Customer Rating: 
Summary: It's a Winner!
Comment: I needed very high quality printing for an art show, printing on CD's and to read the CF from my Camera -- it handled it all well.
I'd recommend running the head cleaning and alignment when you start out. I had a tag and a line drag and it all cleared up when the heads cleared.
Good value and the price of the high capacity inks is no worse than many and better than some.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A really slick printer with a few niggles
Comment: The entire experience with this printer has clearly been thought about. From opening the box and finding the printer is in a plastic sleeve with handles that helps you to pull it out, to the glossy look and beautiful prints.
The print looks great, and prints great.
It would have 5 stars except for the not so great input menu setting up the wifi, and the lack of RAW support for printing from a memory card. We also had a few problems with the paper feed refusing to recognize the paper as letter paper.
That said this one of the best printers we've ever owned.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love this printer!
Comment: This printer has it all. Print, scan, copy, fax and wifi. Wifi makes this printer. No more cables all over the place and no more cluttered desks. You can place this anywhere in your house within your network range. Before, if I wanted to print something from my laptop I had to go to the printer and connect the cable. Now I can print over wifi. It prints very beautiful and also scans very high resolutions. Set up was a breeze. Getting other computers to print was also a breeze.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing - The Artisan 800 is Simply Amazing
Comment: The Artisan 800 is just what the title says, simply Amazing. The installation of the software took the longest but once it was done it worked immediately out of the box. Wireless bliss. That's all I can say. I installed the software on my IMac. To be able to print without having it attached is pure joy. Not only that but I then went downstairs to one of my pc's and printed to it as well. There simply were no problems in the installation. It truly worked right out of the box. No calls to tech support, no issues to deal with, it just worked.
I wish all products I purchase worked as simply as this one did. If your looking for terrific output, a simple way to print without all the wires, then this one is it. AND IT PRINTS CD'S AND DVD'S! This is truly an ALL-IN-ONE. Great job EPSON!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Absolute horror story (MUST read) - still continues
Comment: Folks, read this, please!
I am a very technical person - my almost 2 decades of career has been in technology. So I understand that sometimes new products with a lot of new features (at a VERY reasonable price) can go through the initial hiccups (QA :) But this is beyond belief.
ORIGINAL REVIEW (Sun, Nov 16, 2008):
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This printer was/is closest to what I was looking for (no specific order):
1) Wi-Fi
2) Stand-alone copier and scanner
3) Photo-quality printer
4) Fast enough printing: > 30 ppm
5) All-in-one. Fax wasn't that important, but the price difference between Artisan 700 and 800 was minimal with enough additional functionality (besides the fax).
6) Past (good) experiences with Canon and Epson
and so on.
BUT, as my luck would have it, things didn't go as I would've hoped.
I opened the packaging today and started the initial setup:
Step 1: Remove ALL the packaging. IMPORTANT NOTE for others: make sure you open up the paper tray & the output tray and remove the blue sticky tapes - wasn't obvious right away. Both of those trays are under the Control Panel. Also, there is a blue tape by the 'ink tray' - you can only get to it once you lift the scanner unit. It is not easy to see - it is on the front side of the unit, outside the ink tray. The packaging is VERY professional and VERY detailed. So take your time in finding & getting rid of ALL the packaging.
Step 2: Perform the initial set-up (using the Control Panel)
At this point, I got a message regarding "Install the ink cartridges. See the setup sheet for details."
Right after that (within a few seconds), I got another message "Closing the CD/DVD tray. Please wait". This message stayed on for about less than a second - it just kind of flashed through. Then, I got the infamous message "An error has occurred. Turn off the power, wait a few seconds, and turn on the power. For details, see your documentation".
I turned off the power, and put in the ink cartridges - hoping that might solve the issue. I knew the chances were slim, since this error has only one fix: replace the printer! It has happened to a few unfortunate folks already and has been documented.
Anyway, it didn't help. The whole process would be the same. I would turn on the printer, go through the set-up and end up in the same error (even with the ink cartridges installed).
Interesting enough, the settings which I entered the 1st time (date/time etc), were stored - probably the ROM. But I had to go through all the confirmation screens regardless.
Thus, at this point, I have an absolutely useless piece of electronic gadgetry in my home office.
To make matters worse, it is Sunday and Epson support is not available.
Thus, I will have to call tomorrow (Monday) and hope things work out well.
I *will* update this as the story unfolds!
UPDATE #1 (Mon, Nov 17, 2008):
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Called Epson Customer Service this morning. Call center in Philippines - the line was quite bad.
Anyway, after telling the 1st level support all the details AND other folks' experiences with the SAME error, we still went through his script. Not a biggie - about 20/25 minutes.
At the end of it, he suggested that Epson will ship a brand new replacement. When he mentioned 4 to 7 business days, I politely (but firmly :) asked him to ship it overnight - which he agreed to after speaking with his manager. That's a good experience!
Obviously, I had to give my credit card for a hold until I return the defective unit. They are also going to pay for the return shipping costs - for the defective unit.
All in all, quite a nice experience regarding Customer Service.
We will see how the new unit works out, though!
I'll keep everyone updated.
UPDATE #2 (Tue, Nov 18, 2008):
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Received the new unit this afternoon - overnight shipping. Epson did good there at least.
This time, the new unit managed to go through the initial setup - unlike the 1st defective one.
After the wireless setup, including the driver installation on a Vista machine, the 'test page' came out mostly blank.
I tried a few print pages, but the same problem - blank or partial pages.
I tried a copy and that went fine - just the 1st time.
Finally, called the Epson support.
After about 2 hours of phone support, it was determined that this is also a defective unit. After 2 nozzle checks, 1 head cleaning, a few more print jobs and lots of 'trying', Epson support was finally convinced that this is also a defective unit. (I was quite sure of that, since the same symptoms have happened to some folks and the fix seems to be a new unit. Unfortunately for me, no one has had both the issues happen to them - the error loop at setup AND the blank pages)
I was transferred over to 2nd level technical support. He agreed to send me ANOTHER replacement unit - overnight! He also offered to 'make things right by giving you an option of choosing free ink or free paper'. 2 inks (any color EXCEPT black) OR 2 packs of photo paper. Interesting! I just want a unit which works!!!
UPDATE #3 (Thu, Nov 20, 2008):
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Got the 3rd unit today. Managed to free up some time later in the day to deal with this. Was that a smart move! After 3+ hours of time with support, this printer is giving similar problems. Initially, it gave the 'endless loop error at startup'. But after we tried something (remove one last tape of backup and removing the transport lock COMPLETELY), it went further. But then none of the printouts would come out flawless. Lots of smudging, lines disappearing (i.e. the ink not printing). After going through a few head cleanups and a number of nozzle checks, we tried a complete new set of inks. Same problems. The nozzle check pattern itself never printed completely! At this point, the 2nd level support tried to get me to the 'Advanced Level' support - which had already gone for the day. So I'll be getting a call within 24-48 hours. But his gut feeling is Epson might need to replace the printer AGAIN (3rd time)! It is astounding...
Oh, and another note: the promised free printing paper (which I never asked for - Epson support guy offered on his own) was NOT included. I really don't care about the paper, but he insisted that it would be included. What's going on with Epson Customer Service?
It is sad, since I have been a loyal Epson customer for over 8 years - I used to like their price plus performance combination. And their photo printers are almost always superb!
It's time to return this puppy for good.
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