11-09-2010, 07:58 PM
I like Logitech products quite a bit, and have used their mice for a long, long time. the first mouse I purchased was Logitech ( the original Mouseman, also known as the "triangle mouse" http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~yav/comp/pc/...ltmm3.html). They have always been solid designs that are comfortable, responsive and hold up pretty well over time. However I did have a case where their customer service was not able to help me, nor make any effort other than what I'd normally see from any tech doing whatever the computer screen told them to tell me.
I purchased three webcams for christmas one year, one for me, one for my brother's family and one for my parents so we could all have video calls to each other and grandma and grandpa could see the grandkids more often than they could make a several hundred mile trip. The cameras for my parents and brother installed fine.
Mine, however, would abort during the install process with an error with drive T:
I thought this was rather interesting, since I was installing to drive C: I never told it anything about drive T: and there was no real reason for it to even look at drive T:
Drive T: is a network drive that I keep user account information on (most notably 'My Documents' so that if I use my wife's computer, or vice versa, we have access to the same set of 'My Documents' that we're used to, and aren't tied to a specific machine. She can also use her notebook (which never really leaves the house) or her desktop and have the exact same files available. Note that the 'My Documents' location was changed with standard Windows functions. Properties --> enter a new location in the box for the target location. Nothing fancy, standard windows feature. Probably low use feature, but a totally easy to use and standard feature of the OS.
- The first suggestion was to install the latest drivers... umm... my issue was that I could not install the drivers.
- Then they asked me to do various things with the webcam device... when the instructions specifically stated not to install the device until the install program asked for it. The install software abort was very early in the installer progress, it never got to the point that the software would ask for the device. So they started contradicting their own instructions.
- Then they asked me for my device serial number. This totally confused me, because we had just gone through some gymnastics to verify that it had nothing to do with the device itself, the problem was with the install software.
It was clear they were grasping at straws. I suspect the problem was with whoever they bought the install software from, but, of course, they wouldn't admit that.
- At this point they directed me to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article about fixing a problem where partitions had been assigned improperly or something. It talked about editing the registry values of this or that hard drive. Umm... it's not a hard drive, it's a network drive, we've been over this.
- At this point they basically said I needed to disconnect the network drive. When challenged that this implied the product was incompatible with the operating system, they balked and basically told me 'so what?' and refused to offer any other assistance or compromising offers.
So, whenever I need to install drivers for my Logitech webcam, I need to do an hour of computer gymnastics. This was the case for the 2008 version of the Tax software I use as well. They ended up directing me to the same MS knowledge base article that had nothing to do with my configuratoin. I worked around the issue, but called them to put an addendum on my ticket that their solution did not work for me and I explained the resolution and that if the following year's software was also incompatible with my version of Windows, I'll be asking for a refund. The 2009 version installed flawlessly. Last month when I updated my wife's computer and reinstalled Windows from scratch the Logitech drivers still would not install properly.
Most stuff Logitech is spot on for, but I apparently found a chink in the armor.
I purchased three webcams for christmas one year, one for me, one for my brother's family and one for my parents so we could all have video calls to each other and grandma and grandpa could see the grandkids more often than they could make a several hundred mile trip. The cameras for my parents and brother installed fine.
Mine, however, would abort during the install process with an error with drive T:
I thought this was rather interesting, since I was installing to drive C: I never told it anything about drive T: and there was no real reason for it to even look at drive T:
Drive T: is a network drive that I keep user account information on (most notably 'My Documents' so that if I use my wife's computer, or vice versa, we have access to the same set of 'My Documents' that we're used to, and aren't tied to a specific machine. She can also use her notebook (which never really leaves the house) or her desktop and have the exact same files available. Note that the 'My Documents' location was changed with standard Windows functions. Properties --> enter a new location in the box for the target location. Nothing fancy, standard windows feature. Probably low use feature, but a totally easy to use and standard feature of the OS.
- The first suggestion was to install the latest drivers... umm... my issue was that I could not install the drivers.
- Then they asked me to do various things with the webcam device... when the instructions specifically stated not to install the device until the install program asked for it. The install software abort was very early in the installer progress, it never got to the point that the software would ask for the device. So they started contradicting their own instructions.
- Then they asked me for my device serial number. This totally confused me, because we had just gone through some gymnastics to verify that it had nothing to do with the device itself, the problem was with the install software.
It was clear they were grasping at straws. I suspect the problem was with whoever they bought the install software from, but, of course, they wouldn't admit that.
- At this point they directed me to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article about fixing a problem where partitions had been assigned improperly or something. It talked about editing the registry values of this or that hard drive. Umm... it's not a hard drive, it's a network drive, we've been over this.
- At this point they basically said I needed to disconnect the network drive. When challenged that this implied the product was incompatible with the operating system, they balked and basically told me 'so what?' and refused to offer any other assistance or compromising offers.
So, whenever I need to install drivers for my Logitech webcam, I need to do an hour of computer gymnastics. This was the case for the 2008 version of the Tax software I use as well. They ended up directing me to the same MS knowledge base article that had nothing to do with my configuratoin. I worked around the issue, but called them to put an addendum on my ticket that their solution did not work for me and I explained the resolution and that if the following year's software was also incompatible with my version of Windows, I'll be asking for a refund. The 2009 version installed flawlessly. Last month when I updated my wife's computer and reinstalled Windows from scratch the Logitech drivers still would not install properly.
Most stuff Logitech is spot on for, but I apparently found a chink in the armor.
Conc / Concillian -- Vintage player of many games. Deadly leader of the All Pally Team (or was it Death leader?)
Terenas WoW player... while we waited for Diablo III.
And it came... and it went... and I played Hearthstone longer than Diablo III.
Terenas WoW player... while we waited for Diablo III.
And it came... and it went... and I played Hearthstone longer than Diablo III.