So... No more updates for faulty express

MP3 players All other MP3 players
1

According to this post there are going to be no more firmware updates for this player with constant problems.

Sorry sandisk.

Not good enough.

Does anyone know who I can get in contact with to complain about companies selling products that don’t work?    It says on the back of the box holds “1000 WMA songs”.  That’s called a lie people. 

I’ve wasted far too much time and energy on this **bleep** machine.  I just want something that works properly.  A player that I can fill with music, not reach 999 songs before having to pick and choose tracks so that I don’t go over 1000 songs and start being unable to play lots of them.  I’m tired of random resets.  I switched it one twice today and guess what… yup that’s right… two resets.  Random changes to id3 tags.  Tracklistings reversing.  Menus reaching other random menus. 

Last time I ever waste my time and money on SanDisk.

2

That’s too bad about no more firmware upgrades.   Without them, it’s hardly worth the fifty bucks I paid for it.  Lesson learned:  I won’t be buying any more Sandisk products.   Oh well, I’ve paid lots more on products with even less value than the lowly Express.  Bye, Sandisk!

3

darcyscarrot wrote:
According to this post there are going to be no more firmware updates for this player with constant problems.

Sorry sandisk.

Not good enough.

Does anyone know who I can get in contact with to complain about companies selling products that don’t work?    It says on the back of the box holds “1000 WMA songs”.  That’s called a lie people. 

I’ve wasted far too much time and energy on this **bleep** machine.  I just want something that works properly.  A player that I can fill with music, not reach 999 songs before having to pick and choose tracks so that I don’t go over 1000 songs and start being unable to play lots of them.  I’m tired of random resets.  I switched it one twice today and guess what… yup that’s right… two resets.  Random changes to id3 tags.  Tracklistings reversing.  Menus reaching other random menus. 

Last time I ever waste my time and money on SanDisk.

MP3
Hours of Music Playback
16***
32***
Number of Songs
250**
500**
WMA
Hours of Music Playback
32***
64***
Number of Songs
500**
1000**

**Approximation’s based on 4 minute songs at 128kbps MP3, 64 kbps WMA.

Do all your tracks match that? If it does, you should have no problem getting around 1000 tracks on there.

I agree about the lack of firmware updates, it ■■■■■.

From a business standpoint though, are you gonna pay engineers salaries for players that barely sell? (im assuming its barely based on forum post and general reviews) Its eithier don’t pay and, potentially, lose some customers. Or pay and continue to bite the bullet. We would obviously need have to look at some figures to decide. I understand that customer service is important, but its a buiness… first and foremost. They are here to make money (just like any other company), not spend more as an “investment” for more customers; you can’t account for a figure such as that.

Just my 2 cents.

Message Edited by Enigma on 02-22-2008 11:19 AM

4

@enigma wrote:

Do all your tracks match that? If it does, you should have no problem getting around 1000 tracks on there.

 

There’s no problem getting 1000 tracks on it now that I can use a 4gig microsd to bring the total up to 6.  The problem is that once you go over 999, the player refuses to play certain files and thus you have to constantly keep an eye on how much you’ve got on the player. 

Message Edited by darcyscarrot on 02-22-2008 06:46 PM

5

@darcyscarrot wrote:

@enigma wrote:

Do all your tracks match that? If it does, you should have no problem getting around 1000 tracks on there.

 

There’s no problem getting 1000 tracks on it now that I can use a 4gig microsd to bring the total up to 6.  The problem is that once you go over 999, the player refuses to play certain files and thus you have to constantly keep an eye on how much you’ve got on the player. 

Message Edited by darcyscarrot on 02-22-2008 06:46 PM

as in if i have 999 tracks on there. I load on 2 more, for a total of 10001. I will not see the 1 that goes over?  when you say refuses to play, does the player see it and not play it, or does it just only see a certain number (like 800) out of the 1001 tracks. 

just curious

6

Enigma wrote:

as in if i have 999 tracks on there. I load on 2 more, for a total of 10001.

wow that is some really good math.

Message Edited by drlucky on 02-22-2008 10:55 AM

7

drlucky wrote:

Enigma wrote:

as in if i have 999 tracks on there. I load on 2 more, for a total of 10001.

wow that is some really good math.

300×236 11.3 KB

8

@enigma wrote:

@darcyscarrot wrote:

@enigma wrote:

Do all your tracks match that? If it does, you should have no problem getting around 1000 tracks on there.

 

There’s no problem getting 1000 tracks on it now that I can use a 4gig microsd to bring the total up to 6.  The problem is that once you go over 999, the player refuses to play certain files and thus you have to constantly keep an eye on how much you’ve got on the player. 

Message Edited by darcyscarrot on 02-22-2008 06:46 PM

as in if i have 999 tracks on there. I load on 2 more, for a total of 10001. I will not see the 1 that goes over?  when you say refuses to play, does the player see it and not play it, or does it just only see a certain number (like 800) out of the 1001 tracks. 

 

just curious

as in, once you load 1000 songs the player refuses to recognise any more.  It seems to store tracks alphabetically by title and once you’ve got 1000 songs on there starts to stop recognising the ones toward the end.  When you play an album it will just skip tracks it doesn’t recognise.  Sandisk promised an update six months ago to remedy the situation but there hasn’t been one.  Now six months ago it was unlikely you’d have that many songs on the player but following the firmware update that allows higher capacity microsds, it’s pretty easy to get up to 1000 songs.  So now I’ve spent money not only on the player but also a card and I can’t even fill the thing.  Not only that I have to check, every time I want to stick something on, to see how many songs I have on it.  It is a pain.

9

ok, so theres 5-7 people that have complained about the 1000 song limit. I dont think 5-7 people is going to nifluence sandisk to do anything. Its only when 100’s of peolpe see this issue that it becomes a higher priority.

I doubt they will pay various engineers to address a problem on a player that has already ceased production.

10

And it’s an attitude like that, which means Sandisk will NEVER compete with the big guns in the mp3 player field.  Much as I can’t be bothered with iPods (hence the reason for buying this trash in the first place), I have never once heard of people coming across as many problems with a player as I have with this one.  Come to think of it I don’t know a single person who has had to put as much effort into getting their player to work as I have with this junk.

At this point, all I want is some sort of apology from the company for all the hassle on a player they couldn’t care less about.

11

darcyscarrot wrote:
And it’s an attitude like that, which means Sandisk will NEVER compete with the big guns in the mp3 player field.  Much as I can’t be bothered with iPods (hence the reason for buying this trash in the first place), I have never once heard of people coming across as many problems with a player as I have with this one.  Come to think of it I don’t know a single person who has had to put as much effort into getting their player to work as I have with this junk.

At this point, all I want is some sort of apology from the company for all the hassle on a player they couldn’t care less about.

Its a business buddy, it doesn’t come down to satisfying every single customer that has a problem with it. Its about the dollar bills. (don’t get me wrong, I have personally had great customer service experience with SanDisk. Which is a part of the reason I joined the forum. And the mods seem to be doing a decent job touching base with some of the people here)

 And if your going to run a multi-billion dollar company, this is the line of thinking that it involves. You can go to ANY product forum that’s out there, apply, Sony, Canon, ANYTHING and you will see various issues and problems and people complaining about his or her device.

I understand where your coming from, but the best thing that we can do as consumers is to do the research on the products we buy. I agree that the player could have been done a lot better, but at this point, (as far as SanDisk is concerned) it is not remotely feasible for them to recall whatever is left on the market or recall every single one of these players.

You would also have to consider that this is a community where people come to ask questions and share issues. People don’t usually have a great product and are so happy about it that they come to a community like this to brag about (the nerds do). So out of the various compaints here, I’m sure theres twice as much (if not more) people with a sansa express that works just fine.

Just my 2 cents, I am by no means an expert on the subject.

Message Edited by Enigma on 02-26-2008 07:43 AM

12

What you fail to mention is future sales.  For every dissatisfied customer, there are missed opportunities going forward.  And, for every dissatisifed customer there are at least an equal number who will be hesitant (joe tells sam who tells tom about the experience).

Given SanDisks lack of fessing up and replacing with a device that does not have the inherent problems that this one has, I think the problem is more widespread than you may think.  My replacement has the same problems as my original - and I’m not the only one to find this to be true. 

Personally I don’t think they care because players only represent about 10% of the business.  If they cared about growing the business, they would treat this differently.  BTW, there is no need to do a blanket recall, simply provide a choice for replacement (Clip or C200 etc.) for anyone contacting them due to the various systemic faults of the Express.

13

timboaz wrote:
What you fail to mention is future sales.  For every dissatisfied customer, there are missed opportunities going forward.  And, for every dissatisifed customer there are at least an equal number who will be hesitant (joe tells sam who tells tom about the experience).

Given SanDisks lack of fessing up and replacing with a device that does not have the inherent problems that this one has, I think the problem is more widespread than you may think.  My replacement has the same problems as my original - and I’m not the only one to find this to be true. 

Personally I don’t think they care because players only represent about 10% of the business.  If they cared about growing the business, they would treat this differently.  BTW, there is no need to do a blanket recall, simply provide a choice for replacement (Clip or C200 etc.) for anyone contacting them due to the various systemic faults of the Express.

Theres no way to account to for future sales. My experience with corporte enviroments is that if the numbers arent on paper, it doesn’t make a difference. There is no way to reasonably forecast each and every disatisfied customer who purchased the player and will not buy a product from SanDisk again. But they can account for the players that were purchased and sold; and in that area, they are #2 in the market.

For the record, I agree that future sales is something that should be weighed more heavily. But what is any company going to do about it? Ask every tech to make a note when a person says they will never buy a sandisk product again? Even then, it wouldn’t mean anything, I, myself, have said that a couple times. Only to turn around and see the comapny make a product I want even more (so I buy it).

And in regards to the recall, (from a business standpoint) why replace it with a clip or a c200 when there is a stock of express’s to replace them with. Regardless of past issues.

I wouldn’t expect them to offer to lose money on something like that, without me (the user) having it at least replaced 1 (heck, maybe even 2) times. Most people dont even bother taking it that far and just eat the loss.

Again, just my 2 cents. based on my experience with replacements.

On a positive note, my friends Rockband guitar had a bum strum. He sent it to EA to have it replaced, only to have to wait weeks up weeks. After not giving up on his guitar and explaining the situation to the right people, he ended up getting 2 guitars back in the mail. Hooray!

Message Edited by Enigma on 02-26-2008 08:36 AM

14

The next time your express dies and cannot be resuscitated, what player is going to be your next likely purchase?

I like the features of the express (the ones that work at least).  I started with an iAudio U2 which I still prefer.  But its much more expensive that the Sansa Express.  When the power-on button breaks as it frequently does on the iAudio U2 and I have to send it for non-warranty repair.   During one of those repair cycle, I picked up the Sansa Express as fairly comparable interim replacement.  It serves me well, even though I carp about not being able to effectively randomize the song list.

Yesterday, the Express came down with the infamous “brick” bug in which the player goes dead and will not turn on and will not connect.  I worked with Sansa support trying to breathe life back into it. Only after I followed the recommendation on this forum of inserting a microSD memory card could I get the player working again.   

Planning ahead to a time when the Express dies for good, what does everyone see as reasonable comparable MP3 player that they might purchase as a replacement? 

15

i want a clip, just for the small portability… with a screen. And its 4gb. I’m sold… and after reading over that section fo the forum, seems like some good stuff.