Beware CorePlayer

[psyjohn]

I recently purchased CorePlayer based on the favorable reviews I've seen here on this site and others. I was a bit reluctant to pay what seems like a very high price for something that I could not try out first, but they strongly advertise their money back guarantee, and again, the reviews were quite good. However, CorePlayer would not run on my Titan. When I went to the website to inquire about a refund I found that there is no actual link to a refund page (goes to a partial page w/ a 404 code). Posting in the forum got no response, and contacting the company directly at their listed phone number got an answering machine and no return phone call after several days.

I am writing this to save anyone else out there from being scammed out of your money for a useless product. From what I can tell there is no REAL refund policy at all; it seems to be just a sleazy sales tactic. With this type of customer support I would strongly recommend that people avoid CorePlayer completely.

[onlydarksets]

I recently purchased CorePlayer based on the favorable reviews I've seen here on this site and others. I was a bit reluctant to pay what seems like a very high price for something that I could not try out first, but they strongly advertise their money back guarantee, and again, the reviews were quite good. However, CorePlayer would not run on my Titan. When I went to the website to inquire about a refund I found that there is no actual link to a refund page (goes to a partial page w/ a 404 code). Posting in the forum got no response, and contacting the company directly at their listed phone number got an answering machine and no return phone call after several days.

I am writing this to save anyone else out there from being scammed out of your money for a useless product. From what I can tell there is no REAL refund policy at all; it seems to be just a sleazy sales tactic. With this type of customer support I would strongly recommend that people avoid CorePlayer completely.

If you purchased with a credit card, contact your card and have them do a chargeback. That will prevent CorePlayer from getting their money until they address your complaint.

[me]

If you purchased with a credit card, contact your card and have them do a chargeback. That will prevent CorePlayer from getting their money until they address your complaint.

Yes, definitely call your credit card company and do a chargeback. The CC company will asked if you had contacted the vendor for resolution, and you definitely did, in more than one way, with no reply.

I would suggest that users boycott purchasing this product (and Thoughtsmedia stop advertising it as well), until the company make available a demo version, as they said they would years ago, and until they are more responsive to users asking for a refund, such as yourself.

It is unfortunate, since the app grew out of such a great project.

A Hungarian developer who used the pen name "Picard" created a great freeware media player named Betaplayer. The Corecodec folks hosted a forum to discuss it. Picard was always present on the forum, listened to user's suggestions for improvement, and more than likely, every user suggestion would be present on the next release, and it was updated frequently. Apparently later Core bought the project from Picard, or took it over in some way, and the player was renamed TCPMP. (The Core Pocket Media Player.) Picard was still very involved in it though, still frequently writing to the forum about the player, and constantly improving it, listening to suggestions, etc. The app kept getting better.

By the way, TCPMP is still available for free download on the net. (I forget what the last version was--perhaps 0.72.) There were also plugins available for it, with different codecs for different media types, etc. (The AAC plugin, though, didn't have the necessary license, and was later withdrawn, although there may be places on the web you can still find it.)

A couple years later, Core announced that TCPMP would morph into the commercial "Coreplayer". Lots of hoopla and advertising about it. Development of TCPMP stopped completely. It took a long time for Coreplayer to actually come out though, despite all the advance advertising.

In all their advance talk about it, they promised that an open source free version would also become available, bringing back the old name "Betaplayer". Although not with all the bells and whistles (nor codec support) of the commercial Coreplayer, they said it would be a major improvement over TCPMP. They even had a website for it right away, www.betaplayer.com, which for a long time brought one to a page saying it was "coming soon". (Just tried now, and the page leads to a 404 error now.)

They finally released the commercial version , at a higher price than most mobile apps, and unlike most mobile apps, without any demo version. I mentioned that in their forum--that they really needed to put out a full-featured (but time-limited, at least thirty days) trial version, so that people could see if they like it, before buying it. I also asked--where was the free open-source Betaplayer, that they had promised? They replied, that a demo such as I described, and the open-source Betaplayer, would be out very soon, within a few weeks.

How many years has it been now, since the first commercial Coreplayer came out? Two or three years? Still no demo, and no open-source product, which apparently they have finally taken down the web site for.

Without people being able to try Coreplayer, they expect people to buy it just based on their advertising. At the beginning it was: "If you liked TCPMP, you will LOVE Coreplayer". In other words, people should buy the new product, if they liked the existing free one. But many early users reported that they did not like it as well as TCPMP. (Therefore, although I was an avid fan of TCPMP, and would have paid for a really good improved commercial version of it, I never bought Coreplayer, without being able to try it first.) Also, by using catchy slogans like "Ubiquity", and "Media will never be the same" (what the f*** does that mean?), and a snappy logo, putting a lot of advertising on sites like this one, they thought they would get people to buy it, without being able to try first.

And you know what--since the demise of TCPMP, and its replacement by Coreplayer, years ago, one saw no more posts to the corecodec forums by "Picard", who started the project, and was so active before on that forum, corresponding with users. I don't know what happened to Picard, but I suspect that he became fed up with what the Core folks had done with his app, and left them. I asked before on the corecodec forums, what happened to Picard, and there was never a reply.

I have no objections to a freeware product eventually turning commercial. It is quite understandable, although of course users prefer to still get it for free. A developer works on a project for years as a hobby, earning nothing from the many hours he or she spent on it. He sees the app is successful, liked and used by thousands of people the world over. Although he enjoyed working on it as a hobby, he needs to feed his family and pay rent, so starts charging for the new versions, converts it from freeware to commercial. To me, that is a perfectly understandable change.

However, the company should have a demo version, like all other mobile apps, so that users can see first if they like it, before buying it. And--they should keep their promises. There seems to be a litany of broken promises here--the promised demo version that never came to pass, after years, and the promised open-source version that was never released, after years. Now it looks like their promise of money back guarantee, is also not being honored.

As an alternative, one can still look for the freeware TCPMP on the web. I think it can do most of what Coreplayer can. The only exceptions to that that I know of--TCPMP does not support AVRCP, the control of the app by pushing buttons on a BT stereo headset. (You can still listen to TCPMP through a BT stereo headset, but cannot control pause, start, skip to next song, etc., from the headset-you have to do that on the PDA itself.) Also, TCPMP does not have built-in Youtube support, although I have read of a workaround for that, a plugin that may work. I really don't know what else that Coreplayer can do, that TCPMP cannot.

There are other freeware media players for PPC, like Mortplayer and GSPLayer, each with some nice features, but not with the same range of media possibilities as TCPMP or Coreplayer. (I think both are only music players. GSPlayer now, with plugins, I think does support most music file types.)

There are also other commercial media players. I haven't tried them, as I'm still using TCPMP. Could anyone report on how those compare? I think some of them are only music players as well.

Since TCPMP was open-source, are there perhaps develoers around who would like to continue to develop that product, although with a different name? (Since the TCPMP name includes Core.)

It sure would be interesting to hear from Picard, and see what happened with him, why he hasn't been heard from for years now.

In any case, I think it would be good if people made it clear to Core, that if they want people to buy their product, they cannot just expect them to buy based on advertising, but they should put out a demo version, like with other mobile apps. I'm no developer, but that could not be a big job to create--to take an existing app and slap a 30 day timer on it. Furthermore, they should honor their promises--such as the 30 day money-back guarantee.

If Betaboy or any of the other Core folks would like to respond to this post, I would be happy to read what they have to say-- a point by point response to everything I have written in this post, as well as responding to the OP. That would indeed be interesting.

I'd still suggest a boycott, perhaps an advertising ban by Thoughtsmedia as well, until they come out with the demo version promised years ago.

[onlydarksets]

I've used TCPMP since at least 2005 (earlier, as betaplayer, I think), so I'm familiar with the story. Good summary, me. I agree - I wouldn't buy the Coreplayer product based on the lack of a demo.

For the OP, here is their refund page:
CoreCodec, Inc. Refund Policy | CoreCodec.com - Ubiquitous P (http://www.corecodec.com/products/corecodec-inc-refund-policy.html)

I don't think the "missing" page is nefarious - it works from www.corecodec.com (http://www.corecodec.com), but not from www.coreplayer.com (http://www.coreplayer.com). It looks like it's just a typo at the Coreplayer site.

Of course, everything else seems nefarious...

[burtcom]

With all the above in mind, let me say that CorePlayer works great on my current device (TYTN II) and on my previous device (ETEN M700)

[psyjohn]

For the OP, here is their refund page:
CoreCodec, Inc. Refund Policy | CoreCodec.com - Ubiquitous P (http://www.corecodec.com/products/corecodec-inc-refund-policy.html)

I don't think the "missing" page is nefarious - it works from www.corecodec.com (http://www.corecodec.com), but not from www.coreplayer.com (http://www.coreplayer.com). It looks like it's just a typo at the Coreplayer site.

Of course, everything else seems nefarious...


A quick update: while the above link does indeed take you to the refund policy page, the link on that page, that is supposed to be used to request the actual refund, is a dead link. As far as I'm concerned, CorePlayer is criminal in this regard and I reiterate to the readers of this site:
AVOID COREPLAYER!!

I will continue to pursue a refund and if there is ever any progress I will post again to let you know.

[onlydarksets]

A quick update: while the above link does indeed take you to the refund policy page, the link on that page, that is supposed to be used to request the actual refund, is a dead link. As far as I'm concerned, CorePlayer is criminal in this regard and I reiterate to the readers of this site:
AVOID COREPLAYER!!

I will continue to pursue a refund and if there is ever any progress I will post again to let you know.

It's not dead. There's a typo in the URL (the page says "http://support.corecodec.com%20/", but that actual URL is http://support.corecodec.com/).