Sariah, I understand your frustration to some extent as I am in a somewhat similar situation today. SanDisk pulled one of those stunts that so many computer related businesses are doing these days - put the user manual online rather than including it with each device. Go to this link for the user manual: http://www.sandisk.com/sansa/assets/English/products/Fuze/fuze_userguide_en.pdf
That said - you came to a forum of Fuze users for help and then came down really, really hard on the product. I agree that the lack of a user manual & the updater error are valid complaints, but I also agree with the responders that what definitely comes across as frustration that you can’t make it work like or with iTunes is unreasonable (I wish they were less proprietary, too, but that’s business).
The forum members who are helping you are here because they are Fuze users, & while I have no doubt that you were hoping SanDisk was reading your responses, it didn’t come across as particularly considerate of those content Fuze owners you were bashing indirectly in the process.
Once I found the user’s manual here at the top of the forums, the device was extremely easy to use. SanDisk is remiss in failing to explicitly & directly provide that link in their package info if they’re going to cut corners that way. And like you, I do hope that they are noticing the completely unnecessary frustration they are creating by not being more upfront about it.
