Printing with my new HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format Printer

I unboxed my new HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format Printer today and gave it a try. I bought this printer for two main reasons:

1. I want to be able to print 12 X 12 scrapbook papers.
2. I want to be able to print professional quality photos.

Hooking up the printer was not difficult. After installing the ink cartridges and connecting to Wi-Fi, I decided to jump right in an print some 12 X 12 scrapbook paper.  It printed a beautiful, borderless pattern on 12 X 12 card stock  until the final half inch or so. When it got to the last little bit of printing, the paper started pushing out to the right instead of feeding straight through, and the final border failed to print properly. I checked my settings and tried again. Same result. I chatted for over an hour with an HP tech person, and tried his suggestions, but I always got this result.

As an experiment, I stood over the printer as it printed and used my hands as a guide to prevent the paper from going all crooked on me in the final stretch. That did help. But it makes me wonder why the printer design lacks a paper guide in the output tray to do that job. If I want to do massive scrapbooking and print 50 sheets of scrapbook paper, am I supposed to stand over the printer and guide each page through? 

UPDATE 5/20/2013: HP did offer this suggestion by way of a response to a question I posed on the HP YouTube demonstration of the printer. http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=4083647&prodTypeId=18972&objectID=c03101349

This may have helped me, but I have already returned the printer.

Here is the HP YouTube video where I posed questions about this issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad0nzf5y2bc&feature=player_detailpage

PHOTO PRINTING WITH HP OFFICEJET 7500A

On to photo-printing. I have an old HP Photosmart printer that prints the most vivid, beautiful, and professional-looking photos you can get. Seriously. It's amazing. Or, I should say, it WAS amazing, until HP decided to improve their Premium Plus Photo Paper. They took a perfect photo paper and made it terrible. The prints aren't nearly as vibrant with the new and improved instant-drying Premium Plus Photo Paper. I did some research online and found that printers purchased prior to 2011 weren't working well with the new paper, so I thought I'd buy a brand new HP printer and solve that problem. 

Look at these two photos (click the image to enlarge):

The photo on the left was printed today on my new HP Officejet 7500A using the new and improved instant-drying HP Premium Plus Photo Paper. The photo on the right was printed today on the same new printer using the old HP Premium Plus High Gloss Photo Paper. If you're extremely picky about your photos, like I am, you want the highest quality possible. Can you see that the photo on the left has a sort of haze over it? The blue sky isn't quite as blue. The green shrubs aren't as sharp and clear. To me, it is of no consequence that the inferior photo on the left dried instantly, and the superior photo on the right took a few minutes to dry completely. The vibrance and crispness are simply incomparable.

There are a bunch of crazy photo-loving people online complaining about this. HP's response so far is that you have to use a different photo setting to achieve the old results. I tried every setting, and it made no difference. The old paper is simply better than the new paper, and I want them to go back to it.

I will say that HP's customer service is fine. Although the tech person I worked with all afternoon didn't seem to know as much as I do about printing things with HP printers and photo paper, the person who assisted me when I asked to return the printer was very understanding and helpful. She said that the products I purchased, which included extra ink and three boxes of photo paper in addition to the printer could all be returned and that HP would cover the return shipping cost. I do appreciate that.

What did I expect from my new HP Officejet 7500A? This: http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/digital_photography/print_better_photos/tips/scrapbook-pages.html

I really would like to know what printer I should buy now. I want professional-quality photos (not just good photos) and preferably the ability to print 12 X 12 borderless scrapbook paper. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!