Tragedy and warning about a PIXMA Print Plan.

[kylin1987]

I purchased a PIXMA TR7820 printer in September 2024, the printer came with a set of ink cartridges, and I purchased an extra set of cartridges for backup. I had limited use for a few months until February 2025 when I had about a third of the original cartridges left.

Then on February 14, 2025 I did the stupidest thing ever, I subscribed to the PIXMA Print Plan service for $9.99 per month with a 200 page print limit.
I had about a third of my original cartridges left and a brand new set of cartridges that I hadn't used yet, and it was the busiest month ever, I printed 700 pages, using my own original cartridges and the brand new set of cartridges, and then in March, oh my God, I got a bill for $81.00. I know why, because I was counting over 200 pages.
But up to this point, I hadn't taken advantage of any of the things the program offered, I bought the printer, I bought the paper, I bought the ink cartridges, and yet this month I paid $81 for a “counter”.
I thought I could logically try to talk to Canon's customer service, and when I explained the situation, the customer service response was not friendly, not reassuring, not sympathetic, just coldly telling me: that's the way it should be, because you installed an original cartridge and a cartridge you purchased independently.

l chalked it up to my stupidity, but l still don't think it makes sense.
I use a printer I purchased myself, paper I purchased myself, individual ink cartridges I purchased myself, and because I stupidly chose to subscribe to this plan on February 14th, I paid an additional $81 in March, and then Canon didn't provide me with anything. There was also no warning or indication on their program that I needed to remove the original cartridge to stop counting.

Hopefully this process will prevent others from making the same mistake.

I have stopped the service and am ready to sell the Canon product, not because of the extra cost, but because of the fact that when I actively communicated with the customer service as a user, the customer service response was abysmal, and of course, as a capitalist Canon is perfectly qualified.

[normadel]

After reading your post, I decided to find out what Pixma Print Plans are. Looks like you either chose  the wrong plan for you, or you erred in doing it at all. There's no way I would let Canon see in actual time how I am using a printer, and billing me. You don't need Big Brother (ANY manufacturer) peering into a printer, certainly not for home use. This is a money-grab by Canon.  For that money Canon ought to be sending someone out to change the ink and put paper in for me!

Did you not think yourself able to just buy ink and replace it yourself when you needed to? Those cost per page numbers for extra pages are robbery.

[kylin1987]

If you consider only normal usage, 200 pages per month is enough for me, but of course, if I were using the cartridges provided by the program I would be more careful not to exceed that limit.
The problem is that I'm using an extra black cartridge that I had lying around, but I haven't removed the original color cartridge, which is causing it to keep counting and charging me a lot of money.
This is a classic case and hopefully a warning to others who use this program, I'm writing the whole story here and was also affected by today's customer service, which was so bad that it made me even more annoyed and disgusted after all this happened to me. I have a lot of Canon products at home, but this is the first time I have contacted customer service to resolve a problem, and this kind of poor service attitude is something I didn't expect, I would have thought that Canon would have been more professional and more caring. Apparently not in my case.