Archos JukeBox Studio (6 GB) MP3 Player

I cut and pasted in the letter I sent to Archos along with my defective player. I've also added further text at the letters end concerning the third player I received.

This is the Jukebox 6000 I was told to return after speaking with Archos Technical Support. This is the second Jukebox 6000 I have returned. The first was purchased at Best Buy and didn?t last 24 hours because of power problems, upon returning, no others were in stock to exchange therefore, this one, was ordered directly from Archos. It apparently has a problem with the hard drive. I can honestly say, I have not been happy with your product, nor would I recommend others to purchase this product. I do however hope that the bugs are all being worked out and you can send a replacement that will work properly that consumers, such as myself, will endorse.

To this point, outside of direct phone calls to Archos, I have not received any support or help with your product. I emailed directly to your webmaster and your technical support with the problems I was encountering the day after I received and used the Jukebox 6000. I only received one email back, from your webmaster, referring my emails to be sent directly to tech support and that my email was also forwarded on to them. Tech Support did not reply for over a week, at which time, I decided to call directly. My main concern had been with skipping. I generally would not experience any skipping when stationary, but hand-held playing while running, or walking with it in my pocket (both with the player in the case provided) significant skipping would occur. I don?t believe it ever made it entirely through a song without skipping at least once. I also could not generate a playlist because the player would turn itself off while loading. After being fed up with the skipping, I called as stated above. I was told to run a thorough scan disk on the Jukebox and that the playlist problem was because a filename was over 32 characters (noted in instructions? I didn?t see it if it was). The scan disk came up with no errors, but the next day I tried putting in a new playlist with less songs and files less than 32 characters to not cause any problems. I tried loading and playing the new playlist, when I experienced the screen showing there was a hard drive error and from then on all the characters were ?scrambled? where the titles of the MP3s had been. I could no longer get anything to play nor could I access the Jukebox from the computer using the USB. To do so, I apparently had to reformat the Jukebox. I again called Tech Support and informed them of the problem, at which time I was told it was a hard drive problem and I was given the RMA # (left number out in review) and told to box it up and mail it back via UPS, ground only, unless I wanted to pay for anything extra! Give me a break. All I can say now is I hope the third time is the charm, if not, I want my money back.

Timeline:

Purchased from Archos online: 6/26/01
Transaction shown on credit card: 6/28/01 order no. removed for review
Received: 7/9/01 (was supposed to be here the Friday prior but Archos mailed it to the wrong city)
Email skipping problems to webmaster/tech support: 7/10/01
Called tech support: 7/18/01
Ran scan disk (thorough): 7/18/01
Load new playlist, got hard disk error, could no longer access or play anything: 7/19/01
Called tech support, told to box and return Jukebox 6000: 7/19/01

End of letter.

Well, the third time was not the charm and I'm currently trying to get a refund. When I received the player, it was not a new player at all. I've now noticed (upon reading another horror story review at this site) that the serial number is the same. I knew the packaging was the same, opened box, everything the way I had sent back, etc., with the exception of my letter being gone. They had now sent me a letter stating that the hard drive had been replaced as well as the firmware updated to version 5.01H. It was also stated it had passed all diagnostics and was ready to use. So, the day after I received the player (I had charged it overnight), I loaded some mp3s and went for a run with it.

The problem never went away. First song playing while I went for a run had the same skipping problem. I immediately stopped and checked out the LCD - Hard Drive Error - appeared on the screen. The music would pick up after stopping movement, but on the screen would remain the error message. Forwarding to the next song removed the message, but upon running again, same thing happened. I'm telling you, I don't think it's possible to make it through an entire song without this stalling. Walking with it in my pocket was no different. No change.

I called directly (the 800 number has now been disconnected, go figure) after finishing my uninspired run. I spoke with customer service and informed them the player was still defective and I wanted a refund. They told me to email the problem to them. According to their site they should have been in touch w/ me within 24 hours, but I've yet to hear anything for 2 days now. It's now the weekend and don't expect to hear anything until at least next week. I've now sent an additional email, in case somehow they miss the first, which would not surprise me. I'm crossing my fingers I may ever receive a refund, but Archos' continual incompetence makes me believe I may end up getting stuck with a poor product. Hopefully, anyone considering this product will strongly look elsewhere for a mp3 player.

The amount of time I've put in on this problem, the money on phone calls and dealing with shipping to and from Archos, not too mention Archos may end up billing me a re-stocking fee of 15% if they don't consider the player's fault a "defect", is absurd. I can only hope that this review will sway others from buying this or other products from Archos to compensate for my loss and frustrations.