My last response to Futureshop

here's the last email I sent them and for which I did not yet get any response;


Thanks for your reply. But, even though you apologized, I do not feel it is fair. I believe that I deserve more than just excuses. Again, it is not as if I went on the site too late but you (Futureshop) did not let me complete my transaction. If you have an audit, check my account (xxxxxxx) and you'll see that I was close to complete the transaction and I was kicked out from the site at that point.
What is the value of your service if you keep the right to kick out customers from the site whenever you want? The load on the site is not a sufficient reason as you should have expected this after all the advertizing you did (you are victim of your own success...:)). Hope to hear from you soon.

FutureShop reply (Part II)...

As you can see, it is almost an auto reply... nothing realy for the customer I am who could not finally buy his MP3 player...

Dear Valued Customer:
We appreciate you taking the time to e-mail us about our Boxing Day Sale.
We sincerely apologize that you were unable to place an order for this item Due to heavy traffic volumes our website went through slow periods and had had some errors. We are having another sale from December 27th to January 3rd and the MP3 Player you were trying to order may be available for this sale. Again we would like to apologize that you were unable to place an order for this item. Because these errors affected everyone no customer had precendence over the other.
Thank you for visiitng Future Shop.
Sincerely,
ColeCustomer CareFuture Shop

Futureshop emails exchange...(part I)

Here is the email I sent to Futureshop - Next post contains their reply -

hi there, I am very disapointed by yesterday's online boxing day. I got many ads and emails on this event. I went there yesterday and let my family in the middle of a dinner just to ensure that I will get my MP3 player ( http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10094044&catid=#). I went on the site at 8pm (Eastern time) and could have the MP3 in the cart. Though, when came the time to check out, I have been put on a virtual line up and eventually got the login screen to my futureshop account half an hour later or so. Anyway, I was happy but not for long. When I tried to complete my transaction, I got a screen with this message: Thank you for visiting futureshop.ca. We're sorry, but due to much larger than anticipated traffic to our site, we are unable to accept more customers on the site at this moment. You're currently in a queue to access the site and should be able to shop in just a few minutes. In the meantime, feel free to check out our Boxing Day flyer and web-only Boxing Day flyer by entering your postal code below. I kept getting this message until I left my relatives and got home without being able to buy my device. This morning I called to customer service and figured out that not only nothing could be done for me since the price was up by 10$ (now 149$ instead of 139$ yesterday) but also the product was out of stock. I am very disapointed that such company called FUTUREshop is not able to make a site available even for a huge number of users but, worse, cut someone in the middle of a transaction (it's not like I was not on the site early enough) and tell me, the day after, that nothing could be done for me. I suspect that futureshop intentionnaly blocked the access for customer (for sure) from a particular region (otherwise, how can it be that I kept refreshing the page and still getting the same message). Hope that at futureshop you care about customers and you will do something for me. It's not fair and normal that I literally scrapped my xMas eve dinner because of the online boxing day and finally got stuck with this error message when I was one step away from completing the transaction. Merry xmas and happy new year,Hope to hear from you soon.

Futureshop big online boxing day event. Disapointing.

I got many brochures and ads (by email and by regular mail) announcing an online event starting on December 24th at 8pm on www.futureshop.ca. I do not use to believe in these discounts, but this year I needed to buy a new MP3 player (read other posts on my old player that I had to return to the manufacturer). That is, I decided to experience the boxing day online on futureshop.

I was there at 8pm despite the fact that I was at a relative Christmas eve diner. I started to browse and have chosen my MP3 player (SanDisk Sansa of 8 Go - the new model - at 139.00$ with no discount by the way - I have noticed the same price a couple of days before -). Problems started when I decided to move forward and pay it... I got a screen asking me to "Wait" until a cashier was available. While the idea is pretty original, I was anyway surprised since online stores are supposed to avoid the line up... But there was a line up. A virtual line up.

After waiting for more than 10 minutes in the virtual line up, I gave up but let the computer on and I came back few times to check where I was. After around half an hour, I was kicked off from the site and got the following message:

Nous vous remercions de visiter futureshop.ca. Nous sommes désolés mais étant donné le volume beaucoup plus important auquel nous ne nous attendions pas sur notre site, nous ne sommes pas en mesure de recevoir plus de clients sur le site pour le moment. Vous êtes actuellement en attente pour accéder au site et vous devriez pouvoir magasiner dans quelques minutes. Entre temps, n'hésitez pas à jeter un coup d'œil sur notre circulaire du jour d'après Noël et celle du jour d'après Noël, en ligne seulement, en entrant votre code postale ci-dessous.

Thank you for visiting futureshop.ca. We're sorry, but due to much larger than anticipated traffic to our site, we are unable to accept more customers on the site at this moment. You're currently in a queue to access the site and should be able to shop in just a few minutes. In the meantime, feel free to check out our Boxing Day flyer and web-only Boxing Day flyer by entering your postal code below.

It's surprising that I got kicked off while I was at the point of buying my MP3 device. Anyway, later in the evening, things seemed to be better. I could get again on the site but my cart was empty. Now the player is 10$ above the price (149$) and I could not buy it (at the time I came back to the site, it was too late and I had to leave my relatives).

At the age of internet, there seems to be some companies that still do not want to invest enough in load testing and enough hardware to fulfill their promises. After all, if online experience becomes as painful as personal experience, next time, I just head to the nearest store and buy my next device... At least, I will see in advance that there is a line up (if any) and decide whether or not I would like to buy.

My RCA Lyra MP3 saga...

Last February, I got a gift. A Lyra MP3 player. It was my first one and… I believe the last RCA device that I ever own.
This device was working fine until, some day, it started to be very slow to start up… then it started to loop at the start up (Please wait…. RCA…. Please wait… ). Well, I thought that something was wrong with my MP3 files (mostly pod-casts actually), so I formatted the device, refilled the battery… and… nothing new. Still looping.

I found this little button “Reset” and I was so happy ’cause I thought that I just found the way to reset my MP3 player to its initial state. I was disappointed. This button was not more that a reset that actually restarts the player or shut it down.

I tried to find a firmware to update it but guess what… RCA web site does not even list it in the download page. Even more, if I try to fill the contact form (the only on-line contact information), I got stuck with the postal code. It only accepts US zip codes and I live in Canada.

That is, I am still trying to find a way to fix my player because it is a gift. Otherwise I would have thrown it already….


....


After having spent weeks unsuccessfully trying to find a firmware update for my MP3 player, I sent an email via RCA web site to the support (faking a US postal code since the form is only for US residents). I received a reply pretty quickly that suggested me to call 866-449-7112 for any support information (they could simply publish this phone number on their web site. No?).

I called, and now I am going to send them the device. By the way, they confirmed me that there is no update for this device.

... Months later....

I've sent the player and got a replacement. An equivalent replacement according to Thomson (the manufacturer of the RCA Lyra MP3 series). I got an Opal. The problem is that the model I got did not have the FM Radio built in (the MC2602 has it). I called them back and after much negociations trying to convince them that an equivalent model should have at least the same features not just the same memory and same price, they sent me a post label and asked me to send them the player so that I get refounded this time (that was a tough negociation).

I got the prefilled label and sent back the player which I got back again few days later... Post Canada pretending that the address did not exist. I dealt with Post Canad and got a refound. Now I sent back again the player and finally Thomson got it.
Last time I spoke to them, they told me that they will refound me in about 6 to 8 weeks... which will bring me to something like 6 months after my MP3 player broke...

I wonder whether I get my check soon which will end this saga.

Choose an MP3 Player for a gift

If you intend to gift an MP3 player, you can find here few advices and prices that hopefully may help you to find what you are looking for.

Flash or Hard Disk
There are mainly 2 types of MP3 players: with a flash memory and with a hard disk. The first usually is liter (in terms of weight). Hard disk based MP3 player, on the other hand, are heaviest but usually offer much more storage space.

Hard disk based MP3 players are also more expensive usually.

How much memroy
I consider that an MP3 player with less than 2 Go of memory isn't worthwhile. A 4Go starts to be a pretty serious toy. Note that if you intend to play videos with it, consider having 8Go to be able to download complete movies.

Video, audio,...
Most of the MP3 players now offer to play videos as well. This is a great feature actually. If you buy such a device though, ensure that the screen is big enough to see a clear image otherwise you will be paying for a useless feature. I got a player in the past that was supposed to display videos but there were so unclear that I could not even see people moving (it looked like a static image).

Usually, I screen of 1.5-1.8 inches should be correct. Obviously, the bigger the screen, the clearest the image will be.

From the audio perspective, all of them support most of the audio formats available in the market.

Which brand
Here comes the most difficult question: which brand?
If you even thought about buying an MP3 player, you have thought about buying an IPod or something else. Well, if you want to buy it for a teenager, then, yes, that might be the best choice. Why? Simply because "it is cool". This is the trend at the moment. Don't ask why.

There are many IPods; the coolest, the newer... the IPod Touch. Great product according to the lucky holders. However, it is a bit expensive (starts at 329 Canadian Dollars for 8 Go).

The new IPod Nano is pretty too and cheaper. It starts at 159 CAD with 8Go. I like this model. It is thin, very handy and easy to use. A great device actually.

For the real IPod fans, there's still the IPod Classic with 160 Go at 369 CAD. Expensive, but difficult to find something better.

You may think that I am a fan of IPod. I am not and the reason is simple: I like to listen to the radio and the IPod does not have it.

For this reason, I have bought an RCA player which was very good until, 6 months later, started to have troubles and eventually stopped working. It did not last for one year... :) Bad performance.

Samsung got very reliable MP3 players. Got a friend who bought one and he's very happy with it. Software updates are available (which is not always the case for all the brands) and it has the FM built in. I also like their latest model (YP-P2JAR/XAC) with 4 Go and a large touch screen as the UI interface. Great stuff.

SanDisk is a good brand too. I never heard complaints about it.

I suppose that Sony players are good too. However, I find that their prices are pretty expensive compared to other competitors.

Hope that this helps you to find the right model to buy for you or for a gift.

Let me your comments if you want any other advice.

Happy shopping.