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General discussion

Creative Labs Zen Micro or IRiver H10

Jun 4, 2005 8:20PM PDT

I am trying to decide between Creative Zen Micro (5 GB) or IRiver H10 (5 GB). I have a gift certificate from a local reseller so my price comparison is stuck to them. The H10 is $249 and the Zen Micro is $189. I have been reading every review I can find about both players. I have been leaning toward the Micro because of price. I have been concerned about the comments about the headphone jack problem, poor FM reception and the sensitivity of the touch pad on the Micro. The IRiver seems to be a better choice if it was not for price but I have heard their customer support is terrible. Can anyone give me their personal observation on using either MP3 player to help me make my decision? Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Iriver will hose you good!!!
Jun 10, 2005 6:51PM PDT

Stay away from any Iriver product if you know what's good for you. Check out my Iriver H10 nightmare story!

I got an H10 6GB from Best Buy. It had syncing problem so I took it back and got the H10 20GB. Same syncing problems. It would get only a fraction of my sync list and then stop syncing and place the remaining files in aborted files (this is in Windows Media Player, it wouldn't even work at all in Napster). WMP would then insist that my player was not connected even though it was still in My Computer and my Safely Remove Hardware. I send an email to customer service. The next day I received no response so I phone customer service. I waited 30 minutes without talking to a human and hung up. Then I drove to Best Buy to return it and called customer service again on the 40 minute ride to the store. Again, no answer.

When I returned home I had received a customer service reply from me email inquiry. The first reply was complete gibberish and the second reply had nothing to do with my problem.

So I wrote an angry response and told the rep that I could still return and re-exchange for the Iriver, and that I would give him one more chance to answer my question. He wrote a sarcastic retort telling me to "enjoy your new player, genius Silly"
I'm going to post the dialogue so you can see for yourselves. DO NOT BUY IRIVER PRODUCTS AND SUPPORT THIS. If you got hosed by Iriver like I did, then write them angry letters and post about your bad experience. It's our only weapon against the corporations that like to pretend they can sell us crap and get away with it. Here is the offensive email dialogue with the Iriver customer service Rep:

Your Support Request for your iriver H10 20GB Remix Blue
Request ID Status Date Updated

288272 Closed 06/08/2005 06/11/2005

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Your Question/Problem:
Email Date:06/08/2005 05:15 pm
Sent to:support@iriveramerica.com
From:xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject:H10 Problems, Non-existant customer service

I recently purchased a 6GB Iriver H10 MP3 Player/Pic Viewer. I updated everything including WMP, firmware, napster, and WMP security settings, but it still did not work correctly. I returned it for an Iriver H10 20GB, in hope that it would work better and because I needed more space. It also would not sync correctly. Both players would sync about 5% of the tracks in the sync list and then just stop and abort the rest of the sync. The songs that did sync didnt even sync correctly and usually werent even full.

The sync would not even work with 1 item in napster, which is the main reason I purchased the h10. I tried to contact customer service, but did not even get to talk to a human afer 40 mins on hold waiting to speak to a representative. I researched this problem on the internet and found out that many iriver h10 users are having the same problem. They said they also received no replies to their customer service emails and also could not get through the phone line. I dont know if this is a bad joke, but youre selling a product that doesnt even work out of the box and offering absolutely no support to fix it, not even updated firmware that was promised for napster. Your customer service department is practically nonexistent. I will never be purchasing an Iriver product again, and I will be telling anyone who asks me to do the same. I have already returned my h10 to best buy in exchange for a creative zen touch. I hope you enjoy playing with the ridiculous amount of returned h10s you will be receiving from all around the US.

Sincerely, Alex Nichols xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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iriver Response: (06/08/2005 03:49)
Hello,

Here is the recov.....fdjafi1221...../,32/q,asb,lfab;asmbl;f'
jfjgk'fa

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iriver Response: (06/08/2005 10:20)
Hello,

A common issue as to why Napster To Go files do not play on an MP3 Player has to do with a clock setting within the Main Menu of the Player.
If the clock / date is not set, the Player will not play files as the files will appear expired to the Player.

To set your clock:

1. Power on the Player. Go into Settings / Timer / Date & Time and make your

adjustments.

2. Reconnectyour Player to your PC, then re-transfer the Napster files to your Player.

The files will then be able to play back.

Pablo L.

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Your Response: (06/10/2005 03:25)
That is perhaps the worst customer service response ever. First you post a reply that is pure nonsense. Then you post a reply that has nothing to do with my problem of not syncing correctly at all, Napster or Windows Media Player. Part of this is probably because you did not understand WMP meant Windows Media Player. This is most likely because you speak broken English and are from Singapore or something to save this awful company money. Thank you for affirming the fact that the customer service department is awful. I returned my Iriver H10 20GB today, but I can still exchange the product I got
today to get it back. So I will give you one more chance. Here is the problem: When syncing in Windows Media Player, part of my sync list would sync to the H10, and then it would randomly stop syncing and say the rest of the files as aborted. Then, it says that
it can no longer find H10 connected to my computer. Basically, it seems that part way through synchronization, Windows Media Player suddenly doesn't recognize the H10 as being connected anymore. How do I fix this problem? I hope you do a better job on this response than you did on the last one, or you can kiss my business good bye for good.

Sincerely, Alex Nichols xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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iriver Response: (06/11/2005 12:05)
Hello,

Enjoy your new player genius.

Bye

P

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Your Response: (06/11/2005 12:05)
Thanks for proving your customer service department is worthless. You can bet I'm posting this response on about a million forums. You can also count on my notifying a supervisor if they even exist! Peace. =>REQUEST CLOSED BY CUSTOMER

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Really now...
Jun 11, 2005 6:04AM PDT

You're just copy and posting the same message over and over. iRiver isn't that bad of a company. You could have been a bit more amicable about it, but you weren't. These customer support people have to deal with a lot, and since you already told them what you thought and had already bought another player, they just didn't care. You weren't a customer anymore, to them.

Hey, just let it go. iRiver is still a great company that puts out good players. Everyone sends out a few bum players here and there, you just got stuck with a few of them. Honestly, though...

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Just doing my part
Jun 12, 2005 6:04PM PDT

Hey man. They totally wasted my time, and my time is pretty important to me. I don't know about you, but when I buy a product I expect it to work. And if it doesn't work, I expect the company to provide customer service to fix it. Granted I was a bit surly with them in the email, but that is after I already spent two times on the phone, one for 30 mins and one for 40 mins, with no answer! This is an awful company and I'm just trying to do my part letting people know about what I had to go through so they don't. Darn right I'm posting my story everywhere on the forums and internet. This is the only place that we can wage war against the corporations that want to treat us like a number. So there Silly

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agreed!
Jun 12, 2005 6:30PM PDT

I agree with the guy who just ranted and moaned!
I've never had a bad experience with iRiver, but I think any bad experiences should be reported so that others are aware.

Back to the question tho... here in the UK it seems that every iRiver product is always so much more expensive than the Creative equivalent which is why the three times I have bought an mp3 player (usually a toss up between Creative and iRiver), Creative has come out on top for me.
That said, if I had the cash, there wouldn't be much of a difference to me.
Most importantly, when I've listened to a few tunes on the Zen Micro it sounded great! Can't say for the H10, but I've heard from others the sound too is very good too Happy

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I understand you're doing your part
Jun 12, 2005 6:47PM PDT

but seriously though, you're making it sound like they're some evil corporation that's gonna do this to every single person who ever buys one of their products. You paint this picture where you're this victim and that you're the only person who's ever experienced bad customer service. Granted, in this case, it was pretty ******, but really now, people don't always get the dicks of customer service.

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look after ur mp3 player
Jun 12, 2005 10:09PM PDT

look after it and u wont need customer service, in the time that i have owned 2 sony products over 5 years, i haven't had to ring sony up once cos i looked after my product.

newayz, my friend has a H10 (5gb) and it absolutely kicks ***, i wouldn't pass an offer for a H10, the micro looks like its growing sideways so i'd go for the style and many functions advantages the H10 has. SO go for the H10