Letter to the Editor: Buyer beware: Zune doesn't stack up
I'd like to share with you an experience as
a first time customer of the Zune 4G product
sold to me by Best Buy. I've been thinking
of buying an MP3 player for a while, and
decided that the market was right to buy a
portable player. I went to Best Buy to
research what product to buy. With all the
Apple iPOD commercials that are so in your
face I thought that maybe I'd see what else
was there. Call it reverse psychology, or just
a buyers mind to see what else is out there to
offer me.
I was helped by this young salesperson at Best Buy. I asked what products were out there and what products were good. He told me Apple was the way to go and that there wasn't anything else that was in comparison. That just made me think that he didn't really know much about any other product than Apple.
I saw this product Zune, which is backed by Microsoft and their competition to the Apple Ipod. I specifically looked at the 4G Zune, retailed at $129.99. Now the product isn't that much cheaper than an iPod, but I figured if it was backed by Microsoft that it wouldn't be that much of an issue to transfer my music files from my PC (I'm not a MAC user) to the Zune. So I went with the Zune. At the time I purchased the Zune there was a display of Bonfire prepaid cards, that when purchased can be used to purchase music from their online store. I decided that I didn't need to purchase it but rather go online and purchase whatever I needed.
So I get home, all excited about my new product. I unwrap the product, which comes in a small box. There was no software that came with the product, since the manual tells you to download the software on line at the Zune website. Forty-five minutes later I downloaded the software, converted majority of my music and picture files to Zune format. Not too thrilled about that, but oh well, whatever to make the transition easier. Then I had to wait for another two hours for my Zune to charge. After it was charged I thought, why put old songs from my computer onto my player, when I could download some of the latest songs out there.
So I go to the Bonfire website, and guess what? BONFIRE WEBSITE is CLOSED as of MAY 14th 2008! So I'm like, “Why would BEST BUY still be selling these prepaid cards for a website that is out of service?” The website did say that another company Puretracks.com was taking over their customers. So I went to the Puretracks website to purchase songs at an average of a $1 per song. I spent around 30 minutes finding 20 songs that I liked. So $24 dollars later (taxes included), I was ready to transfer these songs over to my Zune.
This is where it gets unreal.
Zune wouldn't accept 18 out of the 20 songs that I purchased since it didn't recognize the 18 songs purchased at a legitimate online store! Wow, I was royally pissed! That's like 10 per cent of the songs that I purchased, and considering that this 4G Zune is capable of holding 1,000 songs, I might be in the situation where I can only put 100 songs out of a 1,000 that I like?
Not wanting to damage the Zune that I just purchased, I quickly thought of adding songs to my player with songs that I had already ripped from my CD collection on to the Zune. Whew, I almost lost it there. I had no problem transferring those songs onto the Zune, but with all great stories the best was saved for last.
Four days after I had purchased my Zune, I decided to go out for a walk and enjoy the night. MY ZUNE FROZE! It looks like it stopped in a reboot. I quickly ran home and went onto the Zune website to figure out how to fix it. The instructions they had to do a restart didn't work! So I'm taking my Zune back to Best Buy today, and hoping for an exchange or return. Their website says that they will take product back within 14 days of purchase. I'm praying right now that they take it back, or they'll lose a customer for life, or at least until the next line of MP3 players come out and the stuff right now is dirt cheap.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
I was helped by this young salesperson at Best Buy. I asked what products were out there and what products were good. He told me Apple was the way to go and that there wasn't anything else that was in comparison. That just made me think that he didn't really know much about any other product than Apple.
I saw this product Zune, which is backed by Microsoft and their competition to the Apple Ipod. I specifically looked at the 4G Zune, retailed at $129.99. Now the product isn't that much cheaper than an iPod, but I figured if it was backed by Microsoft that it wouldn't be that much of an issue to transfer my music files from my PC (I'm not a MAC user) to the Zune. So I went with the Zune. At the time I purchased the Zune there was a display of Bonfire prepaid cards, that when purchased can be used to purchase music from their online store. I decided that I didn't need to purchase it but rather go online and purchase whatever I needed.
So I get home, all excited about my new product. I unwrap the product, which comes in a small box. There was no software that came with the product, since the manual tells you to download the software on line at the Zune website. Forty-five minutes later I downloaded the software, converted majority of my music and picture files to Zune format. Not too thrilled about that, but oh well, whatever to make the transition easier. Then I had to wait for another two hours for my Zune to charge. After it was charged I thought, why put old songs from my computer onto my player, when I could download some of the latest songs out there.
So I go to the Bonfire website, and guess what? BONFIRE WEBSITE is CLOSED as of MAY 14th 2008! So I'm like, “Why would BEST BUY still be selling these prepaid cards for a website that is out of service?” The website did say that another company Puretracks.com was taking over their customers. So I went to the Puretracks website to purchase songs at an average of a $1 per song. I spent around 30 minutes finding 20 songs that I liked. So $24 dollars later (taxes included), I was ready to transfer these songs over to my Zune.
This is where it gets unreal.
Zune wouldn't accept 18 out of the 20 songs that I purchased since it didn't recognize the 18 songs purchased at a legitimate online store! Wow, I was royally pissed! That's like 10 per cent of the songs that I purchased, and considering that this 4G Zune is capable of holding 1,000 songs, I might be in the situation where I can only put 100 songs out of a 1,000 that I like?
Not wanting to damage the Zune that I just purchased, I quickly thought of adding songs to my player with songs that I had already ripped from my CD collection on to the Zune. Whew, I almost lost it there. I had no problem transferring those songs onto the Zune, but with all great stories the best was saved for last.
Four days after I had purchased my Zune, I decided to go out for a walk and enjoy the night. MY ZUNE FROZE! It looks like it stopped in a reboot. I quickly ran home and went onto the Zune website to figure out how to fix it. The instructions they had to do a restart didn't work! So I'm taking my Zune back to Best Buy today, and hoping for an exchange or return. Their website says that they will take product back within 14 days of purchase. I'm praying right now that they take it back, or they'll lose a customer for life, or at least until the next line of MP3 players come out and the stuff right now is dirt cheap.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
