A Sad Day for Creative Own

Question

Let me start this post off with something positi've.<br ><br >
I am a long time Creative enthusiast. I have only ever purchased Creative sound cards, and they have all worked great. I also purchased a Zen XTRA 30gb a few years ago, and it still works great (battery life is waning, but that's to be expected at this long). I have never had to contact customer support for *ANYTHING* regarding the soundcards (Li've! 5. Value and Audigy 2 Platinum) or my Zen XTRA 30gb.<br ><br >
I purchased a Zen Micro on July 27th, and that's where the enthusiasm sto
ps.
I bought a 5gb Zen Micro Black, Refurbished, on Creative's eBay Store. The price was right (at 59.99) and since it was Refurbished, it should have had all the defects the original owner had fixed. Everything seemed gravy. I uploaded my favorite music to it, had no problems and was listening to music within hours. It was perfect, to me, because it was tiny, held all that I needed for my day to day listening "needs". Sounds good eh? I read these forums about all the problems people had with their Zen Micros... and I figured I was lucky.<br ><br >
...until yesterday.<br ><br >
(DISCLAIMER: The Zen Micro I am describing has never been mishandled since I have owned it. Never dropped, never jostled, never left in a hot car, or exposed to any sort of pressure/jolt/etc. I can make no claims to the care the previous owner of the player took-- there was a name entered into the player when I took it out of the box which leads me to believe there WAS a previous owner... unless Creative likes to enter random names for you)<br ><br >
I went out to mow the lawn, like I usually do, and listen to music. Mowing the lawn isn't exactly a "vigorous" activity and doesn't involve any jumping up and down, running, wrestling, or extreme sports. I tried turning on the player, but it didn't turn on. I thought that was funny because I was listening to it the day before, and it still had full battery power when I turned it off. So I plugged it in, because I thought somehow the battery must have died (maybe I had left the alarm function set up). Well, as soon as I plugged it in and moved the power slider, it glowed to life -- sort of -- and showed the battery as being 2/3's charged (remember, it wouldn't turn on by itself).<br ><br >
So it turned on... but that's all it did. Normally when you turn on the Zen.. it...you know, takes you to the Now Playing screen or the Menu (depending on when you turned it off) right? Well... not in this case. Turning on and glowing is ALL it did. So I unplugged it, took out the battery, put the battery back in, tried turning it on, and I got to the CREATIVE logo, and then it froze again, in the same fashion. Although I noticed that the screen was very dim afterwards and I could barely make out the next screen that was supposed to display ... but it was frozen there. I went through the unplug, unbattery, rebattery method again, and this time went to the recovery menu. I tried doing a Clean Up and a Format, but each time I tried, the process would get to exactly 39&#37; and stop. I'm not sure what is so magic about the number 39, but no matter how many times I tried, 39&#37;, 39&#37;, 39&#37;!<br ><br >
So I called up Creative tonight at -405-742-6655, explained the problem to the first guy I talked to, and he told me to call -800-998-000 and to select option . So I did. I explained my problem to the guy that answered, and he transferred me to the eBay department. I then explained my problem a third time, and was told to call the -406-742-6655 number, which I actually recited to him, because he didn't know the number. That aside, I called the first number up again, and spoke to someone else, who said I should have been taliing to the eBay guy, but I explained what I had been through already, and she checked on it and decided to "help" me. And by "help", I mean sell. Once I got through explaining the problem (this is the fourth time, if you're counting), and she asked me to hold several times while she "checked what my position was within the warranty". After about 5 minutes of holding, I was told that the repairs for the problems I described would cost $50. I was in shock, since I had only paid $0 more for the player, which I pointed out to her. Not dissuaded, she continued with the point that I (and I am directly quoting now) "should just buy the new Zen Micro player, because [I] will have a warranty again and will get noise cancelling headphones as well." I asked to speak with a manager, and was put in touch with her supervisor (after about 0 more minutes of holding). He was no more helpful than she was, and explained that I was responsible for all repairs, even if it was a manufacturer defect. He also tried to sell me on the "buy a new player and shut up" thing as well.<br ><br >
Excuse me? I've had this player for not even 4 months, it goes defecti've, and I am told to buy another one? I thought only APPLE did this kind of bait and switch tactic! I can't afford to pay for another player; THAT IS THE REASON I CALLED TO GET IT FIXED!<br ><br >
Creative's management must have changed between the time I purchased my Zen XTRA and Zen Micro, because I never expected this kind of "it's your problem, not ours; we are not capable of manufacturer and design defects" attitude that I WOULD expect of Apple with their iPods. Let me emphasize that I will *never* buy an Apple iPod; primarily because of the non-replaceable battery and non-standard cables (among other things). HOWEVER, I can certainly say now that I have NO confidence whatsoever in Creative as a manufacturer of digital media players. They have not only abandoned me for a problem that I did not create, but brushed me off as if I should have expected it would happen in the first place.<br ><br >
I would like to hear other people's experiences about their players and interaction with customer support, because I am absolutely appalled, and without the player I paid $60 for.<br ><br >
Hoping for better,
Brendan C.

Answer 1

Your not the first and certinly not the last to have this issue. It seems that the hard dri've used on the Zen Micro and other players, such as my own, has this problem. The hard dri've is a Seagate ST dri've. And by the looks of it only the 5gb model is affected as I have yet to read of someone with a 4gb or a 6gb Micro with this problem.
If this problem is really that big, we should get a petition started to recall the players with these dri'ves, or offer FREE service to get the faulty dri've replaced. This would be similar to the headphone jack issue which affected soo many players that Creative is now offering free service to repair it.
This hard dri've problem is not just a few dozen or so, it is a BIG percentage of players given the number of posts over the course of almost a year with the Zen Micro and the Dell Pocket DJ which is built by Creative and uses the same 5GB Seagate ST dri've.
But I must say. This problem does NOT affect all 5GB Zen Micro's or Dell Pocket DJ's. Its only some. And it does not matter if your player has been under extreme care or been mishandled. Personally my player has been mishandled and suffers my daily commute to school which involves alot of shaking and other things which has been suggested time and time again not to do with a hard dri've player, such as running, working out, even mowing the lawn. And it has not skipped a beat ever, still works flawlessly just like the first day I got it. So I know first hand it doesn't affect all 5GB Seagate ST dri'ves.
I would love to hear a response from Creative regarding this issue. Or Seagate even.Message Edited by DM on -08-2005 0:5 AM