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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=487
Umax UK responds
By ron carlson, Insanely Great Mac
May 31st 2002
It appears that the policy of charging for drivers isn''t a company-wide phenomena
As we reported earlier, freely downloadable drivers are no longer available from
Umax''s US website. In fact, if you want drivers, the company insists that you buy
them on CD-ROM for US$32.00. Not only that, but even if you''ve created an account on
Umax''s support site, you have to create a new "Sales" account and your credit card
information is a required part of that new account.
A request for comment from Umax US has gone unanswered.
However, not all is lost and it appears that only the US branch of the company is
pursuing these egregious practices.
An e-mail sent to Umax UK yielded the following response from Craig Morrow (not title
provided):
No such fees have been implemented in the UK so I am unsure as to where this
information has come from. If this is regarding downloads from the United States or in
the Asia Pacific region then they would need to be contacted directly.
http://www.umax.de/support/drivers.htm is hosted in Germany and provides all downloads
without the need for registering. Although the site is currently being updated no
charges are being put in place to the UK''s knowledge.
I have visually confirmed that freely downloadable drivers are available from Umax
support sites in Taiwan (English, Chinese also available), Japan, Germany and the UK.
Hence, though this move won''t further endear long-suffering Umax customers to the
company, it appears that if you have one of their scanners on your desk you''re not
yet out in the cold.
Analysis: It''s likely few if any people will actually purchase driver CDs from Umax
US. The more probably scenario is that users will simply download from sites that
still offer free drivers. So, the cheapness exhibited by Umax''s US operations will be
paid for out of the pockets of the company''s other operations. This is an untenable
situation both for customers and the company.
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=487
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