Richard Mckenzie
I bought a Seiko Smart Label Printer 620 from Amazon to be used with my Dell XPS i5/Windows 10, 13" (one-year old) laptop, which I mention because I did not expect compatibility issues between a widely sold laptop system and the Seiko label printer software. That was not to be, with the incompatibility problems compounded by a hard-to-believe problem with a Seiko service representative. After installing and opening Smart Label Creator from the provided CD, the program filled my screen, as expected, but the box for typing labels opened only to the area of a postage stamp. No matter what I did, I could not enlarge the box to normal size (as represented in the included quick-install guide). I uninstalled the program that came on the CD and downloaded the latest Windows 10 version on Seikos web site. Nothing changed. I called Seiko, and the service rep talked over me in an aggressive and condescending tone, although he did use "sir" frequently. He told me that he had never heard of or seen my problem and would get back to me by email. So far, so good. He repeated in his email two days later that he had not encountered my problem and could not replicate it in his office. In two minutes, I replicated the problem on my second laptop, a Toshiba Kira, i7/Windows 10 system, a fact I conveyed to the rep. He asked me to send photographs of my screen, which I did. Not satisfied, he asked me to measure with a ruler the size of the label box. I sent him the measurements, 3/8” x 1 1/8”. Without acknowledging a software issue, he said he could not find any printed evidence of the label-box size I expected. I sent him a photograph of the expected screen pictured with a normal label box in the quick-install guide. He asked for the brand and code for the paper labels I had in the printer. (Why? Go figure.) I gave him the paper label code, Seiko 2RL. In addition, I sent him another picture of my laptop screen with a Seiko label (2RL) taped on my laptop screen underneath the postage-size on-screen label box. He asked for more screen shots by my jumping through click hoops that made no sense. I balked, asking him for an explanation for how more screen shots would solve the problem. He didn’t explain. Because of communication problems and, by that time, concern that the rep did not understand Seiko products, I wrote him, “I have gotten the impression that you [and other office reps] are not Seiko employees in the United States.” He responded by telling me that he lived near me and then added in his email, “So, yes, Im a foreign person from India or some other country, apparently? Or maybe youre a Trump supporter and you judge us as being Muslim?” Wow! Unbelievable! I never imagined that current political tensions in the country would surface in a customer-service exchange. For the record, I am far from a Trump enthusiast and could not have cared less about the reps religion. I did care about his competence to understand and solve my problem, and I still suspect there is a simple fix for it (because there are other obviously satisfied customers). I gave up. I returned the SLP 620 to Amazon and bought a Dymo 450 Turbo label printer. I installed the included software and connected the Dymo to my Dell laptop with ease -- and had multiple labels printed in short order. Dymo will get five stars from me.
