Hows the Costumer Service? Future SZ Owner.

I will be attending uni. next year and am wondering how the service is. If there are problems do they help or do they try to get out of it? Also hows the warranty and such. Thanks.

 

Service highly depends on the representative you get.

However, you can increase your chances of getting better costumer service by dressing as Batman when you call.

 

hahaha

i have a SZ780 and i absolutely love it. i had a bit of trouble with it, as i bought it downgraded to XP (much more stable OS), and the S1/S2 buttons didnt work on XP, so i contacted online support, where they chat to u. i found them very helpful, and spent sufficient time with me, and tried varies ways of fixing it. i was very pleased with this, and also with their vast Knowledge Base area, where the online analysts often point u to. after quite abit of trying they managed to solve my problem. im very satisfied with their service

 

Well, I guess I'll play devil's advocate.

In my experience Sony Computing have the worst phone support of any major OEM (with one notable exception - their Parts & Services team). I've had incompetent people on the phone. I've had sales people lie to me (when I asked questions that I already knew). I've actually had representatives refuse to honor the warranty for two units. They offer absolutely no help or assistance if you want to tweak/configure (your) hardware your way (instead of theirs). The hardware itself is actually quite nice but almost always overpriced through the official channels.

If you're willing to do most (if not all) of the footwork on your own then you *might* be happy with the brand. My friends and co-workers are usually surprised when I don't immediately recommend Sony (even though my notebook is on the table for all to see). In general those people wouldn't be able to deal with the ownership of one. For my (more technically inclined) friends/co-workers I feel more comfortable with a recommendation.

Main Issues:

- original media discs. Where are they? are you happy with a hidden partition taking up close to 10GB? I know I certainly wasn't. Back in the day Vaios used to come with a whole set of System AND Application recovery cds. Now we're told to burn our own. I can't tell you how many people I've seen get themselves into the position where they need to use the recovery discs but have never made one. How much do the discs really cost to manufacture? The support site will sell you them for around $10 but not everyone know that. There's absolutely no reason to not include them for the people that need them.

- pre-installed crap and bloatware. I'm sure some people think the semi-clean install guides were a godsend. NOTHING compares to a baseline of the OS that you install yourself.

- driver availability. the Sony Computing support site in my area would not offer XP drivers for one system. In the end I downloaded drivers from a Chinese site, off a Euro FTP site, and from a Korean site (after watching a two Japanese demo a working unit on YouTube). Some areas may be more supportive than others. North America is the absolute worst in support imo. Don't get me started with official support for Linux.

- graphic drivers. With all of my Vaios I have never seen them release an updated graphics driver. Not once - all you'll ever see is the initial driver that shipped with the computer. There are alternatives (LaptopVideo2Go, Omega, NBF, etc..) but boy was I impressed when my brother was able to download an updated Nvidia driver (for his Dell) directly from the OEM site.

- second rate citizen if you stray from Sony's path. The XP drivers available for the CR series don't offer full support for the hardware. It *mostly* works - but do you really want to hear that after shelling the money? Their agent on the phone replied to a question with "for full Microphone and Direct Play (the buttons on bottom) support you'll need to upgrade to Windows Vista" after the entire conversation centered around me installing XP because the applications that I use didn't run on Vista. Where on their support page does it tell you to disable power management on the third USB Root hub in order to get your built-in camera working in the TR series? It's stupid things like this. Be prepared to invest some time into researching and troubleshooting by yourself.

I hope I didn't scare you with that rant. I actually just picked up a SZ myself. Some quick thoughts: I really hate the keyboard (compared to some of the other models). The dedicated graphics card is mediocre and hampered by a smaller bus and slower memory. With every day applications the dedicated card runs hotter than when running the same applications with the integrated card. (I now only use it when I game). The keyboard gets warm but the bottom of the unit will get hot. If you can, I'd suggest waiting until they announce the new models so you compare the specs.

 

This is nothing new. Companies like HP, Lenovo, etc. are doing the same. Even Dell had previously for a period of time done the same thing with selling laptops without reinstallation discs.

 

It doesn't make it right. Imagine purchasing a retail copy of Vista and finding only a product key in the box. You're required to download an ISO (and burn it) before installation. What gives?

How much does a single blank dual layer disc cost to make? (or two for single layer drives). Peanuts. Yet why isnt the blank media included with your computer?

I haven't read the Windows Licensing terms in a while but at one point in time it referenced the physical media that accompanied the license. Consumers (as the end-user) may actually have a right to have them. There might be an OEM clause or loophole somewhere but I wonder if the OEMS (when pressed) can be forced into sending a copy of the physical media. After the admission price of owning a Vaio it's an insult that physical media (blank or otherwise) isn't included.

 

it doesnt make it right, true. but the point is, its nothing negative about sony. and just going off the point a bit, i bought a SZ780 last week, and i absolutely love it..the screen is gorgeous (best laptop LCD ive ever seen or used), performs great and battery lasts upto 5-6 hours. ive not tried phone support, so i cant comment. and i bought my computer downgraded to XP from Portable One, so they had the recovery DVDs made for me. im very happy with it, and i highly recommend it. if u take care of ur vaio, u wont even need support, its that good

 

Of course it doesn't make it right from our (consumers') point of view but most major manufacturers have been going that way since 2006 (I could be wrong on the date)...

No offense or anything along those lines. Since you're not happy with your Vaio, I'll suggest that you return it (while & if you still can) & just purchase another laptop from another company. Good luck.

 

I don't think anyone is in disagreement about the hardware. The OP was asking about customer service and support specifically. Please don't take my post as a slam against the SZ series as a whole. It isn't.

Yes, Portable One is a great outfit. I've purchased memory from them on several occasions. They value you as a customer and want your repeat business; that's why they were more than happy to provide the discs for you. Wouldn't it be nice to receive the same consideration from the manufacturer of your notebook? Yes, it would.

Well, you're assuming that I'm not satisfied with my purchase. I never said I wasn't satisfied overall. Though my list isn't comprehensive these are all items that a new user *should* be aware of when considering purchasing a VAIO (and most can be applied to other brands). Don't you agree?

The satisfaction that you get from your purchase (of a VAIO specifically) will most likely be proportional to the technical knowledge you currently have. Yes, you can always ask/pay someone to deal with these issues for you but my points were directed towards those users who would turn solely to Sony for support.

 

I have dealt with IBM support, Dell support and Sony support. Of the three, Sony has been the poorest.

I spent over an hour today on the phone with two Sony techs. The first one really didn't know his stuff. He used LogMeIn Rescue to take control of my VAIO, and then just hunted around menus rather aimlessly hoping to find a solution to the problem. There was nothing methodical about it, as he really lacked the skill or knowledge to diagnose the problem or to find a solution.

In the end that first tech had no solution, but said I should do two things:

1. disable User Account Control
2. do a complete reinstall from the Recovery partition.

Obviously #1 is a bad idea for a PC that will have Standard users and maybe Guests, as it would significantly reduce security. #2 would require a lot of work on my part to reinstall all user software and restore settings, files, etc. I asked him if he knew that a reinstall would solve the problem, or if he was just guessing because he had no specific solution. He admitted that he didn't know if the reinstall would fix it.

Telling users to reinstall, because you can't diagnose their problem, is a lazy cop out that wastes user time and in this case would not have solved the problem. So, I asked him to escalate me to a more senior tech, which he did.

The senior tech was better, as he clearly knew more about Vista and about how Sony's software is set up. He confirmed that it was Sony's own installation settings that were the problem, and so between us we decided on a workaround.

A regular user might not have been able or willing to question the first tech and to push for escalation. Such a user might have disabled the UAC, thus making the system more vulnerable, and done the reinstall thus wasting much time and then finding that the problem was the same after the reinstall.

 

I have had to solve all problems on my own with my son's support or these forums. Sony NO Support has not solved any yet.



Ken

 

IBM Thinkpad support was excellent. I used them several times both here and when travelling in Europe. I would recommend them to anyone. I don't know how they are since they were bought by Lenovo.