Polar Ice Cap Cold. Umax Charging for Scanner Drivers

[Omagh]

Don't see too many UMAX scanners on the deals here but for those who have one
take heed. Another case of charging whatever you can and don't worry about
alienating your customers.

For those who have a UMAX scanner and need a new driver you might be in for a
shock. According to "Theregister.co.uk" UMAX is now charging for drivers
that used to be available free on their Web Site.

Lowest price available for drivers is $32.00 for some MAC drivers.

I know that OS's typically have their own drivers. However if you want
drivers that are optimized then you will need UMAX's drivers.

 

[fr]

That really sucks. It looks like it's $15 for a Windows driver CD.

 

[JohnMellencamp]

That kind of pratice will hurt Umax that really sucks if you have one of those scanners I would throw it away before I would pay for new drivers. With scanners being really cheap I would use it as a door stop :disgust:

 

[puppyfriend]

Dude:

The US site charges for drivers. The British and German sites don't. I just use the English one, www.umax.co.uk.

Why does Umax charge on the US site but not on the others? They're idiots.

David

 

[Kingofcomputer]

HP also charges for driver cd everytime a new OS come out, but you can download the driver from their Asia site.

 

[Tanner]

this is so stinkin' ridiculous!

Sure this is incredibly ignorant and it's almost certain suicide by this business.

However, there's good news! Staples teams up w/ Visioneer! to GIVE away scanners CONSTANTLY! It's like they get a million dollars for every scanner that they give away! Is that insane or WHAT?

Anyway, GL and HAVE PHUN!

 

[Freejack2]

Oh good grief, now every stinking driver will cost money. Want a new driver for your GeForce card? That'll be $30
Want a new driver for your sound card, that'll be $20. So what if you only paid $20 for the card. The drivers still cost $20.
Want the latest bios for your motherboard. That'll be $25.

This needs to be nipped in the bud before all these companies start charging for driver updates.
The reason most people download driver updates is because the last release had bugs in it. Now they want us to pay for something that is their fault...

 

[esquared]

Yup, the second my Umax needs an updated driver, it goes in the trash. Thanks for the update. Bad, bad, policy. It'll come back to bite 'em on the asses.:disgust:

 

[feralkid]

Hmm, guess they're thinking like printer manufacturers; give 'em the machine, make money on expendables such as cartridges (and now drivers). Bass turds all! :disgust:

 

[chrisjor]

geez...I have Umax Astra 2400....paid like $250. It came with an ISA scsi card. I had to buy a new scsi card just to keep using the damn thing. I will admit I love the scanner. It came with a really cool Photocopier program which they discontinued support after WIN98. I guess this will soon be on relic heap.

 

[John P]

Didn't HP try this a while back with their scanner drivers? (I remember someone on Anandtech posting some Taiwanese site we could download them for free, hehe) I think they gave up after a while, probably after being beat up by their customers. Same thing will probably (hopefully) happen here.

 

[nickdigger]

this is even worse than Mr. Folded Arms charging for virus defs, and bugging the holy shiite out of you every day until u re-subscribe. i can't wait for a leaked internal memo commending their "Bulgarian office" for meeting its worm quota for the year.

 

[dragonlord2112]

OMG..I just tried to get the XP update patch for my umax (a file that is supposed to still be able to D/L) and that would not work. I'm just glad scanners are as cheap as they are, so I can get one from a respectable company. What a load a of crap.

 

[squig6]

Umax sucks it big time, I bought their Astra1220 p scanner about two years ago they have not and won't update their drivers to support WinXP. Now I'm stuck with a scanner that I'll have to reinstall windows 98 just to use. Never again would I think about buying any product from Umax.:|

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Even they say it's for the cd media cost, shipping and handling fee, they still make huge profit by selling the update driver cd.

 

[esquared]

Geez, I am going to have to make a backup copy of my CD. Kinda scary not being able to replace it without paying 32.00. This horsesh!t is bullsh!t.

 

[LTS]

Of course you should really read the entire article on The Register. If you thought the charging for drivers was bad.. they attempted to contact the company and the best they could do was get in touch with their outsourced tech support. Apparently lines to the company were either dead, or went unanswered, etc.

Obviously its a high quality company. But I wouldn't fear about other companies taking up this role. Quite simply there are a ton of hardware manufacturers out there who would love to see some of their larger competitors shoot themselves in the foot by charging for drivers. They would immediately be able to take a higher market share by sheer principle.

Lord knows if Nvidia tried such a thing and it worked they would have more money than Microsoft. Oh wait, that's for official drivers, my fault.

 

[NetworkDad]

This probably has to do with the new internet trend, paying for services that once were free. That's rediculous though, basically they are saying we will sell you our product, and in order to continue to provide even the most basic support, you need to pay us more.

 

[Steelwells]

Well, when I hooked up my UMAX scanner to my Gateway server running Win2k Advanced Server, it would not function. UMAX told me I needed to purchase additional drivers from them on CD for $15. I found the filename of the files, Googled them, and located a mirror that allowed me to download them for free.

I am upset that I had to go looking for them, but I don't think people should be talking about junking anything until you snoop around a little.

Just my $.02.

 

[chumbucket666]

If anybody needs XP drivers for a Umax 3400, PM me your email address and I'll send them to you. It was a little tricky getting it to work like it did in Win98, but it does work. I also have the 98/ME drivers if you need those also.

CB666

 

[ThaPerculator]

This is low... Lower than microsoft being the richest company in the world being allowed to make the buggiest software.... Lower than Best Buy tryign to press charges on hot dealers for "fraud" when they screwed up their online prices.... ok maybe not as low as BB....

 

[Gmetech]

Umax used to make GREAT scanners. Their Vista S6 and S12 series (SCSI) had very nice output,
installed easily and were a good value in their day. But, scanners cost a lot more money then.
I think the S12 was $449 or so, and the S4 ws probably $300. At those prices, support was
good, the scanners were well built and relatively few owned them.

Now, most scanners are cheaply made, cheaply sold.. nearly everyone has problems with them,
and tech support is lousy. Bottom line.. you get what you pay for, and we aren't paying much.

That having been said.. paying for drivers sucks! hehe