Creative Sound Blaster Roar - bad experience from start to end

Danil82

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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=113337389021679&set=o.193001976881&type=3

Above is the link of the screenshot email correspondence with Creative staff.

Below is the chronogical events of my experience.

Received product 30.04.2014.
Found product great.
Used on desk top only
Used it a little often but not daily.
Family members complain music are muffled and not clear.
Started to show signs of charging issue within first year.
Signs got more frequent and to the point of not able to switch on the speaker
Product failed finally dated 04.10.2015.
Contacted creative technical support.
Guided me to test by plugging in power cord in.
Told tech the power lights only flashes once after plug in.
Was told product has hardware issue without second test.
Was offered to buy a new product.
Was expecting a quote of a reasonable fee to repair the unit, but didn't even get one.

Disclaimer: i am not here to expect anything. I am here to inform others. If you want to try their product, make sure this is really what you can accept too.
 
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yusoffb01

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Its only 1 year warranty. What u expect? Go buy receipt from someone and use that to repair
 

jnetsix

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Contacted creative technical support.
Guided me to test by plugging in power cord in.
Told tech the power lights only flashes once after plug in.
Was told product has hardware issue without second test.
Was offered to buy a new product.
Was expecting an offer of a reasonable fee to repair the unit, but didn't even get an offer.

Its only 1 year warranty. What u expect? Go buy receipt from someone and use that to repair

Hello yusoffb01, the TS din expect creative to repair for FREE.... but for a FEE. you don't anyhow post without reading carefully...
 

86technie

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Whether is it roar product or any other audio product
that creative produce I do not support it.
Their QA is really bad and not to mention cheap build quality.
In the past I used to own their headphones, DAP, speakers
and etc.
All are like fragile goods which break down easily.

As for Creative roar, I do not know what is so good about it.
For portable speakers I rather get reputable brands
with Whathifi award instead of just replying on word to word
recommendation.
 

weng

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Hmm.. this is not what you want but frankly speaking I don't feel that it qualifies as "bad experience". Did you follow up with them asking for the option of repairing?
 

Danil82

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Hmm.. this is not what you want but frankly speaking I don't feel that it qualifies as "bad experience". Did you follow up with them asking for the option of repairing?

The product started to malfunction within first year is already bad experience. This is just a speaker. Where on earth would a speaker spoil so easily, moreover it's Creative. I don't understand how you can simply say it doesn't qualify as bad experience.

This morning they sent an email back quoting $120 for the shipping and repair of the battery issue and also gave an additional open quote saying the amount doesn't include any other parts that may need replacement. Fair enough, at least now they bother to quote. But that was what i expected because if you are proud of your low repair price, you would have quoted it in your first response. You wouldn't even dare to quote in the first place. They also knew that there's something wrong with their repair price.

Indeed, they then explained that the high repair price is the reason why they never quote in the first place because buying a new one is more worth it.

Let's just put my bad experience aside. Now you are aware, from your neutral perspective, do you think you will dare to buy Creative SBR speakers like this? Yes or No, i leave it to you, my purpose here is to share the whole experience i had in chronological order and i deduced it as a bad one, because i strongly feel that no one in the right mind would buy another $200 speakers from Creative, after knowing that you have to suck thumb and buy a new speaker, even when your speaker is spoilt at the 1 year plus mark.
 
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Danil82

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Whether is it roar product or any other audio product
that creative produce I do not support it.
Their QA is really bad and not to mention cheap build quality.
In the past I used to own their headphones, DAP, speakers
and etc.
All are like fragile goods which break down easily.

As for Creative roar, I do not know what is so good about it.
For portable speakers I rather get reputable brands
with Whathifi award instead of just replying on word to word
recommendation.

Yeah man you are right. I reduced to buying a new Logitech z200 speakers at $60 instead. No battery, probably more lasting.
 

weng

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The product started to malfunction within first year is already bad experience. This is just a speaker. Where on earth would a speaker spoil so easily, moreover it's Creative. I don't understand how you can simply say it doesn't qualify as bad experience.

This morning they sent an email back quoting $120 for the shipping and repair of the battery issue and also gave an additional open quote saying the amount doesn't include any other parts that may need replacement. Fair enough, at least now they bother to quote. But that was what i expected because if you are proud of your low repair price, you would have quoted it in your first response. You wouldn't even dare to quote in the first place. They also knew that there's something wrong with their repair price.

Indeed, they then explained that the high repair price is the reason why they never quote in the first place because buying a new one is more worth it.

Let's just put my bad experience aside. Now you are aware, from your neutral perspective, do you think you will dare to buy Creative SBR speakers like this? Yes or No, i leave it to you, my purpose here is to share the whole experience i had in chronological order and i deduced it as a bad one, because i strongly feel that no one in the right mind would buy another $200 speakers from Creative, after knowing that you have to suck thumb and buy a new speaker, even when your speaker is spoilt at the 1 year plus mark.

Ok pardon me, I assumed you were referring to the issue of them not offering repair option, and not the entire timeline from working to spoilt and such.

Speaker itself may not spoil. But do note there are lots of other electronics in it.

Selling a final product vs cost of repairing... sometimes it isn't proportionate. A straightforward thing to consider is labour cost... Mass production vs a techie spending time doing your thing. Parts may be cheap, but labour isn't.

Anyway, it can happen to anything. Not much difference if you buy another brand and it kaput after warranty. They may also rather suggest you buy a new one. There is some range where it becomes favorable or unfavorable for repair w.r.t typical cost of labour. At $200.... arguably I wouldn't say it's so high a price where repairs are usually worth the trouble. Also depending on what defect is it. And different people have different yardsticks anyway. You see it's already $120 parts + labour on one problem. They haven't even see the real thing. What if there is additional repair... another few tens... end up worth or not. And do you think any other maker would be any different? Just gotta keep fingers crossed. I am using Creative too :D
 
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jnetsix

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Ok pardon me, I assumed you were referring to the issue of them not offering repair option, and not the entire timeline from working to spoilt and such.

Speaker itself may not spoil. But do note there are lots of other electronics in it.

Selling a final product vs cost of repairing... sometimes it isn't proportionate. A straightforward thing to consider is labour cost... Mass production vs a techie spending time doing your thing. Parts may be cheap, but labour isn't.

Anyway, it can happen to anything. Not much difference if you buy another brand and it kaput after warranty. They may also rather suggest you buy a new one. There is some range where it becomes favorable or unfavorable for repair w.r.t typical cost of labour. At $200.... arguably I wouldn't say it's so high a price where repairs are usually worth the trouble. Also depending on what defect is it. And different people have different yardsticks anyway. You see it's already $120 parts + labour on one problem. They haven't even see the real thing. What if there is additional repair... another few tens... end up worth or not. And do you think any other maker would be any different? Just gotta keep fingers crossed. I am using Creative too :D
So meaning this flagship portable speaker that created the big woohaa at about 1.5 yrs back is not worth buying.
damn... I hope I can turn back the clock, so that I don't buy this...
keeping my fingers crossed and hope my roar will last. :)
 

Momentumm

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Wait. Couldn't you just ask if the product can be repaired at a fee if that was what you wanted?
 

kitleong

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I know your feeling.

I received a faulty gaming headset ZxR, online ordered from Creative store. The headset was not able to charge, I tried so many times and methods, like tried to test different power plug, power socket, USB cable, USB port, windows and mac machine..
but they're still kept asking me to do a test. I told them what I already did, they said that headset was faulty and they will send me an email for this incident. When I opened the email, still "please do a manual test".
They're really not willing to help and solve the problem.

few days later, I received an email for survey. I did it and submit a review, then I realize customer review in the store..... Ok, nobody can access!! There are only 2 customer reviews in Creative website. (I posted my story yesterday

if you google search "creative labs service review", you will know what service Creative provided all these years.

That's why I said, Creative stock price dropped from $5 to $1 would not be surprising me.
Creative product always was my first choice after I bought a Creative sound card for my Pentium 3 computer... I was a loyalty customer about 15 years!

So how I solve the problem? I bought Steelseries H wireless, then my problem resolved instantly.
 

weng

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So meaning this flagship portable speaker that created the big woohaa at about 1.5 yrs back is not worth buying.
damn... I hope I can turn back the clock, so that I don't buy this...
keeping my fingers crossed and hope my roar will last. :)
Not I say la... btw I'm not using roar :D
 

abatuzi

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Ok pardon me, I assumed you were referring to the issue of them not offering repair option, and not the entire timeline from working to spoilt and such.

Speaker itself may not spoil. But do note there are lots of other electronics in it.

Selling a final product vs cost of repairing... sometimes it isn't proportionate. A straightforward thing to consider is labour cost... Mass production vs a techie spending time doing your thing. Parts may be cheap, but labour isn't.

Anyway, it can happen to anything. Not much difference if you buy another brand and it kaput after warranty. They may also rather suggest you buy a new one. There is some range where it becomes favorable or unfavorable for repair w.r.t typical cost of labour. At $200.... arguably I wouldn't say it's so high a price where repairs are usually worth the trouble. Also depending on what defect is it. And different people have different yardsticks anyway. You see it's already $120 parts + labour on one problem. They haven't even see the real thing. What if there is additional repair... another few tens... end up worth or not. And do you think any other maker would be any different? Just gotta keep fingers crossed. I am using Creative too :D


yes its all the same for all eletronics, whether tv, speaker, etc.
my lg tv remote for example, spoilt, i called them, did they offer repair, no, they recommended to me to buy new remote instead. so its all the same thing. and not to mention apple, very big company and lots of funds, but will they give you a free eventhough its just 10 days pass warranty, no, they will ask you to pay and very expensive.
 

_dEvon

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I got the same speaker and same problem as yours, dead within 1 year of use. Will never buy creative speaker again!
 
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