Future Tech Systems

I normally don’t like to post things like this, but I’m fresh off the phone and freshly aggravated.  This is not the first time with this kind of thing with Dell for me either.

In November of 2009, I assisted my best client in purchasing an extended warranty for their office desktop.  It wasn’t cheap – I don’t remember the exact cost but it was in the 200-300 range.  We purchased the Dell ProSupport for IT – basically, when you have an IT guy (me) already, I do the troubleshooting and call Dell and tell them “Hey, the DVD drive is busted” or whatever the issue is, and they send out the part and a tech to fix it.  This particular computer is about 250 miles away at a weekend home, so it’s not exactly practical for me to visit in person.

Today is what, 8 months later?  For some reason, they never updated the service contract on the service tag, so after explaining this in online chat, I provided the order number for the warranty renewal we purchased.  The rep then said “Unfortunately, because it doesn’t reflect on the service tag yet, you’ve reached the basic workstation dept. I’ll need to transfer you.”

Great.  Generally the word “transfer”, especially with Dell, means being sent to the wrong place after long hold times, only to get someone who has no clue who you are.  In another life, I worked various phone support roles.  We weren’t allowed to “blind transfer” people – we had to stay on the line until we got through, and expain everything to the next rep.

So, after 45 minutes of staring at a screen saying “You are next in the queue” and not getting my session picked up, I decided to call.

After punching in the express service code, and giving the rep all of my information, again it’s “Oh you don’t have that type of warranty”.  I explained the story, again, and provided the order number (twice, bit of a language barrier it would seem…) to be told “Oh, you need to be transferred”.  I asked him if he had updated the records showing I had the correct warranty, so I wouldn’t keep going through this.  He explained I’d need to call back during business hours and speak to customer service to resolve that.  I asked him “Well, instead of just passing the buck, or making me do it since I’ve already paid for it, why don’t you handle it?” He explained “Oh, well they are closed now.” to which I responded “OK, so make yourself a note and take care of it tomorrow while they’re open”.

This is one of the things I find everywhere – nobody seems willing to help the customer if is at all outside of their normal duties.  I can’t imagine telling one of my customers “Yes, well I sold you this, but I can’t help you – you’ll have to call back and speak to somebody else”.   We’d be out of business.

We used to have a saying in a call center I worked at, that our job as representatives made us better customers for one – we didn’t unnecessarily give people on the other end a hard time, but secondly, you had better give us good customer support, because when you do it for a living, you don’t tolerate poor customer service.

Get it together, Dell.  I don’t have to keep buying your hardware.

I both use and work on Brother MFC printers quite regularly.  They’re affordable, reliable, and generally easy to use… except when it comes to some of the scan to features.

Because this has come up quite frequently recently, I figured I would share some of my tips to make things work properly.

Problem 1 - When you scan documents, they come up as individual JPEGs instead of PDF documents.

Solution – Go into ControlCenter3.  It’s the little blue square icon that says “CC3″ on it.  You may have to show inactive icons.  Once in, click on Configuration at the top, and choose Scan->File.

There will be two tabs – Software Button and Device Button.  The software button is the settings for when you choose “Scan” from the CC3 program.  Some people may want different settings depending on how they scan.  The device button is for when you press Scan on the Brother MFC and choose Scan to File.  Where it says File Type in the dropdown window, change it from *.JPG to *.PDF for both the software and the device button, assuming you want it that way.  That’s it! You’re done!

Problem 2 – The Scan To File feature is not working on your Brother MFC, or your PC isn’t listed, etc.

Solution – this one is a little more complex.  Sometimes, when installing the software people don’t click the box labeled “Add this computer to the Scan To” button.  Previously my fix had been to uninstall and reinstall the software, but there is an easier way that is a little bit hidden.

The first thing is to check your router configuration on your network to make sure it allows UDP ports 54925 and 54926 through.  As it is outside the scope of this article, I will leave instructions on that part out, as there are many router types, and to be honest, if you don’t know how to do it on your router, you should probably have your local IT Professional do it (Us!).

The second thing is to add an exception into Windows Firewall/Norton Internet Security/etc. – you need to allow ports 54925 and 54926 through.  I have Vista on this particular machine, so basically you just open up the windows firewall settings, do “Add Port” and add in those two specific ports.

The third thing is the “hidden” part – it took me quite a bit of digging to find this, so I figured I would share it and make your life easier.  Go into the Control Panel (generally off the start button) and choose Scanners and Cameras, and bring up the properties for your Brother MFC.  There are a few tabs – Start with the Events tab and make sure when you choose the scan button from the printer it starts Control Center 3.  Next go to the Network Setting tab.  I prefer personally to use a static IP for my printer and machine in my home office, and just specify the IP address of the printer here.  If you use DHCP or just don’t know the printers IP Address, choose Browse and you can use its NetBIOS name.  Next, on the Scan To tab you will see “Register your PC with the “Scan To” functions at the machine” and a display name for what you want to call your computer.  When having issues, and I’ve tried Windows Firewall and router settings for the ports, I uncheck this box, click OK, open the properties back up, and recheck the “Register your PC…” box.

After all of that, power cycle your Brother MFC, and give it a try!

There are many times in the computer repair business when we come across silly, annoying errors.  Most recently, I was repairing a computer that just needed to be reformatted and have the software reinstalled.  We reinstalled Vista, and installed Office 2003 (as opposed to Office 2007).  The license agreement was popping up every time we opened any office application.  Unfortunately I didn’t save the link so I could give the individual credit, but User Access Control, also known as UAC in Windows Vista, was apparently the problem.

UAC is the notification that dims your screen and pops up with a message asking permission to do things.  Basically, the background features of UAC were preventing Outlook from making the changes it needed to the registry to show that we had accepted the license agreement.  Basically all that was necessary was to go to Start->All Programs->Microsoft Office and right click on one of the office applications.  Choose “Run as Administrator” and then accept the license agreement.  Close the program, and open it back up.  VOILA! You’re all done!