Response from a long time customer... who will be a long time customer no mo

Question

I just browsed into the forum to get some help because I cannot get a microphone to work under Vista on my XFI Platinum. I also have an Audigy which as we all know has major issues as well and of which does not function under Vista correctly either.
.....And when I got here for some help, I got hit upside the head with this brewing Daniel K controversy.
To say this is unbelievable is an understatement. I became a Creative customer way back with the release of their first products... after being a C-64/C-28/Amiga user for years (still am actually!). Dam how I wish the Amiga were still a main stream system.....
To learn that Creative has, in effect, mislead all of us in such a way that my sound card does not operate properly?because I am running Vista and WITHOUT TELLING ME is completely unacceptable.
And this now explains why I have spent countless hours and days trying to get things working. Problems including crappy sound output (i.e distortion at volume), inability to get a microphone to function, lack of functionality of all the high end features on the card... the reason I bought it in the first place. It makes me extremely angry to know I have spent all this time trying to get things working?only to now find?it has been an entire waste because of your actions with the drivers. I have not?wasted days trying to fix this... I?have wasted MONTHS!Whomever the hell made this decision is an idiot. PERIOD - and I hope he or she reads this and chokes on it.
Your reaction toward someone simply trying to help resolve the driver issues, even if he was asking for donations, was unacceptable as well, in my opinion. You have failed to do anything so someone else did. Of course it made it much worse to find out you PURPOSELY mislead all of us and PURPOSELY disabled features and functions.
Hardware is what you make money off of, not drivers. In the past when I have upgraded, I have simply taken the old hardware and donated it to a good cause that needed it or put it in another older system that did not need the high end specs I was wanting or needing for a new system AND I could count on it function with the drivers because the hardware was still working solid. You should be giving us reason to WANT to upgrade.
I.E. Quality, features, reliability, customer support.
Now, instead you have really screwed the pooch and tried forcing us. You took years of me looking at your products as good, top of line, quality and functional to trash.
What really pisses me off is the nice set of speakers I blew out because of the sound quality output and the massi've noise burst that happened when updating the drivers a couple months ago. That now explains why that happened and I now know it was YOUR fault that this occurred during a driver update and reboot. (at reboot, when windows loaded, the sound blared out at full distorted volume and short of cutting power I was unable to abort it in time).
There is not much more for me to say here that others have not already stated. But I needed to make my thoughts public.
to Creative:? I am not some child or young kid who is just upset because things do not work. I am a 45 year old who has worked with computers since the C-64 as a hobby. Like, I am sure most others here on this forum, I know the insides and outs of my system, how it works, how to configure it and etc etc. Because of your actions and my struggles you have now lost what was a customer you had for the last 23 years or so. This action and your lack of support of your products, your customers and those simply trying to help has now cost you me and my business. I hope that makes you very happy.
Additionally, I will be watching and waiting and should a class action be taken against you for fraud, commercial deception, and false advertising, you can rest assured I WILL be participating.
Just off the top I would say we all have a pretty good argument and case. So if things do take a turn that direction, I am in.
In my RL work, I am in law enforcement. I deal with people who commit crimes everyday out there, people who boldly look me in the face and lie to me outright... Now I get to come home and instead of being able to not worry about being ripped off, taken advantage of and being able to trust companies I purchase from, I now have to think?of them just like those I deal with on the street. Now I have to look at companies like Creative who have also taken the path of boldly and outright lying to me as well. ?Instead of assuming you are honest, now I guess the time has come for me to assume you are lying to me like everyone else does.
What a freaking year... first a certain high end video card maker and their driver issues (won't say who, but will say it is?not ATI) and now Creative. I thought I had seen it all with the video card maker... but this from Creative?!
This out does everything else.
In the meantime, I am right now making a purchase.... of a competitors high end audio card to replace the X-Fi card currently in my system. Unbelieveable.
Sincerely,
Todd
Wisconsin,USA
(Malakie)

Answer 1

Amen, I plugged in my first Soundblaster 8 bit card 20 years ago, and the being left without a decent driver for Vista for an Audigy I had less than 6 months hacked me off.... Then I find out they intentionally were not upgrading the drivers to force new hardware purchase? (And I was considering getting an X-Fi)... and now the shear arrogance of the management of creative?
"? O'Shaughnessy admits that Creative Labs intentionally crippled its Vista drivers as a business strategy.
"If we choose to develop and provide host-based processing features with certain sound cards and not others, that is a business decision that only we have the right to make."
I run a business myself, and the correct business decision is one that helps both the customer and the company, not the one that is an blatent attempt to screw the customer.
I only see 2 options for creative to survi've at this point.
One, Apologize, either fix their drivers quickly (in the next week or two) or hire Daniel_K drivers, and distribute his drivers. Key workd is quickly here.
Two, Quickly offer a rebate/tradein program...and a significant one, not a 0% off sale...at least a 40-50% off sale. ?
I don't expect # 2 because that will be a hard financial hit on a company that is suffering anyway. ? But # will not create as much goodwill.....and goodwill is what creative needs because of the mismanagement of this situation, and the admission that it was done strictly to force purchase of their hardware. ?
Unfortunately, I think in either event, creative is now doomed.