topic Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony in PCs & Accessories

Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

Bonnie007 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:58:01 GMT

Well I never thought I would say that I was disapointed with sony, but I am. I have been the owner of a sony lap top for about 3 years, and never ever had a problem with it.
So when I needed to upgrade my lap top I decided to stick with a sony vaio as I was so impressed with my last one. Well that has ended up being the biggest mistake of my life!!
I recieved my sony Vaio laptop AR31s around about 9 weeks ago. I have had a few problems with it, more so software, but have either posted a question on these forums or found the answer on here.
My problem now is a cracked screen. I was doing some work on my laptop, when all of a sudden i heard a crack or pop sound and the screen went all white with black lines going from one corner to another. When I looked closely, there was like a cobweb effect at the top right hand corner of the screen, and then 2 big lines from that going down to the bottom left corner. It was clear to see the screen had cracked.
So I got straight on the line to sony, who told me to take it into my local shop for them to look at it. I did that the following day, and the man in the shop agreed it was cracked, he said the black lines was the liquid leaking through. He phoned the warranty line and spoke to them about it. He was asked was there any damage to the laptop, to which he replied there was nothing wrong with it except the screen. I take it they were trying to work out whether I had dropped the laptop.
As I was going into hospital the following day for an op, they agreed to pick the laptop up from the sony shop, and return it with in to 10 days.
I phoned Sony last week to find out how the repairs were going, and I was told they were still waiting for a price to replace the screen (this was past the 10 days that was promised)and that they would call me back when they had the price. I asked why do I need to know the price of the screen? Only to be told that they do not cover screens under the warranty!!
QUOTE WARRANTY: If within the guarentee period the product is determined to be defective, due to improper workmanship or materials Sony or an ASN member in the guarentee Area will without charge for labour and parts, repair or replace the defective products or parts.
Sony are trying to tel me that it is my fault and not theirs!!
I have been told that the cost of repairs will run into hundreds of pounds, and that I should claim it on my home insurance! NO WAY !! Why should I make a claim on my insurance and lose my no claims on it, for something that is NOT my fault.
I have phoned consumer protection, who have told me it is within my rights to get this replaced, and that I should take it through the company I purchased the laptop from. I did this, only to get a letter back from them, quoting exactly the same as sony quoted to me, they will not replace the screen under warranty and to claim it on home insurance.
I have now been back onto consumer Protection, who have now passed it onto trading standards. I am also trying to get in touch with citizins advice to see what else I can do. I will not let this go. Why should I be punished for something that isnt my fault.
Sony you have really really disapointed me.
Bonnie

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

jesnche — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:14:53 GMT

Wow, Sony attitude in this case is incredible! The Warranty must be a secure for the clients in this kind of wrong experiences! Amazing.

I hope you can resolve this problem quickly and also I hope somebody in ClubVaio can help you.

Regards and Good luck!

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

Blencogo — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:00:02 GMT

Hi Bonnie,

Sony Europe Vaio-Link Support have kindly agreed to investigate this situation for you, so let's see what they come up with. I'm sure they will reach a fair way forward.

Fingers crossed! No guarantees unfortunately as most 'cobweb' cracks are caused by a physical impact.

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

Bonnie007 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:42:04 GMT

Thanks for you help, I hope you can get further than I have. I can assure you the damage was not caused on my behalf, if it was I would have taken it through my insurance. Im fighting for the principle of it. I paid just under £2000 for it, and I certainly dont expect anything to go within ust a few weeks of having it. Im not sure if there was any damage to the laptop during transit to myself, but I have no way of prooving it. I ust know for sure it wasnt down to me. My laptop is kept on my desk at all times, and only I use it.
I tried to phone sony again today, but surprise surprise when he puts my case number into his computer, (and after a long 'nowwwwwwwwww'), he suddenly says his system is down, and will call me straight back the minute its back up!! Still no call back, but I wasnt expecting to get one anyway.
Sorry for mouthing of here, but it just makes me so angry.
Thanks again
Bonnie

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

kee-lo_ — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:12:29 GMT

I have phoned consumer protection, who have told me it is within my rights to get this replaced, and that I should take it through the company I purchased the laptop from.  I did this, only to get a letter back from them, quoting exactly the same as sony quoted to me, they will not replace the screen under warranty and to claim it on home insurance.
I have now been back onto consumer Protection, who have now passed it onto trading standards.  I am also trying to get in touch with citizins advice to see what else I can do.  I will not let this go.  Why should I be punished for something that isnt my fault.
Sony you have really really disapointed me.
Bonnie

Good on you, it's about time Sony stopped fobbing people off and making clauses in their warranties when it was clearly a fault in the development in the screen and not damaged by you on purpose.

Hope you win this case, it's a disgrace, and I'm suprised you've not had any complaints from the admins about agressiveness, when I tried to help someone here I was accused of being agressive just for mentioning the Citizen's Advice Bureau!

Good luck!

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

Bonnie007 — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:14:13 GMT

Well I seem to be getting no where. Sony phoned me back yesterday afternoon, saying the damage is caused by physical damage, but they arent saying that I caused it. But because its physical damage the warranty does not cover it. The lady I spoke to said that, the way the screen went while I was working on the laptop was probably due to pressure building up behind the screen and then it just went.
So How do I now go about resolving this. No one wants to take responsibility, sony or the company I purchased it from.
How do I know that the computer wasnt thrown about in the van on its way to me, or dropped? I find this to be a real cop out by sony.
They have given me a price to replace the screen £553 !!!!!
The laptop cost me just under £2000, and no way am I paying this, or taking it through my home insurance.
I really want my laptop back as it has a lot of my work on it, and yes if i put a claim through my insurance I may have had my laptop back by now (although reading another post on here i very much doubt it). But it is the principle of the matter.
Somewhere between the laptop leaving sony warehouse, and going to the suppliers, and then being sent out to me, something has happened to it.
But noone will take responsibility for it, and why should I have to pay the consequenses????
I'm just waiting on trading standards to phone me back, hopefully it will be today. Im just out of hospital after an op, and have been quite ill since, and all this added stress is the last thing I need right now, but I can assure you I will fight this all the way, and even if it means going to the papers or watchdog.
All I want is my laptop back with the screen sorted, and without me having to foot the bill. I wouldnt have thought it was a lot to ask?
Oh and the other thing, sony will not go into any details on how the damage may have been caused, ie in transit or by myself, but surely if this is physical damage as they are claiming, where is the point of impact on the laptop? Surely if the laptop substained physical damage there must be some kind of damage to the caseing? I took the laptop into my local sony center and the manager there confirmed to sony that there was no damage to the computer apart from the screen. When I mentioned this to sony on the phone, they tell me that he is not qualified to make such a judgement!! Oh my sony are now employing managers in their shops that arent qualified ?
Oh i could go and and on here, but I better stop before im kicked off
Bonnie

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

kee-lo_ — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:24:15 GMT

Sad really, but it's not going to be easy to prove it wasn't you that damaged the screen. The only thing I can suggest is asking Trading Standards what they'd do; as I've come to a total wall to how you could get some sort of resolution.

I would ask for a full written report, how did they come to the decision that it was damaged physically, not that I'm questioning it, there's a possability that somewhere along the chain someone did throw it on the van, there are a lot of clumsy people around nowadays who couldn't care less about stuff.

If I had escalation rights I would have asked VAIO-Link what their view on this was, but as I don't I can't really do much.

Might be a good idea to book an apointment with the CAB too, see what they have to say about it.

I think it's terribly unfair no one admits responsability, but this is 2000's for you, people are careless and ignorant, and do as little as possible, just enough so they don't loose their jobs.

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

Thalamus. — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:12:28 GMT

If I had escalation rights I would have asked VAIO-Link what their view on this was, but as I don't I can't really do much.

That's not a problem someone obviously has escalated this already, see below..

Blencogo posted : Sony Europe Vaio-Link Support have kindly agreed to investigate this situation for you, so let's see what they come up with. I'm sure they will reach a fair way forward.

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

amaru007 — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:41:30 GMT

1st thing i do everytime i buy a vaio (3 now) is to buy it from pcworld. i know their expensive-ish, but its so i can take their pc protection service, which is around £12-18 a month. extra expensise i know, but its the peace of mind that no matter what happens, your covered.
my 1st one after 9 months i dropped when carrying, didn't think much of it untill i started to hear cracking noise, looking under the case i found the screen cracked at the bottom. worked for a few days giving me plenty of time to move all my data to a usb hdd, and send it back to the pcworld techs.
downside is it took a few weeks to come back, but i had no worries about any refusals to fix it.

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

Bonnie007 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 05:32:07 GMT

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately its a bit late for me to purchase it from PC world with cover. But even if I had, I would have still gone along this route to get answers from Sony as to why the screen cracked.
Its all now in the hands of Trading Standards. They have all the details, so just waiting to hear something back.
Am just so cheesed off now, as this is 5 weeks they have had my laptop, and they havent bothered to get in touch to say what is happening, if it wasnt for myself phoning i would be none the wiser.
My friend was going to buy a sony laptop last week, thankfully I managed to get her to change her mind. I feel sorry for anyone that has to deal with Sony if anything goes wrong with their computer. I have never ever dealt with anyone like this before, and slow ? A snail would get there quicker, than sony.
Bonnie

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

kee-lo_ — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:34:03 GMT

Do they still have the laptop Bonnie? How can they prove it didn't happen during transit to the repair bay?

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

SSBx — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 06:18:02 GMT

I hope Sony come to their senses on this.

We all(?) buy a laptop from Sony feeling (hoping?) it's a quality product from a respected company, and that in the off chance there's a problem they're such a well established company that they sort it for us without fuss or problems.

I'll be checking in on this thread to see how it goes.

/SSB

@Sony, the consumers are watching you

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

andrewparkes — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:15:19 GMT

I hope Sony come to their senses on this. 

We all(?) buy a laptop from Sony feeling (hoping?) it's a quality product from a respected company, and that in the off chance there's a problem they're such a well established company that they sort it for us without fuss or problems.

I'll be checking in on this thread to see how it goes.

/SSB

@Sony, the consumers are watching you

That was the reason i bought mine, big mistake, complete joke of a service. They just dont care because they are a big name so losing the odd customers every now and then really wont make any difference to them.

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

Bonnie007 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:23:39 GMT

Well I finally got my laptop back today, AFTER paying the £531 !!!
Sony would not back down on it at all. Trading Standards said my only hope was to take it to the small claims court and fight it there. But that would take months, and I needed my laptop, all my work was on it.
When I paid the money, they said I would have the laptop back by the following tuesday, When it didnt arrive i called them again, to be told that they didnt have the part they needed, and that it wouldnt be in until the following monday. Phoned on the Monday to find out when it would be getting sent to be, to be told once again that the part hadnt come in and wouldnt be in until friday!! Eventually it did get sorted. They are quick enough to take your money, but not quick enough to get it sorted.
Im just still very angry about it all. I really feel I have been treated unfairly by sony. But this will certainly be the last time I buy one of their machines. As someone said ont his thread, you buy from a company like Sony because you think they will be easy to deal with. What a joke.
Anyway, been testing the laptop out this afternoon, to make sure all is working ok, but I now seem to have a software problem. Internet Explorer is not displaying all the graphics, png images i think, they will only show if i click run as administrator first, which is a pain in the butt. Anyone got any ideas what I can try please ???

Thanks for all your help so far guys, im sure it wont be my last post here lol
Bonnie

Re: Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

kee-lo_ — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:15:36 GMT

Bonnie,

I would still bring it up with the small claims court, you might get that money back. Plus Watchdog is back this Wednesday at 8pm

Very Angry and disapointed with Sony AW41MF

iawilli98 — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:39:35 GMT

Looks like it's corporate policy for Sony to fob off customers!

As a note I am a Systems Architect for a large multinational organisation and have been working with computer equipment on a daily basis for over 25 years. As a result of the following I have managed to persuade our purchasing unit to avoid Sony computer hardware like the plague. its Dell, Apple and HP for us from now on. i have never ever had this kind of problem with any other vendor. ( I also had an issue with a Sony DSLR Camera which I ended up taking to court and winning compensation and damages over).

After owning this Laptop for 2 months the silver finish around the wrist rests and track pad buttons wore away to reveal the black plastic underneath.

Upon contacting Sony via its online Vaio warranty service I got the following reply in broken english (bear in mind no one from Sony has even taken a look at it yet)

---------------------------------------

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting us.

Kindly be advised that this is considered to be Cosmetic Damage, & will be chargeable repair.

After providing the information below , will have the Repair Center engineer call you to discuss Cost

-----------------------------------------

So I phoned them up and got a nice asian chap telling me exactly the same thing.

essentially if I bought a car and two months along the paint fell off during normal use, would it be fair that the garage insist I pay for a respray without even looking at the car? anyway...

So if you do consider buying a Sony AW XX MF bear in mind the laptops coating will most probably wear away within the first couple of months of use leaving some nice black patches on the wrist areas and Sony will expect you to pay more that £150 for the repair.

I have no other options available that I can see other than taking the issue to my local small claims court (alot of time and hassle I really dont need)

So all in all the above post appears to be the 'norm'

Very Angry and disapointed with Sony AW41MF

Blencogo — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:40:35 GMT

So all in all the above post appears to be the 'norm'

It also appears to be more than three years old, about a different model and a totally different problem.

If you have a problem I would start a new discussion.

Very Angry and disapointed with Sony AW41MF

iawilli98 — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:14:18 GMT

I did and nothing got responded to. After discussing it at work a few of my collegues have had similar experiences with Sony where they will use everything they can to wriggle out of fixing their stuff. besides, quite a few review sites and forums say the same thing (well they deffo do now).

Very Angry and disapointed with Sony AW41MF

iawilli98 — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:24:32 GMT

different product, same warranty problem.

Very Angry and disapointed with Sony AW41MF

chfletc20 — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 13:16:56 GMT

Get the number for Steve Dowdle MD( if you are in the UK) and pester them, thats what I did when my last Vaio kept breaking down, eventually they replaced it with this new VPCE model which now keeps crashing with the blue screen and the mouse pad does not work correctly