This past summer I had my biggest customer upgrade many of their register to the UP-820F. There is nothing like programming the same model 8 hours a day for months to truly understand how much I hate this model. Matter of fact, it bothered so much that I decided to write all the problems with that model just so I wouldn’t spend so much time at night thinking about all the things that bothered me during the day.

Apparently I am up to 21 pages now talking about all the things that bother me about the 820, SHARP and SHARP products in general.

Don’t get me wrong, I am comfortable with and enjoy working with SHARP products but…it is glaringly clear sometimes that the engineers have no real world experience in what dealers and the public want.

I am through and brutally honest about what is wrong with the 820. Now I am getting close to finishing my paper and I looking for a place to post it and let other professionals review my paper to add or disagree with my findings.

I am asking the group, where do you think the best place is to post my review?

I agree there are some things that are infuriating about Sharp machines and programming, and I much prefer the 600/700s to the 800s.
However, I now work somewhere else and there are times I think 'I wish this could do the things the way that a Sharp could'! Of course that works both ways as I can bring my experience to improve things, that's why I was employed by them (I think!).
How about PMing (for want of a better word!) your findings to the trusted advisors?
Have you spoken to Andrew at Sharp about the problems you are having?

If you are a Dealer do you think it is a good idea to come on a forum and post negative comments about a product that you sell.?I dare say there are potential customers that read these posts.

This apparent (your words not mine) 21 page document that outlines all that bothers you about all things SHARP, are you going to post it on your company website or show it to your biggest customer.!!?

Have you approached your SHARP rep with your findings?

If you are spending 8 hours a day for months, then maybe you need to take a different approach to how you setup these machines.

If it bothers you so much why the hell do you sell it?.

Bidgy

A few things to clarify here. First I work for a company as a programmer and I don’t sell it. I program registers and do support calls for other dealers and customers. My company sells a lot of stuff; I just do the SHARP cash registers.

Generally I like my job and there are bad days in any job. What I am saying about the 820 is that this was a poorly thought out machine. Every company at some point makes a dog. SHARP has don’t it before. It happens. If you make too many of them then you go under.

My biggest customer bought it because they needed a special feature on it and they had to swap them out. Most of my complaints in my article are dealer based not so much at the customer end – my job is tougher because of it, not theirs.
Like…the back up master is not a true back up master, limitations on the 13MR3 card reader, the register has to be disconnected from the base to get to the back ports, all the back ports are RJ45 ends, small cash drawer (I like the 700’s 03DW drawer), taking the top case off with clipped plastic, display and print options everywhere in reports, trying to lock down a keyless register (cant properly be done). Get the picture?

I don’t care if they re-write the ROM version; it’s too late now. The molds are made, the production is happening. The 800 series has to be scrapped and a new model has to be designed and designed right. These guy in Japan have no idea how the real world works because they would not have designed a register like this and the sooner they face up to that and release the 900 series with these fixes, then we the programming and support community will be better off.

Salesman sells it because that’s what they have to sell. Its not because its any good, its because they have a warehouse full of them. I can’t get a hold of the local SHARP engineer, he’s never in the office and if I could would he even have influence in Japan. I doubt it.

The only way SHARP gets the message is if they release something and no one buys it. My company still sells a lot of 700’s still because it is more secure. This customer ONLY bought this register because it had one feature they needed. Security on this register is a big headache for them and me. This register is designed for an owner/operator where you can trust yourself.

My 21-page list is my experiences and feedback from other customers and dealers. Its collection of thoughts and problems. I just wrote it down. This is not some therapy thing where I mail it to my self then burn it. No, I am going to make it compete and accurate and post it anomalously somewhere. Because yes, telling the truth could get me fired. And then I will share the links with everybody and see what the feedback is.

Maybe I'm being slow here. What is the feature they're after that it has to be 800s?
I actually quite like the idea of hidden ports. Keeps leads from 'magically' moving themselves.

No Porty you’re not slow. I was purposely vague about the reason but basically it’s about the remote journal feature.

I am glade that the hidden ports work well for you. See…this is what I was trying to do. I wanted to bring up a discussion on everything that bothers me with the 800 and have someone like yourself comment on it. That was the point of the article but I will not release it until it is proof read and factually correct.

One minute you are purposefully vague and then next a 21 page document

What is the remote journal feature? Are we still talking 820 or 810/811?


The backup master system is the same system as per the UP700.Sharp hardware and firmware tends to be so reliable that I have
never come across any body whom as needed to use a BM.

The Mag card reader reads characters off a card! Are you relating to some specific firmware?

Not quite sure from a programmers perspective why this is an issue.In a live working environment its better to be secure than being easily accesable.

Small cash drawer - again from a programmers perspective!!! -why not stick a 03 on - simples!

Taking the roll cover off - clutching at straws.

Display and print options - yes flexibilty, there would be more complaints if the options were not there and again no different from any previous Sharp model.

Locking down a keyless register- surprising how easy it is to get hold of a set of keys for any other model.

Your local Sharp Engineer have you emailed him- which one is it, ill ask him to ring you.

Are you aware development is also now done in Germany for the European market? No thought not!

I have numerous ideas about what would enhance the machine and have mentioned them to our rep,she says she will bring them up at the next meeting.Why not give that a go?. Or even better send your document.

Regards

Bidgy

Ps

By all means send me your document and I will proof read and tell you which bits are factually correct- free of charge

Interesting interesting…

I find it interesting that you have so much love for the 820. I guess we are polar opposites. I am not going to convince you of anything different and I’m not even going to try. All I am saying is that the 820 for me and some of my customers is its a design failure and it cannot all be fixed with a ROM upgrade but we can lessen the pain.

And I am not holding my breath on any major ROM upgrade either. I have heard from SHARP support numerous times that Japan is too busy to write new stuff into the ROM version so if its important, they raise enough money in a budget and hire a local company to write a new ROM version – this is not just on the 800 by the way. The quality that comes out of Japan is so much better than the 3rd party patch I sometimes have to use.

And no I don’t know what extent Germany plays in the SHARP cash register roll but that does explain why the (SDW) SHARP Data Wizard was made in Germany.

One last question - are you in the United Kingdom?

I was just about to ask that!
From this forum I've learned that Sharp support in the USA isn't very good, to say the least, and as for some of the US spec ROMs..........