Let down by Creative Customer Supp

Question

[size="2" face="Tahoma">My daughter received a Creative Zen Vision M which was purchased in November?and the screen went faulty with the colour dissapearing on the video. We called the customer support in Ireland and followed all the instructions and it was not corrected so they asked for?it to be returned. She did this and duly an e-mail was sent to say that it had been replaced and was being sent by Parceline. Parceline tried to deli'ver it today but no one was in so my brother in law collected it. The parcel was undamaged.[size="2" face="Tahoma">Now the real issue starts when I spoke to my daughter and asked if it was ok she was very upset and stated that the replacement player had quite a number of scratches and a small dent imperfection in the case. Now I can only presume that this is a refurbished product and my daughter was in tears on the phone to us. May I say that I am disgusted that Creative should treat there customers in this way and that a player that was approximately 2 weeks old and that she had saved up towards is replaced by a inferior product. The?[size="2" face="Tahoma">RMA No. is?6375438. Today I received an e-mail from?Andrew Killeen about a survey could anyone give me his e-mail so that I can discuss this issue with him.[size="2" face="Tahoma">May I say that the Customer Support team in Ireland were very helpful and polite when I spoke to them but they?and Creative have been totally let down by this treatment of customers and this has tarnished the name of Creative as far as I am concerned.?

Answer 1

I sent a copy of my post to Customer Services and received response as follows. My comments are shown in bold.
Dear Richard,
I'm very sorry to hear this.
When it comes to our replacement procedures, we always recommend our customers to go back to the shop if a product fails or if they're for any reason unhappy with it within the first 30 days. This was not practical at the time and I did not believe that by returning it to Creative that you would receive inferior warranty terms to returning it ot the shop.?The faulty unit was sent to our depot in the U.K., and a replacement was shipped here from Dublin upon receipt. This means that we have not yet received your unit, we have not seen it, and we are therefore
unfortunately unable to guarantee that the replacement looks exactly the same. Surely Creative should at least give the customer the chance to have there unit inspected and repaired this means that you could send a unit back which may not even have a fault or a easily remedied fault and it is replaced with a far inferior product. Perhaps Creative should make customers aware that when they buy a new product if it goes faulty that it will be replaced by?a refurbished item therefore it may be as well to buy a refurbished product in the first place.
As long as the product is 2 weeks old she's as far as we're concerned absolutely entitled to a brand new unit. This does however depend on the store and their return policies.
As this is the technical support department, we can replace faulty units. We have no possibility of sending out new players, this is always done by the shop. The faulty unit is replaced with a refurbished one. This is also why we recommend going back to the store within the first 30 days. Why do Creative not stress this issue when you call them and be completely up front when calling them. In effect Creative are offering an inferior warranty as manufacturer to the shop that is selling it. At least Creative could make the customer aware of why the product is a refurbished one in the first place if a fault existed?what it was and what is actually the age of the second hand unit.
When all this is said you are NOT supposed to receive a unit with, and I quote, "quite a number of scratches and a small dent imperfection in the case". The unit might have been damaged in transit, or a mistake has?been done while packing the unit. The package arri'ved undamaged so how can scratches appear to an item whichis in a box and packaged it would appear that Creative need to tighten up on there checking procedure.
What we can do in this case is to collect the unit and ship a new replacement. To do this I would need the serial number of the unit you received from us. Surely this will not be a new one but another refurbished one.?I understand that you are very upset with the service we have provided, and this is something we take very seriously. I would therefore also ask you to get back to us with information on who you have been dealing with and how they have mistreated you. I dont believe that anywhere did I state that I was mistreated by any Creative employee in fact I complemented the PERSONNEL on the way they dealt with the problem.
The fact that you are "disgusted that Creative should treat there customers in this way" and that "this treatment of customers and this?has tarnished the name of Creative" is something we definitely need to
go further with. Creative stri'ves to provide the best possible customer support and we will not tolerate any of our customers to be treated in this way. This appears to be tolerated by Creative by the company policy in the first place.
Please get back to me as soon as possible, and I'll arrange for the collection and replacement of the unit you have received. I will also bring this matter to the attention of our management team. The management must be aware of this sort of matter as it is them that that are primary in making company policy in the first place.
Please accept our sincerest apologies once again for any inconvenience caused. I dont think that sincerest apologies are acceptable in such issues as this.
Please be aware that Creative have made one teenage customer very disenchanted with the company and the product after the complements that she has made concerning the staff that you employ. The only part that has not been answered as yet is Andrew Killeen's e-mail address and if anybody can make me aware of anyone high up in Creative that I can contact I would be most obliged.