Treachery Afoot

Remember how I got that broken MP3 player off EBay? Many readers got upset about the injustice of paying for a broken item with no recourse. Fists were shaken, tears were shed. But I have something to confess.

The night I found out the little bugger was broken, I decided to use Google for consolation. I typed in 'Creative Nomad Jukebox' and like, 'totally messed up'. My goal was to find some other poor suckers to commiserate with. Lo and behold, I found page after page of people saying they had spent hundreds of dollars on the Jukebox, only to have the hard drive crap out forever. (Would've been nice if I had performed this research before I made my Ebay bid. No one ever said I was bright.)

I read horror stories about how the Creative company is horrible about providing assistance with broken players and how new hard drives cost more than I spent on the whole shebang.

Some teen savant told a story about how him and his pops decided it would be a good idea to take the whole damn thing apart by hand and try to fix it. He had a little problem with his narrative style, though. He told the story in an increasingly hopeful way, like "It was then we realized the decompresser needed more torque" and whatnot. I was expecting a grand conclusion to this tutorial where I would tinker with my toy and end up a happy boy.

I watch too many movies. The kid couldn't fix shit. He ended up with a bunch of parts in his hand, then said, "Huh" and went to do something else. His daddy probably bought him a new one.

So as I continued to noodle around on the Web, I found one isolated comment on an MP3 player message board. One guy, after four months with a broken Jukebox, tried something on the advice of a friend and it worked. The guy's comment said, "Are you ready for this? It's kind of technical so pay attention. Turn on the player. As it's powering on, smack it hard on the left side. That's it."

Sounds like the "blow in your Nintendo" school of MP3 player repair. But you know what? It freakin' worked. I gave 'er a good whack on the side and she was good to go. Unbelievable. I bet the Creative company is just embarassed to give this advice to people who call in with broken players. "Ma'am, let me walk you through it..."

My biggest hassle became how to delete hundreds of godawful songs left by Samantha Townley, the previous owner. She had everything from Celine Dion to Kenny Chesney to the Titanic soundtrack. And the few marginally good artists she had (U2, the Eels, etc.) were their absolute worst songs. So I cleaned out the whole kit n kaboodle and started afresh. And I love my Creative Nomad Jukebox.

I'm sorry I deceived you all.