BEFORE YOU BUY FROM WACOM - The Worst Customer Service
This is just a note for anyone wanting to purchase anything from the company.
I have been obsessed with Wacom for years. Ever since I heard of them and their tablets I fell in love. But I'm starting to realize, their products aren't always what's cracked up to be..
I purchased an Intuos Pen & Touch Medium Tablet from them about a year ago. The tablet was beautiful new, and served me quite well.. until two weeks ago.
Let me start off by stating this, I DO NOT: Drink near my tablet, eat, bang, break, smush, or damage the pen or tablet physically in any way, shape, or form. The sensitivity (for my art is crucial) had stopped working completely.
Now I have had a 2 year warranty with this thing, and I emailed them that the pen sensitivity was not working in FIVE DIFFERENT ART PROGRAMS FROM DIFFERENT COMPANIES. Clearly it is not the software, it's the tablet/pen
At first they were very helpful, telling steps to possibly fixed it, but when I said nothing worked, that's when things went south. They kept telling me basically to repeat the standard trouble shooting techniques and bull shit on their site (which I did at least 6 times before I contacted them) which was very aggravating. I did everything they asked. It took 2 weeks of emailing back and forth everyday for them to come to final conclusion. They basically said there's nothing they can do about it and they're sorry for my inconvenience. Are you fucking kidding me? No refund, no credits, no discount on an updated model, no replacement. Just a "see you later bye" Not to mention their emails were very unprofessional with no punctuation and poorly written as well. I was beyond pissed. I also almost made the mistake of purchasing their Cintiq Companion, oh my God I am so glad I didn't.. for two reasons.
One: I had a bad feeling about buying from this company again, after the bull they put me through, I researched the product. So many bad reviews. The cable for the Cintiq dies within a month or two, which is really pathetic, my iPhone and Android phone chargers last longer than that, and those shits can break so easily! Also, I heard about display errors, receiving a "new" product with dings and scratches on it, all around pretty bad reviews for something that costs about a grand (1,000 dollars)
Two: I found a different company with 90% good reviews. UC Logic is a company that creates the Artisul D13, which I am going to purchase. There are driver issues because the newest drivers are still in beta, but the customer services representatives reply MUST faster than Wacom, and give you their beta drivers for free. The D13 is basically a Cintiq 13HD, with the same amount of pressure sensitivity, an overall good display, less wires/cords, no outside power source needed, all for 200 dollars less. There's 6 customization buttons, 8 including the two on the pen (which has no battery so it's super light!) so basically it's a high quality, Cintiq material product for less money.
I'm not trying to advertise their product really, but I am trying to tell others that there is MORE TO TABLETS THAN WACOM. And please research what you buy, do not do what I did. I heard "Wacom" from my favorite artist and threw the company my money. (I was young at the time, I do realize how naive and stupid that is now) Even if the D13 isn't for you. Please be cautious before buying from wacom.
Oh, and if you think "I just had a bad experience with Wacom"... take a read at a couple of these and tell me it's just me: www.customerservicescoreboard.…
I wish everyone luck with future purchases of any drawing software or hardware. If Wacom works for you, good for you. In my personal opinion, I now believe their products are overpriced and overrated. I would gladly buy from a smaller company with great reviews and less revenue than a company who has horrible service and defective products.
I have been obsessed with Wacom for years. Ever since I heard of them and their tablets I fell in love. But I'm starting to realize, their products aren't always what's cracked up to be..
I purchased an Intuos Pen & Touch Medium Tablet from them about a year ago. The tablet was beautiful new, and served me quite well.. until two weeks ago.
Let me start off by stating this, I DO NOT: Drink near my tablet, eat, bang, break, smush, or damage the pen or tablet physically in any way, shape, or form. The sensitivity (for my art is crucial) had stopped working completely.
Now I have had a 2 year warranty with this thing, and I emailed them that the pen sensitivity was not working in FIVE DIFFERENT ART PROGRAMS FROM DIFFERENT COMPANIES. Clearly it is not the software, it's the tablet/pen
At first they were very helpful, telling steps to possibly fixed it, but when I said nothing worked, that's when things went south. They kept telling me basically to repeat the standard trouble shooting techniques and bull shit on their site (which I did at least 6 times before I contacted them) which was very aggravating. I did everything they asked. It took 2 weeks of emailing back and forth everyday for them to come to final conclusion. They basically said there's nothing they can do about it and they're sorry for my inconvenience. Are you fucking kidding me? No refund, no credits, no discount on an updated model, no replacement. Just a "see you later bye" Not to mention their emails were very unprofessional with no punctuation and poorly written as well. I was beyond pissed. I also almost made the mistake of purchasing their Cintiq Companion, oh my God I am so glad I didn't.. for two reasons.
One: I had a bad feeling about buying from this company again, after the bull they put me through, I researched the product. So many bad reviews. The cable for the Cintiq dies within a month or two, which is really pathetic, my iPhone and Android phone chargers last longer than that, and those shits can break so easily! Also, I heard about display errors, receiving a "new" product with dings and scratches on it, all around pretty bad reviews for something that costs about a grand (1,000 dollars)
Two: I found a different company with 90% good reviews. UC Logic is a company that creates the Artisul D13, which I am going to purchase. There are driver issues because the newest drivers are still in beta, but the customer services representatives reply MUST faster than Wacom, and give you their beta drivers for free. The D13 is basically a Cintiq 13HD, with the same amount of pressure sensitivity, an overall good display, less wires/cords, no outside power source needed, all for 200 dollars less. There's 6 customization buttons, 8 including the two on the pen (which has no battery so it's super light!) so basically it's a high quality, Cintiq material product for less money.
I'm not trying to advertise their product really, but I am trying to tell others that there is MORE TO TABLETS THAN WACOM. And please research what you buy, do not do what I did. I heard "Wacom" from my favorite artist and threw the company my money. (I was young at the time, I do realize how naive and stupid that is now) Even if the D13 isn't for you. Please be cautious before buying from wacom.
Oh, and if you think "I just had a bad experience with Wacom"... take a read at a couple of these and tell me it's just me: www.customerservicescoreboard.…
I wish everyone luck with future purchases of any drawing software or hardware. If Wacom works for you, good for you. In my personal opinion, I now believe their products are overpriced and overrated. I would gladly buy from a smaller company with great reviews and less revenue than a company who has horrible service and defective products.
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I've been struggling with this problem for a couple years now, though the problem was sporratic until about two weeks ago, like you. I was also getting an error saying the drivers weren't found when I tried to open Wacom Tablet Properties, but I've got an Intuos 3, so my problem might have been different. I managed to find a solution to my problem, though. Of course, I don't know if you've already tried these fixes, and these suggestions are based off the assumption that you're using some version of Windows, so I hope it's helpful to you. Otherwise feel free to ignore =]
Two videos that might help your problem, too.
One: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfqhhv…
This one might require you to repeat the steps either when your computer updates or if you shut it off (for me it used to be that the drivers would stop working after Windows updated, but eventually got to be every time I shut the computer down) but there's this program if you have windows 7 that might help: viziblr.com/news/2011/8/13/fix…
Two: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_sZG…
For me, the settings that he suggested in the video mostly work, only I found that because he tells us to set the startup type to Manual, I would have to go in there every time I started my computer and start the service, so I changed it back to Automatic.
I would also suggest you trying to do a system restore to a point before the pressure sensitivity failed. It took me a long time to get mine working again, but some combination of the two videos and the program helped get it working again. One last thing I want to point out (especially if my assumption of your OS being Windows is correct): the Artisul support forum is filled with people who are also having pressure sensitivity problems (artisul.com/forums/forum/windo…), so I would seriously suggest making sure that you've done everything you can to troubleshoot your pressure sensitivity before you purchase a new tablet. You might spend a couple hundred dollars only to realize it was for a problem that spans across tablet brands and that there's nothing actually wrong with the Wacom itself. There's a possibility that Wacom might not know how to fix the problem because it's an issue on Window's end.
While I agree that some of their products are overrated and extremely overpriced and customer service is never fun to deal with, I think it's best to take negative reviews with a grain of salt. While Wacom has many poor reviews, which comes with larger companies, their products have consistently good reviews as well; websites like the customerservicescoreboard.com, for example, probably isn't the best representative of whether or not a company has good or bad customer service; it also lists Amazon as having "Disappointing" customer service, even though Amazon is reputable in that aspect (I think they've won awards for it). Pretty much: an unhappy customer is usually the loudest and are more likely to go to a third party website to make a fuss than a happy customer is to write praise. Not trying to change your mind or downplay the bad experience you had; just some food for thought when it comes to making decisions based on reviews. If you end up going for the Artisul and like it, you should write about it; I'm sure many people will want to hear about it.
Two videos that might help your problem, too.
One: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfqhhv…
This one might require you to repeat the steps either when your computer updates or if you shut it off (for me it used to be that the drivers would stop working after Windows updated, but eventually got to be every time I shut the computer down) but there's this program if you have windows 7 that might help: viziblr.com/news/2011/8/13/fix…
Two: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_sZG…
For me, the settings that he suggested in the video mostly work, only I found that because he tells us to set the startup type to Manual, I would have to go in there every time I started my computer and start the service, so I changed it back to Automatic.
I would also suggest you trying to do a system restore to a point before the pressure sensitivity failed. It took me a long time to get mine working again, but some combination of the two videos and the program helped get it working again. One last thing I want to point out (especially if my assumption of your OS being Windows is correct): the Artisul support forum is filled with people who are also having pressure sensitivity problems (artisul.com/forums/forum/windo…), so I would seriously suggest making sure that you've done everything you can to troubleshoot your pressure sensitivity before you purchase a new tablet. You might spend a couple hundred dollars only to realize it was for a problem that spans across tablet brands and that there's nothing actually wrong with the Wacom itself. There's a possibility that Wacom might not know how to fix the problem because it's an issue on Window's end.
While I agree that some of their products are overrated and extremely overpriced and customer service is never fun to deal with, I think it's best to take negative reviews with a grain of salt. While Wacom has many poor reviews, which comes with larger companies, their products have consistently good reviews as well; websites like the customerservicescoreboard.com, for example, probably isn't the best representative of whether or not a company has good or bad customer service; it also lists Amazon as having "Disappointing" customer service, even though Amazon is reputable in that aspect (I think they've won awards for it). Pretty much: an unhappy customer is usually the loudest and are more likely to go to a third party website to make a fuss than a happy customer is to write praise. Not trying to change your mind or downplay the bad experience you had; just some food for thought when it comes to making decisions based on reviews. If you end up going for the Artisul and like it, you should write about it; I'm sure many people will want to hear about it.
Agree with you about the overprice and overratedness of Wacom tablets, but I didn't know about them having bad customer service, it'll make me think twice before buying from them (Since I'm planning to upgrade to a superior tablet later on). I thought some of the problems I have to deal with is rabid Wacom fans leaving bad reviews about the smaller drawing tablet competitors in Amazon (This causes confusion for me, worst, it mixes up with the actual bad reviews that have legitimate concerns).
I never heard of Artisul before.
I never heard of Artisul before.
In the interests of balance I purchased a cut-price reconditioned ex-demonstration Cintiq directly from Wacom in 2010 and it still works great. I've had to change the pen nib several times but in terms of hardware the cable and everything else is still fine.
I have had some rather frustrating problems with pressure sensitivity on occasion - these turned out to be down to software conflicts (some of which were quite obscure). I have fixed them all - although I'll admit without much useful advice from Wacom.
Last Summer I bought a very cheap Huion tablet to pack in my laptop bag that has performed well beyond expectations and I would recommend as a possible cheaper alternative for many people. But I have still had very similar pressure sensitivity problems due to software/driver conflicts.
I have had some rather frustrating problems with pressure sensitivity on occasion - these turned out to be down to software conflicts (some of which were quite obscure). I have fixed them all - although I'll admit without much useful advice from Wacom.
Last Summer I bought a very cheap Huion tablet to pack in my laptop bag that has performed well beyond expectations and I would recommend as a possible cheaper alternative for many people. But I have still had very similar pressure sensitivity problems due to software/driver conflicts.
Maybe the sensitivity is an issue with a lot of drawing tablets. I mean, but still, their customer service was quite awful, and their tips were useless. I am glad what you have works for you though! I still believe that newer devices though you're mainly just paying for the name and not really the tablet. Sure of course Cintiqs should be expensive, especially companions, but I could build my own custom PC under two grand which is what a high end Companion 2 costs, that's just b.s to me, and I have heard a lot about the cords dying within 6 months and I need something long term that won't fail, and if it does their will be easy help. I may buy a new Cintiq if I ever get the money, but they need some drastic improvements in performence before I do that atm. But if Wacom works for you, thats great! (: this was mainly for newer artists who want to start off with the most popular brand, and was a bit of a warning that if they had any issues, they will be frustrated with how Wacom handles them for the most part. I don't hate their products, but at this point my experience was so frustrating and time consuming for absolutely nothing that I just feel like giving up on their future products at this point.
I'm the first to agree that Wacom tablets are probably overpriced and there are now many really good alternatives to Wacom that people should look into before purchasing. I'm just commenting on my own experiences. My Cintiq cable is still fine after more than 5 years of use (along with the rest of the device). And at different times I've had similar pen sensitivity problems across four tablets from three different brands. In all cases it turned out to be due to driver conflicts that I had to resolve without useful advice from the manufacturer - and although I'd certainly describe Wacom support as unhelpful it literally wasn't the worst.
forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?f… - for what it's worth. Old directions and badly written. ("all over the hard disk" and "files like wintab*.*" are not helpful descriptions.) The point is that files are left on the drive after uninstalling and I think they interfere with a new installation.
really now? that link is a bit confusing, how do you completely 100% uninstall a wacom driver?
www.wacom.com/en-us/support/fa…... www.wacom.com/en-es/support/fa…, but again, I don't think this is complete.
I had something similar. My pen sensitivity didn't work properly and it would grab things. My temp fix was reinstalling and updating drive but it never lasted long until I had to redo it again. =/ Eventually when I updated to windows 10 it started working again. Whatever bug that caused it in my windows 7-8 was fixed in windows 10.
You're not going to like this but the problem is most likely your computer not playing nice with drivers. If that is the case you're not going to have a good time with the UC Logic tablet either - if you think Wacom drivers are bad just wait until you see what UC Logic tries to pass off 
plus if their beta drivers aren't WHQL signed you're in for a whole headache on that front.
Either way, it might be in your interest to really figure out what's wrong.
plus if their beta drivers aren't WHQL signed you're in for a whole headache on that front.Either way, it might be in your interest to really figure out what's wrong.
I was thinking the same thing, but I had not done any changes to the drivers (any of my pc drivers not just wacom's) it just suddenly stopped. I tried to like, uninstall everything having to do with wacom and reinstall it like a new tablet, but even that (after multiple times) did not work. I am debating on wiping my laptop and hoping for the best/a clean start when I get my D13 in the mail...if you have any other insight I would love to know
Antivirus software gives a lot of people trouble with tablet drivers. That's a place to look.
Also, try it on a different computer if you can.
Also, try it on a different computer if you can.
I actually don't have antivirus software on my laptop (I know I know) and unfortuantely I am the only one at the moment with a computer. (I can't install any drivers on my mother's work laptop) so I don't know really what to do...