Another Good Sony Support Story (and CompUSA)

I know there are a lot of awful Sony Support stories. Heck, I have my own, but I posted a good story a few months ago, and now I have another one.

I purchase an SZ last August and after the replacement from CompUSA a month later I really had no problem with it, except that the left hand side bezel would pop off occasionally. It was kind of a pain but I just assumed that eventually it would snap in properly and stay in place. Eventually though, it started to look a bit bowed contrary to the sharp lines of my SZ37P/C and just would not stay on anymore. At that point I assumed that I had popped it on so many times, I had finally worn away the snaps and detents.

I took the computer back to CompUSA as I had TAP extended coverage on it to cover EVERYTHING, including accidental. CompUSA spent a day looking at it and said that they had determined that in fact, as I had said, it was not "drop" damage but simply a bad fit. They then told me as it was Sony's fault they would return it under the original Sony warranty to Sony for repair. I knew this was a possibility as CompUSA would do anything to not foot the bill themselves.

Anyway, CompUSA called me a 13 days after I originally turned it in to tell me today that the Computer had been repaired and returned. I picked it up wit no charge due. The side bezel has been replaced. It fits beautifully, and the computer has been cleaned and a system check performed.

Amazingly in consonance with this "system check" Sony did not reformat my hard drive which seems to be their SOP. They NEARLY always reformat your hard drive to the factory state. I had a backup, having had this done to me before, but my hard drive had not been re imaged.

So all in all, I thank CompUSA and Sony for their parts in a relatively fast repair considering their was a three day weekend thrown in there.

I still think the Sony Support web site is terrible, but this is another story of good support with a returned computer. And a nod to CompUSA for not sitting on my computer as some has complained. They diagnosed and pursued a solution. They then documented their conclusions about the diagnoses and gave that to Sony with my computer. Thank you all.

As an aside. I used my roommates Dell Inspiron 1150 for the two weeks I was without a PC. Aghhh...I missed my lightweight incredibly. Once you have to go to a heavy brick, you realize how amazing these SZ's are. Also, the SZ LCD is simply amazing. I know it is MUCH smaller, but I swear it is easier to read and manipulate. Not to mention the backlighting. And for all the grief of Sony drivers and our mouse touchpad’s, the auto scrolling on the Dell was simply unusable. My Sony is a treat to my fingers again. Lastly I am not burning my lap with my Sony.

 

Yeah, that's one thing about the S and SZ series screens. They are just so bright and clear and crisp that they are a pleasure to use compared even to some larger and higher res screens.

 

Oh good. that makes me less hesitant to give my laptop back to them and tell them to fix the broken RAM slot (I *need* more than 512MBs of memory....)

 

A good support story from Sony and CompUSA? My goodness gracious!

 

Not to be too contrary ;-) but....

I have an SZ and miss my Dell Inspiron 700m - the Dell's screen was much brighter.

 

What kind of SZ do you have? One thing I've noticed at least in stores is that the SZ non-premium screens don't seem to be as bright and nice as the LED-backlit premium SZ's. It's enough to make me think the premium is worth it.

 

HAHAH. Yea incredible. Sometimes I think it is just easier to deal with computer stuff in person than on the phone or online. One thing online support is usually crap is because it is always through the telephone or chat service.

But good job. You got your sexy computer back and everything was fix. Great! I just bought mine FE890 which should arrive in 8 days or so and I can't wait to use the nice screen =)

 

For what it is worth, I think that this repair was so easy and cmpleted in a timely manner by Sony because I was able to talk to CompUSA in person with the computer. This is purely speculation and Sony may have repaired it without any consternation, but I think that CompUSA's diagnosis saying that the bezel was not broken due to drop damage was key. It was easy for me to show this and demonstrate to CompUSA. Had I simply mailed it off to the "black box" service center of Sony, it may have been easy for a tech to simply check a box saying "Hmmm...broken bezel equals drop damage...not covered by Sony Warranty...$500 please."

So I thank both companies. Good work. Keep it up for everybody! I'd recommend that anybody who has problems with warranty service, try and see a service agent in person (BestBuy, CC, CompUSA, Sony Style Store...wherever you bought it from)

 

Non-premium.

Keep in mind also, that the SZ was $1900 while the Dell cost $1000.

 

Understood. Yeah, I don't know what it is. Some people here have said the non-premium SZ screens shouldn't be so bad, but the ones I've seen so far have been noticeably darker than even some cheaper laptops I've seen elsewhere (I posted another thread about this actually, because I was surprised to find the SZ430 screen at CompUSA to be darker than even the $699 Sony Vaio N220 screen). I'm not sure what Sony might have changed in some of these models; I used to have a Sony S360, and the screen on that was beautiful. I think this was before they went to the LED backlighting, etc. though for the premium models.

 

A very good point.

I've been ultimately satisfied with my Sony Customer Service experiences --- I'd definitley highly recommend always calling customer service rather than using the online contact (which is rife with copy-and-paste responses). I've never had to wait longer than a minute or two to talk with someone -- and the tier1 techs have always been happy to escalate my call once I've explained my issues and asked.

 

Yea I hope that Sony's support is a little bit better compared to Dells. I've had a lot of troubles getting Dell to fix my computer and I am sick and tired of working with them. I hope the Sony's support center is better.

 

Of the computers I have had experience with I would rank customer service like this.

1. Sony (I have had three Sony's)
2. Dell (Their online support website WAS much better in the 90's)
3. HP (I would rank them lower, but I have only had three different makes)

I nevr recommend purchasing additional warranty, but I learne that with laptops, just a simple repair will cost you $600 if it is in the motherboard, so get the warranty for laptops. If nothing else, it gets you a free battery a year into your laptops life and then another a year later.