WHY? And JUSTIFY HONES

Question

I have come to a conclusion of?5 possibilities on why the sudden?wave of customers who are so angry:
) Phil's action on Daniel_K's drivers.
[color="#ff0000"]2) Driver issues ranging from pops and crackles on their soundcards to buggy software.
[color="#339966"]3) Software bundles / Extra features being removed from the Vista drivers.
[color="#993366"]4) Customer / Tech support personnel who 'don't seem to care'.
[color="#808080">5) False Advertising of their products.
I would SERIOUSLY, HONESTLY like to find out WHY for some; and would like all the flamers here to JUSTIFY their CLAIMS on others. So here they are in order including my takes on these:
[color="#3366ff">) I have gone through Phil's letter MANY times as well as the EULA. If you ask me, it is sheer stupidity if any of you are still raging on this as there are EXPLICIT, CLEAR STATEMENTS as well as FLOUTING of the EULA by Daniel_K. It's not like Creative took or even threatened to take legal action against Daniel_K. His drivers can still be found elsewhere. So shut the hell up on this. It's a?clear testament?for the poor understanding of legal issues, copyrights, and license agreements you guys have on problem . Many of you are just jumping to conclusions even before another Creative representati've steps out. Why? WHY the anger over a small issue when it doesnt hamper your downloading of Daniel's drivers anyway?!
[color="#ff0000"]2) As I have stated in a couple of posts, NO SINGLE PIECE OF HARDWARE (espeically AUDIO related ones) WORKS PERFECTLY?with ALL COMPUTER SYSTEMS. And I am NOT talking about those built-in with your MOBOs. You all can run to your other hardware manufacturers and save your time on these forums. If they work fine for you, good for you. If they don't, good luck to that other company. Find me a company who manufactures sound cards like Creative's who doesnt have a SINGLE driver /hardware issue with ANY of its customers. If you guys can't grasp the complexity of a PC-based computer, then get a fricking MAC.
[color="#339966"]3) If those softwares were removed, the onus is NOT on Creative, but on the third party software team supplying that software to come up with Vista / x64 drivers for them! If they were to even include those software along with their new drivers they would crash your system / show up with bugs of which you guys would also start whining about anyway! Would you guys still be happy then?
[color="#339966"]?
[color="#993366"]4) If any of you DO still have your tech support transcripts from Creative, please attach them here INCLUDING YOUR OWN SUPPORT FORM WITHOUT ANY MODIFICATIONS. And then again even as I suggest this I am EXTREMELY SURE a couple of you will dishonestly modify their comments or come up with fake responses yourselves.
[color="#808080">5) Oh no; it is already proven that the soundcard drivers work on Vista and x64 systems as people like fffcmad have testified. Perhaps not 00% perfect, but Im sure most issues can be resolved by troubleshooting. So tell me how exactly it is FALSE advertising when they are already proven to work; or the fact that people without any problems with their Creative cards whatsoever arent on the forums because they have absolutely nothing to complain about unlike you all?

Answer 1

I hope the original poster doesn't work at Creative because then they really have no clue about this all. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he really is a fanboi clutz who has no clue and submit these two quotes that sum it up:
Creative has basically busted themselves. They've been caught red handed atrificially forcing people to upgrade by deliberately crippling their older products (sound like anyone else you know, first initial of "M"?). A lone white hat hacker named Daniel K created drivers that give the older cards full functionality on Vista (with a lot less bugs I might add) than Creatives own "official" drivers.
Not only did Creative put a stop to it in that forum thread I've linked, but they basically admitted that the decision to release non-functional, crap drivers for said products was a business decision, not a technical one.
The backlash is like nothing I've ever seen. It's taking the internet by storm. It will be interesting to see what has happened while I sleep.
Personally speaking, I really hope that Creative gets what they deserve from this. Maybe it will be a good example for some other companies to clean up their act. People (including myself) paid top dollar for parts that do NOT deli'ver what is promised right on the box.
We have every right to be mad.
Right or wrong, Daniel K was giving the world something Creative is too greedy to give it themselves: VALUE.
He should be applauded for this, not threatened.
I hope this blows up into an even bigger disaster for Creative, and finally brings the issue of forced obsolescence to light. It NEEDS to happen just as badly as, for example, Microsoft needs to actually listen to the cries f pain from their customers and extend support (and OEM sales) for Windows XP some more -- at least until they fix Vista.
Maybe, just maybe, this Creative Labs debacle will finally put some of these issues on the tabel for real, now that people the world over are starting to see that maybe they can make a difference after all.
Alot of people in here and all over the internet are calling creative's driver team bad and incapable of making working drivers. This is utter nonsense.
Creative could probably release perfect fully working drivers withing a few weeks at most, that's assuming they don't already have working drivers backed up somewhere. Creative doesn't want perfect or even acceptable drivers for their current soundcards, so the drivers team's hands are tied. Creative wants to release new sound cards advertising, basically, all the problems are solved and you'll have to buy new sound cards for Vista, Creative isn't the only one doing this but they probably are the only one removing old features, through new drivers, making newer sound cards seem more attracti've without really having anything new.
This isn't the first time Creative has done this. The Audigy 2 and Audigy 4 are basically the same thing, except one costs more because it's drivers allow more features, infact you can get drivers for Audigy 2 cards enabling Audigy 4 features.
They've been doing this driver "scam" for a long time, it's nothing new to them. They've hardly ever seemed to care about providing value to customers.
Also I don't see how removing old features is legal, they can't absolve themselves from everything just by stating it in an EULA, an EULA isn't law and in many countries completely or partially useless due to respecti've laws and constitutional rights. Also anything advertised to work with an opperating system, Vista in this case, and doesn't work with it, is false advertising in any country and is ilegal, contacting your local Advertising Standards Association (or equivalent) and making them aware of this could cause many problems for Creative.
Moaning isn't going to help, where you spend your money and what actions you take will determine the difference.
People are pissed that the drivers aren't working because Creative is deliberately crippling them (and have been demonstrated to actually work via a 3rd party of all things!!!) and causing the consumer a lot of havoc but also in denying the consumer value that they promised to give when they sold the product (which they then had hubris to try and shut down to deny the consumer when the original promised value was actually demonstrated). That is why people are pissed, but it is something through your indepth analysis and extensi've reading cannot seem to understand. Hey if you like being stolen from and wasting money on this company that is fine by me.
Message Edited by GlassShadow on 03-3-2008 07:02 AMMessage Edited by GlassShadow on 03-3-2008 07:03 AM