SANYO ICR-FP550 Digital MP3 Voice Recorder

This voice recorder arrived today. I read the instructions, inserted two batteries, and waited for it to boot up. The screen said LOADING. It never got beyond that. I tried several different new battery sets and the same thing happened. Then I read the troubleshooting in the manual and called the 800 number for Sanyo. I got put on hold for more than a half hour, and then they hung up on me. I called again and waited another half hour. The snotty woman who took the call first said that I wasn't giving her a proper model number, even though I was reading the model number off the device and manual. She apparently didn't write it down because she asked me the same question several times. Never tried to diagnose the problem, but said I had to mail it to them AT MY EXPENSE and send them fax. I don't have a fax machine, how about an email? No dice, they only communicate through fax. Then she asked for a serial number, and when I was halfway through she said no, that isn't a serial number,...Read more

I put the batteries in and pushed the button, but all I got was that it was loading. It never ever finished loading. It just continued loading until I took the batteries out the next day. Even if it had worked, the product is cheesy. Look elsewhere for a recorder.

Although the directions suggest that pressing the FF and REW buttons while stopped will advance the file number to be played, my unit doesn't function in this way. So, if you have, say, 20 recordings in a folder, you must 1st start to play #20 and then try to REW to the file you want. So what does mine do when stopped? REW adjusts the volume down (same as the '-' button) and FF triggers and 'introscan' where a few seconds of each file in the folder is played. Frustrating. It's also slow to start. I agree with another review - no physical lock is a frustration. And my screen has some odd defect - sort of like a smudge, but not on the outside, looks like a green blur inside the display itself. I also own an Olympus VN-4100. Much better, but it does not record MP3 and allow computer downloading, as the Sanyo does - that's why I purchased the Sanyo.