A post, Zen Touch Owners might consider and an Open Letter to Creative. L

Question

Creative needs to take some COORPERATE PRIDE as regards one of their products, that until recently was the FLAG SHIP<SPAN> of their hard-dri've based line of D.A.P. s,
By using the Napster-To-Go Subscription Service, I spent the better part of last weekend loading up my Touch 40 GB player with reams of music.<SPAN> At about the 9 GB point on the hard dri've, the seek head would no longer write to the platters and after a time out, stopped with a subsequent TRANSFER ERROR coming up.
Bummer.
OK.
I phoned Creative, got an RMA number and shipped it off for a hard-dri've replacement at the least, a totally new unit sent promptly back at the best.
Being bummed out that I probably wouldn?t see a new TOUCH 40 GB returned to me for the most part of two weeks to a month (by some of the reports via this thread), and being that I wanted a FLASH DRIVE so I could use a D.A.P. in places where intelligence dictated that a hard-dri've based player is going to experience hard-dri've shock/abuse (like being on your bicycle, jogging, cross-country skiing, etc?.all forms of outdoor activity) so?being that I did not now have my TOUCH to listen to (I am a music-aholic) I went out on Saturday and purchased an IRIVER T0 GB flash player.
Being this is a Creative board, I won?t go into a RAVE on how good and feature packed this D.A.P. is.<SPAN> Just suffice to say that if you would like a D.A.P. for when being acti've, or as a back-up to the TOUCH 40/20, THIS IS THE PLAYER TO CONSIDER.
Now, amongst features heaped upon features this player has, never mind the FANTASTIC sonic output it puts out in sound fidelity and reams of non-distorted volume (I use a set of BOSE TRI-PORTS that need a setting of 8 on the Zen Touch, but with the Iri'ver T0, I am right now (as I type) listening to Gloria Estefan?s CONGA at a volume setting of 2 out of a possible 30!!!!<SPAN> It is just that good!
Now, what is this post doing on a Creative Forum board?<SPAN>
The answer lays in the next few sentences/thoughts?.
Amongst 2 EQUALIZATION presets, that ALL so differently shape the sound wave (they again, are THAT good, including SRS (WOW) is a CUSTOM EQUALIZATION pad that covers the following frequency ranges:
50K /200K/ K/ 3K/ 4K/ (adjustable from ?0/+0
It was in using this EQUALIZATION PAD, that is was so totally demonstrated to myself how truly abused we are as Creative Ltd.<SPAN> Customers having all of us, purchased a Zen Touch D.A.P. from this company.<SPAN> I paid $300.00 dollars for my Zen Touch 40 GB and it was deli'vered to me straight out of the package with a DEFECTIVE<SPAN> Custom Equalization feature, that is made defecti've by inferiorly produced Creative code in their Zen Touch Firmware, the very ?heart? of the product, driving and deli'vering all the features(?) on the Zen TOUCH 20/40 GB.
It is one thing to release defecti've code, if the defect was not caught by (hopefully) Creative upon the launch of the product, but with ENOUGH paying customers having made this defect well known and so WELL DOCUMENTED back to Creative Ltd. and in the many MONTHS since the defect was found in the FIRMWARE that dri'ves the TOUCH, and yet, and UNBELIEVABLY so, the defect yet remains (if in fact now even more profound!) in their latest version of the Zen TOUCH firmware!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen, who are now reading this post, ------by having had the extreme PLEASURE in owning a D.A.P. (newly acquired Iri'ver T0) with all features advertised upon the package ***WORKING***, right out of that package, let alone with such amazing performance deli'very, I now declare that I will wait a reasonable (not months any more, BUT ONLY A FEW WEEKS FROM THIS POST DATE) <SPAN> period of time to elapse before I see a FIRMWARE release and/or patch from this company, Creative Ltd., to ***FINALLY*** address this broken Custom Equalization feature ?offered? within the Zen Touch firmware.
Now in having custom set the ranges of frequencies in the Iri'ver T0 to JUST how I like my music----I have to tell you Folks----IT DOES make a TREMENDOUS difference to the sound and your PERSONAL expectations of it!
A Custom Equalization feature is THAT important to have on a sonic device, let alone a fully WORKING ONE, bug free!
To Creative:----a personal comment:
<SPAN> I have been a loyal customer of yours from the mid 90?s by having purchased EXCLUSIVELY from you, my sound cards, as well as your line of VIDEO CARDS.<SPAN> I have been a most faithful repeat customer having never seen to date your company so delaying/ignoring the defecti've broken issues from one of your FLAG SHIP sonic products.
I spent<SPAN> $79.00<SPAN> (far below the asking price of your Zen Touch product line)<SPAN> last Saturday on an Iri'ver T0 GB flash player that (with obvious pride of manufacture from Iri'ver Ltd.) works as advertised, works with the present FIRMWARE installed in the device at the TIME OF PURCHASE and PRODUCT RELEASE, and has earned my respect in putting out such a feature-rich product and with obviously, such Cooperate Pride.
Creative Ltd, if you do not put human resources immediately on releasing a patch that brings the Zen Touch FIRMWARE to a bug-free condition that it should have been when having been released with the product launch, I will consider no longer you as the stalwart CREATIVE company of old, that once DID HAVE SUCH COOPERATE PRIDE in any and all models of hardware they produced or sent out with their name upon it.
I will no longer purchase from your company, fearing that as I hold the product in my hands at the store, the features that I am there to purchase will NOT be deli'vered ?out of the box? due to inferior workmanship in materials, in SOFTWARE CODING, and a lack of Quality Control that dictates nothing leaves the plant until the Chief Technology Officer and his staff can sign off on that product?s quality and being fit for release to the Consumer and potential Customer.
I hope that the Moderator of this forum sends this post to whomever it will have cause to see the crippled firmware inside the Touch finally be brought up to quality standards that was the mandate of the Creative Ltd. of past years.
If this post has to reach the desk of the C.E.O of CREATIVE Ltd., then let it be sent there!
Creative Ltd, you are losing Customers hand-over-fist that won?t bother to sit down and type out/compose this letter/post, but will merely resolve to NEVER AGAIN look at, let alone buy one of your present, or future products.<SPAN> Nobody likes to have a ?broken and crippled? product---RIGHT OUT OF THE PACKAGE!<SPAN> Nobody should have to experience that when hard-earned money is being exchanged for it!
A present Creative Ltd. financial supporter,
(Sesquash)
Michigan, U.S.A.
<SPAN>

Answer 1

I wrote the following e-mail to Creative Support today. If they can't respond to a polite, reasoned e-mail like this then I will never buy another Creative product again!
I will post again when Creative respond to me, with a bit (well, more than a bit, more like a billion tonnes) of luck they will be able to say whether they even PLAN to fix the Custom EQ problem.
All the best, everyone.
<E-mail>
Dear Support,
I recently (0-Nov-05) purchased a Creative Zen Touch 40GB mp3 player, and I am generally very happy with it. The battery life is great, and I was happy with the quality of design and build compared to the (relati'vely) affordable purchase price.
However, my query/complaint concerns the new firmware release for the Zen Touch, version 2.0.05 (MTP support for Zen Touch). I have uploaded the new firmware to my Zen Touch (and also the relevant updates for the Creative software: Media Organiser, Zen Touch Explorer etc), and have experienced no problems in loading this new firmware to my player or my computer.
Generally, I have no problems with the performance of the new firmware: my files transfer easily and quickly between my mp3 player and my computer, and (using Windows XP SP2, and WMPv0) I have experience no compatibility issues, as one would hope.
However, I do take issue with the Custom EQ bug that the new firmware accentuates on the Zen Touch. I am sure that Support has doubtless been contacted by other people regarding this problem, but to summarise, with version 2.0.05 of the firmware installed, usage of the Custom EQ function on the Zen Touch severely impaires the volume of the player, and consequently the enjoyment of myself, the customer.
I would like to ask Support whether Creative plans a 'fix' firmware update to eliminate this bug in the firmware in the near future? I am not concerned with any new features to the player with a future firware 'fix' release (although they would not be unwelcome!), since Creative did not promise any such features in the first place. However, I feel that since Creative advertised the Zen Touch as having a customisable graphic equaliser - from Creative's own press release: "Supporting both WMA and MP3 formats, the Zen Touch deli'vers crystal-clear audio, thanks to a signal to noise ratio of 98dB, which can be customised using the built-in, four-band graphic equalizer with eight equalization presets." - a firmware update should not render an advertised feature of the product effecti'vely useless.
Please could Support acknowledge the disappointment I feel with this fairly fundamental flaw to an official product upgrade, and provide assurances (or take measures to seek assurances from whoever makes decisions upon such issues) that a firmware 'fix' update will be released in the near future?
I end by saying that I have only ever bought Creative mp3 players, and to date I have been happy with the products I have purchased, but if basic product flaws such as the Custom EQ being 'broken' by official firmware updates are allowed to go unaddressed (especially with the fact that this has doubtless come to Creative's attention through Support/the official discussion forums etc) then Creative may lose customers like myself in the future to rival companies.
Thanks for your time, and I await your reply.
Kind regards,
Lawrie Ward
</E-mail>