Back from the holiday break with new electronics on hand. Ah, yes… nothing feels more gratifying and more amazing than to open up that Xmas package to find that gadget you always wanted. (Okay, maybe a couple things are more gratifying..)

You tear through the box, instructions go flying(who needs em, anyways?), cables are being wrapped up in your face and finally you get everything plugged in! You power the device on and it gives you the feint hope that all is working to your hearts content. Then, in a blink of an eye, something terrible happens. Something… everything goes wrong.

Suddenly, this coveted piece of technology needs to be slapped into a box and sent back for replacement (*cough* at your charge).

This has happened to two pieces of electronics purchased in my house-hold this year. One by me as a gift to my mother, and one to me as a gift from my mother. Both failed to work properly out of the box, both needing to be returned for replacement. Thank god the xBox my brother got as a gift from his girlfriend was in complete working order (I smell a red ring of death in his future, though).

Bluetooth

I purchased my mother a Plantronics Explorer 370 bluetooth headset for her phone. She needed it, they were relatively well priced, well reviewed, and I have a Plantronics of my own that works great. I had complete faith in this thing working fine. The clincher was that I purchased it from Newegg, which had, up to this point, never sent me something DOA.

Later that day, after she opened it up, I attempted to set it up for her on her phone. I unplugged it after a full two hour charge, pressed the magical button… and nothing. I plug it back in, and boom it magically works great. Awesome… the battery doesn’t hold a charge.

RMA’d.

MP3 Player

My mother purchased me a Creative Zen 16gb MP3 player. I opened it up and turned it on and everything appeared to be working fine. I even loaded a bunch of songs on it. Then, after I thought I had everything all straightened out, I look down at it to find that the display suddenly looks quite distorted and too bright. Much brighter than it did mere moments before.

I turn it off and back on… same problem. I plug it back into my computer, same problem. I reformat it and reboot it… fixed temporarily but same problem arises. I even reload the firmware… no dice. Excellent… new device and this. Apparently, even more, this is a problem that occurs in a small percentage of their various MP3 players which arises from a hardware malfunction. The only resolution is to RMA it to the retailer or to Creative.

RMA’d.

Quality Assurance?

I work as a quality engineer… am I the only one? What happened to people making quality products that don’t break or arrive DOA? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to hire a few guys to test products before they get released and weed out these problems than to let the customers do the testing?

Furthermore, when you find out there is a hardware problem… fix it. If the hardware supplier doesn’t fix it, get a new one. Why the hell do I have to get a DOA product… ever?

Also, if you send me a DOA product, why don’t you pay to get it back from me? Send me a paid shipping label and cover the charge. As far as  I am concerned, its your fuck up…. you pay to get it handled, that’s the cost of doing business. This was a gift to me, but now I have to throw down to get an actual working product. Sounds a little messed up.

Conclusion

Fix your shit, bitches.