RufusP,
I followed up with my contact at UXcell yesterday and he said that he would get someone to follow it up. So it's good to see that they have.
It's strange it has come to this. In the past, there has been 1-2 times where a player does go out with the wrong size memory. But it has been resolved quite quickly. Maybe the wrong memory chip got placed in the player during production? It's hard to tell.
Please also remember that UXcell sells a LOT of these players. Both from their site and from eBay accounts. They sell over a few thousand a week (from what I've been told from Keith who used to work at UXcell). With every product produced, there will always be a chance that there is a fault with the product. The percentage is probably higher with electronic goods. No manufacturer can guarantee 100% that ALL their products produced and sold will be 100% free of defects. That is not realistic. So, given they sell 1000 units and 1-2 are found to be faulty, that's 0.2% defective rate. So that's not too bad if you consider that.
I know, it's a real pity that it has come down to your emailing them 11 times. I don't think it should come down to that, so I guess it's something that UXcell have to look at when it comes to Customer Service.
Personally I don't think you should jump to the conclusion that they are selling hacked players as there are other possiblities. Perhaps a wrong size memory chip was sent to them? Perhaps a wrong size memory chip was installed on the player as part of their production line? Remember, they would do bulk flashing of firmware, so would assume that all the players produced in that batch was 2GB, so it was flashed with 2GB. There are other possiblities. Trust me, if they are selling hacked players, there would be MORE complaints and also they would be removed from being advertised on this site pretty darn quick.
Also have a look at this post here from a member from UXcell: "
Official Reponse to - Flash Memory Problem".
Let's see how your replacement product goes.
Look forward to your feedback.