Don’t buy any Audiovox products
July 14th, 2006For Christmas this past year, my wife bought me an Audiovox MP3 player. It worked fine for six months, but the other day when I turned it on, I got a message that said “File System NAND Start,” and it won’t let me do anything else.
So I called customer service, and they tell me that I’ll have to send it in for repair, which will cost me $20. This is a product that is less than a year old, mind you. This is a lousy company that produces shoddy material, provides poor customer support and doesn’t care about its products. You’d be well advised not to buy any Audiovox products EVER. And feel free to post this on your blog if you’re so inclined. In fact, I’d greatly appreciate it if you post it on your blog. I’m going to send the links to their customer service department.
Tim,
I could have told you about Audiovox. Audiovox=Cheapo.
You want service- Kenwood, Pioneer, Alpine, Yamaha, & Harmon Kardon. Those 5 companies have outstanding products and customer service.
If you are going to get another MP3 player, I would wait a few more months as Apple is introducing a talking IPOD and MS is introducing a product that they hope will take away loyalty from apple and switch it over to them. Whenever these 2 products hit the market, you can be sure that other product prices will drop.
j razz
I hadn’t planned on buying anything Audiovox - but thanks for the warning. I’ve had a bad experience with Pioneer also.
I like to strictly stay with Sony. That’s where it’s at.
Hmm. Sony. I have not had good luck with their consumer level of care. Now, with that said, I have several professional Sony HDV cameras and the professional side of Sony has been the best customer service I have ever received. They are great and responsive. I have never had to wait on hold. They are available 24 hours a day and even on Holidays. I also have recieved phenomenal customer support from Sony Madison Software Division- They are in control of Sound Forge, Acid, Vegas, DVD Architect, Cinescore, etc. I cannot say the same for the consumer customer care from Sony.
j razz
I even had Sony, the professional dept., to write a new .dll file for one of my burners to work with the DVD Architect program. That is customer service.
j razz
I really like Sony because I believe their stuff is among the most reliable. I’ve rarely had a problem with any of their products.
There are a few things that turn me away from wanting to use Sony. 1 is they are like the Citi Corp. in that they are made up of a bunch of smaller companies. Each one does not really know what the other is doing. You could buy a Sony DVD burner and Sony Software and the 2 are incompatible. You could also buy from their BMG corporation and wind up with a rootkit (spyware) on your computer, simply by playing the disc in your drive. You could buy a Playstation and call for support and find that you have dialed Sony Electronics Consumer Software Division instead of their American Games Division, etc.
The other thing that I have reservations about is the fact that they do not like to share. They want to be proprietary. SD or compact flash was not good enough for them so they had to make the Memory Stick and charge more for it than the others. They can get away with this b/c it is proprietary and nothing else will work in their machines. If you bought a 8mm camcorder, Sony had to be different and make Hi-8 tapes for their cams and then Digital 8’s. The same thing with the Blu-Ray Disc. They are partnering with another company on this one, but they do not want to budge, hence the format war. Maybe this time it will be different than the Betamax vs. VHS. Who knows.
If you go with Sony, you are pretty much guaranteed that you have to stick with Sony. Once you get involved with them, you have to stick with them to stay up to date.
Like I said earlier though, I do own some of their products, but they are professional and the benefits of that division far outweigh, for me, the proprietary restrictions.
j razz
I had forgotten about the Spyware thing. Wasn’t there a huge lawsuit over that?
There was and Sony settled. If you were in on it, you could get your choice of free downloads, money back or free replacement cd’s. In my opinion, a little too late.
Sony seems more concerned about the bottom dollar than the happiness of their customer. Blu-Ray disc has so much copy protection built in, it will be a miracle if we can play it on more than 1 player. New discs will come with new codes that update the list of pirated movies to make them no longer work in players, etc. … I guess I should stop now, before they make my Sony Laptop explode for typing this about them
j razz
Ohhh, no… (banging head on desk)
Nowadays, Sony is mediocre manufacturing, average R&D and customer service. I’ll definitely credit their engineers, but the manufacturing, specifically QA, has been attrocious since the early 90s. I’ll save my Sony sour grapes for another time…
j razz - maybe Sony has changed since I contracted for them, but that two and a half years I worked for them is one of the main reasons I have a problem giving them or most of their products any bit of a thumbs up.
Anyway, I have had a SanDisk 1Gb MP3 player and love it. Lower power consumption, FM radio, no rechargeable battery, and compact enough to slip in my front pocket. Cnet.com gave it a 7.3 rating: http://reviews.cnet.com/SanDisk_Sansa_m240_1GB_silver/4505-6490_7-31563923.html?tag=pdtl-list
Well, I like Sony’s stuff. I’ll stick with it.
I’ve heard that the SanDisk player is great. For my birthday this year my wife bought me a Creative Zen Nano player. So far the only thing I don’t like about it is there is no “stop” button. To stop the song you have to shut the player off. Other than that it’s done well for me.
I have a Creative mp3 player. It’s great. Highly recommended.
Bloggage of poor customer service is powerful. Over at Buzz Machine, Jeff Jarvis detailed his massive headache with Dell. It spread like fire.
Since we are going there, might I also recommend wakeupwalmart.com
Look at the issues.
OK then.
I have a three-week old SanDisk and love it so far. Easy to load, FM radio, voice memo recorder, and all for less than $50 for the 512 mb one. We’ll see if it holds up for more than 6 months (I’m extrrrra hard on personal electronics; can’t even wear a digital watch, my metabolism fries them!).
If anybody is in the market for buying some electronics, or whatever for that matter. I always consult www.dealnews.com for deals and usually you can find what you want at a discounted price and they do all the work for you.
I was walking out the door one night to go pay an inflated amount for a drive I needed to finish up a wedding at Best Buy. I thought about the website and went back in and checked it. I was able to print off a 50 dollar coupon that was redeemable in store and got the drive for right at 100 bucks.
That is just one example, but they have a ton of things on there, take a look.
j razz
On a weekly basis my SanDisk is worn at least twice while I’m cutting the grass and weed trimming; goes with me to and from work and school living in a backpack; goes with me to the range once a week; and gets confused for a German Shepard’s chew toy when stupidly left reachable.
While I assume that other HDD based players are similar, I can use mine as a USB jump drive - saved my bacon last semester when I showed up to do my presentation and the PC’s 3.5″ wouldn’t function.
And I 2nd jrazz on the Dealnews.com site - it’s good stuff.
What a hoot! Let me get this straight. If I read about poor products or service, then I can scratch them off my list. Like Audiovox. Then Sony and Pioneer get thrown into the fray. Keep it up, guys. Soon, there won’t be anything worth buying!
I once bought a hamburger at McDonalds that wasn’t fixed right. Now everyone go out and boycott the golden arches!!
Excuse me for trying to point out a company with poor products and poor customer service, Tom. Next time I want to post something that might help you as a consumer, I’ll warn you ahead of time so you won’t have to read it.
Maybe I’m jealous because I don’t even have an MP2 player, let alone an MP3. Ever think of that?
Didn’t think so. Now go and have a nice weekend.
MP2?
Warn me too. In fact, whenever you point out anything positive OR negative, please tag it appropriately. Really in fact, on your main page, why don’t you title the posts and then put a brief summary of what article you are referencing or posting so we know whether or not we want to click it or not. Thanks in advance. Oh, and Audiovox does = poo.
I worked in the wireless phone industry for several years and can tell you that their cell phones are not reliable either.
http://www.bensbargains.net/ This is another good site for deals. I’m really wanting one of those MP5’s to play with. They have one at the range in Belleville but it seems to out for repairs a lot.
Scott, MP2 often times refers to MPEG1 Layer II audio. It lacks the compression MP3 and other formats have, thus making it impracticle for a small audio player.
Oh, I’m just used to it being called MPEG.
um, fellas, that was a joke. When everyone had a computer I was still hammering out term papers in college on my grandfather’s old manuel typewriter. Have always been behind the curve. Wayyy behind. Thus my crack about MP2.
What is a typewriter?
Jeremy, A typewriter is the title of a person who classifies retail merchandise imports for customs.
That’s funny. I just got a visual on Tom’s use of TSinker’s definition of a typewriter
j razz
Just got this e-mail message from “Ed” in Audiovox’s “customer service” department. I put “customer service” in quotes because it’s really not an accurate description:
Dear Tim,
The reason for the flat rate repair charge is that the unit is out of warranty. It is a pity that you chose to not share this piece of information with readers of your blog.
Sincerely,
Ed
Customer Service
My response:
Ed,
It’s a pity that your company only stands behind its products for 90 days, and it’s a pity that your company’s products only last that long. A customer purchasing an MP3 player should expect it to function for longer than that, should they not? It’s also a pity that you don’t care enough about your customers to waive a $20 charge, choosing instead to take a PR hit worth much more than that.
Customer service, indeed. When you’re in a hole, Ed, stop digging.
HAHAHA thats funny! Tell Ed I almost bought an audiovox phone but luckily I read your blog first and now motorola will have my money.
Here is a good site for all you consumer complaint needs!
http://consumerist.com/