It's not just the packaging that sucks

CoreMicro USB Stick (Source: http://www.staples.ca/core+micro+usb/directory_core+micro+usb_20051_1_20001)

Back in August 2012, I wrote about the rather poor packaging for these flash drives. (http://mba4rent.blogspot.ca/2012/08/we-cant-do-math.html)

Well, it is not only the packaging that has problems, the flash drives themselves are horrible. In November 2012, I had to replace my CoreMicro 32gb USB Flash Drive as it stopped working. The receipt was buried somewhere, so I was not asking about a refund. I noticed that the CoreMicro flash drives were not stocked with the other brands, but were in a Plexiglas box on the service counter. When I asked the manager about this he said that the quality was so bad that they didn't want to stock them with the regular brands.

I said that I was buying a new flash drive (Kingston Micro) as my CoreMicro drive had died. The manager said that I should being my old CoreMicro drive back for a refund.

So here is my question. If everyone at the Staples retail stores knows that these drives are so horrible, why are they still for sale? These things are just a customer service problem waiting to happen.

Anyone would be foolish to have only a single copy of their data. I know that at times I get busy and it may be a day or so before I manage to get my flash drive synced with my computers. (I maintain at least two sync copies of my important data and store one off-site.) But a retailer selling a product with this horrible level of reliability is risking a lot of very unhappy customers. (Some of whom may even write about it.)