Update #1 on Samsung YH-J70J as Photobank

After many problems with Samsung (Canada) Customer Service and a lot of
testing, the following must be noted about this unit:

1. Samsung Customer Service sucks just like everywhere else. Bigtime!

2. I have not been able to find any USB device that the YH-J70J can
connect to reliably.

3. It can connect sort-of some of the time to my D70s, but a data
transfer usually locks up the unit, requiring a hard reset. When it
does transfer files, it is exceedingly slow.

4. A folder can hold a maximum of 1024 files and you can not create new
folders on the unit. This little surprise is noted in their on-line
manual.

5. Folders with same names but different cases are OK on creation, but
confuse the unit no end when it comes to deleting same.

6. Samsung TWICE posted the wrong firmware on their support website!

7. Original upgrade instructions were wrong and the current instructions
are incomplete.

Advice: unless you want an expensive paperweight, stay away from this
unit!
Unless you want a lot of aggravation, stay away from Samsung products!

Below you will find my last communication from Samsung I received and my
response.

FROM SAMSUNG:
Hello Mr. Jamin,



Sorry for the inconvenience you are experiencing regarding firmware on
the J70. I believe you have spoken with Yves regarding this issue. Yves
is correct in stating that firmware will not resolve this issue. We do
not have any firmware update on our website. The Firmware that is posted
on Samsung’s website is the same version that is in your player. There
are never any guarantees that all products will work or be compatible
with USB Host feature. There is one firmware upgrade for this player but
it is already installed on the units sold in Canada. No other firmware
released afterwards.

Unfortunately I could not find anything in Cassandra notes indicating
that we are replacing your unit. Samsung cannot exchange or refund your
purchase because there no fault found. If our device does not connect to
some cameras, it does not mean unit is defective.



Thank you for your time,


Joseph Desimini

Senior Level Technical Support
Samsung Electronics Canada Inc
55 Standish Court, Mississauga, Ontario, L5R 4B2
http://www.samsung.ca

TO SAMSUNG:

Dear Sir,

Your message is typical of responses (many rude) I have received from
your so-called customer support.

To re-iterate:
I purchased this unit on September 21 at FutureShop Pointe Claire and
that same evening found out that
it did very slowly connect to my Nikon D70s, but during the subsequent
transfer of images crashe
requiring a hard reset.

As I am used to shoddy software being sprung on unsuspecting consumers,
I checked your support
website and found a Version 2.0 posted for this unit. I downloaded this
and found that with the posted
instructions, it was impossible to have the unit accept this firmware.
On the following monday I called 1-800-SAMSUNG and explained the
problem. Your rep patched me
through to "second tier support" where I explained my predicament. The
gentleman assured me that he would
check this out and call me back. He never did!
I called again, and was told there was some kind of problem with the
posted firmware and I should monitor
the site for an update. An update was posted a week and a half later
(Version 3.0).
The zip file posted now contained two files. I again dowloaded this
firmware and found that once again
the unit would NOT accept it. The instructions on the website had now
been replaced by (inclomplete)
instructions with a screen-shot in Korean, which I unfortunately do not
master.

On the following monday I called 1-800-SAMSUNG again to report this
problem. The attitude of your
staff was to say the least adversarial, but after insisting I got yet
again to talk to "second tier support".
The gentleman ther said I must be doing something wrong, but he would
get a unit and try for himself and
call be back in about an hour. You guessed it: he never did call back.
I called again later in the week
and after the now usual fencing, I got to talk to him and he advised me
that he had not been able to call
back because his unit refused the upgrade as well, and he had tried with
two more units with similar results.
He said he would contact Korea and find out what was going on anf get
back to me....

I had also explained that there was some urgency as I was leaving on a
four week vacation on Nov 18 and
needed the unit working by then.. Again the discussion became
adversarial where it was implied that your
unit not working was really the fault of all USB equipment manufacturers
but certainly not the fault of
Samsung! I was told the problem would be rectified as soon as possible
and I would be advised.
Of course this did again not happen!

I called again and asked to talk to someone in authority as this was
getting ridiculous. I was now beyond the
30 day return policy of FutureShop and was left with an expensive
paperweight. I talked to Russell, who
at least listened to this saga and opened the above ticket and promised
to investigate.

Imagine my surprise when a day later your website changed again and now
Version 1.083 was posted. I
downloaded this and this time it did install on the unit, but operation
was as before. I did some firmware
cracking while this went on, and you can see my findings on this
ticket. For your perusal, I have attached
the download instructions for this version and request that you pay
particular attention to what version
should be displayed after installation. In case you missed it, it shows
3.00.

I have tried the unit with a Nikon D70s with the above results. Any
other USB device I have tried
(Casio QV-R40 camera, Casio QV-R62, Vibe MP3 2GB and a number of flash
drives) always results
in a display of <FAILED TO CONNECT>.

As neither on your site, nor on the box are any exclusions noted (and
there must be many) I expect the unit
to work as advertised or my money refunded.

As I have stated on the ticket, if I do not receive an acceptable
response from you by noon 22 Dec, this
saga will become yet another post on USENET about the <uncommon>
customer care, and I will continue
to seek restitution or get the unit to work as advertised!

Regards,

Henk Jamin