I can see some here feel I’ve ‘trashed’ the product, but I don’t consider it trashing.
I have legitimate concerns and frustrations. As another poster already said, the firmware update is not working correctly. That is most definitely not my fault and my irritation with it is quite justified.
My other major irritation is with the poor excuse of a user manual that is neither thorough nor clear. Anyone that thinks it is, has not had much experience with quality user manuals.
While I’m not a computer genius, I’m not a total ■■■■■, either. Had there been a quality user manual with it I have no doubt I would have been able to muddle my way through and figure it out, since I’ve been able to figure out more complicated things than Fuze due to excellent manuals. Writers of quality instruction manuals understand that they cannot assume a certain level of knowledge and must cover all the bases to ensure that the average person will understand every term and instruction, regardless of experience level.
SanDisk seems to assume everyone is familiar with all the lingo, thus there is no explanation or definition of terms. And from the lack of in-depth instructions, they also must assume everyone is somewhat familiar with these types of MP3 players. Not so. DH is not into music and does not ever deal with any music devices. I have only had an iPod, so never had to know about different music formats or the advantages or limitations of each one. And I know many people just like us. Do not assume we all understand even the basic things that you all seem so comfortable with. Insulting my husband just because he doesn’t deal with music devices or files says more about you than it does DH total computer experience.
I came here in good faith, hoping I would be able to get the help and guidance I needed to make it work. While I realize I did get excellent advice, I just do not have the experience with the basics of this stuff to understand it, so it is not the fault of those here who were very patient with me and did their best to help. I am grateful for that, as I know it had to be very frustrating.
I feel safe in saying that I think a majority of people who purchase a product either for themselves or children for Christmas would come to the same conclusion as I did had they spent so many hours trying to get something to work with a poor user manual, a help line that’s on vacation for a major holiday (a time when many new owners will need assistance), and an updater that doesn’t update unless you perform some ridiculous manual algorithm that doesn’t make sense to those of us who are not techies and haven’t had a lot of experience with these type of devices.
iTunes conversion aside, the instructions for how to download music from other sources, where to get it from, and how to make it work on the Fuze was not covered well at all in the manual. So it can’t be blamed on me just wanting to pull music from iTunes. Taking iTunes totally out of the picture, there are still huge deficiencies in user education on the part of SanDisk.
Thanks again to those of you who took the time to help a frustrated mom and did not resort to insults and name-calling. I do appreciate it.
Message Edited by Sariah on 12-25-2008 09:49 PM
