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I recieved a 5GB Creative Zen Micro for Christmas last year as a gift from my parents. The player has many great features, and is a good-looking player overall. About 3 months after I recieved this first 5GB Zen, the headphone jack went out. I only could hear audio out of the left earphone. So, I contacted Creative’s customer support and finally got an RMA for my Zen. I mailed the Zen to Creative, despite a possible warning that I might have to pay $65 to get it fixed. It turns out that the design of the player was flawed, and despite having professional engineers, they only soldered the headphone jack to the circuitboard, which when it came loose, crippled sound in the right headphone. Yet Creative still refused to admit it was a design flaw, as seen throughout the Creative support forums. I mailed the player in, thinking about how much of a pain this had been so far. I recieved the new player a few weeks later, and they had been so wonderful as to upgrade my player to the 6GB model. Were my problems with this player over? Nope. After enjoying the player for another three months, I had another wiring problem with my Zen. No, not the headphone jack this time. The power switch had ceased to respond. I upgraded firmware, downgraded firmware, formatted the player, and tried about every trick I could think of (without voiding my worthless warranty) to get the player to respond. I ended up having to turn the player on by plugging the USB cable into it, and then unplugging it, as it would stay on. So, small problem solved. But how was I going to turn it off? The player either has an idle shutdown period of 5 minutes, or I could remove the external battery. I was again, upset. Returning to Creative’s support forums again, I found numerous people with the same problem. Another design flaw? Creative doesn’t think so.

Resorting again to their customer support (which takes several days to get a response), I recieved a response, giving me the RMA information for yes- my second player. But this time I wasn’t going to get the player fixed for free, they said. a $25 fee would be my price to fix what seemed to be a terrible example of engineering. Writing a short paragraph before providing my mailing address, serial numbers, etc., I mentioned that I had not dropped the player or abused it. I had merely used the player the way it was intended to be used. I asked why I am the one responsible paying for a design flaw in a product. No response in regards to that paragraph, but just the information to where I should mail my second flawed Zen Micro. Angered, I searched the website for a customer support phone number to call to discuss my objection to paying for both shipping and handling, and a $25 fee. Let’s see if you can find a phone number on their site.

No? You can’t find one? That’s because Creative only offers telephone support for the first 60 days after you buy a product. After that, you have to pay for it. How cute. But wait – the website says that there is a support number that can be found in the manual. So, I dig my manual out. No support telephone number anywhere. Again, cute. It seems that Creative doesn’t even read their own manuals. So no luck there.

In conclusion, I would advise anyone who is looking at buying a MP3 player for themself, or for a child or sibling, don’t go for Creative. Their products don’t last, and their support is mediocre at best. I personally, though I told myself I wouldn’t, am I looking at buying an iPod. So long, Creative. Hope you open your eyes to your terrible customer support and poorly designed products. I won’t be buying from you again.