On June 4th I wrote about getting my daughter her first MP3 player. At that time I was looking at the Element 2GB MP3 Player w/ Video from K mart that was selling for $39.99.
When it came time to pick up the MP3 player they had another brand. It was a Eclipse. I had not done any research on the brand and was wanting to wait. My daughter insisted on that one.
It was but a couple of days after she got her MP3 player that I found out it was not working. Kmart said for warranty to contact the manufacture. The manufacture said I had to ship it to them to get replacement. I quickly got tired of the run around. I was not going to pay for the shipping to get another cheap MP3 player.
A little over a month later, my wife talked me into getting another MP3 player. The soft touch that I am, I agreed provided that I would pick it out. After shuffling the budget, I planned on getting her a Coby 4 GB Flash Video MP3 Player with FM Radio similar to what my wife has.
I had expected to pay around $75. I did not settle for going to the same store where my wife got her MP3 player. I decided to check some of the other stores that sold them. One of them was ShopKo. I just happen that they were having sales of MP3 player. The very Coby was on sale from $69.99 was now $29.99.
That being said. Because I let my daughter buy the cheap un-researched brand we lost $40 plus after taxes. I lost a few hairs and got a few more gray hairs in trying to get my daughter a good MP3 player. In addition to the time involved in with trying to get a warranty return, The cost to us was well over $70. It would of have been cheaper and less frustrating to just to get our daughter her a Coby 4 GB Flash Video MP3 Player with FM Radio in the first place.
Just a little quick update: The Coby is still working just fine. Our daughter loves it. We are happy. I still bit my lower lip when I think how we wasted $40.
