Smartpen Australia

Poor Customer Service – Having problems with Smartpen and when you contact the Service Department I was told that the problem we are having they are aware of it, But no response for 3 months???? When you send follow up emails, getting no response. It appears that the philosophy of the organisation is to not give service, or that they do not value Customers outside of… Read more

the USA???

It will be interesting if this receives a response??? Most probably they do not monitor this site as they do not care for Customers?

Weird! – I write in the note book, text appears on my phone, then disappears. This hasn’t happened before! Ideas? Pen has been great. Only other thing is it would be a huge improvement if I could create more than three folders to store notes

Absolutely useless support – I received my new pen. The first nib lasted less than 2 hrs and that was not continuous writing. The second nib lasted even less time than the first. I requested replacements which have never arrived so I now have a totally useless pen. I have emailed advising that the product hasn't arrived but I have not received any response. I bought the pen so I would have it for a specific event which was 3 weeks ago, what a waste of time and money.

Fantastic service - the only place you should consider for a livescribe pen!! – I've owned 2 other wifi pens and they both died and had to be returned to 'the place of purchase'. But I really liked the idea, and when they DID work, they were great. So going against my better judgement, I decided to purchase not one, but two pens (because they were very reasonably priced, and one's a backup) from Smartpen Australia. I have yet… Read more

to receive the pens but I was very happy with the level of professional service that the salesperson provided. Communication was great and they were extremely considerate towards my personal situation, and I could see through their actions that this company obviously cares about its customer service. As I said earlier, I've owned two of these pens and they both died. However I feel incredibly confident, through my communication alone with the staff at this company, that should anything happen with these pens, I'll be taken care of. It is for these reasons that I felt compelled to write a review now. There's good service, there's great service, and there's the brilliant service from Smartpen Australia. If you're looking to buy a livescribe pen, I highly recommend these guys.

Update: The pens arrived within a week and I've had absolutely no dramas with them at all.

Update (Jan 2018): I have since completed my uni course and I can honestly say that I couldn't have done it without this pen. I never had the need to use the 2nd backup as the first one worked fine. I highly, highly recommend this pen.

Flimsy, grip tends to feel slimy, plastic like by comparison, if wifi is flakey - you'll never know – My 4th Livescribe pen. So much did I love the concept of this pen, several years ago, I bought one from the US prior to them being available out here. And, I love using Evernote, and am an Android user, with an iPad for my digital magazine work, so I thought OK I'll give the Livescribe 3 a go with Evernote, iPad and Livescribe - a match made in… Read more

technical heaven. I got that compelling, awesome sales email and I was in the market since my battery was not holding charge on my current 2.5 year old pen, so I was in.

8 months down the track, I'm so disappointed to the point of having to tell people don't buy it. .. Yep it's like being in limbo. You can't be sure if your data is actually off the pen and not having the Windows livescribe app working with the Evernote function is messy and complicated in how Evernote may or may not get your data there.

It has used up so much space on my iPad I had to delete all my pictures and I feel I'm stuck with where the hell is what I wrote.

My idea of a seamless iPad experience has been blown apart because I have numerous duplications and no consolidation that makes sense of my several journals.

If I archive something, will my content be forever stuck on my pen or will it have been transferred across to Evernote? How do I actually get all the data OFF my little iPad to give me room for other things? I'd regard myself as tech savvy but Livescribe 3 has beaten me. I have even dragged out my gorgeous, but not as practical fountain pen and started writing on notepads again, and think with a good scanning app, I'll be able to find more of what I've done than I can on my pen.

I then thought OK here's a new Busybee app - It looks awesome, project management and Livescribe recognition software so I bought that thinking I could get my data off the pen. I've been given instructions from the the app developer, but it requires me to archive my pen, meaning that I might lose my connection to Evernote? I'm not sure - nothing is clear any more.

Except for now, the blue light indicating I'm connected to my iPad no longer works, the connect pen button doesn't work, the plastic tactile thingy at the bottom of the pen has broken, and my memories, writings, content, all my stuff is just stuck on that bloody pen and I feel like it's trapped in time. 6 months of faffing around, my love for this pen has turned to incredible annoyance and although I read and read and read the comparisons and thought that it would have been the best decision, it was in fact a DUD.

If you want one of these pens, do yourself a favour, get the one where you can get the desktop app to get your data off, then save as a pdf or whatever and push to one note, that will free up your iPad space, give you confidence all your memories are there. It's a much safer, less edgier solution, but it works.

Wifi if it's flakey will mess you up and therefore you cant' get your content off, or is it off? there's no indication that you've succeeded, or if you have it go automatically, you could get RSI trying to respond to the fact it can't connect to wifi - it's not smart enough to know - OK no wifi, remind me once and gracefully remind me again later.

And if your pen is like mine, WiFi will just stop, that's right, it doesn't work at all, rendering it to be something akin to a brick, but given it's now a very lightweight pen, a brick is not perhaps the best word, so how about a poisonous dart.. ok that's a bit harsh but I'm upset, really upset with my pen this time. I told and sold the concept of Livescribe to so many people. I would get asked about my pen, people even remembered me by my evangelistic approach on how best to manage your time and find stuff if you're a person who has lots of notepads lying around... but no more..

Will now look at purchasing a proper Livescribe Pen - and this one is only 8 months old. I can't take it any more, or I might wait until the Apple pen thing comes out, or look at the Evernote solution. There must be more choices that work better than this.

Excellent Servie – I have been using Livescribe pens since they first arrived in Australia and have bought a few for friends over the years as presents. I had a problem with the Echo pen I bought around 2 years ago with the screen fading and being very hard to see so I thought it was probably time to upgrade and the Echo pen was out of warranty. I ordered the… Read more

new Livescribe 3 pen to use with my iPad and requested express delivery so I could try it out at a conference I was going to in a few days. When it hadn't arrived the day before the conference I contact Smartpen to ask the status. Mark got back to me to apologise they were low on stock but should have it in the next day. I explained why I needed in and to my surprise I ended up with nothing but wins thanks to Mark's commitment to customer service - he offered to replace my Echo pen as he believes it should have lasted longer than it did and 2 years was a reasonable expectation. He also personally delivered both pens to me in time to use it at the conference. In addition he was so thoughtful - he activated the pen and charged it fully so I would be able to use it for the day and not run out of power.

I as extremely happy with the Livescribe 3 - it is a little different to get use to as it automatically loads it straight into the iPad application - which overall saves a lot of time as you don't have to then sync you pen after events.

10/10 for Mark from Smartpen - if only other people in organisations showed half of his commitment.

Excellent service – Had to order a replacement pen (ouch) for my daughter who uses it in lectures as she is dyslexic and it is helping her immensely. Ordered and dispatched same day and saved a lot of anxiety for her. Thank you.

Transformed My Business – I've been using the Echo Smartpen in my financial planning business for almost 2 years now and it has been the proverbial game changer. The convenience of recording both voice and notes together has changed how we do business. My staff can easily review what happened at client meetings and see what is required. If there is any uncertainty we can… Read more

just go back to the recording and check. Importantly the service and support from Mark at Smartpen has been fabulous. Great product and great service!

Great Service, Great smartpen – First time dealing with Smartpen Australia. Great service, took a bit longer to get to New Zealand than expected, but that was not fault on Smartpen Australia. In the past 6 years I've used a smartpen. My pulse died after 3 years and the wifi one died after a bit over a years, both because of the OLED display gave up. This would be my main reason… Read more ·  5

for buying the Livescribe 3 smartpen.

Make sure you order the ink cartridges too, I relised that they are different to the ones before.

Thanks again Mark (Smartpen Australia)!

Pulse and Echo Pen - LED screens – I have used these pens for years for lectures at Uni and for meetings. The desktop software is easy to use and uploading to Evernote seamless. The LED screens have both died and this is a problem as I cannnot reset anything on the pen and have to rely on holding down the on/off for a few seconds to start a recording. I am considering moving to the… Read more

wireless pen but unsure if the connection to the Aust wifi is solid? Are you able to provide an update please? And, what can you do to fix my screens on both pens?

Great product - a few tidy up issues – The product is great and my clients want to know how to get it. There is a disconnect between when the order is made and knowing what's next. You get the invoice and then silence on when you might see it. When you get the email saying its on its way it doesn't reference an order number (I have a few orders in place) . I guess there is that… Read more

"gulp" when you pay the money to somewhere (Australia?) see the invoice, get silence and wonder where it is coming from and if you'll see the product arrive and when. Can you consider a way to better connect between the online orders and communication to whoever is sending it throughout the process. Not a major issue but it could be better.

Bob

Livescribe smartpen displays will fail just out of warranty! – I purchased two Livescribe smartpens, and the display failed on both of them just out of warranty. The Pulse display dimmed until it disappeared. The Echo I purchased in 2012 has also suffered from the same problem. An internet search reveals that there are hundreds of disgruntled customers. I strongly recommend that you avoid Livescribe smartpens… Read more

like the plague. The displays WILL FAIL just out of warranty, and Livescribe will do nothing to help, trust me. If you are happy to spend $200.00 on something that will last until just after the warranty runs out - go ahead, you have been warned!

quick response and delivery – Fantastic response time. needed to make an amendment to the shipping address. Mark changed it within hours and before sending off to me. Ordered Pen on Sunday, arrived on Wednesday from QLD to WA.  Show reply

Echo pen – I initially purchased a Pulse pen a few years ago...the screen died and Livescribe replaced it and unfortunately that screen died also. Enter Mark...I found the Smart Pen Australia site...gave him a call about my dead pen and Mark mailed me a new pen ...The Echo.... immediately as a replacement. Instant service...absolutely wonderful...thank you… Read more

Mark. I use the Echo pen several times per week in lectures and love it. It is such a useful piece of equipment. Any questions I have had, have been promptly answered by Mark and he has been so patient and helpful (I am technologically challenged)...so I have had a great experience with Smart Pen Australia and will continue to purchase from Mark. I cannot fault either the product or the service. Thank you Mark.

Good Service – I received some fabulous service from [name removed] at Smartpen recently. He was fast, friendly and reliable! I am more than happy to recommend his service. Smartpen my boss loves the Echo 8gb but hates the newest version. Would like to see a new version that incorporates the best of both versions.

Disappointing to see Livescribe lose it's way – I have been a user of LIvescribe products for about 5 years I guess. My first pen was the ugly duckling pulse but boy was it good. My notes were all saved I recorded interviews and lectures and if I wanted converted handwriting to text easily. Simply effective ugly. Then came the Echo much prettier, did pretty much the same thing much nicer to… Read more ·  3

hold, fancy folder not a quantum leap but better all round. I was an am still very happy with this combo my 8gb Echo serves me well. WiFi arrived with lots of promise I bought an *GB pen but the promise never got finished. We got no Dropbox integration only storage option was Evernote - OK but not for everyone. Handwriting to text disappeared. Then it got weird, a pen for writing next to an Apple tablet a kind of strange pointing device you could use on paper and see result on Ipad. So what is it? A kind of redundant input device that only works on Apple. Livescribe you have lost your way get back to what you started and finish the WiFi pen syncing the desktop sync and give us back handwriting to text. Mark I have bought a number of pens from you thanks for all your help and service I have rated Smartpen highly but please see if you can write something in your news letters for us folks that use Ipads.

So far - $350 spent, 1 replacement which battery goes flat after half an hour – If there is a word for the exact opposite of awesome then that's what I would,write here. My first pen stopped being legible after 2 days. It sat on my table for 5 months until I sent it back. The replacement finally arrived.... If there is anyone out there with a pen that renders handwriting that even a doctor couldn't read, I have your old pen… Read more

with the faulty battery that doesn't last more than half an hour - Hilarious!!!

On a positive note, I gave one star because the ink for the livescribe 3 lasts forever. I bought it in October 2012 and so far I've managed about 4 A4 pages of notes. I estimate that it probably won't reqire a refill until around 2050.

Livescribe 3 - Class Act!

Great service – Mark at Smartpen was extremely helpful when I bought my Echo pen early in 2013. Answered all my questions regarding what the pen could and cant do. The pen turned up and had a fault with syncing to livescribe desktop. Mark was more that happy to replace the pen sight unseen. New pen rocked up and I have been loving it since.  Show reply

Over Smart Pens – I have to say that after my 4th evolution of livescribe smart pens I am over them. I have upgraded each time a new model comes out on the promise of improvements but am then disappointed yet again. The latest version Livescribe 3 only to find it misses converting blocks of text, has poor script to text conversion and limited flexibility in filing… Read more

notes. I now have a Livescribe pen graveyard and scan my notes using an iPhone App. Wireless conversion when it worked Wireless conversion missed blocks of script. Text conversion still inadequate.

Goods haven't arrived. No service response! – I purchased a Smartpen, portfolio, notebooks, cartridge package online on the 18th of March. The transaction was quickly approved on the same day. On 21 march I received an email stating that the order had been shipped earlier that week and sending me the 'Myscript' link. By the 7th of April, nothing had arrived. I emailed to enquire and… Read more

received a response on the same day from Mark saying that he would talk to the warehouse and get back to me. I heard nothing and enquired again on the 11th of April. There was no response. I emailed again on the 15th as well as leaving a message on the answerphone with my contact details. There has bee no response. It is now the 17th and I've just left another message on the answerphone.

I'm prepared to change the review once I receive the goods, but at the moment I'm really concerned at the lack of response!!!

bad service, fear of being ripped off, product not delivered, no response to emails or phone calls

Good Service – Thanks for arranging the notepads to be delivered so quickly. Great service. Can't wait to start using the pen. I can see some real efficiencies to be made using this item. Thanks. Setting up the pen with my iPad was simple and quick - now that I have the folders I can test it all out in the meetings I attend. Very quick delivery and good communication with tracking the package.

Quick service and excellent pen – The pen was delivered quickly. Easy to setup and sync with evernote. I've not purchased some post it notes to use as well. It would be great if the small notebooks were a little narrower more like a normal A5 notebook and pad with a softer cover - apart from that all good. Reliable, good price  Show reply

Horrible – I consider myself tech head, I can't get this pen is sync to either my iphone or iPad. The online support pages are not good or user friendly. I wasted at least 60 min trying to get the device to sync. What I thought would be simple has turned into a nightmare. Does not sync

Not Happy Jane – I am onto my second pen and the only support is via chat, I had a problem with my setup and the unit won't sync. I realise the technology is just not for me, however the refund policy doesn't apply to the replacement pen which is 7 days old, not sure that is clear in the warranty Pen overheats and syncing with Evernote is not a simple process.

Standing Behind Product, Caring Customer Service – I am echoing the positive sentiment towards this company Smartpen Australia with respect to their responsiveness in making sure the customers have nothing but positive experience with the product and the brand. I didn't even buy my Pulse smartpen directly from the company but when the display went off even when it was already out of warranty,… Read more

they promptly replaced it. Smartpen Australia supplies unique superior products (can't imagine going to brainstorming meetings without my smartpen) backed up by superior after sales care. Perfect! Superior product, superior after sale care

Fantastic service – My 4GB smartpen's display became faded after about 2 and a half years of quite heavy use (and out of warranty) but smartpen Australia replaced it immediately. Brilliant service! What's more they didn't have any 4GB pens in stock so Smartpen Australia sent me an 8GB replacement - bonus! The smartpen has become an essential component of my business equipment.

Great Service – Thank you to Smartpen Australia for replacing my livescribe smart pen after it developed a fault. The service I received was amazing and I couldn't be happier. I contacted Smartpen via Facebook and received a very prompt and favourable response. The service I received was without a doubt worth mentioning.  Show reply

Like all technology, there are issues. The decider is how you deal with them – Frankly, before I spoke with [name removed] at Smartpen, I was not a happy Livescribe customer. After speaking with [name removed], I am confident that I will continue dealing with Smartpen Australia for years to come. And more than happy to recommend them. Great service and a great turnaround in customer perception. I hope the folk at Livescribe… Read more ·  2

HQ know what a gem they have. Brilliant product that make interviews and information gathering so much more effective. Performs very well, except for the display, which fades over time. Pen replaced - you can't ask for better than that!

Fantastic service – My replacement smartpen came in the post today - a big relief. I expected not to see a smartpen again after my original had the dim screen fault, but I was greatly relieved to have it replaced without any hassles watsoever! Great work guys! I've recommended these pens to my work colleagues and friends and they are keen to buy one. The service is great, the pen is a dream to use. Dim screen fault (known fault) replaced without any problems. Show 2 replies

5 Star Customer Service and Communication – After purchasing my LiveScribe pen from Officeworks, I had many questions, and I posted these on the Smartpen Facebook Wall. Smartpen very promptly replied, and continued relpying (to those and more questions) until I was satisfied. A few days later I wanted to order some ink refills, Smartpen was again very helpful in telling me the products were… Read more ·  1

in fact in stock, and having the product sent out quickly and efficiently.

Many thanks to Smartpen for their wonderful support and service. Great Communication, prompt and informative.

Fading screen Problem fixed – I received the replacement Pen and it works flawlessly, once again thanks for your help. Even though you did not sell me the pen the fact that you helped was unbelievable ...I am truly appreciative of your excellent service and the fact that you stand by your products. Great retailer stand by the product  Show reply

Excellent service – I ordered our Echo smartpen for urgent delivery & it was here the next day fabulous! (Previous pulse smartpen display suddeny stopped working and one day out of warranty - officeworks would not replace and too costly to repair - so better to buy another) This was the cheapest price I have seen also! Prompt service and cheapest price compared… Read more ·  1

to other sites. I think the Echo smartpen is much better to use and write with compared to the pulse and instructions are better in the booklet

Great Service – I decided to start using my husband's pulse pen which had been put away for a year. I then discovered the display no longer worked. All of this was over the Christmas period but I received answers to my questions - even on a Sunday and received an offered replacement pen within days. Efficient service

Replacement and I didn't even ask! – My Smartpen battery 'died'. When I contacted Smartpen Australia via email they offered a replacement and I didnt even ask! (I was asking where I might be able to get it repaired) Then a replacement pen was sent within a couple of days for a small postage fee. Thanks Mark et al. Great service & prompt responses  Show reply

Great service - as usual – Ordered late Sunday, arrived Tuesday - which for Oz is nothing short of miraculous. I upgraded from an Echo that had been sidelined since getting my Galaxy Note 10.1. There are some meetings where using a tablet is inappropriate (suspicions that you're playing Angry Birds) and the Sky hooked up to my mobile means that my notes appear on the Note in seconds, carefully tagged and filed. A great solution.  Show reply