I bought a hp photosmart 3210 all-in-one printer in England, it uses the 363 series ink cartridges.
On my return to Australia I FIND the cartridges are the 02 series,they are exactly the same & fit perfectly but the printer will not RECOGNISE them,complaining it uses the 363 series.
Hp tell me I have to change the configuration settings & they are happy to get a techie to call me & talk me through the changes,
problem is  the first of my 363 to run out & the configuration setting changes are made I can then only use the 02 series & it will leave me with 5 part used & 6 new 363 cartridges that are totally useless,
this is such a waste not to mention the cost,does anyone know a way I can get the printer to use both series cartridges?Probably your printer and ink cartridges are region coded. This is quite common. For a number of brands & models, cartridges from one region of the world won't work in a printer coded for a different region. For example North America/South America/Europe/Asia Pacific/Africa. This is done by the printer manufacturers to stop people exploiting currency differences and regional or local pricing differences. It means they can adjust their (huge) profit margins and charge what each market will bear. It sucks. This does affect people who emigrate or move to another continent and TAKE a printer with them. You can change the region settings in the printer firmware  to use one type or the other but you can't mix them. So you'd better decide whether you want your printer to be Australian or British. Personally I would ask myself how much the printer is worth compared to a new set of cartridges and maybe buy another one locally. When I did that I bought a laser printer and hurled my inkjet in the trash. That's the trouble with MFDs, you aren't just dumping a printer, you are losing a scanner, copier & fax as well.

Thank you for your reply, ive posted this question on many forums & the only other reply was about "living upside down" I did wonder why it was set up this way with regional codes,now i Know.
As this printer is the best one ive ever owned (the photos it prints are superb) I guess il just have to buy a new set of cartridges & change the settings, it would probably cost more with postage & would be a bit of a pain to have someone in England send me a new cartridge everytime one runs out(wouldnt be so bad if they all run out at the same time) & you have to be carefull how many new cartridges you have as they can go out of date pretty quick.
Thank you again for your reply,I do appreciate it. jump on the uk ebay site you will find all you need there but custums no longer allow us aussies a gift tax the law has now changed to recoup the 400 billion dollar govt hand out coming in APRIL be aware find out the wieght of your parcel i say this because 50 GRAMS cost me $30