Decent product for the price point lowsey customer service.
I own a small business so wanted a paper shredder that would last awhile with a few extra features. After lots of research only two brands had consistently high reviews with the features I was looking for, which were Fellowes and Swingline. I opted for the Swingline EX 12-05 shredder as it was cheaper than the Fellowes counter part. In brief however, the shredder performs well so far however, the customer support leaves much to be desired and is the main reason for the three star rating.
Shredder Pros:
The shredder so far performs as described for the most part. The shredding pieces in the main slot are fairly small and the shredder itself does a fairly good job of keeping the paper pieces from lumping up in one spot in the bin. It also chews through material at a fairly good pace. The bin is also easy to pull out as well. It was able to chew through junk mail still the envelope which was a claim I was skeptical of. Currently I am not able to comment on the longevity of the shredder as I have not owned it for that long. Finally, the unit came with a generous length on the power cord.
Shredder Cons:
The power saving feature does not turn off the LEDs on the front of the machine. This is a little annoying if you don't want to hit the on "auto" button every time your about to put paper in the shredder due not not wanting to see a bright blue light in your face when working at night. The "whisper quite" on the box is a little misleading as while the shredder is quieter than other models I have owned it is definitely not whisper quiet. The over heating indicator is comical as it is a single light, so you only know if you have over heated or not and not if your about to overheat.
There is also some misleading documentation. On the specs for the shredder on the Swingline site it says it can shred paper clips and staples but in the manual it actually advises you not to shred these items as it might damage the blades. Also on the Swingline site it says "previously security level 3" which would leave one to think that it is either above or below the security level 3 standard. Finally, the manual is also confusing on which slot the credit cards go into. It says the plastic bin that comes inside the shredder that is located under the CD/DVD slot is meant to catch the CD/DVDs and credit card pieces and after 8 of either your supposed to empty the smaller bin. However, on the manual diagram it says the credit cards are supposed to go into the main slot with the paper. After calling customer service it was confirmed that the credit cards can go through either slot however, to cross cut the credit cards they must be put into the main slot and the pieces will end up with the rest of the paper. To actually have the bin catch the credit card pieces you must put them through the CD/DVD slot however, if you do so they will only be striped cut (1 inch strips). This seems like a horrible design flaw as what is the point of the bin catching pieces if they are so large? Also having the removable bin snap into the paper bin instead of loosely hanging inside the bin would be a nice feature as it would keep the consumer from having to remove the smaller bin each time they empty the paper bin.
Finally the inclusion of removable wheels would be nice.
