I sure hope you held the power button for at least 3 seconds, typically 1 full second is enough.
Don't can the product just because one item is DOA.
If you're running it in the car, I suggest you drain the batteries down all the way, then you'll get a couple of hidden benefits that are not advertised and make life easier when using the scanner in the car.
Note: sufficiently drained implies that if you disconnect USB power, the scanner simply dies, there is no Writing to SD card message. Also, batteries should not be completely drained below a certain voltage in order for recording to work. The scanner shuts down below 3.00V, so the batteries must be <3.00V but must not provide sufficient current for the scanner to save to SD card. Saving to SD card will prevent auto-start up
Hidden Features after batteries are sufficiently drained:
1. Auto-start up on car ignition, useful when you want to hop in a car, start driving and listening without fiddling with the scanner. (minus the start recording button)
2. Recording with drained batteries, a certain battery voltage must be maintained.
Right now I am still trying to drain the batteries I got with the scanner on November 20th. So far it turns off right after I turn off the car, but there's still enough juice in batteries to write to SD card. I didn't want to manually short the batteries through a resistor, I'll just let them drain naturally through usage.
FYI, I have 2 scanners, this works on the other scanner with drained batteries. It's not scanner related because I swapped batteries and I still get my auto-start up with drained batteries.