Product Review: Craig Electronics MP3 Player

Once again, apologies to my regular readers for not having written and/or posted anything recently. As some of you might know, I have been working on several books for the last year. Needless to say, I have been very busy.
I’m going to jump right into this posting’s product review. It is probably the easiest product review that I’ve ever written considering that I have absolutely nothing good to say about this product. This month’s review comes courtesy of Craig Electronics and what passes for their “quality” mp3 player.

I bought a Craig manufactured 2 gigabyte mp3 player from Amazon after reading a couple of good reviews of the product. However, I should have read further reviews because for some reason, positive Amazon listings of products tend to be the first one listed, while those warning would-be buyers of the more negative aspects of a particular product lag behind on the list. Whether by design or incidence, I opted to use my own platform here to warn those in the market for an mp3 player to stay as far away from the piece of garbage as possible.
From the moment I received this product, there were problems, the major one being that it simply did not work (yes, I purchased this product new, not “refurbished”). According to packaged instructions, purchasers should charge player for approximately 10 hours prior to first use—which I did (the player is supposed to be charged with the power switch in the “on” position). After about 12 hours of charging (I left it charged while I went to work during a 12-hour shift), I came back to the product expecting it to function. But sometimes, expectations often exceed reality. This product proved that in spades.
I then charged the product another 10 hours with the power switch in the “off” position, in the hopes that I might have bought the one version of the product that was somehow mis-wired. No go. No lit screen…nothing. After my frustration level shot past the maximum tolerance level, I then contacted the manufacturer’s customer service center for a remedy. I was told that I would have to send the product back to their service center along with $15 dollars to “fix” the problem.
Curious, I went back online to search other sites hoping to pick up more accurate and relevant reviews of the Craig 2 gig mp3 player. Did I ever learn that it pays to read as much as you can about an off-brand product, especially electronics. I found many similar reviews by disgruntled customers of Craig’s mp3 players. Luckily, Amazon was willing to provide me with a refund for the defective product. But I don’t blame Amazon, I blame Craig Electronics for impersonating a manufacturer of working consumer products. Don’t waste your money on this (or any) Craig-produced product.
So disappointed I was with this product that I'm going to convey upon it the first "Golden Turn Award" given away by Beyond Dollars & Sense.  Way to go Craig!  Please don't keep up the "good" work!