Printhead / ink issues with 5-month-old Photosmart 7525 printer

Question

It seems that my HP printer "bad luck" has not changed -- at all! After having lots of issues (and not being able to resolve them with a Photosmart 6515 this summer), I bought a Photosmart 7525 in July.
I do not print photos or color ink a lot, but when I do, I need for the color and quality to be very good. But it seems that I cannot rely on my HP printer to do that for me. I end up spending hours of time just TRYING to get something to print. I end up wasting a lot of ink and paper, but usually still have a less-than-satisfactory result -- if I'm able to get anything to print at all!
Two weeks ago, my daughter needed pictures printed for a school project. The pictures started to, print, but then it looked like some of the ink colors were running out. However, the ink status said the ink cartridges were fine! I replaced several of the ink cartridges anyway, but still the photos WOULD NOT print out correctly. I ended up having to save the photos to a thumb drive and take them to a drug store to get them printed for her project. After that, the printer would not even print BLACK ink!
However, the next day, the printer started printing color again - mysteriously.
Yesterday, I had some more photos to print. I had the same issue. The first photo printed fine, but after that, only the first third of the photos would print -- the rest were missing part of the other colors. My printer did not show any low ink -- at all. I had all "genuine" ink cartridges, too! I've never used anything except HP ink.
I am beyond discouraged! I actually talked to an HP rep at Best Buy yesterday, who recommended an HP Envy printer, but it is a tri-color cartridge. He said the problems with 7520 series were because of the way the printhead is designed (really)!
So I'm ready to just buy a B/W laser printer and give up on ink jets. I wish I could get by without even having a printer at home, but now the schools expect us to print out everything at home these days that they send us via e-mail. Since I end up having to go elsewhere to print photos anyway, maybe I just need to forget about printing photos at home entirely.
So I will be returning my printer. If anyone has a suggestion on what to get in its place, please let me know. The 7525 was almost $150, so it was not a cheap printer.

Answer 1

Thanks for your help RnrMusicMan, but I've already returned the printer to Costco, and they did refund my money.
The printer was only five months old. This is the third Photo"smart" printer I've had major issues with in less than four years. I guess I'm not very smart to keep trying -- or hoping for a different result.
Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of 564 ink cartridges that I can't use -- some I opened trying to get this printer to work, and some unopened.
I bought an HP Envy printer on Sunday from Costco that takes the 61 XL cartridges, but I took it back yesterday without even opening the box. My spouse told me I was crazy for even thinking about trying again. And with a tri-color cartridge, it will just be a problem with one color running out.
So for now, I'll just use our old Kodak printer or plan a little further ahead and have the photos printed outside. Every time I have a project to print, my HP printer does not print for me. I spend hours of time, waste lots of ink, paper and money, and still end up having to go elsewhere to get them printed. So, I just need to do that and forget about printing them from home!
The HP rep that was at Best Buy suggested for me to return the unopened ink to Wal-Mart for in-store credit. I tried to return two yesterday, but that didn't work. They only exchange ink cartridges, not return them. So, now I'm probably on some list with them, too!
So thanks for offering to help, but I'm done with trying to make an HP printer work for me at home.