Bad player with known, unresolved issues. Bad customer service.

I received this MP3 player for Christmas of 06, and have experienced a flaw in it's design that is well documented with it's user base. I will simply paste an explanation of the problem I found.

"There is a known issue regarding these players' tendency to display "unknown artist" or "unknown album" even when Windows Explorer, or Media Player clearly reflect the correct artist and or album of a particular song when the unit is connected via the USB port. This issue appears to occur randomly and even the most recent beta firmware (version 2.2.5) has not resolved it."
[...]

Other discussions about said issue can be found will a small amount of research. However, there is no solution to this problem. I contacted SanDisk via their on-line tech support system on Jan-9, and received no response after several days. I then called their tech support line, as assigned case ID #982315 and was told I would be contacted the next day by somebody named Jason. I was never contacted by said person.

After a week of waiting, I wrote their customer service again. On Jan-23, I received an e-mail instructions to return my MP3 from where it was bought.

Replacing my MP3 player with the same model containing the same fundamental design flaw is not what I want, I want a solution. This MP3 player cost over $200, and it was shipped with a known defect.

Based on my experience with SanDisks customer service, the bug this player was shipped with, and SanDisks inability to correct said bug via firmware updates in over a year, I will not buy another SanDisk product.

Rating:


Pass on this one - has some strengths but irritating weaknesses

I too was enamored by the 4GB size, easy USB & Windows Explorer interface to move files instead of a proprietary software program, WMA compatible, and the FM radio. AAA battery life is long enuf (as expected) but always keep spare batteries in your backpack, locker, or desk. I consider that to be an advantage - when it dies, you pop in a new, commonly available, cheap, and disposable alkaline battery and you're running again wherever you are. However, song selection and song play is maddening. According to Sandisk customer service, it's COMPLETELY dependent upon the ID3 data for ALL songs so all songs better be consistent - lower case, upper case, punctuation, etc. or else songs are treated as separate artists, etc. You can organize your songs in subdirectories, but it's a waste of time as there is NO option to make the player play by subdirectory and alphabetical order. It's crazy - Sandisk won't let owners create and play collections of songs/podcasts simply by creating subdirectories named by users ("NPR podcasts", "jazz," "run tunes," artist names, etc.). Although Sandisk states an ability to use playlists, there's absolutely no way to create mixed artist playlists that work. The only playlists I could get onto the player are when I ripped entire CDs of tunes and transferred them onto the player. Playlists of different songs made in Windows Media Player won't work on this player. Other than a 30 song "Favorites" playlist you create by clicking buttons to select & designate each song in the player, you better like having your 4GB of songs play in a somewhat RANDOM order. This player has essentially become my FM radio and USB memory storage device simply because I can't make it play songs in any order I want them to play unless I redo each and every ID3 tag in each song. I bought an Apple Nano 8GB instead and it's MUCH easier to use. Playlists created in iTunes work flawlessly. The downers of the Nano are: I can't plug the Nano into my work computer to add songs (iTunes isn't allowed on it), I have to recharge the battery at home instead of replace anywhere, can't play protected WMA songs, and there's no FM radio (need a $60 add-on device). But I can listen to my mp3 music and podcasts any way I want on the Nano and that makes all the difference! I strongly recommend interested buyers pass on this player until Sandisk updates the firmware to provide an option to allow play "By Subdirectory." There are plenty of competitors who make a more user friendly player. I enjoyed my iRiver 390 player for years until it died.

Rating:


Great performance

This product really met the expectations, excellent battery life, great sound quality, high capacity to store a bunch of sounds.
I do not regreat my purchase, and i would not hesitate to buy it again.
The only complain is It turns off automatically a little too fast if you pause it for a few seconds.
Anyway, I fell in love with it.

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