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I feel I should share my negative customer experience with MP4 Nation. I know Razz posts in these forums, and that many here have bought his players and been satisfied. However, my personal experience with them has been less than satisfactory.

My story is a bit long, so I apologize for that. I will try to keep it as brief as possible.

I was looking for an inexpensive touch screen music/video player for one of my kids for Christmas. I searched the net quite a bit, and found several players touch screen MP4 players in the $40 - $60 range. In my searching, I came across MP4 Nation’s web-site, and their Optimus Touch generic player. This looked interesting to me. What set it apart from other players was the fact that the video review on MP4 Nation’s site, and specifications listed on their site indicated that it was possible to download flash games and add them to the player. Since my son really enjoys video games, I thought this would be a nice feature to have. The Optimus was more expensive than several other music and video players I had looked at, and I knew shipping would take longer. But I decided that the added cost and slower shipping were worth it for that feature alone.

Well, when the player FINALLY arrived (nearly 2 weeks after Christmas, but that’s another story), I couldn’t figure out how to add games to the player – as advertised. I tried several different methods, and finally contacted MP4 Nation’s customer support. After a few days, I got their reply: “Sorry but we can't help you with finding and loading games on this player.”

Disappointed, I tell them that since apparently the player doesn’t work as advertised, I would like to return it for a refund. They inform me that I can send the player back to them (at my expense) and they will deduct an additional $8 for their original “shipping expenses” (an expense which I’m sure is already built into the cost of the player).

When I point out that the information on their website is incorrect, and suggest that I should not be responsible for the full cost of shipping, they reply “the information on the player is provided by the factory and the video review is quite old, some aspects of the player have changed”, essentially admitting that the information on their web-site is inaccurate. I am pretty shocked that MP4 Nation would expect me to eat nearly half the cost of the player in shipping expenses for a purchase I made based on inaccurate information on their website.

I offer to split the charge of return shipping if they agree not to charge me the original $8 shipping fee. I think this is a pretty reasonable compromise given the circumstances. They refuse this offer, and state: “The product does its core aspects as advertised, it plays videos, music and has an interactive UI. The features of games was an additional item not considered by us as a main feature.”

As I said, if all I wanted was a product that “plays videos, music and has an interactive UI”, there were plenty of less expensive players I could have chosen from, AND had them here by Christmas. Whether or not MP4 Nation considered games to be a “main feature” is not really the point. The point is that it was advertised as a feature of this product on their site, and it was THE feature that led me to choose this particular player over several others I could have chosen.

I know many of you have been happy with your players from MP4 Nation, and I’m glad it’s worked out for you. But potential buyers should be aware that MP4 Nation apparently has little regard for customer satisfaction, and if you have a problem with your purchase, do not expect them to make much effort to make things right.