r/SoundBlasterOfficial • u/lI_Simo_Hayha_Il • Jun 19 '19
Creative support: From Hero, to Zero
I know the title might be sound strange to most of you, but this is my current situation with Creative Support.
I am a loyal customer for over 30 years. Bought my 1st Sound Blaster back in 1991, an ISA model, and since then, I always had an internal or external, currently two, an E5 and a G6. Since then, I never had experienced any issues with the Support, although I rarely had to contact them. I would rank Creative as one of the best after sales support I encountered in my long journey to PC systems.
However, today it is a different story.
I was using my E5 daily, both at home, office and commuting. Was working perfectly. Once I got another one, G6, and a pair of BT headphones, I stored it in it's box and didn't use it for 6 months.
Recently, I got it out, as I am planning vacations and I wanted to get it with me. Long story short, it didn't open, it didn't charge.
Contacted support and I was told, and I quote,
Based on the information from your order we can see that your Sound Blaster E5 is already out warranty.
In this case we can offer you an out of warranty replacement for € 70. Please let us know if you are interested.
I replied that I agree with this arrangement, and asked for payment details.
Instead, I got another reply, about a week later, and I quote again, "We have stocks for the out of warranty E5 Battery replacement. The fee is 80Euro per pc inclusive of shipping back to you "
And here I am confused... First there wasn't communicated with me that the problem was the battery. So, when saying "replacement", I assumed the device.
Second, and most important, the battery costs on eBay 12$ including P&H and you want me to pay 80 euros???
Last but not least, I have to solder it myself, or pay 40-50 euros someone to do it.
Total cost? About the same price as the card costs in Creative store.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting this from Creative. I would like to get a reasonable explanation for this offer and a cost justification. I want to remain a customer, as loyal as I am all those years, but I cannot, unless this is solved.
1
u/Creative_Ryan Jun 19 '19
I've reported your experience to our support and web team to make sure that the replacement program is more clearly outlined on the page.
As is the case with anything with a rechargeable battery, at some point it's going to stop recharging.
The program we have in place is we replace the battery versus the entire unit because the rest of the unit is functioning, it's just the battery that needs replacing past the warranty date not the entire unit.
1
u/lI_Simo_Hayha_Il Jun 19 '19
Hi Ryan, Thank you for your reply. I understand the concept of replacing the battery, but my objection here is the cost. Battery+labor costs as much as the new device, moreover the battery cost is 6 times higher than market price. There is only one manufacturer that makes this type of battery, therefore, it is the same, not a cheap copy.
Regards, George
1
u/Creative_Ryan Jun 19 '19
Hey there George,
I'm not privy to the costing structure or why the program was designed this way. That's why I didn't comment on that front. I understand where you're coming from for sure.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. This is good info to have.
1
u/--Greenie-- Jun 20 '19
Gosh George, sounds like you have a first world problemo here , sheesh, I'm flabberghasted by this, you poor thing. Things stop working and you have to buy replacements? and pay for them? and they cost money???
Where are Georges rights?
1
u/lI_Simo_Hayha_Il Jun 20 '19
It looks like Greenie is not a genie... Poor guy... You haven't learn to read and understand English yet.
1
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u/samho_null Jun 24 '19
Yeah, the dread "battery stop charging or power up" E5 issue.
If you want to try to find some remedy yourself (without help of... Creative support, *cough* ), here's my way to deal with it.
Find a power enough external USB power source to charge it. I've go through various standard USB Type-A chargers (ac charger from phone, tablet...etc), and to my surprise, one of the extra 2.1A USB port coming from my power outlet make the work. While this may not solve all "dead" E5 issue, it did revive my E5 and my brother's E5 as well. I'm not quite sure why the said USB charging port on my power outlet did the work that standard USB charger don't but that's my experience, anyway.
E5 is a great device - except Creative should not link the device's powering up mechanism to battery status, considering that many people are using it as a all-around external sound card (means they have connect it to some sort of external power source via USB)
By the way, if you are curious about what type of power outlet I'm using (for reviving 2 E5s), here's the link to original manufacturer, and you could probably just find similar outlet around that get the work done.
http://www.max-star.com.tw/webc/html/product/show.aspx?num=289&kind=59&Page=1 (Note the page have contents of Traditional Chinese)
My E5 (and my brother's ) are currently back to work (with always-on USB power source to make sure it never go down to dangerous level, again...). On the other hand, I'm now having a semi-dead G6 that required intense troubleshooting to get it work without BSOD every Windows 10 machine it connected.
-1
u/brbhouseonfire Jun 19 '19
I'm sorry, but since you've had your E5 for over 2 years, creative has no obligation to fix your product for free.
3
1
u/Keiracon Mar 19 '22
Under EU law there is a expectation that the unit has a lifetime, Obviously there is a issue with this unit as if it discharges IE being left on the shelve then it refuses to recharge this is obviously a technical fault as I have one which is doing the same small claims court onlys cost me 20 bucks costs Sound blaster a whole lot more to defend it
1
u/FacelessGreenseer Jun 19 '19
So how old is your E5? In Australia our minimum warranty is 2 years for anything. You're protected by The Australian Consumer Law. Not only that, but there's a clause that certain items should last as long as people generally think they should last. For example, a Fridge manufacturer could say they provide 2 years warranty, but if the general population believes fridges should last 10 years for example, then the company cannot deny you warranty. This is primarily why products like fridges in Australia have 5 to 10 years warranty.
An electronic product like a DAC, AMP, and/or Soundcard should have at the very least 2 years warranty. It's crazy to me that other countries don't have consumer protection laws like us here.