Martin D

Support Staff No Experts – Xero say they offer expert 24/7 support. False. You can send a request 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, but that's a little different to having support available to you 24/7. And they…

must have gutted support staff training or numbers because they can at times be less than useful with their responses. I asked for guidance about public holidays. I explained what I did. I provided a screenshot of the issue. Support respond telling me to do what I told them I have already done. If they had looked at the screenshot, they would have reaslied that, but they didn't. And now I wait again for someone to read my response asking them to answer my question. Lucky I'm not in a hurry.

Simple? but definitely not transparent pricing – I'm reviewing my experience with sales and accounts when interacting with Smokeball staff while searching for a software application. I read the website information about pricing…

(see attached screenshot). I also spoke with and emailed sales staff about the software application where we discussed the price. I believed I was informed about the price. When I said I wanted to sign up, sales staff said that I would have access once my invoice was paid. However, the invoice was for $129/mth, not $99. When I queried this, I was told that the only per month amount was $129. If I wanted to take advantage of the $99/mth option, I would have to pay $3564 up front (which is 99/mth over 36 months). I told sales that I would need to think about this as the price was very different to what I had budgeted for. A week later, I got an email from the accounts team chasing me up for payment of the invoice. The accounts manager made it crystal clear that my subscription started from moment the invoice was issued, not from when it was paid. I tried explaining that the website information didn't explain this, nor did the sale staff but the manager didn't care one bit. They even sent me a screenshot (almost identical to the one below), circling the asterisk next to the price saying that the price was clear. "Simple, transparent pricing" is the title of that pricing page, but the price is not transparent. Nowhere on that screenshot do you see the amount that you will have to pay to get access to the software.

OK printing and scanning quality but frustrating to use and can waste your time – - Update 13 May - 90 second per page print time (double sided, colour) - I'm printing a scan copy of text with some text in colour. Printing as an image from a PDF file. It is…

printing at 2/3rds of a page per minute... My other printer black and white laser printer is printing black and white from the same PDF at 6 pages per minute double sided. Also, the Brother just stopped for some reason and dropped the WiFi connection. Needed a restart. No issue with the other printer during this time. - Update 29 Sep - Paper jamming now. To unjam you must remove all 4 toners and all 4 drum units. Also, you can't turn it off while jammed. It says "shutting down - On/Off to resume" I just unplugged the power cable. - Update 5 August - sheet feeder for double sided print broken after 2 months and 516 pages. Note - same as MFC9335 and MFC9340 (different model numbers for different retails allowing retailers to have 'exclusive' model). Quality of scanning and printing is ok. But the Brother is really frustrating at times: - You have to hold the power button for 5 seconds or so to turn it on or off. - Turning it off, it gives you a warning message that "all functions will be disabled" - I mean, really, I'm turning it off - isn't that what is supposed to happen? - Once on, the fan comes on even though the machine is cold. - When printing, the fan comes on and off and on and off no matter what the temperature. If it needs to be on, just leave it on... - Scanning cuts off edges of document even though placed correctly on flatbed scanner. - When scanning, you do an overview scan to set the scan area. When you scan the document, you get a message that the scanner is warming up. Hasn't it already done this? Same message when scanning another document immediately after. - You need to go through an elaborate setup process if you want to start a scan from the scanner (pressing the scan button on the machine) and send it to your computer. You need to go through the setup process even though you are already using the machine via WiFi and can start a scan from your computer. - The consumables come in 2 parts - the toner and the drum - more expense and more parts to hold as spares - you need 8 consumable items all up - Sheet feeder scanner does not feed pages straight and there is no automatic de-skew function. - Does not have an auto-off function.

So yeah, it prints and scans ok (I don't use the fax) but is frustrating to use and wastes time over other brands. Much prefer my Fuji scanner (open lid, push button, save file - done) and my HP printer (push on button (no delay), toner and drum in one, fan on only when it's needed).

OK printing and scanning quality but frustrating to use and can waste your time – - Update 13 May - 90 second per page print time (double sided, colour) - I'm printing a scan copy of text with some text in colour. Printing as an image from a PDF file. It is…

printing at 2/3rds of a page per minute... My other printer black and white laser printer is printing black and white from the same PDF at 6 pages per minute double sided. Also, the Brother just stopped for some reason and dropped the WiFi connection. Needed a restart. No issue with the other printer during this time. - Update 29 Sep - Paper jamming now. To unjam you must remove all 4 toners and all 4 drum units. Also, you can't turn it off while jammed. It says "shutting down - On/Off to resume" I just unplugged the power cable. - Update 5 August - sheet feeder for double sided print broken after 2 months and 516 pages. Note - same as MFC9335 and MFC9340 (different model numbers for different retails allowing retailers to have 'exclusive' model). Quality of scanning and printing is ok. But the Brother is really frustrating at times: - You have to hold the power button for 5 seconds or so to turn it on or off. - Turning it off, it gives you a warning message that "all functions will be disabled" - I mean, really, I'm turning it off - isn't that what is supposed to happen? - Once on, the fan comes on even though the machine is cold. - When printing, the fan comes on and off and on and off no matter what the temperature. If it needs to be on, just leave it on... - Scanning cuts off edges of document even though placed correctly on flatbed scanner. - When scanning, you do an overview scan to set the scan area. When you scan the document, you get a message that the scanner is warming up. Hasn't it already done this? Same message when scanning another document immediately after. - You need to go through an elaborate setup process if you want to start a scan from the scanner (pressing the scan button on the machine) and send it to your computer. You need to go through the setup process even though you are already using the machine via WiFi and can start a scan from your computer. - The consumables come in 2 parts - the toner and the drum - more expense and more parts to hold as spares - you need 8 consumable items all up - Sheet feeder scanner does not feed pages straight and there is no automatic de-skew function. - Does not have an auto-off function.

So yeah, it prints and scans ok (I don't use the fax) but is frustrating to use and wastes time over other brands. Much prefer my Fuji scanner (open lid, push button, save file - done) and my HP printer (push on button (no delay), toner and drum in one, fan on only when it's needed).

Ok but frustrating and can be a time waster – - Update 13 May - 90 second per page print time (double sided, colour) - I'm printing a scan copy of text with some text in colour. Printing as an image from a PDF file.…

Seriously, it is printing at 2/3rds of a page per minute! The HP Laserjet 400 is printing black and white from the same PDF at 6 pages per minute double sided. Argh! Also, the Brother just stopped for some reason and dropped the WiFi connection. Needed a restart. No issue with the HP during this time.

- Update 29 Sep - Paper jamming now. To unjam you must remove all 4 toners and all 4 drum units (PITA). Also, you can't turn it off while jammed. It says "shutting down - On/Off to resume"?? I just unplugged the power cable.

- Update 5 August - sheet feeder for double sided print broken after 2 months and 516 pages (this has fixed itself now)

Quality of scanning and printing is ok. But the machine is really frustrating at times:

- You have to hold the power button for 5 seconds or so to turn it on or off.

- Turning it off, it gives you a warning message that "all functions will be disabled" - I mean, really, I'm turning it off - isn't that what is supposed to happen?

- Once on, the fan comes on even though the machine is cold.

- When printing, the fan comes on and off and on and off no matter what the temperature. If it needs to be on, just leave it on!

- Scanning cuts off edges of document even though placed correctly on flatbed scanner.

- When scanning, you do an overview scan to set the scan area. When you scan the document, you get a message that the scanner is warming up. Hasn't it already done this? Same message when scanning another document immediately after.

- You need to go through an elaborate setup process if you want to start a scan from the scanner (pressing the scan button on the machine) and send it to your computer. You need to go through the setup process even though you are already using the machine via WiFi and can start a scan from your computer.

- The consumables come in 2 parts - the toner and the drum - more expense and more parts to hold as spares - you need 8 consumables all up!

- Sheet feeder scanner does not feed pages straight and there is no automatic de-skew function.

- Does not have an auto-off function.

So yeah, it prints and scans ok (I don't use the fax) but is frustrating to use and wastes time over other brands. Much prefer my Fuji ScanSnap scanner (open lid, push button, save file - done) and my HP printer (push on button (no delay), toner and drum in one, fan on only when it's needed).