Brother turns heel & becomes anti-consumer printer company 😢 😢 😢

Summary

In a recent video, Louis Rossmann highlights a controversial shift in behavior by Brother printers, known for their previously consumer-friendly policies. Traditionally praised for not locking out customers using aftermarket ink, Brother has now implemented firmware updates that prevent this, aligning them more with other restrictive printer companies. Rossmann shares his frustration with "anti-consumer" practices, emphasizing the challenges faced by users who suddenly find their printers non-functional following such updates. His advice? Disable automatic updates and keep printers offline to maintain control over their functionality.

Highlights

• Brother used to be the go-to brand for hassle-free printing with aftermarket ink cartridges 🖨️.
• The latest firmware updates prevent the use of third-party ink cartridges, causing inconvenience 😞.
• Louis Rossmann advises disabling automatic updates to avoid these issues 🛑.
• Users should keep their devices off the internet to prevent unwanted firmware changes 🌐.
• No reliable printer alternatives currently available, according to Rossmann 🤷‍♂️.

Key Takeaways

• Brother printers are now blocking third-party ink cartridges with new updates 😢
• Disable automatic updates to keep your printer functional with aftermarket items 🔄
• Keep your printer offline or on a local network to avoid unwanted updates! 🌐
• Brother removes old firmware versions, reducing user control ⚠️
• No clear alternative for consumer-friendly printers, but always keep your device offline! 🤔

Overview

Louis Rossmann, in his newest video, laments the latest move by Brother printers that puts them in line with other notorious printer companies like HP. Previously known as a consumer-friendly brand, Brother now disables the use of third-party ink cartridges through firmware updates. Rossmann, once a strong advocate for Brother, expresses his disappointment and frustration at this shift in policy, which many see as anti-consumer.

In an effort to stave off unnecessary printer issues post-firmware updates, Louis offers some practical tips. He suggests users turn off automatic updates and refrain from connecting their printers to the internet. This ensures that the printer retains its original functionality without unexpected disruptions caused by unwanted auto-updates that often aim to discontinue third-party ink compatibility.

Louis's discourse touches on a bigger narrative about consumer rights and companies changing product functionalities after purchase. With no current alternatives, he stresses the importance of community vigilance in logging these issues for reference. While the video takes a lighter turn with Rossmann's interactions with his cat, the message remains clear: stay informed, stay in control, and continue to challenge anti-consumer practices.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Previous Recommendations In the introduction, the speaker discusses the challenges and frustrations associated with many modern printer companies, particularly highlighting issues with HP printers. These issues include the dependency on proprietary ink cartridges and printers forcing installations that users may not desire. The speaker recommends purchasing a Brother laser printer for a better, hassle-free experience.
• 00:30 - 05:30: Problems with Brother Printers and Firmware Issues The chapter discusses issues with Brother printers, specifically focusing on problems related to firmware updates that prevent the use of aftermarket ink. The speaker highlights experiences where Brother printers initially worked with third-party ink but later refused to do so after a firmware update. This video is a follow-up to previous content, aiming to address confusion and provide clarity for consumers experiencing such problems with Brother printers.
• 05:30 - 08:30: Personal Printing Needs and Current Printer Setup This chapter explores personal printing needs with a focus on aftermarket ink cartridges. It discusses issues with printer firmware updates that can unexpectedly affect the compatibility of third-party cartridges. Such updates may occur automatically, altering the printer's ability to recognize and utilize aftermarket products that previously functioned well.
• 08:30 - 11:00: Discussion About Property Rights and Consumer Issues The chapter discusses the importance of managing printer updates and connectivity to avoid security and functionality issues. It suggests turning off updates to prevent problems if the printer is currently functioning well and recommends not connecting the printer to the internet to reduce risks. For those concerned about having the printer on a local network (LAN), connecting it through a USB cable is advised as a safer alternative. This approach helps to avoid problems when critical documents like tax returns need to be printed.
• 11:00 - 15:00: Cat Interaction and Personal Anecdote This chapter primarily deals with the complications and frustrations encountered with printers, particularly when using non-OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) ink cartridges. The narrative includes a personal anecdote about a printer (MFC 3750 model) that worked well with third-party ink for over a year until a firmware update (W 1.56) disabled the ability to properly calibrate colors. It highlights issues such as long wait times for replacement cartridges and problems with color printers not functioning properly when using aftermarket ink due to firmware restrictions.

Brother turns heel & becomes anti-consumer printer company 😢 😢 😢 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey everybody how's it going hope you're having a lovely day on this channel I've gone over many printer companies like HP that go out of their way to make your experience as miserable as possible whether we're talking about the ink not working if you buy aftermarket ink cartridges or the scanner not working without installing ink there are many things that many printer companies do nowadays that really encourage you to take your printer and throw it off a balcony and every time this has come up I give the same answer that many other Tech enthusiasts give buy a Brother laser printer for $100 and all of your woses will be you want to deal with
• 00:30 - 01:00 these things and I've said in these old videos very sadly that I I feel someday I will be proven wrong but for now this is the way it is and I have indeed been proven wrong so I want to make this video just to clarify so that people don't watch my stuff and and wonder I bought a brother why am I getting screwed here we go on the consumer action task force Weeki where I've listed all of the different issues so one of the issues is that with certain printers they will not work with aftermarket ink even if they worked with aftermarket ink when you bought it so let's say you buy the printer you
• 01:00 - 01:30 install an aftermarket in cartridge it works they have auto updates in the printer and sometimes the new brother firmware updates don't change anything in the printer besides your ability to print with other afterm marketing cartridges so they'll have these new sophisticated schemes to try and figure out whether the cartridge you're using is aftermarket or not so you may go to your printer one day that used to print with your aftermarket in cartridge it behaved this way when you bought it and it stops behaving this way later not even because you double clicked and installed the software update but because the software update installed itself a automatically if you purchase
• 01:30 - 02:00 one of these printers and it is working I highly suggest that you turn off your updates and if you're worried about security updates or it getting messed up as a result of it don't put the thing on the [ __ ] internet your printer doesn't need to be on the internet you can put it on your local network and you can block it from ever connecting to the internet so you don't have to worry about security issues in that type of way there are certain issues that you may have to worry about about having it on a land and if that really [ __ ] with you then just hook it up with a USB cable and then deal with it it's better off than getting screwed where I need to print these pap for my tax return it
• 02:00 - 02:30 must be printed and then you go to your printer and it tells you LOL [ __ ] you and you like the store is closed and it takes 4 days for in cartridge to get delivered the next one is where you cannot use the color printer properly if you buy an aftermarket in cartridge because the color calibration is no longer allowed and I was linking to this particular one which is one of my favorites in this Wii so check this out I have an MFC 3750 that's been running perfectly with non OEM Inc for over a year the W 1.56 firmware update impacted the and disabled the color registration
• 02:30 - 03:00 feature with the colors not able to be aligned the printer is effectively nonfunctional I chatted with support who told me that in order to troubleshooter would first need to buy genuine toner I asked what the troubleshooting steps were after I installed the brother toner the answer none installing new outof boox toner will solve this problem I asked what toner had to do with color registration and was told it doesn't meet our quality standards and brother toner is calibrated for temperature I asked Point Blank so the printer is non-functional without genuine toner and the response was exactly I'm incredibly angry with this development the reason I purchased this printer was to avoid this
• 03:00 - 03:30 exact type of restriction the printer work perfectly before the update and suddenly it doesn't and the only reason they tell me is because the toner is not genuine now you may think why don't you just install an old version of the firmware well one of the things that brother does is when they release a new piece of firmware that disables your ability to use an aftermarket in cartridge they take their old version of the firmware off the website so you can no longer download an old version you may notice that if you dealing with laptop drivers you're going to your motherboard website you can download a bios from two months ago but usually you can also download a bi from 4 months ago
• 03:30 - 04:00 8 months ago 2 years ago 5 years ago you can grab the old driver if you want and that's not the case with the printer in many instances for many companies and fortunately including brother you're not going to be able to get that even if you wanted it so that you could use your afterm marketing cartridge and this is one of those areas where I talk about where it's changing the terms of the sale after the sale using the device's connection to the internet to block you from being able to do what you want with it you bought the printer with the ability to use an aftermarket in cartridge you have not changed anything the aftermarket ink cartridge is still in the printer and it still has ink but it does not work because the printer connected to the internet and asked
• 04:00 - 04:30 brother am I still allowed to use an afterm marketing cartridge please sir and then brother said no now at this point you may be asking what type of printer should I buy I don't know I don't know I wish I had an answer for you I haven't had to print something in a really long time I have a printer scanner faxer here and I just I scan I scan I send documents when I need to when I get r random stuff in the mail
• 04:30 - 05:00 IRS stuff anything else the only time I have to print at home is when I'm making a shipping label and for that again it's very rare that I have to do that but when I have to do that I don't have a zebra at home I have a zebra at the store that I use because I actually need to be able to print Mass labels I print maybe like one label every week of Maxi or so I use the the laser that I have I'm keeping this printer and holding on to it for dear life it will never connect to the internet it is an old Brother printer I will never update its firmware and
• 05:00 - 05:30 yeah I don't have an answer if somebody has an answer post it in the comments below but just to update the record brother is among the rest of them now if you wanted to make the the arguments with this by the way that the that the color not working properly is because you bought an afterm marketing cartridge it's really difficult to make that argument when the color worked fine before the firmware update one of the items by the way when I was initially creating this consumer action task force Weeki that was mildly discouraging is when people said why don't you create something that indexes all these issues
• 05:30 - 06:00 of consumer abuse is that I thought it would just be everything it's just going to be asterisk do asterisk and at this point it kind of is becoming that but I still think it's important to log all these different issues so that 30 or 60 or 90 years from now and people are asking when and how did property rights go away at the very least we have a record of how it happened I'm excited to have something like a browser extension that when you're on their website says does not allow you to use new ink messes with color when you update the firmware kind
• 06:00 - 06:30 of stuff but at the same time it is depressing that every printer website that you go to is going to have an entry but it's still important to to log all of it and report all of it isn't it Blackberry isn't it yes it is why do you always have to hit me in the nose you know that's the cartilage part right why are you eating me why cat scratchy tongue and I got to
• 06:30 - 07:00 wash my arm why are you eating me stopped that stop that don't eat me ow ow I move to get the mic close at her I'm going to disturb her I'm really happy at how much more active she's been recently
• 07:00 - 07:30 she usually never jumped up when I was doing a video that was always Mr Clinton that did that not her 90% of the time it was Clinton and now she actually competes to jump on the chair and take his place which is really cool what I also enjoy so just how excited she is now in a way she hasn't been before I'm glad about that because she's old she's like she's 15 that's old for a kitty so I like that in
• 07:30 - 08:00 the last few years that I'm going to get with her that I have a very active Blackberry I don't know if the lighting of the camera angle allows this to be seen but my my arm is turning red ow Blackberry that that really hurts can you stopped so the reason that she's doing this is I have this Broner skin cream it's the best in the it's the best when you use this app called Yuka it'll show you the the all the ingredients and the stuff that you buy the chemicals it it bronners has always been the best all
• 08:00 - 08:30 all one or all none I I love Bronner and I this only one I put that on that she does this she really likes the Mint one she's literally eating me this isn't wow stop
• 08:30 - 09:00 I don't know if that shows up the color I got to go wash my arm see you later good back there D you can nuzzle me just stop doing that
• 09:00 - 09:30 though she's so happy right now what a happy kitty what a happy kitty good girl