How do I convience Sony.

I have a Sony Vaio with a 8400M GT Nividia card in it. The card dies on me about 2 weeks ago. I played World of Warcraft daily and i'm a smoker. It's gotten so hot before that it gave me a burn on the top of my skin... My Laptop is sitting in California waiting for me to pay them 699$ to repair it. My laptop is under warranty and I've had the PC 11 months. They're claiming that residue from smoking and ashes in the PC broke my graphics card (I didnt know residue from smoke can melt threw metal and plastic in 11 months.). That's ridiculous, and they know it. They're not helping me, as soon as I brought up Overheating, and what Nividia/Dell is doing they completely shut me off and won't answer me or respond to me.

There is a TON of proof on the internet that these cards are faulty, how can I get Sony to work with me and get this fixed with out having to pay 699$ for something that was bound to break anyways? Anyone else have to deal with Sony and this problem?

Thanks,
xith

 

First of all, they cannot say your smoking killed the gfx. Its defective + ur under warranty = they fix it.

Dont mention smoking - just call their warranty hot line + ask for a supervisor

 

^^ what he/she said.

On another note, this is in the completely wrong section.

 

Do they have any proof to back up their claim that there was 'residue from smoking and ashes' inside the laptop?

What laptop do you have?

 

The question is did you tell them you were a smoker? if not and they turn round and say it's smoke they could be right after all they can't say it was smoke if you wern't a smoker (if you get me), either way they should still fix it unless there is a clause about smoking in the warranty? just check it out anyway, and ask for proof of what caused it.

 

The only way you'll convince them is by taking action and giving them trouble. Complain to some place that could give the company bad publicity. Call them again and tell them if this remains unresolved you will be contacting the Better Business Bureau and filing an official complaint ( www.bbb.org). The BBB will try to resolve the complaint for you, and this will also give you an official paper trail and Sony can't just BS around with you in this case. Also threaten to report them to the FTC, although note that the FTC does not resolve complaints for you, they just gather complaint data. Not sure how effective it is, but you need to show them that you are informed and not afraid to make trouble for them.

Depending on where you live, you might also try some consumer advocacy groups in your area, see if there are any local newspaper columnists that deal with this sort of stuff, and so on.

 

All they did was take pictures of my laptop, send me those pictures and say "The motherboard doesn't work." Which it worked fine before it left my house. The pictures clearly show it's been around cigarette smoke, but that wouldn't case the laptop to corrode. I have a Sony Vaio

 

I never said anything about smoking, I looked at the pictures and asked "What else is wrong with it, other then it's dirty?" and he clearly says "Its not dirty its corroded and shorted out." He's talking about the motherboard. He's claiming the whole thing is broke. However, you disable the Graphics card in it, and it ran 100%. The motherboard is fine, but It's his word against mine and the people who saw my PC do some crazy stuff before I sent it.

 

The smoking sounds like a weird claim by Sony. I would go for the warranty repair too. Play it hard.

I got that. I'd like to know what model.

 

model VGNFZ190

 

Do these pictures look like what he is describing? I dont see any corroision, I see some ashes, and dirt from being used every day for a year. He's sending me pictures of metal with smoke residue on them. Nothing that's going to burn out an entire motherboard.

What do you guys think? If you blew that all off with a can of air, it wouldn't even be there any more. It just needs to be cleaned.

 

Smoking heavily around any piece of electronics can and will cause it to deteriorate. The smoke leaves a coating on the surfaces that in turn collect massive amounts of dust. Which then prevents the dissipation of heat. And yes the nicotine is corrosive over time.

I owed the first computer store in Cincinnati back in 1976 and we could always tell the machines that came in for repair from a smoker. It was very obvious.

Having said all that. The fact that the graphic chip is the obvious culprit, witnessed by the machine running with the graphics disabled, this is most likely a case of the dreaded Nvidia failure. But, the smoke permeating the machine has given Sony (and Nvidia) and "out" on this.

Gary

 

You CANNOT blow that off with a can of air. The smoke/nicotine is very very sticky.

Gary

 

This is over a 11 month period, it wasn't smoked around constantly. I had to have a fan blowing in the vent 99% of the time because of how hot my PC got reguardless if I was smoking around it or not. I can see if you smoke around something for years and get build up but it's not going to happen over 11 months. It's dirty, there is residue but it could also be from the canned air I sprayed into my PC from time to time as well.

 

Gary. Do you see what he took pictures of? Pieces of metal. Wheres the motherboard in these pictures? He took pictures of parts that wouldn't HAVE any difference on the performance of my graphics card. He says the whole motherboard is dead, and it wasn't. I dont see any evidence in these pictures that the MB is dead as he states. I dont see nicotine on fans, or other important parts other then metal.

 

As a matter of fact there is no Corrosion on any part of that PC, it's ashes and dirt from seriously being on for 11+ months, rarely shut down. The fact is my laptop DIDNT BREAK BECAUSE OF THE RESIDUES OR ASHES, ITS BROKEN BECAUSE OF A FAULTY GRAPHICS CARD. I wanted help, I want you to see what this employee of Sony is doing. He can't just blame this for the reason my Graphics card melted out.

 

Sorry, but 11 months is more than enough time for the smoke to start to get sticky on every surface in the machine. Look at the "yellowing" in the second picture. That is not dirt, it is smoke, tar and nicotene. All of which are corrosive. Canned air does not leave ANY residue.

Gary

 

If this tar and nicotine residue is on those pieces, it is on everything else inside the machine including the motherboard. It may not be on the fans because they are constantly moving and the residue does not get an opportunity to settle on them as it does on a static surface. All of this is consistant with what I saw in repair over the years of having the store.

Gary

 

The ashes and dirt are no issue, the tar and nicotine from the smoke are. I think at the bottom line you are right, it is because of the faluty card. But because there are circumstances in play here that CAN exacerbate the issue, namely tar and nicotene residue preventing the proper heating outflow, then Sony has an "out" and they are going to use it. I'd like to help you, but I can't. No one can. You chose to expose the machine to cigarette smoke. That smoke left a damaging residue behind that without the Nvidia chip issue would have eventually caused failure of the machine anyway. The fact that Sony is now using that as an excuse to get around the real issue is something that I am afraid you are not going to be able to overcome. I am trying to explain the reality of the situation. It is not what you want to hear, I know that. But it is the reality.

Gary

 

Those pictures exactly describe the reason why I don't want that crap in my body. If it messes up a computer, imagine what it can do to your body

Anyway, I wouldn't have even mentioned smoking, just get it done under warranty.

 

He didn't, nor did he have to. They knew what was up the minute they opend the machine. If you have ever seen one like this you would understand. I have. The smell and residue is obvious. Nothing else causes this sort of yellow "scum" on the internal surfaces.

Gary