When this first happened a few years ago, after Canon had pushed out the initial firmware update that bricked printers with this error, but before the class action lawsuit got started, Canon actually offered a few of us new printers to replace the dead ones, so long as we returned the faulty ones. I, for one, got that offer. But by that time I had thoroughly lost my temper with what had been my favorite printer. I had gone so far as to completely disassemble the thing.. not so crazy when I point out that my day job is troubleshooting random hunks of busted telecom gear right down to the 0402 resistors. In any case, disconnecting and reconnecting every blame wire I could find didn't change things and getting it all back together again, without manuals, was a bear. But having that stupid error pop back up again was a bit much, since the timing of the error message and that "upgrade" was just too much of a coincidence.. I took it out back and took a sledgehammer to it, dumped the remains in the town electronics recycle center, and recycled the paperwork into the paper recycle bin.
A couple months later I got the new printer offer, but, natch, the dead one was very much gone.
The lawyers did their class action bit, got paid millions to go away, and those of us lucky enough to have original receipts from a decade previous (by that time) got a $20 or two.
Since the settlement closed off further plaintiffs past, present, and future, nobody gets anything from Canon except offers at some small discount off of full list price, said discount not being as much as one can get off of new Canons direct from Amazon or Newegg.
I wish to heck and gone that the FTC would go after Canon, since, in my opinion, it's pretty clear that they're purposely bricking working printers in order to create some sales, just like that car window repairman who used to wander the streets of Brooklyn a few back busting out windshields with a crowbar. Not every victim of this idiot went to his shop to get his window fixed, but enough did to make it a worthwhile proposition. Eventually a new-at-the-time surveillance camera caught him in the act and the Brooklyn D.A. and an outraged public saw to it that he spent a few years in the state pen. Which, frankly, I feel that the perps who came up with this scheme at Canon should be doing. It'd be fun to see what discovery by those class action lawyers had come up with, but that stuff is likely sealed by the idiot judge.
KBeck
