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 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.