Sad, can't get in on this one without having actually purchased a Creative MP3 Player... :-( That's too bad!

Hmm...I bought one on clearance from Creative's website...I figure this would apply to me as well, except I don't want another MP3 player (I sold my Zen and bought my Zune, which I love).

wait, 7%? Isn't that the standard difference between a marketed hard drive capacity and actual size?

honestly if you are worried about 7% (a few hundred meg) you should be buying a bigger player, always need that room to expand

I bouth a Zen about 5 or 6 years ago, but I sold it about 3 years ago. Unfortunately, I don't have the proof of purchase, serial # or any other info needed for the rebate. Lame.

That's like sending Al Capone to Alcatraz for tax evasion. How about the fact that Creative MP3 players are junk? I bought one for my son when he was in middle school. He enjoyed it for all of two months before the earplug jack went tits up.

Even if I could prove my purchase, why would I want a coupon for more junk?

Stupid.

7% less space due to file system and formatting sound about right. Why are they only picking on Creative, I've never had a mp3 player I could fill to the advertised limit?

@myotheralt: Yeah, 7% accounts for the marketing differences between the 1000 vs 1024 bytes per KB issue (and 1024*1024*1024 vs 1000*1000*1000 for GB). As well as the formatting, FAT tables, and all that.

EVERY device has this.
Is this for hard drive units of flash memory units. If it's for flash memory, then it's EXTRA stupid, because memory is manufactured to powers of 2, if it's, say a 2GB MP3 player (as my Zen Stone), there's actually a 2GB memory chip in there. Net usable capacity after formatting notwithstanding (1.83 gb)

Hey, I should sue!

Can I get in on this from Canada? My sister and i have one mp3 player each.

The claim form says you have to have purchased a Create mp3 player before January 1, 2004 but the summary notice says the dates are between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008. Odd. Also, it says it's only for hard disk players, not flash ones.

It appears the 50% is only for a new 1GB player.

That sounds like a great deal. However, I bought my Zen in 2002ish, and I only keep my receipts for 5 years, not 6.
I don't even have the player anymore- it started off as junk, and didn't get any better over time. So I removed the hard drive, reformatted it, and now it acts as a nice portable external drive. It's way more useful to my that way.

@Munkeyhatecleen:

you get that or 20% coupon to their online store

@Toof_75_75 said: Sad, can't get in on this one without having actually purchased a Creative MP3 Player...
---------------
Because iPods are over-hyped, over-priced pieces of crap marketed to lemmings.

I actually love my old 1GB Creative Zen Nano. It's tiny (dimensions 1.32" x 2.58" x 0.51"), lasts 18+ hrs on a single AAA battery, and has great sound quality. Granted it's capacity is getting quite small compared to current standards, but I absolutely love it for running, mowing lawn, or any activity due to its size.

I wish they made a higher capacity version that ran on AAA's, was small, and had a decent display. None of the new models meet all those criteria.

I bought a 30GB Nomad about 4 years ago and it was the biggest piece of crap I've ever spent money on. Sold it and got an iPod. I've been happy ever since... I mean, every iPod I've owned never had firmware that crashed every twenty minutes.

I had one I bought about 6 years or so ago. But who keeps a receipt for 6 years!! It should be if you can prove you own one and the model was made in the last 7 years that should be good enough.

@aka_bigred:

Oh good, here comes the Ipod hater patrol. Tell us how awful we are.

[icanhascheezburger.com]

@AlteredBeast:

Is your real name Steve Ballmer?

Before I had an iPod, I had 2 creative mp3 players. This is back before mp3 players were popular, and the interface and ease of use was awful. I switched to the iPod, and never looked back.

If i got an ipod for free I wouldn't turn it down.
But I would RockBox It.

Not a big fan of the pod. Plenty of players out there with features I want without the prestige price.

@rdldr1: I had an Archos Jukebox, and always swore I would never get an Ipod. Then I played around with one, and realized what crap my Archos was in comparison(always freezing, ridiculously big,etc). And the ease of Itunes made it so much sweeter.

So we can get a half price 1gb player or a 20% off coupon, and the lawyers get a fee not to exceed $900,000??? Gee I wonder whose idea this was....

I have a creative zen and I love it, but this is absolutely ridiculous. Once again Consumerist has chosen the wrong side.

got a 6 gig zen micro that i havent used in years.

i now have a 1gb zen stone and its awesome! the only flash player that supports folders and dirt cheap! so tiny too!

had an ipod mini won it and gave it away.

@bradite:

Um, what side has Consumerist chosen?

I bought a Creative Zen Xtra way back when. Still have it, still use it. Had to replace the battery about 2 years ago, but other than that it works fine. I like the buttons on the sides so I never have to take it out of my pocket to switch songs.

Too bad I don't need anything from creative or even want anything. Maybe that 1 GB mp3 player as a gift to somebody...

Sick! I bought a 6GB Nomad Jukebox in 2002. I just found my bank statement from then and plugged in my serial number. Sucks I'll have to wait till at least this September to get the coupon.

Idiots i tells ya. When you format ANY hard dirve there is about 7% of the hard dirve reserved for the files system. Go into my computer on your machine, and check the hard drive capacity. Your sticker may say 60GB but will show u 55.8GB or so.

Another example is with flopyy disks. I even says it on the box 1.44MB, 1.37 with format.

These players contain specified hard dirve but after the file system and its OS takes over there is going to be ever so slight amount available to the user.

If they go after creative, why not Apple? Microsoft? Hewlet-Packard? IBM? Any device that has a hard drive in it?

EDIT: ever so slight amount inaccessible

Still have the player that crapped out about a year and a half after we bought it. If it went on our debit card, do they keep credit/debit card purchase records that long? I'm sure the receipt and all is probably long gone.

It is pretty much a crap settlement ...

Too bad I don't think I'm buying a Zen in the near future - my old 30 GB Zen Xtra is STILL going strong in the possession of my younger sister (amazing what a new battery does for a player), and my current 60GB Zen Vision:M is performing admirably after two years ... too bad my mother's 1g iPod Nano died in three months. Even her current Zune is doing better.

Wait, I forgot, this is the Internet. All hail Lord Jobs, master of perfection!

@Munkeyhatecleen: You beat me to it. Yes, the 50% is only off a 1GB player. Which kind of sucks.

I got this email yesterday since I have two Creative MP3 players. Which, by the way, are not junk. They work just fine.

this is what happens when lawyers and judges dont understand how the technology works

I love my 1 GB Zen nano. I wish the 50% worked on all players because I would jump on the chance to get a Zen Vision 30 or 60 GB for half price! I'll just keep saving.

Wow, I bought a 30GB in 2004 and the next year upgraded to a 60GB using the now infamous Hitachi Deathstar HDD. When the 60GB crashed in February, I reinstalled the original 30GB and sold it for $70 on CL. After a few days, I regretted getting rid of it.

Just got the settlement email.

If it didn't take too much effort, I'd exclude myself from the lawsuit.

I'm satisfied with my 30 GB MP3 player. Perhaps I'll give the 20% off to a relative.

@ ganzhimself : I agree totally! I had one of the early Nomads, CD player sized. The thing took about 20 minutes and 50% of it's battery life just to boot!

But I bought it in the required timeframe and sold it on eBay ALSO in the required timeframe. But since I bought it in like 2002 and I have no receipt, no serial number, I'm out of the class action suit?

I'm not even with the same bank I was 6 years ago.

I think these requirements are too strict to make us have all that info 6 to 7 years later...for a COUPON of all things.

@myotheralt: "wait, 7%? Isn't that the standard difference between a marketed hard drive capacity and actual size?"

Yeah, it seems extremely odd that only one mp3-player manufacturer and only one hard drive manufacturer (Western Digital) got sued for this. Perhaps they weren't paying off the correct people?

Way to read the details there, Consumerist. A cursory reading of the summary class notice shows that this is only valid for hard-disk based players, and the 50% off is 'off the price of a new 1GB MP3 player'. So you can't get 50% off the price of a 30G player ($100+), just 50% off the price of a new 1GB player ($20ish).

Too bad I bought mine in 2002 (I still use it regularly) and sure as heck don't have the receipt. Poop.

I bought a 128MB creative thumbdrive/MP3 player like 7 years ago. I wonder if it's within the time frame?

Let's see Creative plays a whole bunch of video codecs, iPod unless you hack up your video files you're limited. Zen FTW. I've thought about an iPod only b/c of the sheer crapload of accessories but have held off b/c I've got a WM phone that does it all but with less space than a HDD based player.

I've got, and still use a 20GB Zen Touch. It's a little bulky, but the price/capacity/battery life was great when I bought it back in 2k5. I still use it all the time. Even though I've bought my wife/father/father-in-law various forms of iPods and through the years, I'm still not buying into it for myself, only b/c I just don't like them. Maybe when they put Oregon Trail on it, I'll get an iPod.

@strathmeyer: Seagate got their knuckles rapped over it a while back, too, I think.

The problem, I think, is companies got sloppy with their marketing. It used to be they'd put on the box, "800 million byte hard disk" and then in smaller print, "763 megabyte usable capacity" to cover themselves. At some point they dropped the small print and just started ignoring the long-standing computer convention of using powers of 2 (1024 bytes in a kilobyte, etc.) and started using 1000.

IMHO more companies deserve to get rapped for this one. You can't just make up your own inflated units and pretend they're standard ones.

Are you required to have purchased the unit? I was given a player from my bank for referring other customers...I'd love 50% off another player...

Here's hoping my husband kept his proof of purchase...because getting 50% off the Creative player I was going to buy this weekend (I can wait if I can get a discount) would be oh so sweet.

umm... the site says HDD. I bought a flash player a few years ago. Do I qualify?

I REALLY MUST KNOW THE FOLLOWING!!!!!!

A while back, I bought a Dell DJ 15, which is really a rebranded Creative player. Do I count!!! Please consumerist, I want to know!!! please fix this post saying so!!!

link: [en.wikipedia.org]

@uberbucket: that's right. formatted capacity is about 93% physical capacity. i mean if creative was selling 1GB and you got 930MB, why are you crying about it when your flash drive has the same problem? this is stupid.

@bradite: Don't forget the two representative plaintiffs getting five grand apiece out of it, just for having the stupidity to sue over something like this. Still though, I'll gladly take a 20% off coupon. My sister just lost my Zen Vision: M due to the ineptness of Detroit Receiving Hospital, so I could use 20% off a replacement. I was quite happy with my Zen... got a 30 gig refurb from Woot on New Year's and had no issues or complaints with it.