Visioneer 6200 USB Scanner

I used the product for less than 20 times during 8 months period. Then it displayed locking errors and stop working. The customer service is very bad and it didn't worth to return the product for fixing because the labor charge will be more than the purchase price. Don't buy it or you will be very regret later.

Having all but given up on the idea of scanning with my Visioneer 6200 under Windows XP, since the PaperPort software that comes with it no longer works and cannot be updated, I decided to try to use some of my other programs to try to access the scanner. While I was able to do so using third party software, I can no longer access my many scans done prior to the XP upgrade, as the PaperPort Program that manages the scanner and stores the scans will not run at all. If you are planning on going to XP and using this scanner, be sure you back up all of your PaperPort scans, or they will be lost. Like the people at Visioneer tech support, they will be inaccessible, unavailable, and/or no longer there when you need them.

Well, having recently upgraded to Windows XP, and having been otherwise quite happy with my Visioneer 6200 USB, I find that Visioneer's almost non-existent customer support gives me the following answer when trying to load the new driver required if you run XP on your system:

"Windows XP

Visioneer will not be applying for Windows XP logo for the scanners listed below, however these scanners will most likely still function properly.

Visioneer 6200"

CORRECTION: NO THEY WON'T! Apparently, they want me to fork over more money for another scanner rather than update the driver that many of their customers, like myself, will need in order to use it with XP. What a company! If they think I will ever buy another one of their products again, they are badly mistaken.

Shame on you, Visioneer! Stay away from these people, as they don't even have an email address for customer support.

I bought a Visioneer 6200 USB 11 months ago. This month it failed. I called the tech support number...and held for 1/2 hour before giving up. The next day I held for 1 1/2 hours before giving up. Today, after an hour hold time, I finally got through to a tech. Although I had the answers to her questions, she would not talk with me because I was not at home in front of the scanner (I don't have enough time to wait on hold for them while at home). I had already verified through e-mail correspondence the probable problem, however, they would not send parts or a new unit. Carefully consider how you may be left out in the cold when you purchase this item!

My very first scanner was a Visioneer "One Touch" - way back when - before they started adding model numbers to their products. It work just fine once I figured out how to get the pass through connector on the parallel port working properly. I used that scanner for probably 2.5 years and it worked flawless the entire time. In May I saw a sale on a Silitek flatbed scanner with a USB connection and bought it - trading my old Visioneer for some vintage fountain pens. The Silitek worked great except the software that came with it left a lot to be desired.

My newest scanner is a Visioneer 6200 scanner... this is awesome.. I had looked at the Visioneer 8100 at the same time and compared the two side by side. The only difference between the 2 is the 8100 has 3 panel buttons to complete the entire scanning process at the touch of a button - the 6200 has one button. The previous One Touch I owned also had the 3 buttons and I can honestly say in the time I had that scanner I maybe used the buttons a dozen times out of the 2000+ scans I made with that scanner. The 8100 also has USB and a parallel port vs the 6200 has just a USB connection. Other than those 2 items the scanners are identical in components and operation ( the 8100 has a black case and the 6200 is beige ) and they both come with the same software packages! I saved quite a bit of money opting for the 6200 vs the 8100.

The Paperport software that comes with the scanner is a nice package with a lot of features not found in other scanner packages - "descreen" is an option and if you are going to scan newspaper or magazine pictures this feature is a necessity! The OCR software leaves a lot to be desired - it does the basics but it won't retain proper formating in a scan of say a multi column document.

In summary the 6200 is one great scanner for the money - a lot of features and software in one package that could cost twice as much with some other name brand scanners.