So then where are the old firmwares for download? Surely you wouldn’t care if I downgraded my firmware if you aren’t trying to brick my printer
If your printer is working fine, and is not on the network, leave the firmware alone.
I hope this is true because we can’t afford to lose the last good guy printer manufacturer.
I notice it talks about not blocking 3rd party inks, but not (that I saw) about deliberately degrading quality. I hope they’re not doing that either!- but that was the recent accusation.
I read a bit on that though, and what I think happened, is someone got lower quality while using 3rd party ink, after an OTA firmware update, and called customer service. The customer service rep couldn’t answer how to fix it, except using genuine Brother ink, and the user asked a careful question about whether that was the only way. Rep answers yes, which is probably not true but seems like the ‘right’ answer to give; user interprets it as the Rep knowing that there’s a secret and deliberate degradation of quality with 3rd party ink.
This is why you shouldn’t get your news from clickbait YouTubers. Especially when their source is a three-year-old reddit post that doesn’t even support their claim.
I mean “Brother says” is most definitely not proof that that person was wrong. Here’s the question: Has anyone else able to verify their claim? Surely there are tens of thousands of printers out there that someone could verify…?
I dont see how the burden of proof is on Brother. If you’re looking for verification from tens of thousands of other printer users and hearing crickets, i think you have your answer.
I dont see how the burden of proof is on Brother.
There is no “burden of proof” at all. Anyone is welcome to provide proof at any time.
If you’re looking for verification from tens of thousands of other printer users and hearing crickets, i think you have your answer.
I didn’t look.
The burden of proof should be on whoever is making a claim. If someone accuses me of doing something with no evidence, my verbal denial shouldn’t be skeptical without proof. Brother isn’t in a position that they should require to provide proof against the claim being made against them. I didn’t see any mention in the article of other user’s printers being bricked aside from the original claim from 2022. Maybe some further investigation would come up with something, but claims made on Reddit posts and YouTube videos hardly count as proof of anything.
Sure, but they don’t need to be proof of anything. Rossmann reported on some users (I think there were multiple?) claiming something to be the case, and provided one bit of verifiable evidence: no access to older firmware.
Brother claims they don’t intentionally brick printers that use third party cartridges, but that’s not verifiable. Brother also didn’t mention anything about why older firmware isn’t available. That’s a significant concern, since that would be a way for customers to prove that the firmware itself is the issue (printer works -> upgrade -> broken -> downgrade -> printer works).
I think it’s 100% fair to raise the concern. It’s certainly not enough to warrant any kind of legal action, but it is enough for customers to investigate the claims for themselves. I think that’s worthwhile.
Really because it happened to me until I was able to force a software roll back which required obtaining their closed proprietary service software.
I actually wondered that at the time simply because whenever a new person discovers the horrors of HP printers people in the comments are always boosting Brother printers.
Like, if Canon had been accused of bricking third-party printer ink I’m not sure it would have made the feed.
I’m glad to hear this because I read the other article on the day my Epson decided to suddenly take umbrage with my third party cart after using it without issue for 2 years.
As there is no other viable alternative for a relatively-no-nonsense printer on the market than Brother’s offerings it sounds like I’m not completely out of options quite yet.
