Can I vent about Sony?

[CitrusLib]

I got a new digital DVD handycam. Went to download the pictures from the camera to my PC so I could e-mail the grandparents recent pics of their one and only grandson. Couldn't get it to work.

Called Sony support and spoke with two women so intent on getting through a scripted response, they couldn't be bothered to listen to what I was saying. One of them finally told me to uninstall the software and reinstall. I do so, but on reinstall discovered the CD was corrupted. Probably why the original install apparently didn't complete. Sony told me to call the software maker's support company. I did and they referred me back to Sony who told me I'd need to BUY a new CD. Huh? The original supplied CD was bad, so I need to buy a new one?

I e-mailed support and received a reply that I didn't need to install software, I could download a driver from their website. I go to the URL provided and end up with a message that a driver is not available for my model. I send another e-mail to Sony.

They respond with an apology. The program that responds to their service e-mails doesn't actually read the e-mail. I actually do need the software and I can buy the CD at the following link.

Back the service truck up. The CD that came with the camera is defective. Why should I buy something that wasn't correct in the first place? Am I missing something???

So I send another e-mail back saying that's unacceptable. They respond with the suggestion that I should load the CD on another computer to see if it works. They are assuming an awful lot about me. I only have one computer. So I should buy another one to see if a CD that costs pennies to make is good or bad? Meanwhile, I've already checked other CDs in the same drive and have ascertained the drive and my PC are just fine, thank you very much.

So a problem that should have taken 3 sentences to resolve, "We're sorry that software didn't work, Ms. Citrus. Let's send you a new CD. What's your shipping address?" is now taking 5 phone calls and just as many e-mails.

Feel free to tell me I'm being unreasonable. I'm finding this whole situation fucking ludicrous while no one at Sony seems to see why it's positively assinine.

[henslee]

1. I went through similar episode w/ wifi software. Scriptreaders suck. I

just marched back to Good Guys and swapped my product for a new one. BTW, it was also a software glitch.

[Salviati]

2. You're not being unreasonable...

Sony is displaying a complete lack of customer service. Any and all software and drivers required to interface a piece of hardware to your computer should always be avalible to download IMO...

[hlthe2b]

3. Oh, no you are not unreasonable...been there and only thing I

can say is document, document, document...demand a customer service supervisor and politely let them know you wish to reach resolution immediately and what you expect. Let them know you are prepared to continue up the chain until you are given basic customer service you deserve and are documenting everything fully.

There are so damned many layers, that this is the only way I have been able to deal with this kind of crap, whether it be with SOny, aol, qwest or any of the other behemoths whose customer service has gone to shit.

[LynneSin]

4. One thing you can say about Sony - they're blue

http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=171

They're movie division smacks them around 50% but the CEO for SOny of America gave to Kerry and other Democratic candidates (and he covers electronics)