First, for a product website like this, there’s no reason for requiring all kinds of hoops for the password. I do web design for a living, and create and maintain a 1500+ page corporate site. The goal of a product-oriented website ought to be to make it as easy and transparent to the viewer to find the info that they need.
So, today, shopping at MicroCenter, I bought a Sandisk C250 on clearance, listed as a return, for $12.96. No manual or any paperwork were included in the generic white box, but the MicroCenter employee was abel to access the features from their database.
I have since determined that it must be defective, as the screen doesn’t light up altho I can access the memory via USB, and I can charge it (the buttons light up and stay on even with USB detached). So, naturally I assumed that maybe I was just not doing something, and I contact this site.
Unfortunately, probably because of some top-down management decision, there is no manual available here - nor any other information about my player, even though the picture shows up in the top bar for the communities section. Not keeping manuals available just because a product may no longer be being sold is STUPID!!! Website access is very cheap, and that policy tells the customer up front that as soon as whatever product they buy is no longer current, neither will there be any support.
If you were a customer, knowing that, would you buy ANY Sandisk product? Already I have wasted twice the value in time that I paid for the product, and now I will have to return it and pay for my gas, etc. If Sandisk kept their manuals online, I could have saved a good chunk of that time, instead of fruitlessly searching all over the site.
It costs virtually nothing to keep old manuals available and by deleting them Sandisk also hurts its position in the search rankings. Thus, this is a lose/lose policy. At least the site is better than AT&T’s unbelievably unusable site. But that’s not saying much.
