My Ihp problems...time for my 2nd warranty replacement

[badseed]

Hi all...

I'm (obviously) a new user here. I've got a ihp-120, and i think it's a great and useful little machine, but as I mention above I've already more than my fair share of problems since buying it in November last year.

In early December, around 3 weeks after I got it, I was leaving for work so I picked up the player, tried to switch it on, and it wouldn't work. The battery was fully charged, hold switches were off...and then I noticed the Hard drive indicator light slowly flickering, and a red-light coming from the Optical/Line out socket. Oh dear I thought...Tried the hard reset. Tried plugging it into the power. Tried plugging it into my pc. No luck. Finally, I called the retailler, and they told me to speak to the warranty/service folks. I was told to send it off to them, and I should have it back in around 2 weeks. I was a bit annoyed...but just wanted it fixed.

2 weeks went by, and I'd heard nothing. Many long-distance phone calls, emails. Another week later I finally got an email saying 'your player is under review for warranty repair'.

A fortnight later, the concert I'd bought the player to record went by. Best show of my life, and I couldn't record it.

Finally I called the retailer again, spoke to the manager, and explained very clearly that they had a responsibility of care towards their customers, as defined in the australian Trade Practices Act, which states that the retailer must ensure that any warranty assesments and repairs are carried out within a reasonable period of time, and to a high level of quality.

The next day I got an email from the warranty repairers. My player was ready and was being shipped back to me the next day. Finally!

Got it back 3 days ago now...It wasn't my player repaired at all! In fact, it still had someone elses mp3 collection on it! I calmed down, and thought that at least I had it back. I got home from work, wiped it clean, and loaded my 15 gig's worth back on. My new Beyer headphones arrived the next day, and I was very happy with my iRiver again!

But...I was walking around today, down by the Yarra river, and I wanted to sample the sound of the barge going past me. Switched on record, turned on the Internal microphone and....nothing...doe sn't work! The only thing it picks up is the Hard drive powering up. The external mic/line in/optical in all work fine (just tested them all).

So, I'm now extremely sceptical of the long-term reliability of the iRiver products. I love it to bits when it works, but I didn't spend A$700 on a piece of hardware that only going to be reliable within it's warranty period, if that!

I've drafted a letter to send to the retailer. I've demanded a new replacement this time, and for them to send it to me before I return the faulty one. Otherwise I will then return the faulty player anyway, and have my bank reverse the credit charges.

I just want the thing to work!

Jeff.

[sweetspot]

Man..that sucks. I'm sorry to hear of your problems. If I was you though, I would have been up their asses as soon as you noticed that it wasn't your player..It's very possible that instead of getting a good unit from who knows where...they sent you one that was in for repair as well ?

I mean, you already know that the unit is someone elses..and for that, you can't blame Iriver for it being faulty. It could be that the original owner damaged it, and you got theirs. Tis' bad luck but I'd seriously get up their asses mate....

S.

[coreman]

Originally Posted by Sweet Spot

It's very possible that instead of getting a good unit from who knows where...they sent you one that was in for repair as well ?

I mean, you already know that the unit is someone elses..and for that, you can't blame Iriver for it being faulty. It could be that the original owner damaged it, and you got theirs. Tis' bad luck but I'd seriously get up their asses mate....S.

Your case made me read the warranty again...it clearly states that they can substitute with repaired parts but I would have thought that they would have removed your hard drive, with your music, and put it into the refurbished player.

I would definitely complain to both the warranty center (ask for your hard drive to be put into the next player) and to your retailer.

What is scary about this is that you may have confidential files on your player (after all that is a feature) and it fails. You send for repair and they send a different player back meanwhile your player is repaired and send to some gomer who gets a hold of your files...and presto! naked pictures of your neighbor's wife pop up on the internet! You get my drift!

This is scary...I am removing all confidential files this weekend (I have company files backed up).....

[FlameGrilled]

I'm sorry to hear Coreman's story. It's all to common a case of when something don't do the job properly or reliably, you end up getting all the grief whilst you also age a few years from the stress of it all.

Again, i'm inclined to agree with someone else's observation of how that chasing up was handled sanely - i'm all for peaceful resolution, but when it comes to the average retailer, they make me wish that hand grenades (any type) were easy to obtain.. as there are certain managers i would happily have left carrying that kind bomb implanted where light dont often get to

All the concerns are well founded really - even when my JB1 had to get bounced at CL over it's intermitted recording issue (which they never solved, and it got embarassing beyond words to the point where they had to supply a replacement and upgrade the deal to try to retain some goodwill over their failure), i literally dumped it's contents.. cleaned up the drive, and restored it to factory + the firmware state where the probs occured under - with fresh evidence of the non-functioning intermittent recording issues.

At least then, there was no data issues to be concerned over.

If you must keep sensitive data on an HDD player.. encrypt it well... (PGP don't cost bugger all to have at each site).

FG

*wishing all the best of luck*

[badseed]

Yeah, I realise that I may have actually received another player that was in for repair, and that my issues are not neccesarily connected to the overall reliability of the Ihp's. I'm just annoyed at the moment. The player at the moment is working fine, apart from the internal mike. I would certainly advise other Australian readers to maybe reconsider buying the ihp-120, as the place that 'repaired' (I use the term loosely) mine is the officially certified repairers for Australia/New Zealand.

Quite of few of my friends were all set to buy their own iRiver's, but when my broke down they all went en masse to the ipod instead.

Just waiting to see what response I get from the retailer/repair centre...

Jeff.

[ASDFer]

This may sound stupid, but have you tried removing the player from the case before using the internal microphone? This makes an immense difference for me. If it's recording the HD spin up, something is working.

[badseed]

Yep...that was the first thing I tried when I noticed it wasn't working. Oh well...I'll wait and see what happens next.

[FlameGrilled]

Sorry, badseed, i misread the name - i meant i am sorry about your woes..

Coreman, sorry.. i hope my mistaken use of your name aint done a Murray Walker style curse on your deck :P

FG

[coreman]

No problem FG...knew what you meant! Mine is still working GREAT!!

[tominghana]

he don't need no sympathy, he's knobbing his neighbour's wife!! right on!!