X20 acting up, iRiver America won't honor warranty

[yachtboy]

Last year, I bought the X20 on the first day it came out. It was my 3rd iRiver, after an old H20 and a T10. Now, about 11 months into a 12 month warranty, the player is inexplicably dying on me at seemingly random intervals.

No biggie, it's still under warranty, right? I called up the customer service number, waited patiently, and.....got treated like a piece of *!$# by iRiver "customer service" because I bought an X20. The dude on the other end of the phone with me was upset with ME for buying an X20 because it wasn't officially released in the US and I'd had the nerve to go online and find a retailer who would sell me one (at the time I bought it, I didn't even know that it was being shipped from another country). He accused me in so many words of costing the company money (???) and wouldn't offer me any resolution other than to sell it on eBay. He started yelling at me and eventually I got so heated I had to hang up.

This was my first time contacting iRiver customer support, and definitely my last. There are too many other good players out there for me to be treated like this. My days of proudly showing off my X20 to my friends and explaining why it's better than an iPod are over.
Seriously, this has got to be one of the more miserable customer service experiences of my life. I'd expect BS like this from Best Buy, but not from a small struggling vendor with a loyal fan base--small companies are supposed to value their customers, not crap on them.

Ciao, iRiver. It was nice while it lasted. I'm looking forward to a nice new 32 gb Creative Zen.

[clieos]

Buying thing online without checking into the warranty issue is a big no-no, but that isn't an accuse for a CS person to yell to other. iriver America certainly doesn't have the best record for customer service, wouldn't you just hope that some one from ReigmCom would actually care about thing like that?

[yachtboy]

The X20 came with a one-year warranty, prominently advertised. I've never before had a manufacturer invalidate a warranty because I bought it from a distributor they didn't like or bought it in the "wrong" country. Anyway, they've lost a customer for life, as well as the goodwill I used to spread around to other customers. With service like this, they may as well close up shop in the US.

[jumbuck]

Sooooo todays lesson is ...

"You should always buy a item off someone who doesn't have the item " .