Creative Responds

After my last email and 4th different support person, I received some answers. While these are not 100% satisfactory to me, it narrows the gap between possibility and reality. The firmware update, so far seems to have additional features (like an equalizer) and also fixes the nagging X-Fi issue I was experiencing. I still think the "hold" feature as the only way to turn off the screen is ridiculous, but maybe they can fix that in a future firmware revision. I don't see the complication. Thanks to Creative for performing the most basic of appeasement. I'm still watching you, however.

Thank you for contacting Creative Technical Support Services; we
appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

From your description, you are having issue with your ZEN X-Fi player. I
apologize for any inconveniences this issue is causing you. Let me see
what I can do to assist you.

For your information, you can only turn your ZEN X-Fi player's backlight
off when you switch your player to lock mode. If you never lock your
player, the backlight for your ZEN X-Fi player will just dims.

As for the sleep timer, it can only turn off when your player is in
pause mode within fixed period of time. If the player is in play mode,
the sleep timer will not be activated.

To solve the issue on the X-Fi Crystalizer, you can try to update your
player's firmware. You can download it from our website at:

Creative ZEN X-Fi Firmware 1.04.08:
http://support.creative.com/Downloads/searchdownloads.aspx?strString=ZENXFI_PCFW_L22_1_04_08.exe&ShowDetails=1


If you still require assistance, please reply to this email with any
previous correspondence to ensure the quickest and most accurate
service. You could also visit our public forums and interact with the
millions of Creative users all around the globe at http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs
.

Thank you again for contacting us at Creative Technical Support.

Best Regards,

Marcus
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas

CREATIVE Still STINKS!

Around October 1, I started another email trail to Creative's Technical Support regarding the 'issues' I was currently (and consistently) experiencing with their new Xen X-Fi 16 GB media player. I listed my issues and added details. Their response after their automated 'we received your message here's a useless tracking number' email went something like this :

Dear Joe,

Thank you for contacting Creative Technical Support Services.

I understand that there is some problem with your player. I apologize
for the inconvenience that has brought to you and I will try my best to
assist you.

Can you please send us a more detailed problem description so that we
are able to help you troubleshoot.

Thank you for the continuous support of Creative Technical Support
Services.

If you still require assistance, please reply to this email with any
previous correspondence to ensure the quickest and most accurate
service.

Best Regards,

Foreign Rep. Name
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas

It was a response, but not the one I wanted. It was 'progress' as in what happened prior to the Industrial Revolution where progress is a flat line. I responded thus:

Thanks for getting back to me. I am still having issues as they seem non-fixable without a firmware update.

Here are the issues I am experiencing :

1) Backlight timer and brightness. I cannot turn the screen off. If the unit is on, the screen is always lit even if I am not actively controlling anything. The screen never turns off. I can diminish its brightness to 10% and set the timer to 5 minutes, but it doesn't actually turn off. This affects battery life. Currently the 36 hour play back listed in the specifications is a gross misrepresentation. I dont' think I get more than 12 hours on a full charge because of the inability to have the screen turn off when not in use or turn the display off entirely (please see and iPod for an example of this).

2) Sleep timer. I am not sure what this is suppose to do, but what it does is nothing. I had it set to the minimum of 15 minutes. I waited with the unit in play and in pause/stop mode, to see if anything would happen after 15 minutes. Nothing. The battery just continued to drain.

3) X-Fi Crystalizer. The setting is currently on. When I power the player on, the music starts out normally, but after a few seconds the volume seemingly diminishes itself to an almost inaudible level. Turning the volume to max barely comes close to the original volume level. I have to go to the X-Fi crystalizer and cycle through the settings. It doesn't matter what those setting are. If it was set to Max and I cycle to off, the sound jumps in volume to where it should have been initially. I have to do this constantly after every shutdown, even if it was set to off.

I am eagerly awaiting the next round of firmware updates that would resolve these issues.
Thanks,
Joe

The response :

Dear Joe,

Thank you for writing back and letting me assist you further with your
concern.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused from this experience. Please
allow me to assist you further in resolving the issue.

Here are a few suggestions that you can try:

1) I would need you to perform a Reset for your player by following the
link below:

Resetting an MP3 player
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=26011

2) Afterwards kindly visit this site to download and run the MP3
Recovery Tool by following this link:
http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/MP3PlayerRecoveryTool/welcome.asp?

Again, I apologize for the complications that you have experienced and
hope that I have given you enough information to resolve your issue.

If you have tried all the above and are still experiencing issue, please
reply to this communication citing each of the troubleshooting steps
that you have taken and what the result were.

Thank you again for contacting us, hope to serve you better in future.

Best Regards,

A different foreign tech/customer rep.
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas

My retort :

Creative Tech,

This is the second unit (X-Fi 16 GB) that I have had (so far). The first one I had to return because the power button did nothing. They both had the same issues (the 3 mentioned before). The first unit I reset and performed the recovery tool, twice. I have done both tasks once with my current player (so far), with the same success : NONE. The reset and mp3 recover tool have done nothing.

Thanks,
Joe

Their last communication to me, from yet a third tech/customer service person :

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the reply.

I understand that none of the troubleshooting steps provided resolve the
issue. I would like to recommend that you send the unit in our service
depot so we can test it for you.

Kindly provide the information requested below:

First/Last Name:

Address (No P.O. Boxes please):

City:

State/Province:

ZIP/Postal Code:

Contact Telephone Number(s):

Email address where you would prefer to be reached:

Product Model Number :

Color of player:

Alternate color choice:
(Please note that the alternate color choice is only used to decrease
the turnaround time of your RMA if the unit must be replaced and the
color of your player is out of stock. If you only prefer to have the
same color that you sent in, please be sure to note this.)


Size of the hard drive or amount of onboard memory:

Product Serial Number (often listed inside the battery cover):

Place of purchase:

Exact/Approximate Date of Purchase:

Creative Care Protection Plan Number (if purchased):
Creative Care Protection Plan Order # (if purchased):

Brief Description of Problem:

Once this information is applied to the RMA database, we will reply to
you with an RMA reference number and shipping instructions.
* Please note that an estimation of repair costs cannot be made without
the above information.

Should you need further assistance, please reply to this email with any
previous correspondence to ensure the quickest and most accurate
service.

Best Regards,

Tech #3
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas

My response will not be pleasant. Stay tuned for more to come.

Creative Stinks the Place Up

Back on July 15, I took the risk of buying the new Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Flash Memory media player, as an alternative to the Apple iPod Nano (generation 2). I just had enough of dealing with iTunes synchs and the Nano's insistence of skipping 1/2 the songs I put on it (even though they play fine in iTunes itself). And lets not forget the crappy headphones and propriatery USB connector.

The first 3 weeks with the Zen were magical. Creative released 2 firmware updates during this time and I was enjoying the freedom (and the possibility of adding a SD or SDHC card later, for increased capacity). That was until the power button stopped working. It didn't seem to be a software issue, since the player worked. It is just that I could not turn it on using the power button. I would have to plugin the USB cable to turn it on. The fact that a few weeks earlier, my SkullcandyFMJ Earbuds went bad, AGAIN (this time sooner than the last even though I was more careful) didn't ameliorate the situation.


I had trouble using the online RMA and difficulty again dealing with on-the-phone customer service. I received an "entered" status report email 2 weeks ago and that was all. I'm not too happy right now (due to the unknown status of the item I bought and now appears to be in limbo and that I have to use the Nano again), so I decided to write Creative a letter :

I am uncertain of who to contact, since you have made it very difficult to find anything on your site.

3 weeks ago I had to go through the painful and manual process of RMA for the Creative Zen X-Fi (coincidentally which I bought from your online store), because the online RMA process didn't work. After approximately an hour on the phone all the info was taken and I sent the item in.

I received the initial email and that is all. I do not know if you even received it. When I attempted to check on its status, I got nothing, since none of the 3 phone numbers that I have worked. I can't help but wonder if just threw $200+ dollars out of the window on your product as I do not think I will see it again. This is the RMA: 8AUG90099. Good luck in finding anything.

I hope you realize that the market share of the personal device market, you lost on your own. Apple didn't do it. You did it to yourselves. You were out with mp3 players years before Apple. Unfortunately, you have substandard customer service support, terrible software development and update schedule and stalwart 1980's IBM mentality (barbarians at the door).

Good luck in doomed future endeavors.

Let see what happens next.