My Experience with the Microsoft Zune & Customer Support

I received a Microsoft Zune as a Christmas gift back in 2007. I have taken fantastic care of my device, to look at it you would swear it is brand new. It never leaves its Action Jacket. Last week I was listening to it when the battery died on me, no big deal. I hooked it up to my computer to recharge and went about my business.

About two hours later I disconnected it and intended to begin listening to my music while cleaning my house. My Zune then began to shuffle through my play list, pausing and unpausing as it shuffled. I was confused by this random malfunction so I got online and went through the trouble shooting section on the website. I reset my Zune hoping the problem would be solved. To my dismay the shuffling and pausing resumed! I decided then to call customer support and attempt to solve this issue.

After waiting for nearly ten minutes an agent came on the line. She barely spoke English and also could not understand English. After what seemed like forever she finally understood what I was saying. The solution I was offered was this "Give me your credit card number and I will bill you $129.99 and send you a replacement." Oh, I was not happy to hear that! I asked why I had to pay so much money to have my Zune repaired, she informed me that is their policy.

After explaining to the agent that I was not interested in spending that kind of cash she said that was all she could do for me, and she hung up on me. I was infuriated so I called back, got someone who spoke English and asked for a supervisor.

When I finally got a supervisor on the line, I explained the call from a few minutes before and why I was so irritated. The supervisor pulled up my account to inform me I had never called in for support before. I tried explaining to her what happened and how the last agent hung up on me. Instead of trying to make the customer happy, she told me and I quote "Your lies are unwarranted, we are not going to give you anything for free." I rationally explained that I had just called a few minutes before, I am not looking for a free Zune, I just want to have mine in working order. She went on to tell me I had no device registered and she doubted I even owned a zune.

To make a long story short, the Microsoft Zune is not worth the hefty price tag. It will randomly screw up, and good luck getting it repaired! As for the customer support division, it is non existent. Microsoft outsources this job to some third world country. The agents barely speak English, they are hard to understand, they can barely understand the customer, and they will be flat out rude to you. I will never buy another Microsoft product. I would not recommend the Zune to anyone. It will malfunction, regardless of how you care for the device and then you will be insulted when you try to reach a solution to the malfunction.