Thinking of buying a wacom tablet? Think again!


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sadWACOMuser

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Sep 17, 2008
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No doubt, wacom is at the top of digital tablet producers, however, behind the fancy advertisement is the trap of unfairness to its customers!

I purchased an A4-sized Intuos 3 tablet 2 years ago at S$545 (which is now S$730+, nice marketing, wacom!). I believe any personal user like me really need to think twice to spend this amount of money on a digital gadget like this (S$700 can easily afford a 24" LCD monitor now, or TEN Razor Diamondback mouses).

Before the prevailing 1-year warranty expired, I lived a happy life with this beautiful, fancy digital tablet. I only realized how bad a situation I'm in when I found my tablet faulty while the 1-year warranty expired!

I went to the whole distributor for wacom---Peripheral Solutions in Macpherson Road, they told me they could not do any repair job because the warranty expired. When I told them I am willing to pay the repair fee since buying a new one would cost another S$730, they told me the truth: There is NO place in Singapore -- or to be more precise, in SEA region -- can get faulty wacom tablet repaired! They also told me if I insist, they can help me send the faulty set back to Japan, but the transportation fee alone would cost me S$500+, the manpower and replacement part is not included yet.

I suddenly woke up: the money I paid for a wacom tablet is in fact for my first-year usage, after that, I'm all on my own, anything happened to the tablet, it goes to the trash bin!

Then I called Wacom Singapore in Bishan, they told me exact the same thing except they promised me that they would check my tablet again before I decide to send it back to Japan or not.

I have to admit I like wacom tablets; I have been into wacom tablets since Intuos 2 and graphire 3, and however, getting into this kind of situation really makes me frustrated and helpless. To all wacom users in SEA region, out-of-warranty means out-of-service, because getting the faulty set repaired costs as much as (probably even more than) buying a new one.

Even if I decide to buy a new one, what should I do if the same thing happened again after 1-year warranty? Trash bin again?
 

No doubt, wacom is at the top of digital tablet producers, however, behind the fancy advertisement is the trap of unfairness to its customers!

I purchased an A4-sized Intuos 3 tablet 2 years ago at S$545 (which is now S$730+, nice marketing, wacom!). I believe any personal user like me really need to think twice to spend this amount of money on a digital gadget like this (S$700 can easily afford a 24" LCD monitor now, or TEN Razor Diamondback mouses).

Before the prevailing 1-year warranty expired, I lived a happy life with this beautiful, fancy digital tablet. I only realized how bad a situation I'm in when I found my tablet faulty while the 1-year warranty expired!

I went to the whole distributor for wacom---Peripheral Solutions in Macpherson Road, they told me they could not do any repair job because the warranty expired. When I told them I am willing to pay the repair fee since buying a new one would cost another S$730, they told me the truth: There is NO place in Singapore -- or to be more precise, in SEA region -- can get faulty wacom tablet repaired! They also told me if I insist, they can help me send the faulty set back to Japan, but the transportation fee alone would cost me S$500+, the manpower and replacement part is not included yet.

I suddenly woke up: the money I paid for a wacom tablet is in fact for my first-year usage, after that, I'm all on my own, anything happened to the tablet, it goes to the trash bin!

Then I called Wacom Singapore in Bishan, they told me exact the same thing except they promised me that they would check my tablet again before I decide to send it back to Japan or not.

I have to admit I like wacom tablets; I have been into wacom tablets since Intuos 2 and graphire 3, and however, getting into this kind of situation really makes me frustrated and helpless. To all wacom users in SEA region, out-of-warranty means out-of-service, because getting the faulty set repaired costs as much as (probably even more than) buying a new one.

Even if I decide to buy a new one, what should I do if the same thing happened again after 1-year warranty? Trash bin again?

Can't believe you registered just to complain about Wacom. My Graphire 2 is still alive and well after about 4 years (or maybe more) of use.
 

Did try to figure out what's wrong with your wacom to begin with? My intuos 2's pen went crazy after about 3yrs. Couldn't draw a straight line even against a straight edge.

In the end all I had to do was to buy a new replacement pen. Beats buying a whole new pad!
 

Can't believe you registered just to complain about Wacom. My Graphire 2 is still alive and well after about 4 years (or maybe more) of use.
It is the least thing I could do.

Did try to figure out what's wrong with your wacom to begin with? My intuos 2's pen went crazy after about 3yrs. Couldn't draw a straight line even against a straight edge.

In the end all I had to do was to buy a new replacement pen. Beats buying a whole new pad!

It is not the pen's problem,it is the tablet itself. Part of it is undetectable.
 

I understand TS feeling. It is like you buy a 2K camera only to fail with no repairable sources and have to get a new one.
 

It is the least thing I could do.

It is not the pen's problem,it is the tablet itself. Part of it is undetectable.

Hmm... Maybe borrow a pen from someone else to confirm it? Otherwise take it apart to see if it's just a loose connection somewhere? Sometimes, I'm quite disappointed by some of the distributors here who just work like expensive postal agencies. I don't think it will cost anywhere near even $100 to ship an A4 size tablet to Japan express. Email Wacom direct and ask if you could just ship direct and ask for payment options if there are any cost of repair involved..

In one of my previous companies, I fixed a piece of equipment (which costs about USD$300k) by simply buying and replacing a power supply which cost just $100 from Farnell. The agent quoted USD$5k just to ship the entire control unit back to the manufacturer in US. Crazy!!
 

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I understand TS feeling. It is like you buy a 2K camera only to fail with no repairable sources and have to get a new one.
It is not only about money, it is about feeling of unfair and unsecured, they can easily get money from you each time the product broken down.

Hmm... Maybe borrow a pen from someone else to confirm it? Otherwise take it apart to see if it's just a loose connection somewhere? Sometimes, I'm quite disappointed by some of the distributors here who just work like expensive postal agencies. I don't think it will cost anywhere near even $100 to ship an A4 size tablet to Japan express. Email Wacom direct and ask if you could just ship direct and ask for payment options if there are any cost of repair involved..

In one of my previous companies, I fixed a piece of equipment (which costs about USD$300k) by simply buying and replacing a power supply which cost just $100 from Farnell. The agent quoted USD$5k just to ship the entire control unit back to the manufacturer in US. Crazy!!
Definitely not the pen's problem. The problem is partial, it is like you cover part of the tablet, to make the particular region "blind". And what's more, I insisted the distributor to test the tablet on their own PC, and they saw what the problem is.
Anyway, I will wait for the reply from WACOM, singapore, then I will try to contact Japan side directly.
 

It is not only about money, it is about feeling of unfair and unsecured, they can easily get money from you each time the product broken down.


Definitely not the pen's problem. The problem is partial, it is like you cover part of the tablet, to make the particular region "blind". And what's more, I insisted the distributor to test the tablet on their own PC, and they saw what the problem is.
Anyway, I will wait for the reply from WACOM, singapore, then I will try to contact Japan side directly.

Oh okie.. Sort of have an idea of what the problem is now.
 

i was thinking of getting wacom
but there's another brand bamboo
its cheaper right?

I think Wacom is the brand. Bamboo is the model. There is another model Bamboo fun. Not sure if its cheaper to get from computer shop in school. ;p
 

i just got one yesterday A5 size ?
 

Oh a place to take out my frustration!

So the story begins.........

I bought a wacom intuos3 A4 from an ebay shop (a so called art shop business) in April.

3 weeks ago, the pen started randomly right-clicking and was very unstable, the mouse was also jumping everywhere and being jitty. I replaced drivers etc and tried the table on 2 other machines running different operating systems but to no avail.

I contacted the company who sold me this to be told that the warranty lays with wacom. I asked for a duplicate invoice which arrived 2 days later but the cost was £100 more expensive! Strange I though but I dont care, i just want this fixed. I called Wacom in Germany who told me after I gave them all the details and serial number etc, to send the tablet to them in Germany for repair.

£43 postage and one week later, my tablet arrives back at my door with a letter from wacom stating that the tablet was from japan and it was my dealers responsibility for the warranty.

The Dealer is refusing to honour this and I now wave a trading standards case against him in the UK. Ebay seem to protect these people who operate outside trading laws as businesses which really sucks. this guy can just keep getting away with screwing people over. I would never have purchased this from and ebay shop unless I was getting the same service I would from a high street store.

So.......I contacted Japan, who told me to contact my dealer, they also said i should find someone with a similar wacom tablet and swap parts to test, then i can buy those parts anywhere....THANKS WACOM!

after 3 emails asking them to fix it in Japan, they keep avoiding sending me the details for expensive shipping from uk.

I love my tablet and working without it sucks! Im also not a business and its a personal use thing but these companies just dont seem to care about customers, i guess because a huge majority are pro's or designers my enough money not to care about replacement tools for their job.

/Rant


Craig
 

Sorry to hear about your Wacom problems.....I have been using the Intuos 1 Serial connector tablet before year 2000, and believe it or not, it's still working fine! Dropped the pen once though & spoilt the tip and some of the mechanism inside....and had to replace the pen which cost me like 120 dollars plus.. :(
 

Did try to figure out what's wrong with your wacom to begin with? My intuos 2's pen went crazy after about 3yrs. Couldn't draw a straight line even against a straight edge.

In the end all I had to do was to buy a new replacement pen. Beats buying a whole new pad!

they never carried replacement pens before forcing users to buy a new tablet when the pen goes nuts.
 

has anyone here tried other brand tablets like genius and such? perhaps these could also do the job if you are not doing illustration or drawing.
 

has anyone here tried other brand tablets like genius and such? perhaps these could also do the job if you are not doing illustration or drawing.

Yup, i am using a Genius. Bought at 69 bucks at Skylet in SLS. So far so good i feel. But i didn't use a Wacom before, so not very sure. :)
 

Yup, i am using a Genius. Bought at 69 bucks at Skylet in SLS. So far so good i feel. But i didn't use a Wacom before, so not very sure. :)

i guess you are using it as a mouse replacement and not for drawing should be okay.
 

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