Mp3 player Madness!

I'm an electronics addict. I love anything that plays music, videos and or picture slideshows. I have a handful of usb cords and headphones stuffed in a random bag somewhere in my apartment that I never use. I have about fifteen different devices all of which basically do the same thing and I can't stop buying them. I don't know what it is about gadgets that makes my mouth water. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever be satisfied. In addition to this unholy craving for handheld devices, I am also very cheap and buy the low budget stuff only to replace it two months later because (gasp!) it breaks. I can't stand knowing that there's a cheaper versions of something out there that does the same thing for less . Sadly I apply this to more areas of my life than necessary. I won't apologize for it but sometimes it gets me into more grief than I would prefer.

This unquenching desire for bootleg electronics lead me to want a new mp3 player one day. I discovered and then instantly had to have one of those knockoff Ipod nano off the internet. I know what you are thinking and no it wasn't one of those plastic toy pieces of crap from China. I was a high-quality version of one of those toy pieces of crap from China. Apparently any electronic device that is expensive and popular, like the ipod for example, is replicated in mass quantities over there like it's no big deal. Anyway, I ran across a website called digitalkinz.com, which looked very legit, was in the states, had impressive video demonstrations and took PayPal. It couldn't have gotten any better! Sadly, what's too good to be true probably is. I won't go into details and turn this post into a rant about bad customer service but I should. I'm sure we've all been wronged by an internet "business" so I won't go there. I put "business" in quotes because these people have no clue what that means.

In a nutshell, I ordered the player then they canceled it and keep my money only to respond to one of my million attempts to contact them for a refund after I got a little pissy on their forum. I eventually get my money back but in the end their responses weren't even remorseful. Their automated ordering system accepted more orders then there were players resulting in the canceling of God knows how many orders including mine. That wasn't my fault, but instead of offering me some kind of special discount or first dibs on a new shipment they recommended that I buy my ipod from somewhere else. This took almost two weeks of constant e-mails and posts on their forum. All the while I'm checking their regularly updated website thinking I may never see my hard earned dollars again. That experience put a little salt in my game as far as mp3 players go. I did end up buying a legit mp3 player from a corporation that makes mp3 players and I'm very happy now. Every now and then I go back to digitalkingz.com to see what customers are saying and it's very satifying to see that they are finally losing customers from their lack of communication skills. I think I'll spend the extra money next time and buy the actual item instead of knockoffs from some no-name, third party dealer. Lesson learned.