Sony sucks!

[Horse with no Name]

My laptop quit working. It is less than a year old.
I called Sony and they told me that they would send a repair tech to my house to fix it.
I waited two weeks, nobody ever showed up--Sony denied that anyone had been told that there would be a tech and denied that anyone had even called about it.
Too bad I have a record of a 55 minute phone call to their repair line.:eyes:
I'm then sent a box to send it back to San Diego for warranty repairs.
So then, after it arrives, the tech says that the laptop has "liquid" damage. The laptop has NEVER had any liquid damage--but was sent to the repair center in San Diego when they were having the torrential rains out there.:eyes:
So, I call.
They aren't going to honor the warranty.
So I ask to speak to a supervisor--I'm told they don't have one!:eyes:
They sent me to a customer escalation department representative--who reads the same thing off of her cue cards-"I'm sorry it didn't meet your expectations".:eyes:

So, needless to say, I have bought my LAST Sony product. I will sent out mass emails and advise everyone NOT to buy their products.
I am hoping that I can save at least one person the crappy warranty service.

Grrrrr....

[ananda]

1. Go with Apple.

Macs forever.

[we can do it]

9. +1000000

[rAVES]

12. sure, because they never break... /snark

I've always found Sony reasonable, in fact, when I worked in their RMA department I strived for far more than reasonable.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. I found their service great actually

It helps I know puters though.

[littlewolf]

19. +10000 yay

[DainBramaged]

23. Right, Apple loves you

[no limit]

24. Yeah, if you want a overpriced sex symbol that has a tiny fraction of the applications windows has

[tinrobot]

25. I had a Sony Vaio for years until my employer gave me a Mac.

The Vaio was a total workhorse and survived a lot of abuse.

I hate to say it, but the Mac isn't all that special. Really pretty to look at, but I don't see the allure of OSX. It's not that much better than Windows to warrant the additional cost.

[The Straight Story]

2. Have an attorney call them back :) (nt)

[hedgehog]

4. Does the State of Confusion have an Attorney General's Office?

Here in New York State, a properly documented consumer complaint forwarded to the State Attorney General works wonders!

[Horse with no Name]

5. This is Texas

Laws for the consumer are sadly lacking.:(

[hedgehog]

7. I'd send my condolances, but I don't want to start a flame war!

[ohheckyeah]

27. Put up a YouTube video

slamming them. That will get a response I bet.

[lob1]

3. Scream your head off to whomever will listen.

It seems thievery and fraud have become the American business model.

[HopeHoops]

6. In sharp contrast, HP kicks ass on tech support. 1 week call to completion time.

First of all, the laptop was out of warranty. The display weirded out on me and pretty much rendered the thing useless. I called on a Monday and they said it had happened to a few others, but it was still very rare. They sent a box overnight with a pre-paid overnight return tag. I called for a pickup and FedEx got it the next day. Sunday morning, I got an e-mail saying it was repaired and had been shipped. It showed up Monday morning - one week after I called.

You can't beat that kind of service.

[XOKCowboy]

15. How long ago was that? HP now ships back via FedX Ground

Also they ship their special box (I already have one but couldn't use it) now via FedX 2 Day to you and to the service center. My laptop developed a power problem last July. It was still under warranty. From the day I called till I got it back took 28 days! I was tracking it and it was in the repair center less than 4 hrs from delivery to pickup. I have no idea what was wrong since the repair sheet was blank.

I did make one mistake. I called FedX and asked them to reroute the package when I realized that I'd be traveling the week it was supposed to be returned. FedX said sure no problem but HP had to call and authorize it. I immediately called HP CS and asked them to re-route to where I was working in UT. By the time word got from India to FedX my laptop had already been put on a truck to Colorado so there was no stopping it for 5 days. When it got to CO I called the local FedX Ground office to have them just hold it for me because I was coming home the next day. Too late. It'd already been put on a truck to... wait for it.... Maine! It seems that the Indian CS agent had transposed the first 8 of the Utah zipcode to a 0 when she put in the reroute order. So 5 more days wait for it to get to Maine and be delivered to a non-existent address. At that point FedX shipped it (again via Ground) back to California to the repair station. All this time I'm calling HPCS daily and they finally gave me a CS agent here in the US to help me get my laptop back. Amanda and I became very good friends during our daily calls while we waited for my laptop to get back to CA. Amanda made sure that this time it was shipped back to where I was and even apologized since she couldn't overnight it to me. It still had to ship back via 2Day service.

Even without the redirection it still took my laptop 11 days to get back to my home address. I just thought you should know that HP's repair shipping policies have changed and not for the good.

This little episode might finally send me over to the Macbook Pro for my next laptop.

[HopeHoops]

17. That was less than two years ago I'm pretty sure.

It sounds like you had an unfortunate encounter with a moron.

[XOKCowboy]

18. I had 3 CS agents apologize to me for the new shipping policy

I had the same experience with my old HP laptop about 4 yrs ago and it was like you said. Next Day all the way. This time not so much.

I'm sure that for an extra fee HP will expedite shipping but I'm just saying that it's not like it used to be.

[XOKCowboy]

8. I never liked Sony laptops but can't live/work without their pro video products...

I'm surprised because Sony always put out video products that actually were worth their extra cost. We used to joke that the Sony emblem on their video monitors cost $500 and weighed 50 lbs but those suckers worked and were the best you could get. Same with their video cameras/switchers/recorders. Virtually bulletproof compared to any of their similarly priced competitors.

Sorry you had a bad experience.

[Earth_First]

10. I had a similar experience with Sony on a Playstation 3:

The laser quit reading period.

So in typical warranty fashion, I call to file a claim with their warranty department.

They wanted me to send it to their warranty repair department on my dime each way (approximately $25 eash way) and afterwards they would only offer me a limited 60 day warranty on a factory refurbished repair; OR a factory refurbished replacement, but not a NEW product.

I explained to them that this was unacceptable as the problem is with sensitive laser reading equipment and shipping equipment through the mail may or may not create a similar or worse problem. Additionally, I explained that their product failed within a year on a brand new piece of equipment; yet you they were going to offer me even less of a warranty than was remaining on the original equipment...

I was essentially told the same thing: they were sorry and according to their policies...yadda yadda yadda...

I will never purchase another Sony product either!

[spin]

11. It's a good idea to post your experience on every forum you use ...

I think I'll change my mind about the Sony TV I was thinking about. I know you bought a laptop but Sony may be attempting to save money by screwing customers when any of their products go bad. It works get for a while, but it catches up with the manufacturer eventually. It takes a LONG time to get a good reputation but only a short time to totally lose it.

See, you just cost them a sale and I'll bet you can ruin a lot more sales if you go to the stores that sell Sony and post a review of your problem. For example, Amazon.com, Sears.com and BestBuy.com allow you to post reviews for Sony.

Have fun.

[NMDemDist2]

13. I had a 5 month fight with Sony over a TV

I finally won though :evilgrin:

[LibDemAlways]

14. I had a similar problem with Nikon. Daughter's camera was less than a

year old. While she was holding it to take a picture the screen cracked for no apparent reason. I sent it back for either repair or replacement under warranty, and they absolutely refused to honor it with the excuse that the screen wouldn't have cracked unless the camera had been dropped. When I assured them this wasn't the case, they basically told me I was out of luck. Repeated calls and letters did no good. They did offer to fix it for $100.00, but since it cost $129.00 to begin with, that would have been ridiculous.

Nikon is a big corporation. There is no reason for them not to honor their warranty. Customer goodwill apparently means nothing to these companies.

[jtrockville]

16. Don't know if it will help or not, but try tips _@_ consumerist.com

[Bonhomme Richard]

20. I did the same with HP. Went out and bought an Apple.

I figured that at the least I could take it to an Apple store and yell at someone. Worst case is I yell at my son who works for Apple.

[johnaries]

22. A friend of mine had a similar experience with her Vaio.

She primarily uses her laptop for her photography. When the monitor screen started to display what she called "bubbling", she sent it to Sony for repairs. Like you, they told her it was "liquid damage" when she never had any liquids near her laptop. She spoke to several "customer Service" reps and they gave her the same runaround they gave you.

Afterwards, she went online and discovered this was a common issue with Vaio's. She vowed that Sony will never get another cent from her.

[Horse with no Name]

29. It is a Vaio. Interesting. Thanks. n/t

[Lugnut]

26. Our Sony TV conked out in 7 years.

We never bought another Sony product nor do we plan to.

[KharmaTrain]

28. They Record Me...I Record Them...

Firstly, I couldn't see doing home service on a laptop...in fact I don't know of any major manufacturer that offers that. I only deal with companies that have their own service department and avoid the company warranties. I prefer doing business at a small merchant than a big box for that reason.

I've had good luck with my Sonys...after bad ones with Dell and HP, but in essence they're all the same. They're large corporates who can pretty much decide how and when they will fix a machine or honor a warranty and most service means weeks, if not months, sent to some far-flung repair center and then you have no contact with the person doing the work. You take your chances. But then I'm not very crazy about many corporate "customer service" departments.

What I've done when I know I'm gonna run into some kind of hassle is to turn on my answering machine and when I hear their announcement that calls may be "monitored", I hit my "record" button. First off I always ask for the Service Rep's name and get it on tape (very handy later on when either complaining or complimenting). Hang onto the recording until you're satisfied...if you have hassles, call your Better Business Bureau and describe the problem and mention you have the conversation recorded. You may just get better results. Also, don't be a jerk...no matter how tempting it is. I've found you get a lot better results when you speak nice and put a little guilt on them.