Sansa Fuze is junk

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
#1

As my name says I am now not a fan of any sandisk products.  See if you agree after you read this.

I was given a Fuze for Fathers Day, the kids said welcome to the 21st century. I used it for a day and the battery lasted 7 hours. Well  on the web site it says audio playback24 hours, I am far from that so I called Tech support ( they don’t speak very good english), they had me run an update. Well the next time I used it only used it for a couple of hours, then the next day used it again, well an hour of listening the thing just stopped. Called Tech support again ( another tech person that can’t speak clear english or undersatand anything that isn’t on the prewritten computer dialoge) . Well got an RMA # and a week later they sent me a return label. and I sent the unit back, 10 working days after they recieved the unit I was suppose to have recieved a new unit.I called and asked where the unit was and very rudely in broken english I was told that it was the 10th business day and they had till that evening to send the unit out, and to call back the next day. Then next day they had no answers and said they had to wait to hear back from a different department.

Without going thru the whole next 6 weeks of calling tech support and returns, I finally got a unit in the mail. Let’s say there Customer Service is not even up to POOR standards. A total of 2.5 months have gone by since the first call to them.

I thought it was over but the new unit only last around 8 hours of playing time, but I didn’t want to wait another 6 plus weeks and FIGHT with them to get a new unit. Untill now it has just stopped working all together.  Oh I have only used it 3 times since I got it returned.

I WILL NEVER BUY ANY SANDISK PRODUCT EVER AGAIN!!  You decide. DO you want this kind of hassel if you have a problem with a unit if you want to wait that long just to have another piece of junk.  

I am dreading the call to customer service to ask for a refund.  And it would be nice to talk to someone that speaks and understands the english language perferably in the States.

I am sure I will get posting after posting of how your experience was just flowers and candy, but this really happened and it happens to many people I am just one that got so upset I wanted to post it on SANDISC website.  Who knows maybe they don’t even relize that they are losing customers that used to use there products becase their Customer Service is worst then BAD!!

Oh if you are with SanDisk and want to discuss this matter and I would be more then happy to talk to you and get either a unit that WORKS, or better yet my money I spent back so I can buy a real mp3 player that works.

#2

While I have had nothing but good experiences with Sansa products, I’ve never had any experiences with their customer service however your story has been told coutless times on this forum. In your case, I would have gone back to the store from which it was purchased. I think the bigger stores would have swapped it out over the counter if it was within the warrantee. 

But I’m wondering when consumers are going to revolt. It’s not just Sansa. It is symptomatic of the corporatist mentality. From CEO’s to mid-level managers, corporations reward their people not just by how much profit they made this period, but on how much more they made over the same period last year. They can only increase sales so much, so it’s a business decision where to cut costs. Customer Service Departments are not profit centers so that’s a good place to cut and continue cutting until they are giving the absolute minimum customer service. To them it doesn’t matter as long as the product is generally reliable. They minimize the number of customers they piss off. I’ve been satisfied with the three products I’ve bought. They’ve lost you, but they won’t have trouble replacing you ten-fold.

Where this mentality really pisses me off is when the product or service is not so easily replaced, like a big screen TV, or Internet Access. 

Message Edited by qualityaudio on 10-14-2009 10:13 AM

#3

I have to start by saying I share your hatred for off-shore customer service people who can’t speak my language and have no clue how to diagnose a problem. The fuze also won’t let you view mpg videos without converting them to Sansa’s proprietary format. Sansa, as a company, sucks !!! They have no idea how their customers interact with their product, nor do they seem to care. That being said, my experience HAS been flowers and candy, as has many other peoples.

“I was given a Fuze for Fathers Day, the kids said welcome to the 21st century. I used it for a day and the battery lasted 7 hours.”

Let me ask, and I’m not being a wise ass, did you charge the battery before you used it ? Did you charge the battery after the first “7 hours” ? Do you have the screen lit up most of the time ( because that eats up power ) ? Is the volume cranked way up ( again, eats up power ) ?

I run my fuze ~4 hours a day, mostly in my car, and it lasts for 3-4 days on a single charge.

#4

I tried to take it back to BEST BUY, where it was purchased, since it was a gift they had bought it before fathers day, well I took it back before I even contacted Sansa and it was 32 days after they purchased it BEST BUY would NOT replace it because it was past the 30 return policy. 

Yep not too happy with Best Buy either, but they have a policy and stad by it that I do respect. But It was only 7 days after fathers day when I recieved it.  

So warning don’t buy gifts from BEST BUY eairly it doesn’t pay…

#5

The fuze has only an internal battery and cannot be changed. It was charged fully before used the first time and I used it several days and had to charge it overnight in order to use it the next day. Not messing with it, too much so the screen isn’t lit most the time. 

#6

The length of one battery charge greatly depends on the file format and frequency of  each given format you play. The higher frequencies require more power making the charge last less. I guess the estimates of the durability of charge were done by SanDisk using VERY low quality mp3s so they could impress the potential buyers.

The period the charge lasts depends on file format: Oggs and Flacs drain battery very quickly.

My Fuze lasts somewhere around 9 hours playing an audiobook (mp3 64-44) with the switched off screen.

Message Edited by Etoja on 10-14-2009 12:43 PM

#7

Good to know. I would have to see what format the songs are in. Would you not think that their own people would know this… Oh I forgot they are all in Inda and don’t speak or relay english well. And they have the worst customer service department I have ever witnessed.

#8

@etoja wrote:

 

My Fuze lasts somewhere around 9 hours playing an audiobook (mp3 64-44) with the switched off screen.

Message Edited by Etoja on 10-14-2009 12:43 PM

Wow. Mine was still showing 5% battery life after 22 hours of playing a 160kbps mp3 album…

#9

I guess Etoja has the same problem I have had with 2 different units now…    I clam it as FALSE advertising just to get someone to buy thier product. Which If I had 3 months to go with out a unt each time, I would have them keep replacing the unit till I get one that works right.

#10

same s martin here no problems with battery life. you may want to make sure your computer port is able to provide enough power to charge the battery fully. try charging from another computer or a wall adapter. any adapter that you can plug a usb port into should work i.e. iphone type charger.  

#11

@Marvin_Martian. Are you serious?  5% after 22 hours… You’ve made me envious.  I guess I should have sent my Fuze back but it is too late now, it is almost six months since I bought it from Amazon.

I doubt it has anything to do with wall chargers or different USB sockets - the battery charge is regulated by the Fuze processor and it would switch it off only when the charge circle is complete. It might be the case of bad battery batch.

However, I’ve been looking for the information on battery life on the other forums and the folks there came to the conclusion that Fuze wouldn’t last more than 14 hours.  In this case Marvin_Martian is extremely lucky.

Message Edited by Etoja on 10-14-2009 01:59 PM

Message Edited by Etoja on 10-14-2009 02:00 PM

#12

low powered ports absolutely will cause charging issues believe me i have a laptop that will not give a complete charge but my desktop and wall charger charge perfectly. i like martian also get very close to 24hrs of battery. in fact i just got back from a trip to china 12 hr flight from cali and still had over 50% battery life when we landed and the fuze was on constantly during the flight. 

Message Edited by drlucky on 10-14-2009 02:04 PM

#13

drlucky, welcome back from China… :slight_smile: I know what you mean, but I guess the Fuze processor shouldn’t switch off the battery charching process unless the battery is full - in case of low powered USB ports it should only take much longer time to charge. Though it is only theoretical approach and you might be absolutely right. Unfortunately I have a nice wall charger as well…Anyway I’ll experiment with it, thanks.

P.S. Oops… Just remembered - it can’t be a low power port in my case, I use it to charge my Cowon and its battery lasts as it should, about 50 hours.

Message Edited by Etoja on 10-14-2009 02:25 PM

#14

Maybe v1 and v2 fuze’s battery lasts differently?

#15

i get 21 hours of battery at 192 kbps

#16

@ssorgatem wrote:
Maybe v1 and v2 fuze’s battery lasts differently?

It is very likely.Unfortunately I doubt the SunDisk would ever look into this problem.

Anyway I’ve just ordered another wall charger from Amazon just to check if it has anything to do with it.

#17

@delonh24  

               Wow… Is this v.1?

#18

I’ve gone thru 2 Fuzes. The first one died of the White screen of death after 10 days.    The manuel says the battery is supposed to last 29 hours.  My system is set to 5 seconds and I ONLY LISTEN TO AUDIOBOOKS.  I called sanza tech support and got the same runaround.  Lucky for me I am a Total Rewards member at BEST BUY.  I have 45 days to return an item.

My new black FUZE now won’t charge right and I have already gotten a White Screen of Death at least once.

This is BS.

I am going to take it back and get the next up in the Sony line.

#19

@etoja wrote:

drlucky, welcome back from China… :slight_smile: I know what you mean, but I guess the Fuze processor shouldn’t switch off the battery charching process unless the battery is full - in case of low powered USB ports it should only take much longer time to charge. Though it is only theoretical approach and you might be absolutely right. Unfortunately I have a nice wall charger as well…Anyway I’ll experiment with it, thanks.

 

P.S. Oops… Just remembered - it can’t be a low power port in my case, I use it to charge my Cowon and its battery lasts as it should, about 50 hours.

 

Message Edited by Etoja on 10-14-2009 02:25 PM

 

IIRC the Fuze doesn’t actually check if you have a low power USB port before charging (at least I think the Fuze doesn’t, I know the e200 doesn’t from back when we reverse engineered the battery charging), so if you plug it into a low power port it may trip the port’s current limit and simply not charge at all.  This is actually pretty common.  Few devices seem to check for low vs. high power, so its probably best not to use a low power USB port at all with battery powered devices. 

#20

@marquis6461 wrote:

I’ve gone thru 2 Fuzes. The first one died of the White screen of death after 10 days.    The manuel says the battery is supposed to last 29 hours.  My system is set to 5 seconds and I ONLY LISTEN TO AUDIOBOOKS. 

 

 

The speced battery life is actually 24 hours, not 29. 

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