Problems with Follett

[Judy Cunningham <jcunning@WAHOO.SJSU.EDU>]

Fellow LM_NETTERS,
        I'm hoping someone out there has some advice for me.  My
circulation system is new, CircPlus, and I use a 3400 scanner.  The
scanner misreads the barcode a lot!  I've called Follett many times
about the problem, but feel that I'm getting the run around.  Here
are a few examples of the problems:

        Scan in patron #330, the patron comes up, but book #30 is
        checked out to the patron.

        Check in book #3145, the screen comes up with book #145021
        (The 1st number is dropped, and 3 extra numbers are added)

        Check out a book to a patron, scan in the next patron #678,
         book #678 gets checked out to the previous patron.

There is no consistency to the patrons or the books that are misread.
I've scanned in various barcodes that Follett has faxed to me.  All
they've done is to slow the process down to a crawl.  Today Follett
blamed the problem on the lights, which are flourescent, but not directly
overhead, and to my white circ desk, which I've now covered with black
construction paper.  I've requested several times that we try replacing
the scanner, but they won't consider that.

Tomorrow I'll try turning out the lights!
Any ideas?
Thanks so much,
Judy Cunningham
jcunning@wahoo.sjsu.edu