Beware - Sony Laptops & Service !

OK GUYS !!!!!!!!!

I have sent mine in 4 times to Sony service in a years time span, they honestly do not care if they fix your problem or not.

Listen to this ..............

The first time I sent it in was 4 months after I bought it. It started overheating - and power down anywhere from 30 min to 10 min. And that wasn’t even running strenuous programs !
The tech I talked to was really nice - and I was pleased. I sent it in - and got it back about 7-8 days later.
They added a thermal layer under the keyboard, and replaced some other little parts.
Worked fine for about 3 months ............. then it started again.

I brought it in to my workplace ( computer industry ) - and an engineer that I work with brought it to my attention that the fan was running 100% of the time & shouldn't.

I called Sony back - and let them know I was having the same overheat/crash problem - and that the fan was constantly running as well. The tech could have cared less - and just set it up to be sent in..... I might add hat he seem rather disgusted - like I was bothering him - putz.

Anyway - about a day later - I get it back - no kidding a day later.
They said they replaced the thermal layer ( again ), and added some sponges.

When I started up my laptop - I noticed the fan was even louder.
And when I ran my Norton Antivirus scan ..... It crashed.

Pretty ticked - I called Sony back - this time I asked to speak with upper management.

I got someone in management ( Wendy ). This being the 3rd time - I was expecting someone to actually do something about this problem - somehow.
She stated that all I could do is send it back in & have them look at it again.
She sent me over to someone at the 'specialist tech desk' ..... He stated that I was correct - the fan should not run all the time - and there was defiantly something wrong - that needed to be looked at - instead of adding 'sponges' and sending it back to me.
Reluctantly - I sent it back in.

They called 3 days later - told me that they couldn’t duplicate the overheat/crash problem.
When I asked about the fan - he put me on hold ...... came back & stated that it was just they way the model was designed.

Yea - BS.

I asked to escalate to a manager........... I got Wendy again.
She stated that the only thing she could do is have their lead tech at the specialist desk look at it (at this point I'm wondering why they didn’t do that the last time) - and she said that if he couldn’t find anything - there was nothing they could do for me.

NOT happy - but feeling like I didn’t have any choice ( and being they still had my laptop ) - I said - yea sure - what the hell - go for it.

She told me that she would call me back later that afternoon.
I never head from her.
I tried the whole next day to reach her - and could not ....... I left a message with her, explaining some of this info that I had found from you folks on these forums .... Was she aware of what a huge problem this was - and that I didn’t appreciate her not calling as she stated, much less not even the next day. I said that at this point I’d like to just have my laptop sent back - and take care of it myself.

She called later that evening & left a message stating how sorry she was for not returning my call, and that the lead tech guy decided to have some of their engineers look at it - and they found the need to replace the fan - and some other components, and said she would call me back as soon as she had word.

A week later - still hadn't heard back so I called her - she was out on vacation.
I called the number from the tech that told me that they couldn’t duplicate the prob...... And he stated that
The unit was being replaced.

HU ? !

I explained to him what Wendy had said when she called - and all he said was that they decided that it was in their best interest to replace the unit.
I asked what that entailed..... He said he didn’t know - and would have someone from the corporate office contact me.

A lady named Tracy called & left a message - now getting a hold of this woman was even harder.
She never answered her line & her voicemail was always full & not accepting messages.
After trying for a couple hours off & on ..... I finally got her voicemail & left a message.
A day went by & nothing - I tried calling several times - still no answer & not able to leave a message.
The next day I finally heard back - only because I tried calling again - and she finally answered.

She told me that they would replace the unit with a 'refurbished unit' ... I said - no way.
She stated the only other thing then was to try to fix my current laptop - I said - uh yea -wasn’t that the pint like the first 4 times I sent it in ? !

There was a pause - and she said that I probably didn’t understand what she meant by refurbished.
She then explained that in this case - the unit was returned from a store like Circuit City, due to overstock.
Sony then has to update the software on the unit - and by law then has to call it refurbished.
No one had used it - and no repairs done to it.

I put her on hold - and looked thru some sites for some info on this model - and couldn’t find anything that said it sucked - LOL - or that said anything for that matter, accept for 2 people recently purchased and liked them ( posted in 11/2002 - and no follow ups or other comments had bee posted since ).
So I agreed.

The laptop is now on its way ( a PCG-FRV35 ) .... about 3-5 business days ( and they sent my HD back to me - being that I work with a bunch of computer techs - they can retrieve some of my data - and I have to send it back within 30 days. )

But all in all - Sony electronics are great - TV's etc - BUTT !

Their PC's and Laptops.......... SUCK !

And their Customer Service is the lowest - most rock bottom service I have EVER seen.


If I had just said 'oh ok sir' - to the guy that called the third time & said they couldn’t duplicate and there was
Nothing they could do - I would be stuck with a problem that NO ONE should have to be stuck with when they pay that much damn money for a laptop.

I am sending this info out to the Better Business Buro - Consumer reports - and posting it on every forum I can. I also got a feedback questionnaire from Sony - and its going back with that card as well.

No one deserves this crap - and Sony needs to get their hand slapped !

Good luck out there !

 

you've now changed my mind on buying a Sony...customer service from the manufacturer is a huge deciding factor for me, thanks man!

 

NP ! =)

I would check out Toshiba .... if you have a Best Buy where you are - go thru them - to be honest .... i have an extended warranty program that i bought thru them - worth every penny.
So if Sony fails - they will help me.

Here is a nice Toshiba I was looking at - my husband has the 17" model - it works GREAT, and thier customer service is good( my husband used them for a config problem ) .....Toshiba Satellite Notebook with Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.8GHz
Model: P15-S409

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1063630089152&skuId=6045344&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01174

I also got a consumer reports magazine with a laptop section - thats a good way to go as well.

Hope that helps =) and good luck ![ ]

 

I'm sorry to hear of your problematic situation; however Sony has decent (if not *good*) technical assistance. Looking at Consumer Reports ratings for Sept. of 2003 they a "good" rating. Their latest issue also gives them the same rating. Every company has disastisfied customers--if you were to make your purchases based on one troublesome problem you wouldn't be purchasing from any manufacturer--even the infallable Apple has customers that complain of crappy service. When you look at the wholistic picture they are the *best*--so should you eliminate them because of a few bad experiences when the good far outweighs the bad? Your call.

As they say; customers with a bad experience will tell 10 ppl and those ppl will tell 10 others, if they recieve great service they generally tell 1 (if that). It wouldn't take very long at all (probably *one* search on google) to find people that are dissatisfied with the Best Buy program or Toshiba's service. Again, look at the wholistic picture.

Hopefully you will receive better service with this laptop. Let us know.

 

Take a look here - and you'll see that i am not the only one that had 1 bad experience with Sony .........

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8891/

besides - that experience was bad enough to yes - tell about it - especially when i am reading of so many others as well.
And this was not the only forum i found that people had these same problems.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by little-mac

 

Have you ever thought of Anger Managment - seriously .....

It was an experience told - and an opinion.

Dude - get over yourself.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by little-mac

 

am using a GRX580 and had the motherboard replaced when the laptop was under warranty and it has since broken again (will not boot if there is a memory chip in slot #2), but now is out of warranty. I have switched the memory chips around and it still will not boot, but when I leave slot 2 empty it will boot with either of the chips installed. I use a notebook fan/cooler religiously and take excellent care of my notebook.

I had to remove the second memory from my slot #2 and now it will boot up and work just fine, except it is SLOW due to loss of 256MB of auxiliary memory. I went the to following link and read about it in detail and found a shop that will solder the offending pin and return it to you for $150. I also read about a proposed class action lawsuit and a virtual petition to sign about making SONY aware of the problem.

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449/

What can I do now??? I have researched the problem and have found it to be real and am upset that SONY hasn't recalled or fixed the problem. I queried the parts page on SONY and found that the motherboard to replace this one is not even carried and at another site it is $650.

WHAT DO I DO NOW??????????? WILL SONY STAND BY ITS PRODUCT AND HELP ME????????????????

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Slat
You are entitled to your opinion and to share your experience. I am entitled to let the readers know that in general they won't have this type of problem. I shouldn't apologize for anything I have said so I won't; but if you were offended in any way then I can apologize for that.
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>
What are you doing? You're a moderater? The guy had a terrible experience and he was sharing it. Then you jump in and tell him he's entitled to his opinion but you need to let readers know they won't have this type of problem? How do you know? Sharing and learning about these kind of experiences is the point of forums.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>
What are you doing? You're a moderater? The guy had a terrible experience and he was sharing it. Then you jump in and tell him he's entitled to his opinion but you need to let readers know they won't have this type of problem? How do you know? Sharing and learning about these kind of experiences is the point of forums.
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

This member did have a bad experience and did share it, let us not let that change our perspective on the wholistic picture.

I did "jump" in to let readers know they won't have this type of problem because in all likely hood they will *not*. How do I know? Look at any of the reliability/customer service ratings on Sony from any reputable source (ala the last two Consumer Report issues based on laptops). Everyone has bad experiences with a particular brand--thats life. You just have to keep it in perspective--which is what I did. Thats my "right". I was learning about the situation myself.

Also, if you had read all of the post(s) I made, you would see that this problem was fixed by one person with a canned of compressed air. How can Sony be blamed for dust/lint gathering in a fan? That is perverse.

Am I sympathetic with little-mac's situation? Absolutely. Does this happen to large percentage of Sony laptop owners? Nope, not even close. That is what I was expressing. Simple. Don't get your panties in a bundle because you *think* that someone is stifling conversation. Do you think this post would still be here if that was the case? I think I can say on behalf of www.notebookreview.com that we do not endorse censorship in the least. Lastly, if you don't have something beneficial to contribute, don't.

I think the point of the post was made and no more useful commentary is coming from it--it is thusly locked.

 

It's a little late for this response, but frankly it must be Tucson. My Sony Laptop went bad 15 days after purchase and went back for repair 6 times in six months. Of course, I was without it for at least 12 days each time. Delivery told me they could make a living just transporting Sony laptops back and forth. He had dropped off or picked up two others within a four block area that very day.

After much moaning and groaning, Sony did extend my warranty three years after the last repair date.

 

My Sony T250 had dust in the LCD and was sent in a few days before the warranty expired. It came back flawless. Nevertheless due to Reseller Ratings score with Sonystyle I would much rather purchase my SZ-140 from Portable One, which has an excellent score. Looks like those guys really go out of their way to please a customer according to customer comments on RR.

 

Yep Sony customer service (ive dealt wit UK and US) is terrible, i chased then round for weeks everyone i spoke to was either a moron or couldnt care less, appart from the couple that decided to pick a argument with me (i was being polite and calm at the time and they both got aggressive with me lol), they may claim to have techs working for them but in actual fact the have some insanely clever monkeys that can just about speak.

If your buying a Sony notebook i would recommend only buying it from a reseller Best Buys, Fry's etc.

PS They are by far the worst company i have ever dealt with for customer service

 

They have issues worldwide. I live in Japan and am about to lose, oh somewhere between 800-1200 US on a 3 month old FB50T. As soon as it comes back from its service. It is going to Yahoo auctions. I am an IT consultant with 13 years experience. Dealing with them has been nothing but frustrating. I would hate to be an average user who may fall for some of their excuses for poor troubleshooting.

Here is my experience.

http://tokyotechy.blogspot.com/

It is obvious that not everyone has problems with their KIT. But, they need to SORT out and LOOK after their customers that are having repeat issues. The next sales rep that come crawling into our department begging for a Sony (maybe 10 per year) will be getting a Toshiba instead. This I can gurantee.

 

I have also had a terrible experience with Toshiba customer service. The company I work for purchased 5 Toshiba P15-S409 laptops. These laptops are notorious for having problems with the solder joint becoming loose at the power connector attached to the motherboard. I found out about this problem after purchase and 3 of the laptops were repaired for this condition.

I realized that I needed to purchase an extended warranty to keep these laptops running without breaking the bank. I called Toshiba to place the order for the extended warranty. It was 1 year later and one of the laptops broke down again with the same condition. I callled Toshiba and they stated the laptop warranty ended. I stated I ordered the warranty personally over the phone and that was impossible. They stated there was a problem with the credit card number and never notified me concerning the transaction failure. I used a company credit card and was unaware that it was never charged and was under the assumption the warranty was in effect.

Below is corespondences between Toshiba customer service and me.
This is the last time I want to deal with this but wanted people to be aware of what happened. I removed SN's and email addresses since I don't want to deal with any legal issues.


From: Paul
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 7:49 AM
To: Tosh E Service
Subject: CUSTOMER REQUEST: [General comment]
DATE:06/01/2006:07:49:19 FROM aul COMMENTS/QUESTION:I placed an extension on a warranty for several laptops 06/10/05. I talked to a rep on the phone to place the order since I wanted to verify order placement. I recently found out last week that this order was not processed. I tried to work with another rep to resolve this issue but they stated I needed to talk to a manager. I left a voice mail last week which was never returned. I called today and talked to another rep who stated I didn't need to talk to a manager and there was nothing that could be done to resolve the issue except to have him put in a complaint. I told him I wanted to do this but he didn't ask me for any info. I do not recall ever receivig an email from Toshiba stating that there was an issue with my credit card and want to complain regarding the way this process has been handled. I work for a company that has over 400 employees and approximately 100 laptops. I make decisions on hardware purchases and will never allow another Toshiba product to be purchased again.


-----Original Message-----
From: Tosh E Service
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 12:48 PM
Subject: RE: CUSTOMER REQUEST: [General comment]
Paul,
What are the serial numbers and manufacturer part numbers of the notebooks in question and we will research the issue. Thank you.
Best regards,
Toshiba eCustomer Service.


From: Paul
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 10:00 AM
To: Tosh E Service
Subject: RE: CUSTOMER REQUEST: [General comment]
Thank You for responding so quickly, below are serial numbers.
(Removed to protect company)


From: Tosh E Service
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 1:19 PM
Subject: RE: CUSTOMER REQUEST: [General comment]
Paul,
We will also need the manufacturer part number of the notebooks to verify the information. Thank you.
Best regards,
Toshiba eCustomer Service.


From: Paul
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 7:22 PM
To: Tosh E Service
Subject: RE: CUSTOMER REQUEST: [General comment]
All 5 were purchased at the same time and have part number PSP10U-0DXPGR


-----Original Message-----
From: Tosh E Service
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 4:09 PM
Subject: RE: CUSTOMER REQUEST: [General comment]
Paul,
We are showing the standard warranty of those units expired July of 2005. Unfortunately we cannot sell an extended warranty after the expiration of the standard warranty regardless of the reason for the request. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you.
Best regards,
Toshiba eCustomer Service.
I appreciate you looking into this but this was my original complaint. I don’t recall receiving anything from Toshiba stating that my card wasn’t charged and the transaction was never processed. I feel since I called Toshiba personally to place this order to extend the warranties plus gave my phone number I should have been notified that the order from quote # 779549 was never placed due to a credit card error.
From now on my company is going to purchase Dell.

 

I have to agree with little-mac, Sony Support is terible Ive had a few problems with mine now and every time ive gotten onto sony they repeat the same useless BS over and over.