Gmini 220 - A nightmare

Author's Rating:

Pros: It is a good (though expensive) external usb hard drive.

Cons: Everything. Particularly customer service's treatment of consumers.

The Bottom Line: 
Do not buy this product. The company does not support it.

Author's Review
I received this mp3 player as a gift from my wife Christmas of 2004. I debated between this player and the ipod. Eventually, I told her to buy the gmini 220 and she purchased one new off ebay. I regret that decision every day. From day one the unit has never operated properly in regards to its primary function, playing mp3s. I will relate my experiences with this player and the horrible company behind it below:

When my wife gave me the player, I greedily opened it and set about loading it with mp3s. This unit is extremely easy to load as both Mac and Windows machines (I own both) recognize it as an external hard drive. Just drag and drop. I loaded it with 4 gigs of mp3s, made sure it was charged, and set off listening to songs. The player played for approximately 5 minutes and then crashed, shutting itself off. I thought this was strange, but I restarted it and it did the same thing repeatedly.

By now I realized that the player needed "fixing." I downloaded the latest firmware from Archos and loaded it on the player. Still the same problem. I reformated the hard drive (following the advice of the Archos website). Still the same problem. I realized that the error must lie in the internals of the player. Now begins the terrible odyssey.

I emailed customer support because the website did not list a service number. A week passed and I got no reply. I emailed again after looking up the customer relations head, Terry Perrin, on the Better Business Bureau website and threatening to file a complaint. I got a reply this time giving me the customer support number. I called. I was informed that the player needs repair. They informed me that because it was purchased new on ebay they would not honor their warranty for an admittedly faulty player. They furthermore wanted $65 to fix a problem that they cannot identify. They also promised to email me information on how to send in the player for repair. I never received the email. I emailed them again letting them know that I would let all consumers know about their customer relations department and the quality of their product. I am now following through on my promise. The gmini now sits beside my computer as I'm writing this as a useless mp3 player but a good 20 gig external usb hard drive.

So, what do you need to know:
1. The product has known problems.
2. The company will not honor their warranty if you buy on ebay.
3. The technical support number is long distance and you must make threats to receive answers to your emails.
4. This company does not support its products and does not care that consumers make an investment of several hundred dollars in their products.
5. Buy the ipod.