Cardscan 800c used on Mac OS X 10.8The cardscanner itself is an exceptional product, and I have been using it for around 2 years now. I am a salesman, and the ability to scan all of my cards into my Mac and quickly and easily search for contacts digitally has greatly increased my productivity. Both the initial scan, and subsequent searches are quick and accurate.
However, it seems that the product has been purchased recently by a company called Dymo, and they seem to be on an Aesopian mission to slay the goose that lays the golden eggs.
I recently upgraded to CardScan 800c. I am using a Mac book Air, with no DVD drive, so I could not install the software using the DVD provided. "No problem", I thought, "I'll just download it from the website". However, after around 60 minutes spent on their website, only to be told "product key invalid", or "please only enter numbers and hyphens" (The product key provided is a mix of numbers, letters and hyphens) I was frustrated at every turn and was not able to download the software.
I then tried to contact their help desk via email. In the interim, I borrowed a DVD drive from somebody and managed to install the software using the provided DVD. However, the software would not accept my product code when I tried to register. Or more accurately, the software accepted my key, but seemed to hang, saying "Response received, checking results". I then had the option to click "later", so I was able to get through to the software and use the product. However, every time I close the product and re-open it again I am told that the product in unregistered, and I must reinput my product key, watch the software hang again, and then click "later" to get through to use the software.
In the meantime, the helpdesk responded quickly to my initial complaint, and to their credit they sent a link allowing me to download the software. However, the goal posts had shifted at this point, so I emailed back to inform them of the latest situation. Although the response was again quick, it seems that the agent had not read my email: they once again directed me to a link to download the software.
I replied again asking them to read and understand the nature of my complaint, but again they responded in an almost reflexive fashion with a series of links to download the software.
Clearly the level of the helpdesk is not very high, or else they are under tremendous time pressure to get through tickets, so I thought I would try to call and speak to an agent over the phone, hoping that I would be able to make them understand the nature of my issue if I could communicate with them in real time. I called, and was held in a queue for over an hour before finally coming to the conclusion that I was stuck in a loop on the system and nobody was ever going to answer.
I am now stuck with broken software and a creeping sense that Dymo will never help me fix it. They simply do not seem engaged or interested. I don't want to return it, because it is such a great device, but I would dearly like to see Dymo either improving their support operations or else selling the product range to a company with the ability to provide even a basic level of effective support.
My advice to you is this: please look long and hard at all the options on the market before making a decision. I have not looked around, so I don't know what's out there, but if there was an option that was half as good as Cardscan at twice the price I would actually consider that for my next purchase, considering that it would be better to spend more for less on the understanding that the manufacturer would actually support me if the product was broken.
I am giving it two stars for sentimental reasons, as I have fond memories of the pre-Dymo CardScan, but really this is a five star product being run into the dirt by a one star company.
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Addendum: I finally contacted the help desk. I called at 10am on a Thursday and got straight through to a very professional operator.
He explained that there was a problem with the software on the CD and that I needed to remove the software and install the version that they had sent me a link to. One of the the files they linked to was compressed in a format that I could not unzip on my Mac. However, another link led to a file which I could unzip, and once it was installed I was able to register the software with my product key.
I am upgrading my review to 3 stars, because the scanner is quality and because the customer service eventually fixed my problem. However, I would like to ask Dymo to fix the following if they want 5 stars:
1: Fix the website so that users can download the correct software!
2: On your support emails concerning this issue, explicitly state that the DVD that comes with the scanner contains faulty software and needs to be replaced with the downloaded file
3: Get a page on your website/high in the google rankings explaining the issue with the DVD! The first thing I did was search google using the error messages I was getting but I found nothing but unresolved complaints.
4: Ensure that links to Mac software contain compressed files that can be uncompressed on Mac!
5: Why do you even ask for a serial number to download software? You need to register any software anyway so you should let people download it freely.
6: Send stickers to your distributors (I'm talking to you Amazon) to stick on their stock saying "DVD is faulty for Mac users, please download the software from URL " Note 5 before doing this!
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As delivered, this Cardscan for Mac did not work. After trying to install the software several times, I called the tech support line and had to wait over an hour and a half for someone to answer. After some fiddling around I was told to download a different software bundle that was inaccessible from the original website. I was also given a different access code. Things then worked for a while.Recently I downloaded Apple's new Mountain Lion OS, and immediately I ran into problems with the software not recognizing that the scanner is connected. I sent a technical question using the on-line system. The question was acknowledged, but it has now been 4 days and still no answer.
I would definitely not buy this product again.Excellent product. Works well with Apple products. Does what I want....
Customer service help resolved issues. Wait time on DYMO site was excessive
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Have been using an older B&W CardScan 60 for many years and loved it. Upgraded to new computer, Windows 7 64-bit and old hardware was no longer supported, which is not surprising. So I bought this new CardScan 800C and love it. The V9 software installed without a hitch and works better than older version. My old contacts database was read into the new software without problem. There are fewer mistakes in the OCR, although this may be a function of the new scanner vs. the new software. Looked into a phone app to scan cards, but many complaining reviews. This true hardware scanner purpose built for business cards probably performs much better than phone applications.One problem has cropped up; occasional lost usb connection. I have solved this by unplugging, restarting, then plugging back in. Bit of a hassle. Plus the unit bottom would get warm. So now I simply leave it unplugged until I need it; plug in; start software; do my scanning; and disconnect. This will probably allow the scanner to live longer too.
Overall, very happy with the new CardScan 800C/v9.
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