Horrible Sony support. They just want your money!

Well, I've had a couple of interesting experiences with the chatting feature of Sony support. Let me start from the beginning. A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to watch a blu ray movie on the computer, but I did not have the Blu Ray software to play the movie so I contacted Sony support via chat. As soon as I enter the chatroom I get a new message that I have never seen before about only 15 mintues of the support session being free -- then you have to pay for it. I disregard this message confident that Sony will make sure my issue is resolved at no cost. I couldn't have been more wrong! They had the nerve to install software on the computer that allows them to control the computer and see my desktop, then install more software to check for more issues that I did not even care about, then tell me that it would cost me to continue support! They completely failed to even address the concern that I came to them with in the first place.

I decided to give them another chance to redeem themselves by helping me out with another issue I came across tonight. I thought my original battery was dead because it is not being detected or charged in either of my two partitions (Vista on one and W7 on the other), so I got a new battery and popped it in, but the same error message was showing up in both partitions; therefore it cannot be the battery but something else. I contacted the chat support and initiated the chat session. Right away I recognized the pattern and direction of the conversation. Sure enough, the analyst (*******) wanted me to install the same software and do the same procedure as the analyst a couple of weeks ago. I tell ***** that I did not want to take that approach to resolving the issue and informed him of the issue I ran into before. He disregarded my worries and insisted that I just install the software to continue the support. He sent me a link to download it, but it was the 32 bit version; not the 64 bit. So 4 minutes later (of the 15 minutes of free support) he gives me the correct link. At that point, I refused to go any further because I was well aware that the request to access my bank account was the next procedure after he scanned my computer and showed me it's "issues." I asked for his supervisors contact information and he claimed he was unable to give it to me without paying for whatever plan they were trying to sell me. Meanwhile, he was very persistent in giving me many many offers for this service plan -- I ignored all of them and closed the window.

Right after ********, I decided to open a new 15 minute free support session to just try to get the contact information of a supervisor. The rest of the story is below. As I kept the conversation going, it began to show what Sony was really about. Check it out:



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: Sandlotje
Sent: Sat, June 19, 2010 1:43:57 AM
Subject: eSupport Chat Transcript



eSupport Chat Transcript

What do you all think about this? Is it just me or is it wrong? They just totally drop you after the warranty period. What makes it even more wrong is I have a $300 3 year extended warranty, but that doesn't cover these sessions.

 

reading that gave ME stress..

my experience with sony support and what i have read of them has convinced me that their customer support is only there to make more money

 

I'm not justifying it as they are trying very hard to sell a product but all the companies out there charge for phone support.

Apple, Dell etc.. Apple gives 90 days free and I believe dell is 30 and you can pay for sessions. This is not abnormal though and I understand why she couldn't help you without the plan. The hardware warranty is the not the same as support.

 

I have had to deal with the same sort of crap. I eventually found the best people to deal with but even then you had the hound them to get anything out of them. What particulary got to me was the way in which they blamed me for my notebooks problems.

 

Sadly, I'm not surprised. After buying a TZ from them (my first Sony laptop ever), I dropped Sony for life. Even before the warranty period is up, they made it a hassle just to send a computer in for repair.

 

Sorry to hear this

On another note - if you know any Sony Repair Centres, contact those directly - that is great.

I did that with my Vaios fan - if anybody is near Cologne in Germany, I can from my experience, recommend Via Computer - that leaves out any Sony support.
On that note though - when I chatted to Sony 2 years ago (dead battery) I had great service - but that was in Germany.

Sorry to hear about your problems

 

I am typing this reply on my brand new Vaio Z. While I love the product (so far), it would take a lot for me to ever purchase a Sony again. My expeience with their customer service and sales agents during two months of delays in my shipping date was a nightmare. I purchased a warranty, but I hope I never have to call Sony again. I won't share my whole story here, but just check out this one piece: I demanded from SonyStyle USA an address/phone for a complaints department. They gave me an address and an email address. I wrote a letter and sent two emails. I got no reply for three weeks. Finally someone from Sony's National Customer Relations called me regaring my emails. They gave an 800 number for "Second Level Support" at SonyStyle USA. I called that number, and it was some camping lodge in Montana. . They didn't even have the right number. So I called Customer Relations back and they said they'd connect me directly to SonyStyle USA Second Level Support. I was on hold for 30 minutes, only to be handed to a regular customer service rep. The rep said, "We don't have 'second level support,' I have no idea what they're talking about." Way to throw your fellow Sony employees under the bus.

I'm telling you, that is just one night of a two month story. Ridiculous. I think computer companies haven't quite caught on yet that services/experiences are as, if not more, important than the goods they produce.

 

Wow... tech support in the US seems to be pretty bad. Here in South America, I've never had that many problems.

 

You just have to understand that is the deal with Sony - they have had poor customer service on virtually all products for decades, they dont help customers do self service and they often go our of their way to make it hard for customers to do self-help or help each other.

This flaw of Sony's doesnt affect many - it shows up only when products go bad or need repair. But at that moment you really need them and they fail you.

Sony are a product company and are fundamentally incapable of being customer oriented. So you just need to know what you are getting into and decide if the product is worth the hassle if something goes wrong. For some it is, and for others it is not.

 

YIKES! What region are you in? I've noticed from other's posts that support quality varies wildly...from abysmal to satisfactory.

Oh, and I believe it's totally wrong to have to pay for support when you've paid for a service contract. In fact, I'd read every word of the contract if I were you. If there's no mention of fee-based diagnosis, I'd call the Customer Relations Department (800-430-4433 in the US) and file a formal complaint. Your $300 actually paid for a service contract (not really a warranty, pe sé), and I'd be pretty surprised if it doesn't state in that contract that it includes "remote diagnosis" (my on-site contract does).

 

The monkeys they have working the chat line are an inept bunch - even for monkeys. I always call SonyStyle Support by phone, I get better, more accurate service nearly every time, and it takes less than half the time. I've tried chatting many times, but only have had a single positive experience (about 1 in 20). That makes it hard to imagine it being worse.