brother 5040 B&W Laser which never misses a beat.

I have had my HP C309a for 6 months, I have found it to be a very easy to use printer/copier/fax machine, the price of the ink cartridges are great, very good reproduction of my lanscape photos, love the machine.

My last HP Printer was the worst I had ever owned, it was such a frustrating, wifi losing, ink inhaling, slow piece of junk that I thought I had finally found the bottom of printer hell.... until I bought a 309a. Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a new low.

I have had this printer for approx 18 months and the wireless radio also went out. After an hour of trouble shooting with HP tech support, they told me it was dead & that I needed a new one. Very disappointed with such a poor product and the lack of parts or repair options. Sad that we are in such a disposable society that we are expected to purchase a new $300 printer every 18 months!! The printer was sold to me with Vista-64 bit, which I found out it was not compatible with afterwards. The printer is also very loud & sounds like it is grinding a pound of hamburger before each print that it painstakingly prints out!! I'm going back to Canon on Epson!! MUCH better products!!

I should have read the reviews!! Ink gobbling, paper shredding and to add insult to injury the HP software cannot print a CD/DVD label. To be fair, the print quality is good.

I can't believe this product is actually for sale anywhere. I am so dis-satisfied with it and tech support. It guzzles ink (photo black & color when the default is set to black & white), it shakes and rattles to the point of raising the dead, it is slow, and my purchased extended warranty isn't good enough for tech support to help me with my current problem (it prints blue from a couple of my internet programs and websites), unless I pay for it. So, I'll use this one until I can save for a different brand. I will not recomend this to anyone.

Just after the warranty run out and replacing the ink cartridges nonthing will print and no support. This will be the last product I will buy from HP.

DO NOT BUY HP IN AUSTRALIA! There are apparently no HP Service Centres here, so if you need a replacement part (as I have just discovered for my less than 1 year old all-in-one multi-function printer) then you are SOL.

I have the 309a series, less than a year old (as previously mentioned) and my alignment was failing, so I submitted my issue online to the HP for Australia website. I entered the serial number and it was confirmed that my product was still under warranty, so it would be replaced with a "refurbished unit" and I would receive an email confirming that shortly. What I received instead was a step-by-step on how to clean my print head, which failed in the end anyway and gave me another error message that had previously not been an issue. So while I could actually use the printer prior to the "remedy", I am now unable to use it at all because I now have a print head problem.

So I called the toll free HP support number rather than continuing to correspond by email. After the typical queries by the tech, he told me what the printer's error message was telling me (I have a print head problem) and he would submit the order, escalate it to his Manager, and once approved, I should have a new print head within 3-5 working days. I explained that I work from home and need my printer. This is when he said that he was sorry, there are no HP Service Centres anywhere in Australia, and "they" were the only ones who had HP print heads. I'm assuming "they" are HP in the US, since that's where HP is based.

And yes, I have always used brand new HP ink cartridges, never refilled or refurbished ones. I am told the print head issue is also what's causing my scanning problem, as I lost the ability to scan 2 months ago.

Did I mention this product is less than a year old? And I just discovered yesterday (while trying to find out where to report my problem) that this model has been discontinued.

Of course.

On the plus side, I absolutely loved it when it was brand new out of the box and it worked properly. That was just a few short months ago...

This printer has been a pain ever since I bought it. It is constantly going offline for no reason and then is difficult to get back. It is slow and klunky. The HP photopaper almost never loads into the printer - just gave up on that. Finally, after about a year the wifi seems to have packed it in. Chucked in out and got a Cannon for about the same price, same features and it is so much better.

This is a piece of garbage. I can't wait to get rid of it. The photo tray won't recognize when it's loaded, so I try to print from the main tray but it won't let me. It defaults to the photo tray even when I change the settings. The scanner program is dreadful. It appears that, in their effort to make it "idiot proof", they made it uncooperative instead. I hate it.

I'm generally happy with this unit given what I paid for it ($145 after cash back). I'm a light user, only 20 pages per week, plus the odd fax and copy. For me, the ink costs are acceptable, speed is generally fine, and it is a nice looking, if a little flimsy, piece of equipment. I like that it duplexes, and I like the CD/DVD printer option.

There are a few annoyances: getting it to copy after it has gone into sleep mode is impossible, it freezes. I have to restart it. Shutting down and restarting is a slow process that involves a lot of clunking and whirring. Sheet feeding for duplex (2-2 or 2-1 sided) copying tends to result in a jam.

At one stage the wireless connectivity died. After a few phone calls to the friendly HP support guys they sent out a replacement unit.

The included software is acceptable, rather than great.

If I was a heavy user I'd be worried about the robustness of this machine, but for a light user looking for an all-in-one it is fine.

I bought a Photosmart All in One c309a ($400) about 15 months ago. The wireless radio has quit working and am having connecting via an ethernet cord. The printer goes through ink much too fast. Everytime we need to fax or copy, we have to power down and up again or it locks up. I used to be an HP fan, but their products aren't what they used to be. DO NOT BUY AN HP PRODUCT.