I've had my player for exactly 30 days (the extent of Best Buy's exchange warranty...*cough*); and I seem to have broken one of the dock's LED lights.

I brought it over to my dad's, where, at first, it didn't show any lights at all.....then one went on, then both, now the other one works and the left one is broken.....

I don't particularely want to ship off my dock to Rio, can I open up the dock myself and see what's wrong - if not fix it - without voiding the warranty? It's more of an annoyance than anything, the unbalanced light....and it seems as if just a solder joint came loose...but still.

A better question, why the hell would it be broken already? The dock didn't go through any extenuating circumstances, it wasn't banged around or anythingl ike that....it was just cold.

can I open up the dock myself and see what's wrong - if not fix it - without voiding the warranty?

No. If you want to avoid voiding the warranty, you have to send it in.

If I recall correctly, in the U.S., the units have only 90 days' warranty. So if the light problem is merely an annoyance, I'd just leave it until the 90 days were up and then dig in myself. Of course, that only counts if you're good with electronics and SMT soldering...

I agree that your description makes it sound like a loose solder joint somewhere. Or perhaps one of the components on the bottom of the PCB is protruding too much and coming in contact with the metal base plate. If that's the case, the only thing that could make it worse is if other solder joints came loose, and it affected other components. If that happens within the 90 days, then you can send it in.

I made damn sure to purchase a nice, long term extended warranty from Best Buy, so waiting 2 months and ripping it open didn't really work for me. I just got off the phone with DNNA tech support and they're gonna get me a new dock, so that works well for me

And now you have a spare dock, an item you _can't purchase at any price!_

[/sarcasm mode]

-Zeke

Wow....and here I was all excited thinking Rio was good for customer relations...heh.

I called DNNA Canada on the 4th of April. I was told to leave a message for the manager who would be able to get me the part and he'd call me back. Nearly a month later, I've gotten nothing, heard nothing.

I e-mailed DNNA Canada on April 28th and from the sounds of the e-mail I should've recieved something within 24 hours. It's may 2nd and there's nothing.

Is this a DNNA trend or merely a Canadian setback?

Its business as usual for them. It took me approx. 6 weeks to get my unit RMA'd. I never got an email returned nor did I get call backs.

Outsourcing is a good thing, though.

In reply to:

---

We hope your experience with us provides you with an
immediate resolution to your issue. If this service does
not meet your expectations please feel free to email us at
"[email protected]". Your communication back to
us will be reviewed by our Quality Management Team and you
will be provided with feedback regarding your outstanding
issue within 24 business hours.

---

*snickers*

That's part of the autoresponse email that I got when I emailed DNNA Canada. 23 hours ago I sent them an email about how terrible Rio has been with their service. I am amused that their 'customer report' thing can't even live up to it's own promise.

At least iRiver responded to my email...

I must say I'm thoroughly disappointed by their service, or, lack thereof. I expected better from Rio - especially after seeing this forum, where employees of DNNA visit and comment - but I guess that's what you get when you put faith in Corporate America (or Canada in this case, 'Corporate America' just sounds better)

The employees that comment on this board are doing it unofficially and they're not support personnel anyway.

Oh I knew that already, but the fact remains that seeing that, officially or not, instils confidence in you as a customer towards customer service. Especially when they're listening to and commenting on user suggestions.