About to send in M5L for repair to earphone jack

[roses4rome]

Dear fellow music listeners,

I have had an iAudio M5L now for about half a year and it has worked great so far. Unfortunately the headphone jack is causing trouble and needs to be repaired or replaced (a more detailed description below). After browsing several forums I have found mixed posts as to how well Cowon deals with customer's problems, some people praise them for their service (some posts on the American forums) whereas others seem to have had serious issues in getting things repaired (a search on the terms "customer service" on this forum returned a lot of posts in which people were complaining).

As a service to both the existing community as well as potential buyers I'll give a detailed and (to the best of my abilities) unbiased account of my experiences in my attempt to get this problem fixed. Although several people advice against, I will start with sending emails as having things in writing and having them out in the open for everyone to read is less biased than my attempts at recounting a telephone conversation. (Oh, and it's a Saturday at the moment [smile] )

For the record, I'm living in Finland, Europe, so the first step is to contact them at the email address found on the warranty slip: iAUDIOhelp1@cowon.com

Here goes...

Dear sir or madam,

Earlier this year (25th of February 2006) I purchased an iAudio M5L mp3 player and so far I have been very satisfied with it.

Recently I have noticed that the sound output has become unreliable, and I need to wriggle the earphone plug around to hear stereo sound. Tests with several earphones, which work fine on other devices, strongly suggest the problem indeed lies with the player and not with the headphones used. After browsing some of the support forums (for instance at iAudiophile.net) I found that this is a well-known problem for, amongst others, the X5 series. It seems to be related to the way the earphone jack is attached inside of the player. So, the earphone jack would need to be either replaced or reattached.

As my player is still under warranty I would like to send it in for repairs. Before I send it though, could you detail where the player will be send to for repairs? Does it need to be send back to Asia or is there a repair centre in Europe (I am living in Finland)? How long does it typically take to solve problems with the earphone jack?

For quality and control purposes and as a service to both the established community and potential customers, the progress of this case will be posted online at the following links


Hope to hear from you soon,


This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
http://www.cowonamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29110#post29110

Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Three working day have passed without reply. I resend the e-mail

Dear Sir or madam,

I have sent below email earlier last week but have not yet had a response. Is it possible someone looks into this, please?

Next step in case of no response: the phone

This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
http://www.cowonamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29110#post29110

Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Via a post on the iAudiophile.net Forums (http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10753) I found a link to a German support page (http://www.cowon.ch/support.html) where both a telephone number and a (different) email address are mentioned. Once more, the email was sent.

Dir sir or madam,

I have sent below email twice now in a week's time to iaudiohelp1@cowon.com without getting a reply. Via the iAudiophile.net forum I your support pages. Are you able to look into below-mentioned problem or, if not, do you know who to contact instead?

Hope to hear from you soon.

This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
http://www.cowonamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29110#post29110

Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Over at the Cowon Global Forums someone suggested submitting this problem via the Q&A section of their website. Although it doesn't seem quite the right place to submit such a problem, it's worth a try, so I submitted the text of the first email in their Q&A section.

[roses4rome]

Nice, only less then two hours after emailing the German address I already got a reply. :)


Date: 09-Oct-2006 14:30
Subject: Earphone jack def.

Dear Service Team,

please take care of this costumer.

Best regards, X

X
Cowon Europe GmbH
Rödelheimer Landstraße 194
D-60489 Frankfurt
Tel.: +49-(0)69-907487-60
Fax: +49-(0)69-907487-89
www.cowon.com


My reply

[I]Dear X,

Thanks for your prompt action!

Best,


This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
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Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Ok, both the email to the German address as well as the question posted on the Q&A board ended up at the same place. This is the email:

From: Service <service@cowon.com>
Date: 10-Oct-2006 08:47
Subject: From COWON SYSTEMS

Thank you for using iAUDIO M5L.

Please check our answer from Q&A board.
You do not need to duplicate your questions.
If you have further questions, please visit Q&A board on our website again.
This is only used for outgoing mail.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,
COWON


And this is the reply on the Q&A board


Thank you for using iAUDIO M5L.

We apologize for the inconvenience.
Please contact with the store that you purchased your item from and log the fault with their returns department (providing your proof of purchase). In turn, the store will contact the distribution partner and the fault will be logged and a returns number provided. Once your faulty item has been sent back to the distributor, it is sent to the iAUDIO Service Centre in Korea where it is repaired/replaced (under warranty conditions).

The terms and conditions of the COWON's Limited International Warranty only apply in the countries other than the country that the COWON product was originally purchased.

If your product is under warranty, it is free. However, the consumer shall have no coverage or benefits under any other external factors beyond the control of COWON. If it is not under warranty, you have to pay for it. The price is not yet fixed.

If you have further questions, feel free to ask us again.
Thanks again for using the customer support at cowonglobal.com.

Regards,

I find it striking how they tightly stick to their communication policy. As a customer the only option you have to log a problem is a web interface. No email adresses, no telephone numbers.

Also, I think the solution is nuts indeed. I bought the device in the Netherlands and afterwards moved to Finland. According to this instruction I need to send it back to the shop in the Netherlands where I ordered it. They have to send it to the distributor. The distributor then sends it to the Service Centre in Korea (!). No wonder things take forever to get repaired. The more tiers you have in such a system, the more time it takes and the more chance there will be delays due to miscommunication or things ending up in the wrong place.

No mention whatsoever about a German repair centre by the way. I'm going to give these guys in Germany a call. It seems several people were able to have their machine send straight to the centre in Frankfurt (see aforementioned post on iAudiophile.net http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10753)

This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
http://www.cowonamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29110#post29110

Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

I just got off the phone with the service centre in Frankfurt. The lady I spoke to (which was the same person who forwarded the email and carbon-copied it to me) was very polite and explained that, yes, they do repair devices at the service centre in Frankfurt but ONLY for customers who bought them in Germany, Austria or Switzerland (You lucky bastards! ;) ). She mentioned that since August something has changed and that the rest of Europe is serviced by the centre in Korea.

I explained her what the proposed solution is and she agreed it is a bit much. She hinted that I might try and contact the service centre directly at service1@cowon.com (which is different from service@cowon.com in the above reply).

I send them the following email:

Dear servicedesk,

Earlier this year (25th of February 2006) I purchased an iAudio M5L mp3 player and so far I have been very satisfied with it.

Recently I have noticed that the sound output has become unreliable, and I need to wriggle the earphone plug around to hear stereo sound. Tests with several earphones, which work fine on other devices, strongly suggest the problem indeed lies with the player and not with the headphones used. After browsing some of the support forums (for instance at iAudiophile.net) I found that this is a well-known problem for, amongst others, the X5 series. It seems to be related to the way the earphone jack is attached inside of the player. So, the earphone jack would need to be either replaced or reattached.

As my player is still under warranty I would like to send it in for repairs. I spoke with X from the service centre in Frankfurt, Germany, who told me that European customers outside of Germany, Switzerland and Austria have to send their player to the service centre in Korea for repairs. As I bought my player in the Netherlands that would also be the case for me. Could you give me an address to which I can ship the player?

Thanks for your help.

Kind regards,


This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
http://www.cowonamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29110#post29110

Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Nope, the email I send yestetrday to ended up at the same address, I got the following response...

Thank you for using iAUDIO M5L.

Please check our answer from Q&A board again.
You do not need to duplicate your questions as we mentioned before.
If you have further questions, please visit Q&A board on our website again.

This is only used for outgoing mail.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,
COWON

The only option left open is to go "their" way. That is, call my dealer in the Netherlands and send the player to them.

This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
http://www.cowonamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29110#post29110

Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Okay, so I spoke to my Dutch dealer yesterday and today (mp3shop.nl). It turns they *might* have a repair centre in the Netherlands or Belgium themselves, saving this thing from having to go all the way to Korea. The man I spoke to yesterday mentioned this, although the girl I spoke to today said that returns to Korea were the normal procedure.

Either way, they were polite, quick and professionally logged the problem. Within an hour I got an email with instructions on where to send it. So, I took some pictures of the player as it was before I send it, put it in a padded envelope, put that in a small cardboard box filled with foamy bits and will send it off tomorrow. I have added a letter with a description of the fault in both Dutch and Enligsh (as I don't know which party will repair it).

The reason for taking pictures was this post (http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11115) by Ian_Locke who claimed to be returned a damaged player.

The attached letter reads:


Dear sir, madam,

On October 12th I have reported a defect to mp3shop.nl. It concerns a defect of my mp3 player, a Cowon iAudio M5L, that I have ordered from mp3shop.nl on February 27th, 2006. They logged the defect under number 66624.

The player recently has the tendency not to produce stereo-sound anymore, unless the earphones are kept under a certain angle or are moved around while in the jack. Tests with different earphones, each working fine with other devices, confirm that the problem lies with the player and not with the earphones. My suspicion is that the jack is not making a proper connection anymore inside of the machine.

A search on the internet seems to confirm this suspicion. On different forums the same problem is described for other models of this manufacturer. It seems the jack can easily break loose because it is not soldered in place, but kept in place with just a plastic clip. I am mainly basing these claims on what I read in this post:
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4355. If you have the opportunity, you could read this for yourself. However, since I am unable to open the player myself due to the warranty on it, I cannot guarantee that this is the problem. If it turns out the problem is indeed caused by a faulty connection of the jack in the machine, soldering it in place might be an option?

I have added a copy of the original Dutch invoice and the warranty and I hope this is sufficient for a swift solution to this problem. Thanks in advance for your time and effort.

With kind regards,


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Cowon America
http://www.cowonamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29110#post29110

Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Nearly a week has passed since I sent my player last Friday. Since the instructions I had received from my vendor stated that the player should be returned within seven days I decided to give them a call. The package was not yet in, but they made no problem out of this since it has to come from abroad.

This message was also posted to the following forums

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Cowon Global
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

[roses4rome]

Got an email today from Coolblue (MP3shop.nl is a part of them) telling me that the order had arrived. However, they were missing the accessories and requested me to send those as well (including, if possible, the original packing). Only then can they actually take care of this case.

Hmmm, sure, I still have the CD-rom, headphones and USB-cable that came with the player, but I don't see how that will contribute to repairing a broken headphone jack... So, I took up the telephone again and asked them why this is so necessary and what good it will do. The servicedesker I spoke to mentioned the possibility of swapping
the machine for a new one in case the defect can not be fixed. Hmmm... they can of course also have a look at the problem first and when they deem it irreparable ask me for the accessories. Still, (and I know this from my own experience while working at an IT-helpdesk) policies are policies and me jumping up and down won't change a thing. So, if it makes them happy, I can put the accessories in a padded envelope and send them off.

So, add another week for the accessories to arrive.

(In case anyone's wondering why I'm not putting these emails online literally, they're in Dutch, so I might just as well give you the general gist of the email instead of literally translating it)

This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
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Cowon Global
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[roses4rome]

Two weeks after sending the accessories to the vendor I hadn't heard back from them yet, so last Wednesday I decided to contact them again via email. I got a response the same day telling me that the accessories had been received and that I now had a credit with them of € 279 and could pick a new player. Although it's a perfectly fine solution I was slightly surprised as I had expected them to repair the player, or send it out for repairs otherwise. So, a second email was returned with the question why this decision was taken. Their reply was that Cowon doesn't really repair players and usually replaces straightaway (very environmentally-minded and all).

So, there you have it, no thanks to Cowon, but I can pick a new player. Good service of mp3shop.nl though! After a few days of dubbing whether to stay with Cowon or pick a different brand (mp3shop.nl also offers players from Creative, Apple, SanDisk, Archos, Dane-Elec, Samsung, MobiBLU and Sony) I decided to stick with Cowon. Unfortunately the M5L is no longer available with mp3shop.nl. I would have preferred to stick with this one. The next best option (although € 60 more expensive) is the X5L. Not that I'm very eager to have video-playback on an mp3 player (I personally feel that's completely worthless, but that's a whole different topic again). The fact however that Cowon is one of the few to offer decent support for numerous file formats (only Cowon, Samsung and Dane-Elec play .ogg files for example) and the fact that the L series indeed has extreme long battery life, I decided to stick with Cowon for another while.

Oh, that and the fact that I bought a silicon case from zCover a while ago for the M5L / X5L series (concerning the customer service of zCover I will also write something later on, because that's also a very, very sad case...).

Also, considering the good service of the vendor, I'll know what to do next time the thing breaks within the warranty period; return to vendor.

This message was also posted to the following forums

Cowon America
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