Being an amature and old, too, I have a problem understanding printed detailed instructions. That being said, here's my experience with Ed Hamrick and VueScan:
I bought the
Vue Scan basic, then later had problems twice. I wrote Ed Hamrick after both troublesome experiences, explaining what, when, and how. Both times he responded, then told me what was needed. I approached him with a positive attitude and he answered me in kind. I use VueScan often and may up-grade.

I've yet to run into any software that was so simple that even idiots could use it. Most require a person to have a minimum of intelligence, patience, and desire; those who don't ... won't.

VueScan is worth more than the cost.

A good piece of kit, allows old scanner to be used with W7

Vuescan not very helpful

The web site offers $10 discount for purchases within 59mins but I could not find how to get this discount. asked how and was given instructions. of course by this time the hour was up so no discount. Annoyed, I asked to cancel sale and this was refused

Cheap

Ed Hamrick, customer service, buggy with multiple crashes and again ED HAMRICK! Ed Hamrick hates his customers! ?NO SOFTWARE FOR YOU!!

I am not even going to bother reviewing the software here. This review is all about the biggest a-hole that i have ever had to deal with. This guy is Ed Hamrick creator of Vuescan. I am not a young guy so this is saying a lot. Believe all of the things you have read in the other reviews about Ed Hamrick. He is one nasty, ungrateful, egotistical jerk! He makes the Soup Nazi look like Mother Teresa. i had many problems with Vuescan working with Primefilm XE (Reflecta Proscan 10T) scanner. A scanner Vuescan purportedly supports. Apparently Ed doesn't like being told his software isn't working with a particular scanner. In fact Ed doesn't like hearing from his customers, even if you have polite suggestions. If you do suggest to Ed his software is buggy then expect a non-response, or a 3 word email response, or an email berating you that you are wasting his time, or some other nasty response with comment that he will refund and you should never to bother him again and go away or all of the above. if you happen to have zero issues with this software then consider yourself blessed. If you do have problems then just politely ask for a refund and step aside (ala soup nazi). One thing i am convinced of in my short experience with this colossal jerk is that Ed hates his customers. He loves their money and no doubt has made a ton of it off them. He treats his business like he is selling donuts-buy the donut and go away, no customer service needed. What an ugly excuse of a human being. Karma baby, karma.

Very good results and performance, when it works

So-so Interface
Severely unpleasant "support"

I used this software happily for about 10 years, putting up with its idiosyncratic user interface because of the superb job that it did, and was very pleased with the way it developed and improved over its very many and frequent updates. It has been a constant daily workhorse in my office, bettering by far the software that HP provided for my all-in-one scanner/printer. (HP software could not even manage to produce valid PDF files!)

Then, a new version of VueScan caused a couple of problems, and I had the miserable experience of contacting the developer (who also does his own customer support). What an objectionable experience that was! I even made a point of saying to him that I had been delighted with his software for almost a decade, but he was rude, objectionable and unhelpful from the outset. He seems to think that any communication with him that does not fit with a formula of his own is a waste of his time. He repeatedly gives a link to his website that supposedly tells you how to communicate with him - but it does not; it is just a FAQ page.

A bit of Internet research suggests to me that I am not at all alone in this opinion!

Having got nowhere in dealing with him, I just rolled back all my software to the last working version, and I will certainly not have anything further to do with Hamrick Software again. So nasty was he, I actually feel rather queasy now every time I use the software, because it reminds me of my dealings with him.

So, if you download the trial, and it works perfectly, then use it and you may well be happy with it, as I was for almost ten years of constant, heavy use. If you have the slightest hint of difficulty with it, then please make sure you get it sorted before you part with any money.

Customer Service

Abysmal

Upgraded to the Pro Version from a much older version. Recogonized all the scanners curently attached (Brother MFC and Cannon Lid600F ) OCR and scanning ability so far has met my expectations.

Haven't found any.

Not a heavy user but this software meets and exceeds my expectations. For a test I slapped an old printed instruction page into my flatbed scanner and selected the OCR option. (BTW to the other doofuss who kept getting photos of the text... de-select the jpeg output option next time) I expected a minor error or so but the scan was perfect, it read every character correctly in upper and lower case.

Using and iMac with latest version of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

NONE

all my text work became picture files. OCR feature being quite a joke.

I have a new computer running win 7. My old but wonderful scanner( Epson 2480), doesn't work anymore and no drivers are available from Epson for 7.. I the scanner to edit text pages to create word documents. The limited OCR is nothing but a hassle and a joke. I foolishly believed that Vue Scan driver updates would bring the scanner back to life.
Today I ordered a new scanner and have chalked this costly mistake up to bad experience.

Customer Service

No refunds...So, watch out.

Do know. It would not work for me.

Didn't work at all.

I purchased Vuescan to get a scanner working that was supposed to be supported. It didn't work no matter what I tried. So I went with something else... A few days later I needed the receipt from this purchase and went on to the Hamrick.com web site looking for an Email address or phone number so that I could ask them how I would go about getting a receipt. I spent ten minutes looking for an Email address. It is buried pretty good, and I think on purpose. I looked under their "Support" link and found nothing. After looking for about ten minutes I finally found it buried under a couple other levels and Emailed them asking for a reciept and also made the suggestion that he should have a "Contact Us" link on his page to make it easier to send an Email message. I got a reply from the the owner of this company, and his reply was as follows...

"The reason I don't make my e-mail address super easy to find is illustrated clearly by your e-mail to me. If you spent 30 seconds looking at my web site, you'd see how to get a receipt."

This was not the response I was expecting, and notice, no helpful hint as to where I could go to get a receipt. Nice...

So my reply to him was, "I spent 10 minutes and still missed it. Sorry to have bothered you...

I'll looked again and found the link. It's a shame your not more helpful though. I little direction as to what page and link to look for would have been helpful. After seeing your response, customer service is not one of your things. Glad I got to know that now before I bought more software from you. UMASS is a big place and I have several scanners here that we were considering buying your software for, but now I think not. You apparently don't care about getting more business. Thanks for nothing."

Then he replied, "I actually prefer not to do business with people like you. You're rude and abusive."

Now, I do not think that my suggestion of having a "contact us" link was too much to ask, certainly not rude & abusive. I find this person to be too sensitive to a little constructive criticism. He clearly has a bad attitude towards his customers and his desk side manner, shall we call it, leaves quite a lot to be desired. I find this to be very troublesome from a customer server company. This person actually is rude and abusive. He must have been the kid that lived down the street from me who, when he wasn't winning, would take his ball and go home. Poor guy. Mommy and Daddy clearly spoiled him and he still can't handle things not going his way. I think he needs to find a job where he doesn't have to deal with people, with no phone and no Email until he grows up.

Customer Service

Lousy

Similar Products Used:

Image capture on the Macintosh just simply worked great.

I purchased the Professional version of Vuescan because Mac OSX no longer supported my Microtek software or Silverfast version. There is a problem with Vuescan and my Microtek i900; the software produces jagged edges that produce very soft prints. I contacted Ed about this and he sent me numerous corrections, none of which worked. When I told him (after about 5 or 6 trys) that I couldn't spend any more time on it and would like a refund he didn't respond. I emailed him again and 5 days later he finally responds by telling me he's irritated I wasted his time, deleted my last email, and won't give me a refund! I could not believe how childish and unprofessional that is. He wasted his time trying to fix HIS software. If you buy this, document your interactions with him if you have a problem. I took it up with my credit card company and am getting a refund but his attitude stinks and is the reason I am writing this review.

Starts out fine for the first few days

Software gets confused when scanning text. It won't scan an entire document without saving it in little pieces. My goal was to scan postcards my mom sent to her family when she was a girl to preserve them.

Ed Hamrick is a jerk with his ego too far up his butt.

I have nothing good to say about this man. He is a complete jerk and I'm sorry I ever encountered him. The software worked for a few days and then the selection box started not scanning the text I would outline. It would save the text in bits and pieces, never getting the entire box. When I emailed Ed Hamrick of my issue requesting assistance, this is the email exchange that resulted (starts at the bottom):

I've refunded $79.95 to your card. This should appear on
your statement in the next few days.

Please don't waste any more of my time.

Regards,
Ed Hamrick

----- Original Message ----- From: "Lindsey
To: "Ed Hamrick"
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 5:19 AM
Subject: Re: VueScan Problem Report


Thank you for your stellar customer service. Send me a full refund. This is the email address I used.
Lindsey

On Mar 29, 2011, at 12:54 AM, Ed Hamrick wrote:
I suggest we just stop this - you're not going to send me a
problem report, there was nothing attached to your e-mail
(including a vuescan.log file) and I'm not going to read any
more of your e-mails.

Regards,
Ed Hamrick

----- Original Message ----- From: "Lindsey
To: "Ed Hamrick"
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 7:44 AM
Subject: Re: VueScan Problem Report


I'm not sure where the communication went awry but I did a detailed description of the problem and attached the vuescan.log
Look to the bottom of this chain and you'll see it. I sent it yesterday.
Lindsey

On Mar 28, 2011, at 9:28 AM, Ed Hamrick wrote:
I've probably read 100 to 200 e-mails since you sent your
previous e-mail. There's more info about what's needed in
a Problem Report at:

http://www.hamrick.com/sup.html

I never, ever rummage through old e-mails.

Regards,
Ed Hamrick

----- Original Message ----- From: "Lindsey Drake"
To: "Ed Hamrick"
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 7:02 AM
Subject: Re: VueScan Problem Report


Yes I would like help. I bought the professional version and would like the software to work. If you didn't get the attachment, that is one thing and I'm glad to send it again. However, I sent it once and if you didn't get it, say so rather than send a form response.
Lindsey

On Mar 28, 2011, at 8:13 AM, Ed Hamrick wrote:
If you don't want me to help, just say so.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Lindsey
To: "Ed Hamrick"
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 4:34 AM
Subject: Re: VueScan Problem Report


I did send it vuescan.log and a detailed problem report, according to the directions in my original email.
Lindsey

On Mar 27, 2011, at 11:05 PM, Ed Hamrick wrote:
Hi Lindsey,

Could you send me a complete Problem Report, including
a procedure for duplicating the problem and a vuescan.log
file generated by this procedure? This is described in more
detail at:

http://www.hamrick.com/sup.html

Thanks,
Ed Hamrick

----- Original Message ----- From: "Lindsey
To:
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 7:07 PM
Subject: VueScan Problem Report


I am trying to use vuescan to scan from my document feeder on my HP 6110. It feeds the document through but the scan quality is poor and it freezes when processing the image.
Also, when I'm scanning text from the flatbed, postcards in this case, it won't select the entire area even if I adjust the dancing ants border manually, instead scanning portions of the document in multiple files. I had this same problem when I put the letter I was scanning using the document feeder on the flatbed.
Lindsey

Customer Service

Awful! I've rarely come in contact with such a colossal jerk, and I'm a lawyer used to jerks on the other side of cases.

Ease of use, ease of install

None known yet

Epson 1240u would no longer work with new Windows 64-bit computer. While looking for driver I found the Vuescan softwqare. After a trial run that looked good I purchased and now have my scanner back. I plan to also order at my office to get my scanner back in service.