Creative Labs ignores me
And they ignore a lot of other people too. In my case their software update made my player useless and they refuse to take any responsibility although they acknowledge that their software has issues. Let’s spend our money on the competition.
Rio Love
First, a bit of history: my first MP3 player was a Rio 600 packing a whooping 32mb of songs… yes, mb! Everything was wrong with it but it was still cool for the time. The one thing that could never be excused was the pathetic software that came with it and I hope the programmer’s body will never be found.
It was my first! And like most things, no matter how much you like your first «insert item of choice here», it’s usually not going to last. The software was beyond hope, the interface primitive and the whole thing built very cheaply.
I quickly got mad at bugs / features of the crap program bundled with it. As the technical support took the common "too late, you bought it" stance, I just decided to return it on the spot…
My life was not complete anymore… I needed another MP3 player!
It was my first! And like most things, no matter how much you like your first «insert item of choice here», it’s usually not going to last. The software was beyond hope, the interface primitive and the whole thing built very cheaply.
I quickly got mad at bugs / features of the crap program bundled with it. As the technical support took the common "too late, you bought it" stance, I just decided to return it on the spot…
My life was not complete anymore… I needed another MP3 player!
Not a lemming
I started my research on the internet and, eventually ended up at Fry’s (I know, I know…). I had friends, a social life and overall no need to appear cool in public so I ruled out the iPod.
At the time you could get a 10GB iPod for $400 or other players for twice the memory. I decided I did not need to be a lemming and would rather pay for the product rather than sponsor a brand like Apple.
There was not too much choice, but I eventually settled for the Creative Zen Xtra; it had 30GB of space and was about $240. That’s about 5 times less per gigabyte than the iPod.
This happened around 2002 and MP3 players did not have much history and a leap of faith was required when buying any model.
At the time you could get a 10GB iPod for $400 or other players for twice the memory. I decided I did not need to be a lemming and would rather pay for the product rather than sponsor a brand like Apple.
There was not too much choice, but I eventually settled for the Creative Zen Xtra; it had 30GB of space and was about $240. That’s about 5 times less per gigabyte than the iPod.
This happened around 2002 and MP3 players did not have much history and a leap of faith was required when buying any model.
A good compromise
The software was still crappy, but it wasn’t a surprise: Creative Labs always had crappy software. In fact for a long time they also had crappy hardware. I actually wrote drivers, in the context of my work, for the original SoundBlaster and some subsequent models. I think, to this day, that their AWE32 sound card was one of the worst pieces of hardware to even program. We’re routinely bashing Sony for making our lives hard (I worked with the different Playstations), but this is nothing compared to the idiotic design that thing had. Eventually, their hardware got better and I guess they shifted the incompetence to software. Let’s not even start about the webcam drivers…So, why did I buy their product? Simply because the features seemed good for the price and I as already ready to return it the next day if I wasn’t happy.
But I was happy! I could live with the slow-as-hell-poorly-thought-interface of the junk that came with it and the player itself was great. Interestingly, that thing outlived several of my friend’s iPods; I didn’t get a broken audio jack, my battery is still working fine and, after all these years, there are still no scratches on the screen. Sure I didn’t get white ear phones so I don’t get to look cool and I can’t play the "I think different and to show it I buy the same stuff as everybody that also thinks different" card.
Overall, it was the beginning of a long love story. We went on holidays together, snuggled in bed and did plenty of cool stuff.
The breakup
To make a long story short I put Vista on my main machine. This whole Vista thing and how it’s strongly getting on my nerves is going to be the center of another story soon :)
Ohhh, there’s a problem… Zen Xtra doesn’t work with Vista! Well, not much does, it seem. So I checked the forums and found that Vista is supported through a firmware upgrade. This was not the first time, so I got the firmware file and ran the update tool.
Ohhh, there’s a problem… Zen Xtra doesn’t work with Vista! Well, not much does, it seem. So I checked the forums and found that Vista is supported through a firmware upgrade. This was not the first time, so I got the firmware file and ran the update tool.
Arrgh!
The tool failed! It erased the files from the player and now claims it is not plugged and cannot write the new ones. It is stuck in recovery mode, which I guess is the real ROM on the player, the firmware being really on the hard drive.
No way to get it to work anymore: some more research on the forums indicates I am not the only unlucky one!
The issue was traced to Windows Media Player 11. For some reason, having WMP 11 makes the firmware upgrade fail. I could go on and discuss again about their ability to write decent software, but what happened is more interesting.
Let’s summarize the facts:
- The hardware works.
- The software was working before running the upgrade, is not working after.
- I found on forums there is a known incompatibility with WMP 11.
- The incompatibility is NOT listed with the firmware upgrade release notes.
The irony is that the incompatibility has been discussed on Creative Labs’ forums by their customers and, yet, they haven’t put any notes with the firmware. To add insult to injury, it is actually mentioned by Microsoft as well!
Inconvenience
I decided to email and call Creative Labs. They are amazingly frustrating to contact:If you go the email route, you will realize that you have to fill a form on their website. And it will also propose you moronic solutions to irrelevant problems as you are just trying to send one form to some guy that will probably not care about it. Once you have gone through the process, you will get a reply that seems to be automated: it returns pre-canned answers to other problems you might have been able to describe using the same words. After playing email ping-pong for a while, you finally realize that there is a human that got involved somehow in the process. Unfortunately mine had an IQ of 3. So I decided to move on to the phone.
The phone is very similar but you spend more time on hold and you get to answer stupid questions too which makes the experience more interactive.
In/convenience is the most successful bullshit word that corporate America has found in the last few years. For example you are billed things you don’t want for your convenience or you might have your bags and receipt checked to make sure you’re not overcharged. On the other end of the spectrum, there is inconvenience. It is also very useful: for example saying "hahah you were dumb enough to think we were going to stand behind our product now that you’ve paid" can be worded as "I am sorry for the inconvenience".
So, Creative Labs is really sorry for the inconvenience. And while they acknowledge that their software update broke my MP3 player, they claim it is out of warranty but they are courteous enough to tell me I can buy a new one.
I wonder how that would work if a garage totals your car, but tell you it was out of warranty so you can buy a new one from them instead of them assuming any responsibilities.
It always works
Whenever you want to talk to someone that can do something at a company (instead of wasting time with the $8/hour guy that is always sorry for the inconvenience, but he cannot help you) there is a solution that always works: call unrelated departments; usually investment and marketing yield the best results. With Creative, it was pretty fast because the person at the front desk was helpful. In fact the front desk was more helpful than the few retards from customer support and I was put in touch with Tracy shortly after.Tracy knew about this problem right away and offered me a solution to try (which ultimately did not work). I will call again in the next few days to report the failure and see what they can offer. I will post an update if any.
Due to the ordeal and the time wasted, even a fix is not enough to make it right. I dealt enough with the retards from the normal support channel that I should be entitled to some kind of compensation.
The sad truth is that Creative Labs is not the only company like this: underpaid single digit IQ monkeys are used in customer service and they have no freedom to help clients. They read scripts designed to troubleshoot basic problems but real technical issues have become too expensive for them to handle. They would rather lose a customer that is more expensive to provide support to that sticking with what makes businesses work: customer satisfaction. Vote with your wallet and boycott!
Hey Thomas, if you still have your player there is a fix for the issue you have mentioned. Creative has recently laid off its entire American Tech support team so there is no one available to help but outsourced workers. You cannot expect to receive actual text support with them as these people are HIGHLY incompetent.
Go to Creative's knowledgebase and type SID 1 6 7 3 7 into the search box. The article that comes up will resolve your issue. Creative tries to hide the fact that they know abotu this issue but they are well aware and have developed instructions to resolve the issue.
Kaiser Associates is conducting a research project looking at best practices in customer service for consumer electronics. In particular, we are looking at the repair of defective products (in-warranty or out-of-warranty) and the customer service and return/refurbishment processes.
We would be very grateful for your responses to a few simple questions with regards to your Creative Zen, experiences. We will offer a $25 Amex gift card for legitimate responses. Please feel free to post this in other forums where other people might be able to respond to the survey.
If you have any questions, please contact survey@kaiserassociates.com.
Creative Zen survey link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=KEn_2fGpxFwbjqhDeC4RUkqw_3d_3d
Disclaimer: Kaiser reserves the right to qualify responses for legitimacy. Demonstrating knowledge of the process and providing lengthy responses (i.e., not yes or no) to fill-in-the-box questions will ensure you receive the $25 gift card reward.