Remanufactured Rio Carbon 5GB MP3 Player

Comment: This items works well in general and was a good buy for the price range, but doesn't have the perks that other mp3's have. You cannot see all of the songs in the playlist when you have selected a list, but only see them as they play. Also some loose connections at the audio port, making alot of noise when the unit moves, which can be very irritating, especially if you use the unit when exercising/running.

Comment: I bought a 5 GB RIO Carbon about 2 years ago. After one year the volume knob broke, so I returned it, paid $100 and got a replacement. About 2 months later the replacement died, so I paid another $100 and got another replacement. Now the third replacement volume knob broke (without any dropping etc.) I wish I never bought a RIO. It has a serious design flaw. Buy an MP3 player with no moving parts. I should have bought an Ipod, as I have now spent far too much money continuously repairing/replacing my RIO. Also not there is no shuffle mode on it either which would have been a nice feature.

Comment: ** Your review of "Rio Carbon 5 GB MP3 Player" **

Sure its cute and fun for the first few hours as stated by other
reviewers. But then there are the problems:

(1) The all important volume control/scroll wheel breaks off if
handled too roughly leaving you with no other means to control the
volume - annoying beyond belief. Given that this wheel also doubles
as a menu selection device/mice you are not going to be able to
change the settings that easily either.

(2) For reasons yet to be discovered, the device goes into an
upgrader mode. Meaning - it displays the message "upgrader" - its
expecting you to upgrade the firmware. But your computer can no
longer recognize it - hence, no upgrade possible and you cannot exit
this mode = IT DOES NOT WORK. You can't even look at the time at
this point.

(3) Tech support from Rio - ELUSIVE/HARD TO REACH. I don't think
they exist.

(4) Warranty - 90 days after which everything seems to fall apart.
800 number? Forget about it.

Save your money and invest in a more durable device, this thing is
NOT worth it. I became so frustrated with it that I dumped it into
the garbage. I will never buy another MP3 Player from Rio again/EVER!

** End of the review **

Comment: [...] I ordered this as a Christmas present for my (then) 13 year old son who longed for "the competition" version of MP3. The Rio Carbon 5GB was too much memory for the $$ to pass up. Although it's quite a bit larger in size, it's design is sleek, very "industrial" and my son LOVED it. Still uses it DAILY and it's been 2 Christmases ago!

Felt secure in the reviews, felt secure w/ the guarantee and the company rating.

Mom scored big-time. :)

Comment: I purchased a rio carbon player; after an hour of use it went completely dead. I faxed the proof of purchase twice within the warranty period with the understanding that they would respond by phone within four hours. That was several weeks ago, they never contacted me. Now my unit is out of warranty, doesn't turn on, and I can't get in touch with Rio. They have no customer service via email or phone. Very poor indeed.