Hewlett Packard SCANJET 3200C Flatbed Scanner

This is the big DEAL scanner right now. Some folks ended up getting it for free with discounts online plus the mail in rebate. Mine ran about $10 (not counting the phone call and mailing the thing back).

Apparently, too many 3200 were made and just sitting on the shelves. The tech told me mine was from August 1999 based on the serial number on the back. So, it sat somewhere for almost 2 years before I got it.

Since I work with scanners at work, this was easy to hook up and get going. Some people have problems with the hook up being parallel port. That means having to go into the computer program and making some changes in some cases which I didn't have to do with a fairly new computer (6 months old on the computer). It's pretty complex to make that change if you don't know much about computers, but it is pretty simple if you have a techie friend.

After it's set up, you just put the document or picture under the lift up part and then go to HP scanner and click and it scans. Then you you need to send it where you want it with the send button which is pretty easy to figure out. Generally you need to send it to the PhotoShop software which comes with the scanner. There you can make adjustments to as far as color, black and white, size, cropping and so on.

The software is pretty straight forward unless you have not used a program before. I found that students on newspaper staff had problems figuring things out. And, you don't get a book or anything to explain. One main problem was getting the file to J-PEG which we need for newspaper. In order to save to other type files, then you need to export from the software. You think export sends the stuff somewhere, but it really does not. It just lets you save to other types of files. Well, maybe it goes somewhere . . . but that is the big problem students had with the program.

As far as quality, this one is fair but sure not great. When you first scan, then it looks good. But when you make any changes even going to J-PEG you lose a lot. The image is kind of fuzzy. If you play around in the software, then you can get a really horrible picture with lines and boxes looking like those things on TV where they hide the face of a person. It does do better in grayscale (black and white) rather than in color, so we can get some pictures for the newspaper looking fairly good.

Unfortunately, this scanner at my home (to help with newspaper at school where we have a much better scanner) bit the dust after about 10 scans. My computer would simply not recognize that I had a scanner hooked up. I could run the software OK, but the scanner would not scan anything.

This is where things get REALLY TOUGH.

I went to HP on line www.hp.com. They do have online help, but they just wanted me to unplug the scanner and plug it back up and make sure it was plugged in. Now, I checked all that several times and also reloaded software 3 times.

After I did all the online person asked, they sent email that I needed to call for tech help. That is a 202 number and during business hours, and I don't even want to see my phone bill this month. I think the cost is $2.50 an hour, but they were not very clear on that.

The hired tech guy was nice, but I had to redo all the stuff I did for the online person. Then into the program to work on parallel port. That was not the problem, since the scanner did work at one point. But we went through all that.

The next suggestion is to mail the scanner back to HP at my own cost on that (almost $20 to CA). Then I have to go to town and send a fax of the Staples order to them to prove that I've only had this scanner for 6 weeks.

At this point, my $10 scanner is getting awfully expensive. They needed my credit card in case I didn't mail the scanner back like I said I would (and did). So I paid $20 to mail it back, have the big phone bill coming, and they have my credit card number just in case . . .

By this time, I am thinking for sure that I should not have bought a cheap old scanner from Staples (who had that thing on the shelf for 2 years) and that I should have bought another brand other than HP (with a basically worthless 90 day guarantee which does not include the phone call or mailing the broken thing back).

Anyway, that is my story. I don't get taken very often. But, as I write this . . . I am thinking that I sure blew it this time.

If you're looking at a great deal on a scanner, ask about the date it was made. Get the serial number and call the company and ask if you can find a toll free number. Keep all the paperwork. If it breaks down, weigh out how much it will cost to get help. I probably should have chalked this one up, but I really need a scanner to write on line and send in pictures with my work.

Overall, I am not real happy with Staples or with HP right at the moment.

UPDATE 1

The scanner came back in the mail. It took more than a week even though I faxed the receipt and gave them my credit card number. I think they still waited to send the scanner until they got mine. In fact, they may have sent the same one back to me.

The big problem was that HP kept my power cord. So, I have a scanner with no cord now. And, as you can guess . . . it does not work with no power.


UPDATE 2

I finally went to the HP home page. After much looking around, I found an email for one of the top execs (Carly). I emailed about all this and got a response that the complaint would be passed along and taken care of.

This is a month after the thing quit working, and I still don't have a power cord.

I did get a call today. This was AFTER I emailed to say that I was going to contact the Better Business Bureau and also contact our local TV station for help.

The guy on the phone did not seem to know much about this. He said they will send a cord and maybe cover the phone charges. He is not sure and will have to call me back.

NOW I AM REALLY STEAMED!

Update 3

The guys over at HP finally got Tiffany to call me. Apparently, she is a manager or something. Anyway, Tiffany could see that I had a point. She even gave me a phone number direct to her office.

Tiffany said that the power cord would come overnight. They sent one that did not go with my scanner (and I have no idea what it is for) plus the one that does go with my scanner in another package. I think this dates back to the last call before Tiffany when the guy was asking me about the black power box thing. He wanted to know if I needed that too. Since it was connected, and I didn't disassemble any power cord, then YES I did need that too.

Tiffany also said that the phone and mailing would be covered, since I did not do anything to that scanner which only worked 10 times. That should come in 4 to 6 weeks I am told. So I am waiting to see on that.

I am glad I got someone on a phone who did not think I just didn't have enough sense to plug up a scanner. I guess they do get folks, sometimes, that don't know to plug things in, but I doubt that many people do that.