WARNING - DO NOT BUY THE NEO 35!!!
A couple of you have read what I had to say about it, but I want to make sure EVERYONE knows.
Last Friday (July 7th) I emailed SSIAmerica about the Neo 35. I just wanted to know if they were going to sell the LCD as a seperate product. I ended up buying the Neo 35 a couple of hours later.
The following Monday I emailed them asking if they would give me a tracking number when they shipped it.
Wednesday morning my Neo arrived. I was still ****ed that I never received a reply to either of my emails, but at least I got the product.
When I got home I put the docking tray in the computer, put the HD in the Neo and fired up the computer....showed that I had no hard drives. I removed the HD from the Neo to make sure I had it jumpered correctly (single drive on the secondary IDE chain). Tried it again. This time the computer booted. But the Neo never showed up. So, just to make sure the drive wasn't bad I removed it and hooked it up to the IDE chain directly. Worked like a charm. I tried it once again in the Neo to no avail.
Not wanting to give up so soon, I tried installing it on another computer. Same problems.
After two hours of messing around with it, I fired of an email to SSIAmerica requesting my money back, and also letting them know that I wasn't about to pay for shipping their faulty unit back to them.
Thursday, no reply....Friday...no reply. I end up making a long distance call to SSIAmerica trying to find out why they haven't replied to my email.
After letting the phone ring about 5-6 times an Asian man (in the best English he can apparently muster) answers the phone, "Hello?" Not, "hello, SSIAmerica"...just "hello?" Thinking maybe I had the wrong number, I ask if I had reached SSIAmerica. He replied, "Yes". I told him that I had received a faulty unit and wanted my money back. "Oh, your Neo bad?" This part goes on and on. Him asking me repeatedly if it was bad and me saying yes. "You follow direction?"....I was getting ****ed by now. I tried to hurry the conversation up and requested an address to send it back to. "You no have address?" Man, this guy was ****ing me off. Then after he gives me the address (luckly it's the same one on their site because I couldn't understand a damn word he was saying), he tells me that they'll ship me a new one after they get the bad one. They wouldn't give me my money back, I had to take another one. And I have to pay to send it back to them out of my own pocket. He refused to compensate me for returning the faulty unit to him.
I could go on and on, but the point is....DON'T BUY ONE. Wait for something better to come along.
And one last thing. Don't think I am making fun of an asian...that's how he really talked. He barely seemed to speak english.
OEP
Did you buy it with a credit card? Call your CC company and tell them you want to reverse the charges. They will ask why, tell them the truth. Also tell them you are sending the unit back at your charge.
It's easy to do, and the burden for making it right gets put on the merchant.
Chainsaw76
[This message has been edited by chainsaw76 (edited 07-14-2000).]
-Jason
mp3it - MP3 Software for Small LCD Screens for use in the car.
and
<A HREF="http://www.mp3mystic.com" TARGET=_blank>
MP3Mystic</A> - a personal MP3 Server software for windows.
dude, chill. Go to the mp3.com buliten board and look around. A lot of people have had some problems like you were having. First, it has to be jumpered as master and on its on ide bus. Second you have to have it locked in place with the key b4 it will work at all.
Car: 1999 Dark Green Mustang GT Coupe
Audio: Alpine HU, JL 6ch Amp, JL Stealthbox and XR series components.
Player: Empeg for now; something custom later.
www.neotechpc.com - Custom built laptops!
Don't be rediculous. Who cares if it works or not. Nobody should ever have to deal with sh@t like that. I'd do what chainsaw said, let the credit card company handle it. Then I'd inform the Better Business Bureau. And besides, he did say that it was by itself on the IDE chain.
Smashr2k: Thanks for the help. I feel like an ***. All it was the whole time was that damn key (which is NOT mentioned in the manual). At least I'm not the only one who couldn't figure it out.
I still feel that you should be careful buying from these people. Customer support (at least for me) has been non-existant.
OEP
Still, not responding to emails and not putting customer interest first reminds me of another company ............ EIO.COM.
So, now that you have figured it out.. How does it work??
Chainsaw76
Originally posted by Old El Paso:
Smashr2k: Thanks for the help. I feel like an ***. All it was the whole time was that damn key (which is NOT mentioned in the manual). At least I'm not the only one who couldn't figure it out.
I still feel that you should be careful buying from these people. Customer support (at least for me) has been non-existant.
OEP
-Jason
mp3it - MP3 Software for Small LCD Screens for use in the car.
and
<A HREF="http://www.mp3mystic.com" TARGET=_blank>
MP3Mystic</A> - a personal MP3 Server software for windows.
Well, once I got it setup correctly...installing mp3's is easy. Plug it in, turn the key, turn on the computer. It sets up as a regular HD. Copy your crap over, turn off the PC...plug it into you car/home stereo dock.
The second half gets more interesting. I'd put it in the car dock. I found a 12V adaptor to plug into it. I fired it up and the access light kept blinking. In the manual it says that the first time you hook it up the Neo has to search the HD for all file info. So I let it run for a while. After an hour it still was just blinking.
And thanks to smashr2k, I visited mp3.com to see if anyone else had had this problem. Sure enough...other people.
This is another "ooops, left that out of the manual" deal. Someone figured this out, apparently you need a 12V/2A adaptor. The one I was using was a 12V/500mA adaptor. Not enough juice to spin up the drive. So, I went rumaging through the house and found a 12V/3.3A adaptor...plenty of power it seemed.
To make a long story short....too much power....fried my car dock. SOOOOOO, I still have no idea how it sounds. From other owners posts I've gathered that it sounds very good. It's apparently based off of the same mp3 chip as the older Rio (pre-500?)
Word to the wise...go to radioshack and spend the $10 for the CORRECT adaptor.
OEP
Hey is the car dock a standard din opening? I assume it is but it never hurts to ask. I guess if I needed an AM/FM radio I could always find a way to Y it in from a small portable (which would work well since I take the train to work... I can just pop the portable radio and and listen to it on the train)!
Let us know how it sounds.
It's supposed to be a single DIN, but I've heard people say that it doesn't fit.
And just a quick note. I FINALLY got a reply from SSI or Multitechnology or whatever the hell the name of the company is. And the guy had the nerve to give me **** for calling their product "a piece of crap" and for being so "impolite". So, just because I want to get my broken car dock replaced, I had to apologize for being "impolite".
OEP
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks