Fatally, but Creatively Flawed

BEHOLD! THE WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH! YOU SUCK, CREATIVE!

For a long time, I have wondered how MP3 maker Creative got its name. I finally found the answer - that its products are fatally, but creatively flawed. Before you Creative fans bash me, allow me to present my plight first because as you would have guessed by now, I had and have a very bad experience with my Creative product.

My old Creative MP3 player, a Zen Neeon 512MB to be exact, was a reliable gadget until its buttons and scroll decided to break down 2 years into service. 2 years was a respectable lifespan for a MP3 player. Well, fine, it was time to upgarde anyway since the 512MB was hardly enough to contain my entire music collection, which was expanding on an almost daily basis.

There was one time the i-Pod Nano and i-Pod Touch were some of my choices for a new player, what with their oh-so-attractive looks, but I decided against buying them as they were considerably expensive and I wouldn't want to use iTunes to sync my songs to them. I returned to Creative, as it is an established brand and its media players are justifiably priced and affordable (according to costs to features ratio). I selected the new Zen, successor of the hard-disk based Zen Vision: M, as it looks sleek and its price tag was right. I thought I had caught a big fish, a bargain. BUT I was so DAMN wrong. You suck, Creative. Consider me gypped by your UTTER NONSENSE!

Ok, so what if the Creative Zen costs a mere $175 for the 4GB version (a bargain compared to other media players of this calibre)? So what if it has a big, beautiful screen? Does it matter that it has a feature that most other media players don't - a SD card expansion slot? Nope, it all doesn't matter - because the fact stands that Creative's quality control sucks like the veritable quality of those Made-in-China imitations of Nike products. This IS an affront to me, a real SMACK in the face - that Creative media players are so affordable ONLY because they will only last you a maximum of 2 months before all sorts of craps start appearing - HP, don't smile, because you too has committed a smiliar offence (my 2005 HP PC came with a corrupted hard disk, but the retarded HP staff kept on insisting it's my fault!). But let's get back to the main subject - CREATIVE, YOU SUCK!

Ok, to be fair, everything was alright until 2 months into service. But then the first problem appeared. My videos stored in it magically disappeared from the video selection list one fine day. That was strange, since the videos still registered occupied capacity in the Zen. Thinking that my Zen was corrupted (somehow!), I transferred all my music files onto my PC before trying to reformat the Zen. But guess what? The videos (again) magically appear. So I had just wasted my time transferring my music files out and messing up my playlist and track information and album art details. Oh great, so now, I have to reorganise everything.

AND then the 2nd problem occured! The Zen was cruelly messing up the taglines of my music files, so instead of .wma or .mp3 files, I have files that were of unknown formats! This happened whenever I reconnected the Zen to my PC and the worst thing is: I had no idea what caused the problem. For a moment, I felt like calling the Creative customer service hotline and giving them a lashing, but alas, I was too busy to do so. Perhaps it was an excuse for being too lazy. Fortunately, the problem fixed itself (magically - again!) after some time. So, all's going to be alright from then on, right? NO!

Just a few days ago, I encountered my 3rd problem with the Zen in my few months with it (image). But now, instead of the software giving me headaches, it was the hardware. Yes, the piece of Zen itself. When I switched on the Zen, a mysterious white (and blank) screen appeared and I could not operate the player. Now, WHAT IS THIS! I attempted to reset the player, but it could not work. For some reason, the songs were still able to play but I did not have any access to the interface, so it was as good as the Zen being non-operational.

Speaking of the reset button, it is there FOR a reason. Creative knew in its tests that its stupid Zen will fail - well, that's the only reasonable explanation as to why the reset button is there, right? So, yeah, Creative knew that the Zen will fail, yet they did nothing to remedy that problem and actually had the guts to release its malfunctioning Zen into the market. During my few months with the player, the Zen had already frozen for no particular reason on several occasions (more than a dozen times, to be exact).

As if to add insult to injury, the CREATIVE salespeople ARE official retards - they are the most CREATIVE people I have ever met - spinning the most CREATIVE tales to trick people into buying the Zen. I remember asking a salesperson for more information on the Zen a day before my purchase. I asked him whether the Zen would be able to play .avi and .wmv files because those 2 are the most popular formats and any proper media player worth its salt should support those 2 file formats. The salesperson assured me repeatedly that the Zen would be able to play the aforementioned and even recommended me to use .avi files as they are more suited for the Zen. Perhaps I was too naive, perhaps I was not careful - that I didn't take a good look at the specifications on the back of the package before buying. BECAUSE the Zen supports neither .avi nor .wmv files, but rather, .mjpeg, .wmv9 among a host of other moronic file formats. So what does this mean? This means I have to convert my videos into these compatible formats before I can watch them on my Zen. Well, fine, something has to go if the price is low, right? As if converting a video isn't inconvenient enough, the conversion software took a crappy 1 hour plus to convert a 1.5 hours long video. Well, I have to admit that it was my fault for not looking at the specifications clearly before I bought the Zen, but what pissed me off was: THE SALESPERSON LIED TO ME!!! THE CREATIVE SALESPERSON LIED TO ME!!

Man, you suck, Creative. And not only do you suck, your salespeople are a bunch of ignorant idiots who know nothing about the products that they are helping to sell. Either that or they have lied to me with inimical intents.

So what now? I am fed up with my Zen. I am fed up with Creative's poor quality control. And yeah, my examinations are over and I finally have the time to call those other idiots at the Creative HQ. Or perhaps drop them a mail. And then go down there and ask for a refund/exchange. This is your last chance to prove that you're a credible company, Creative! Now, don't be like HP who adheres to the philosophy of "THE company is ALWAYS right, and the customer is ALWAYS wrong!" HEY, HP, YOU SUCK TOO, OKAY! I AM NEVER GOING TO BUY YOUR HALF-ASSESD PC AGAIN BECUASE YOU HAVE POOR QUALIY CONTROL AND YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS HOPELESS.

For now, I would advise anyone who wants to buy a Zen to steer clear immediately. It sucks, alright. Don't be fooled by Creative's "Credit card sized wonder" advertisements for the Zen. Because at the end of the day, all you're getting is garbage. DON'T BUY CREATIVE ZEN, DAMMIT! It is cheap, but it is trash! Unless Creative gives me a refund or an exchange that doesn't actually spoil, I will never buy another Creative (and HP) product again.

Again, I must repeat: Creative, you suck! And yeah, HP, the customer is always wrong. You suck too!

P.S. If you have had a bad experience before too, feel free to drop a comment. And if you Creative and HP suckers happen to read this too, feel free to drop a comment as well.