I was trying hard not to listen to the negative things I had read about retrousb.com's awful customer service, but they're turning out in my case to be true. As some of you may remember, I fed them over 300 dollars in a single night. I placed an order for an NES PowerPak and an SNES PowerPak. The NES one is phenomenal and was worth every penny. The SNES one wound up making a pretty paperweight. I tried to give retrousb the benefit of the doubt and special ordered the best cf card I could find. I even managed to get the site owner to respond to one or two of my e-mails. But the thing still wasn't working so I sent it back. Their FAQ claims that anything returned within a certain amount of time is good for a refund.
USPS delivery confirmation proves my package arrived back to its source over a week ago. After several days I contacted support, asking what the usual window for a return might be. I did get a reply after my second attempt at this question. I was told it varies because returns has a backlog of returns to process. That should have tipped me off right there. They have so many returns to check that they can't be bothered to open my return just to see that I sent them everything they had sent me?
I replied to that message and reminded the site owner I was not interested in repair or replacement, only a refund as the FAQ promises. A few days later he replied and said that he could see if they could check it out sooner if I was in a rush. Apparently my slew of e-mails on the subject didn't convince him that I was serious. I asked him to please ask them to simply check my package as it is being returned for a refund only and support has to do nothing else but verify I sent the right item back. Apparently, this is a complicated procedure as I am still waiting for confirmation not only that they have the return but that the refund is even close to being processed.
Bottom line, ordering from them seems to be a gamble. The NEW PowerPak works great and seems to have gotten a lot of positive reviews. The SNES counterpart is finicky as all get out and your chances of a non-functional unit are high. Customer service from the main site is slow to respond and will not process your return in any sort of timely manner. Be warned, if they're so backed up that even after 7 days they haven't had a chance to peek at my return, there's something wrong.
To those of you who have a working SNES PP, I am happy for you. To everyone else, save your money. Throw in the extra 35 bucks and get an SD2SNES.
Keep in mind that the guy that basically is RetroZone, is just one guy. Any returns he has to review himself. And it isn't as simple as just opening a box and seeing that something is there. He has to actually examine things. Now ofcourse it is unfortunate because no one likes to wait around, particularly if they had big money involved.
Your SNES PowerPAK probably was fine. I didn't see if you posted any threads asking for help so I'm not sure how much you tried to get it to work. Mine has always worked fine. I've heard sometimes people try different CF cards, sometimes different SNES consoles. I'm not sure what the issue may have been. I hope you can get it worked out. The SD2SNES seems nice but it is quite expensive, and it isn't as available as other devices. KRIKzz makes them now but there seems to be a backlog of demand not yet settled. The Super EverDrive is another choice, unless you absolutely have to be able to play something like 12 more games for 100$ more.
Thank you for your reply. I did post several times asking for help here as well as at nintendoage. I tried several different CF cards, several ROM dumps, as well as programs designed to fix bad headers. I really wanted this device to work and fiddled with it for a week.
The way the gentleman spoke to me via e-mail did not make it sound like he was also the tech support team. He mentioned having to ask "them" if they'd be willing to bump up my order for checking. I respect that he's a busy man, but when you're selling niche pricey items a little customer service goes a long way.
"Sometimes our tech team gets very backed up there, and tend to take a bit
of time getting to returns. If it is really important that you get your
refund ASAP, I'll really push them to get to your stuff" seems to imply it's not just one man.
I only asked retrozone one question after being an 2 years satisfied customer and it was for a CF as I used the one they provided in an Amiga1200 ...
Have tried several cards and failed, I managed to get the same DANE ELEC card from eBay for ~10GBP and the SNES powerpak worked fine and as expected. Never had a problem with it TBH....
They did take about a week to reply (says so in their website) but they did in a polite manner and offered advice on what to look out when buying another CF (no high speed or ???x speed cards)
In fact I am so happy with it that I am not letting it go even though I just got a sd2snes ... sorry to hear about your problems I_Am_Error
It's okay
I'm really glad yours worked, though. It really is a beautiful piece of equipment and I tried everything I could to get it working. The craftsmanship is very nice and it's flat-out just a great looking cart. The e-mails I have gotten have been very professional, I just wish they had a larger staff
I think the main reason I got so frustrated was because I was very excited about this purchase and it just didn't work out at all. I can imagine, though, if someone has a working one that it's a great device. My NES PowerPak is wonderful and I'm thrilled with its performance. Some folks criticize that you have to hit RESET when saving, but I look at is an a nice nod to the original NES where you had to do the same thing
MottZilla wrote:
I've heard sometimes people try different CF cards
I seem to remember (maybe I'm wrong), that OP had the CF shipped to him by RetroUSB together with the PowerPak. So trying a different CF card is basically pointless (unless the CF card itself was faulty, which is 1) unlikely 2) easily identifiable by putting the card in a CF card reader).
Did you ever try disabling DMA? I recall that was one potential fix for those with problems. To be fair I had a CF card included with my NES powerpak and it didn't work. I picked up some cheap 128MB Kodak CF card that worked much better.
I would bet your problem was related to the CF card and not the PowerPAK itself. Again, sorry that it did not work out.
I did disable DMA. It was listed in the instructional manual pdf as a possible fix. I also tried several different cf cards. I really really wanted this to work and did a lot of research and experimentation before sending it back.
I have dealt with Retrozone on several occasions, and sometimes yes it can be a wait for a reply especially when hes busy, but everything has always been dealt with and supported.
MottZilla wrote:
To be fair I had a CF card included with my NES powerpak and it didn't work. I picked up some cheap 128MB Kodak CF card that worked much better.
That's really surprising.
That's good to hear, marvelus10. Two days ago the status of my order went from 'returns' to 'cancelled', though there has still been no refund. I would think it would be the next step...
Honestly, it seems like there's a ton of crap work coming from retrousb. I remember the super powerpak that had a simple DIP DSP-1 look like it was soldered in by somebody who didn't know how to solder. The CF problems not so bad, hopefully he figures that out, but then just so many bad carts shipped. I've heard this same story probably from at minimum 5 different people about how it just arrived dead with all different symptoms.
And doesn't bunny have a helper or something working with him sometimes? The one that goes around NA (Errr, did) posting about retrousb's help.
When I got my NES powerpak, the label was full of pin hole (like someone put the label too fast and then tried to remove dozen of air bubble with a needle). It was ugly and I felt that I was entitled to have a new looking product after shelling out over 150$ + almost 30$ custom fee. I originally got a reply but then It took retrousb months before getting another reply from them. I only got it when I posted a comment about it on a thread about powerpak here. He did fix the issue by sending me a new label after about 4 months but he also made it clear that it will never happen again and that he really didn't feel my issue was a valid one. At least I got a solution in the end.
I am really sorry to hear others have had issues with this seller as well... his site looks so professional and the few e-mail replies I have gotten from him sounded nice. I'm still hopeful the refund gets processed but it really shouldn't be this complicated.
I wonder if my bank would be able to help me out in any way. I have USPS proof that my return was delivered over 9 days ago and my checking account reflects that the seller has made no effort to process the refund. Perhaps they can do something? I know PayPal helps in similar situations, but this was a credit card purchase.
On a positive note, I got my first order from Retrogate today and it seems to work just fine! It's an Everdrive64 cart but 'm having issues loading my save data. Can any ED64 owners guide me through this? I have the saves in the default ED64 folder and I see that the save files DO exist, but when I load up a game the files aren't accessed. I'm not sure how to fiddle with the load settings so that the game knows where to look for the file. Thanks!
I didn't have any problems ordering and getting my PowerPak and my Super Power Pak, and the only time I had a question he answered me quickly.
I guess I am lucky (for once in the life I am haha...)
I've ordered quite a bit of stuff from RetroZone and while service is not prompt, it's been fine so far.
I find the state of software a bit weird (e.g. Loopy has newer mappers for PowerPak but the mappers on-site has not updated to include them, USBCopyNES program is very buggy and not functional on Windows 7), but I have been able to solve those problems on my own.
My PowerPak Lite had a problem that I was not able to solve, and I'm still waiting on the return process for that. It wasn't the kind of problem you'd spot in a quick test, so I don't really fault them for having shipped a faulty unit. They agreed to let me return it though, so I'm sure it will be resolved eventually.
That's good to hear. I just wish I could figure out why his customer service seems to be all over the place.
I don't know if this will help, but when I got my SNES PowerPak a few years back, I also couldn't get it working, and I figured it was either the CF card or the reader. I went to Radio Shack and bought one of each. Fortunately I opened and tried the new reader first, because that was the problem, so I was able to take the CF card back unopened.
So yeah, the card reader he sent me was crap. Have you tried another one of those?
Shoot... I didn't even think about the reader, and you're absolutely right, I was using the one he sent me. I feel rather stupid. Thank you for the idea, though
I don't understand why you didn't buy CF cards and readers separately. I know I did. There is no reason to get those common items from retrousb.
At the time I remember thinking he'd be selling carts and readers he knew to work well with his products... which turned out to be not true.
Happy day! My refund has been processed.
Again, the NEW PowerPak worked like a charm for me. The SNES one... no... and it sounds like there could have been any number of reasons for that.
I still would like an SNES flash solution, though, and keep looking at the SD2SNES... about 50 dollars more than the SNES PowerPak but looks to be a lot more powerful.
I highly recommend it.
Loads games MUCH faster (the 96 megabit neviksti Star Ocean hack takes around 45 seconds on PowerPak IIRC, but around 2 seconds on SD2SNES, and everything else loads almost instantly), supports Satellaview games, DSP-2-4 (and differentiates between DSP-1 and DSP-1b), Cx4, and the interface is more polished. Also, SD cards are easier to deal with in a lot of ways.
Sweet! It's good to hear from a board member. I'm keeping my eye on a few stores. It's out of stock for now.
oh yeah, the sd2snes is sweet, it gets a thumbs up from me too!
Awesome, thanks guys! I have several of the vendors bookmarked. As soon as it comes back in stock I'll pick one up!
I just have to point out that loading time is not really relevant because the difference between similar products is a matter of a few seconds. And typically when you load a game you will be playing it for far longer than you had to wait.
Being able to play DSP2, 3, and 4 is just 3 more games that alot of people have no interest in. Cx4 support is nice if you are a Mega Man X fan but could not afford the real carts and somehow don't own the MMX Collection or just want the actual SNES versions. The Satellaview support shouldn't be confused with actually making all the games work as they never will all work. It's interesting if you are a fan of it I'm sure. But for those just interested in playing actual games it isn't that impressive. Super FX support in the future is a nice feature primarily for Star Fox Super Weekend Competition and Star Fox 2.
So the SD2SNES is pretty nice. But for those that already own a PowerPAK or Super EverDrive the motivation to upgrade is not that great. The two mentioned devices already play around 95% or more of the SNES library.
In your case since you don't have any device for SNES you should spend the extra money on the SD2SNES only if you are interested in the mentioned games that will be available if you get it. Primarily Mega Man X2, X3, Star Fox Super Weekend Competition, and Star Fox 2. The DSP1 games can be supported in other products. The other Super FX games are cheap. So you're really talking about 4 games maybe. Oh although Star Ocean won't work on the Super EverDrive.
A good UI is another factor. Plus the fact that the SD2SNES is still being worked on with more support coming and such still is also really good too.
I can also vouch for the sd2snes. It's the first SNES flash cartridge that's truly the SNES equivalent of the NES PowerPak. You get compatibility with tons of expansion chips and it still doesn't destroy any original cartridges in order to do so. Plus, another amazing feature is that it supports byuu's MSU1 specification, which gives the SNES some amazing FMV capabilities, even though homebrewers have been a bit slow to support it.
Quote:
Loads games MUCH faster (the 96 megabit neviksti Star Ocean hack takes around 45 seconds on PowerPak IIRC
Well, have you owned a Commodore 64 ? It was common for games to take 10 minutes to load....
Also Seiken Densestu 3 (which I'm playing these days) is 32 megabit loads in about 10 seconds, therefore I think Star Ocean should load in about 30 secs.
MottZilla wrote:
I just have to point out that loading time is not really relevant because the difference between similar products is a matter of a few seconds. And typically when you load a game you will be playing it for far longer than you had to wait.
True enough. It's not a HUGE deal, but it's the difference between minor, very tolerable load times and basically no load times. It's icing on the cake.
MottZilla wrote:
Being able to play DSP2, 3, and 4 is just 3 more games that alot of people have no interest in. Cx4 support is nice if you are a Mega Man X fan but could not afford the real carts and somehow don't own the MMX Collection or just want the actual SNES versions.
I'm with you on this as well.
MottZilla wrote:
The Satellaview support shouldn't be confused with actually making all the games work as they never will all work. It's interesting if you are a fan of it I'm sure.
Sutte Hakkun is one of my favorite games for the console (perhaps even in my top 5 - I have possibly wasted hundreds of hours just on the cart version), so this was one of the biggest draws for me.
MottZilla wrote:
But for those just interested in playing actual games it isn't that impressive. Super FX support in the future is a nice feature primarily for Star Fox Super Weekend Competition and Star Fox 2.
Well, and adding Star Fox, Doom, and Yoshi's Island to the general iPod-like convenience of a flash cart will be nice. SA-1 support, if it is ever implemented, would be better still, as it would add stuff like Mario RPG and Marvelous to the list of games not to worry about an SRAM battery on.
Bregalad wrote:
Also Seiken Densestu 3 (which I'm playing these days) is 32 megabit loads in about 10 seconds, therefore I think Star Ocean should load in about 30 secs.
Well, I'm going on memory alone here (hence the "IIRC"). Pretty sure it was at least 40 seconds though.
No one plays Doom on SNES. =) I agree that SA-1 support would be nice, but of the games that I know use SA-1 the ones I would care to play are Super Mario RPG, Kirby's Superstar, Kirby's Dreamland 3, and maybe Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension.
When it comes to the games that SD2SNES supports or may support that haven't already been supported by every copier and flash cart ever, for me we are talking about something like 10 games. The two unobtainable ones being Star Fox 2 and Star Fox Super Weekend (well you could buy it but it's crazy). And even those could actually be obtained if you wanted if you threw an eprom in a cart.
The MSU-1 is a neat feature but I haven't heard much about it being used yet. I thought the most obvious use would have been to add CD soundtracks to games. Particularly games like Castlevania Dracula X or others were great source material could be dropped in. Or people like those at OC Remix remix the entire soundtrack of a game and insert that. Only time will tell.
For me, the support of those extra few games and the nigh-instant load time are enough of a plus to be worth the little extra. Especially given that, to obtain copies of the games that the other carts don't play, like the MMX games, you'd probably end up spending that much anyway.
Really hoping SA-1 support is a possibility. As far as I know, Ikari hasn't taken a proper in depth look as to whether he thinks the cart is capable of supporting it yet. If he starts working on it and seems confident it'll happen, the cart will be an instant buy from me =)
BUT, to stick to the topic, I've only ever ordered a USB adapter from retrousb, so I've fortunately had no reason to deal with the supposed shoddy customer service. Aside from frustratingly long wait times on replies though, seems like he's at least good to honour returns and help fix issues. Eventually.
the SNES powerpak I just received isn't working properly either. It keeps throwing up a "no internal header found" error.
I have a feeling its the powerpak itself; the SNES powerpak I previously owned a few years ago worked flawlessly.
I tried the cf card that came with my NES powerpak, same result. (NES powerpak works great) I have tried different romsets, from good to no-intro.
I set DMA=0. I have tried the powerpak on both a US and JP snes/sfc. I'm not sure what else to do. I emailed retrousb but I fear it will be a long, long time before I hear back from them from what I've read here and elsewhere.
That is a shame if quality or quality control has taken a hit at RetroZone. Atleast when I bought my NES and SNES PowerPAKs, they worked excellent and I had no issues.
I threw my SNES PowerPak in the garbage. I tried for over 6 months contacting via his website and several other message boards...Never got a response. I should of known if something went wrong I would of been screwed. A RL friend of mine sent something back to him a few years ago (I was riding with him when he stopped at the post office). Delivery confirmation said he received the item back, but yet he claimed he never got it, and his excuse several times was "I will check with the post office and see what is going on". Even after he had PROOF it was delivered. The guy is a total jerk.
Sounds like we need to get some support and maybe try to boycott him until he has better quality/support for his own products. Not staying in contact with your customers and making sure you can get the broken product back to them fixed is pure bullshit, especially after spending $130.
I'm surprised bunny hasn't chimed in yet and answer some of these publicly.
I knew I should've just waited for the SD2SNES to get back in stock, or ordered a super everdrive. You guys really have me convinced I'll never get a reply to my emails. I'm just glad the NES powerpak works so now I'm only out $150 instead of $300. Still, very frustrating.
I have not been the one answering emails for almost 2 years, updated the FAQ to state that. Email has always been low priority with IRC/AIM always the fastest. I am only really active at NintendoAGE so forum support simply does not exist.
And yes SD2SNES is by far the best SNES flash cart!
Well then whoever is and is also managing that part of your business needs fired, as it's not working.
bunnyboy wrote:
I have not been the one answering emails for almost 2 years, updated the FAQ to state that. Email has always been low priority with IRC/AIM always the fastest. I am only really active at NintendoAGE so forum support simply does not exist.
And yes SD2SNES is by far the best SNES flash cart!
IRC? What is this, 1995? Funny how you come running over here to defend yourself after everyone is bitching about having problems, and talks of boycotting your wares, THEN you decide to chime in. Shows your true character.
the powerpak passed the sdram test. I'm starting to think my problem lies with either the supplied usb card reader or the card itself, because I am getting some errors in windows 7 while trying to move large folders of roms to the card. I have ordered another cheap card reader off amazon and will give it a try. if that fails I will see about sending it back for refund or replacement.
Tormenter wrote:
IRC? What is this, 1995? Funny how you come running over here to defend yourself after everyone is bitching about having problems, and talks of boycotting your wares, THEN you decide to chime in. Shows your true character.
IRC is still a very widely used method of communication. More reliable and far less bloated than most modern alternatives, imo.
I don't see why you're attacking him, anyway. Yes, there's been some shoddy customer service and people are pissed off, rightly so, but he's given alternate methods of contact through which you are apparently more likely to get a faster response. I don't see why that's a bad thing?
Tricky wrote:
Tormenter wrote:
IRC? What is this, 1995? Funny how you come running over here to defend yourself after everyone is bitching about having problems, and talks of boycotting your wares, THEN you decide to chime in. Shows your true character.
IRC is still a very widely used method of communication. More reliable and far less bloated than most modern alternatives, imo.
I don't see why you're attacking him, anyway. Yes, there's been some shoddy customer service and people are pissed off, rightly so, but he's given alternate methods of contact through which you are apparently more likely to get a faster response. I don't see why that's a bad thing?
IRC is dead compared to basically EVERY other way of communicating. And I don't find it more reliable or less bloated, either.
I dont think I have even had an IRC client installed in the last 10 years.
You might be surprised if you have a multiprotocol chat client installed.
I got several friends who are only availableo n IRC, so I have a plugin installed in Miranda IM to be able to talk to them over IRC. Multiprotocol IM clients are awesome.
I have had an NES PowerPak since it was first out, then purchased a second one for a fund raiser along with a SNES PowerPak. I have never had any issues with it and none with the CF that came with them. I also have a Lexar 2GB CF card from Walmart that works in both and a Chinese knock off SanDisk 1GB my ex brought in a little market stall in China for $10, no issues there either.
Recently I have noticed more and more people complaining about their PowerPaks not working, no customer service etc....
Its too bad.
I think when NESDev moves there should be a sticky at the top that states this is not a complaints department for Retrozone.
I think such a sticky would be a bad idea. A lot of people on this forum use retrousb products, and we often help each other find solutions here. Discussing problems we've had with retrousb stuff is also important so we can get a good idea of what kind of product/service/quality they are providing. It's relevant to our common interest. Why shouldn't we complain about it here? This is a good place to talk about it.
Is it? BunnyBoy replied by saying we are better to use IRC. We can sit on here all day and complain till the cows come home, from what we are seeing BunnyBoy doesn't seem to offer up any help other than "try IRC".
Why are we seeing such an influx of faultyNES?
I don't know, all of my dealings with Retrozone have been successful.
We could have a sticky that offers up some of the advice others have been successful with, ROMs, formatting, header removal programs, CF cards and compatibility etc... but when it comes to hardware issues it always seems to boil down to "send it back" which we are seeing is not a very fruitful endeavour.
I just see this as a complain about Retrozone thread and thats not what NESDev is about.
I agree, this topic should be pinned if anything because people are getting screwed left and right and it should be known retrousb is a danger honestly. Nobody is complaining for no reason, they're complaining because they lost over $100 and got nothing back about it but frustration and a fancy paperweight.
And no, there's MANY forms of contact on his website. I recall on NA he said to a user who tried to contact him and then made a post about it and all bunny had to say was "well how many forms of contact did you try?" which is utter garbage. As a business owner he, especially over the web, he should check the email EVERY DAY and that should be the ONLY way you contact him. I dunno why he's so special and can't do such a simple task to offer better service, but whatever the reason it's not good enough.
A lot of companies, such as Go Daddy and Comcast, have a "Live Chat" button that opens a web-based instant message session with an employee. Would it help if retrousb.com were to have a "Live Chat" button that opened up a web-to-IRC gateway? Remind me to mention it to bunnyboy next time I bump into him on #nesdev.
marvelus10, it's well understood that this is not a good place to get the attention of bunnyboy. That doesn't have anything to do with whether we have information to share with each other.