I will never, EVER! buy from SONY again!!!!

I ordered a Z maxed out at $4500 (with various discounts).

One item I ordered was a privacy filter ~ $70. SONY's packer put it in a box too small for it -- and in order to make it fit -- *folded* 1/3 of it back on itself thereby permanently damaging it. (It is a stiff plastic that now has a permanent crease and will not lay flat.)

I called SONY immediately. They put me through a 45 minute harangue asking me all kinds of questions and trying to force me to say it was shipper damage when it was not. I am an attorney -- there is no way I would lie about that.

They also insisted that I commit to "working with the shipper" about the problems when it was not the shippers fault. The package arrived completely intact -- SONY packed the item in a box too small for it and broke it to make it fit!

They wanted me to be available to meet with a shipper representative. As I said, I am an attorney -- I bill at $400/hour -- Sony already cost me $300 of my time with the stupid phone call.

Then they said I had to pack up and bring the item to a Fed-ex depot -- they would not even pay for pick-up. Another $400 cost in my time for SONY's error!

Fortunately, Fed-ex delivers to my building at least once a day. So I only had to spend the time packing it up. (This is at my home -- so my secretary couldn't do it.)

Then the final kicker -- they would NOT send out a replacement until I provided them with the tracking number. Fed-ex doesn't do that when they pick -up -- the package was left with a note requesting a receipt or tracking number. As I don't handle these matters, I did not know the tracking number was already on the shipping label -- the one SONY sent me. So they should know it themselves.

I called Fed-EX and they said to print up the shipping label. It didn't expire for 12 more days.

Well, SONY does not let you do that. Once you've printed it up they block you from accessing the label again after 5 days -- which was after I found out all of this.

Fed-ex said they couldn't help me retrieve the tracking number.

I called SONY -- they still wanted the tracking number but had no idea how to get it.

Finally I discovered that one of the links in SONY's email would actually take me to a web page that not only had the tracking number but tracked the course of shipment. SONY had already received the item back!! -- there was proof of signature.

When I told them this -- they still asked me for the tracking # (the order number of the return wouldn't do.) Of course now I could give it to them.

It is now a week since I received the SONY-damaged item. The laptop is supposed to arrive today! I am leaving town this weekend for a long trip. I explained that to them -- their basic response was "tough"

What am I told -- well sending the replacement privacy filter -- which has no guarantee of not being pack in the same damaging manner -- is a level 2 escalation. And the request for a level 2 specialist to consider whether to send me a replacement takes 24 hours. and then -- the fastest they will send it out is 2 business days -- after it is packed again.

Today is Thursday -- the earliest it will arrive is the middle of next week -- after I am long gone.

Never! Never! will I order from SONY again!

And not only that, I am a law professor -- and literally yesterday, my Dean announced the school buying faculty laptops. AS I am one of the most knowledgeable about computers on the faculty I make a lot of recommendations (That is not a brag -- it's just most lawyers are phobic about anything to do with computers -- or numbers for that matter -- so it is not a high bar to be more knowledgeable than most of my colleagues.)

So since most faculty want a fully packed light laptop, the SONY Z was going to be one of my 2 recommendations (the other Alienware M11x R2 depending on how much of his or her faculty allowance, the person wanted to spend.)

I am on a faculty of over 50 --- I am definitely not recommending SONY after this.

Just imagine the thousands of dollars SONY's obstructionist behavior cost them.

How does anyone here even want to do business with them?

The only other time I ever had dealings with any online merchant as bad as this was a sleaze operation, whose ratings I did not check first. They sent me a damaged somewhat expensive item and it took me 6 weeks to get an RMA, A label and my refund. The place has notorious ratings -- but it is merely a reseller.

This is SONY and it behaves like a sleazy reseller selling items a fraction of the value of what I spent.

 

Wait, you're recommending Alienware to faculty? I thought the standard is Thinkpad and Apple notebooks.

If the campus has a computer store, they can serve as a buffer, so you can enjoy the laptop, they can deal with Sony's antics. I'm not condoning Sony's poor service quality, just suggesting an alternate route. Though that will drive the computer store people mad

 

Sounds like terrible service....but, really, as an attorney who "bills at $400/hr" you don't have an admin that can deal with these sorts of things for you? There's no IT team to purchase and support products for you at a university with a "faculty over 50"?

 

The M11x-R2 is not a professional notebook. The Dell Latitude line would serve faculty much better, while also keeping a professional appearance. As a student in Pre-Law, I can vouch that not one of my professors would be caught dead with an Alienware notebook. Meanwhile, the Z, maxed out options wise, is WORTH close to $4500, so it's not like you're handing Sony a large amount of profit. Also, having returned quite a few items myself, most companies require the return tracking address to verify shipping on another replacement item. That's common business practice. Honestly, I've not had any qualms with Sony's support. But I guess everyone gets that one rep that's having a bad day.

 

...an all-too familiar theme at Sony. Play really nice until payment has been received. Once you have the money: obfuscate, delay, convolute, distract, and obstruct. Only once you're sure you have irreparably angered the customer - and only then - provide mediocre service.

Been there. Done that.

 

I have to agree with XGX2007 here, Alienware products are aimed at the consumer gaming sedgement so it probably would look very odd in a field such as an University faculty. You probably want to provide them with business grade notebooks such as the Dell Vostro/Latitude line, HP Probook/Elitebook or the Lenovo ThinkPad. This isn't just based for professional appearance as XGX2007 mentioned but generally the build quality on those systems will be a lot more robust and easy to service compared to a consumer grade gaming notebook that probably changes its product lineup and parts every year or so.

 

I think you just lost all your credibility with the Alienware and the $400 an hour bullcrap.

From what I can tell, Sony made a mistake and sent a damaged item. Sony then required you to ship back the damaged item, and they would send a replacement. I don't see a problem.

 

I'm not judging either way, but it is a bit surprising an attorney with that kind of hourly rate has the time to type a (long) post here and would even consider an Alienware.

 

You know, if he/she had just ordered a new one the moment he/she saw the broken $70 privacy filter, he/she would have made it all back in 10-15 minutes of work.

Not saying Sony is not doing anything wrong, but yeah the whole post is kind of fishy.

 

WRT alienware, though I know the laptop is oriented towards gaming and I doubt any of my colleagues would be interested in that -- They want lightweight portables that will appeal to their children as well. The academic life is not like office life. Faculty do a lot of traveling - away visiting at other universities for a semester at a time, they spend the bulk of their time at home working there. The choices are different than for office workers.

My Sony purchase was a personal one. The University provides me with a fairly decent desktop -- and yes indeed, the IT department handles all that. But not personal purchases. You're on your own for that. You can't even take advantage of the exemption from state taxes that university purchases can.

And sadly, since my previous post -- we received an email countermanding the right to purchase our own laptop out of faculty funds. Apparantly, the higher ups won't allow it -- and indeed, everyone will have to go through the university and that means a very limited range of Dell computers at my university.

And I rather rant here where people understand such stupid frustrations as other posters on this thread have expressed. I use my laptop all the time -- not just for work --- and as most academics -- I do most of my work at home when I am not teaching. My teaching duties are minmal as most of my time is spent engaging in scholarship.

So dashing off a little ranting post relieves a lot of frustration. Very cost effective

But whatever...

It was the excessively long song and dance and hurdles to making things happen smoothly. They were * recording* my answers to their string of questions to legally bind me and trying to force me to say that it was the shippers fault.

I had no problem with packing up the damaged one and having a shipper come and pick it up. But Sony shifted the burden to me to do all the work when it was their fault. And then they made it difficult for me to even follwo their instructions.

And I have dealt with plenty of computer companies in my time. I've been purchasing laptops for nearly 20 years. I have never had tratment like this. but of course, I've never purchased from SONY.

I wonder what will happen if there is any problem with the actual laptop.

I am really close to canceling the purchase -- given what some posters say here.

 

Here's to hoping that your laptop is flawless! I just recently got a Z myself, and at just under $2000 it has been my most expensive laptop purchase ever, as well as my first Vaio. So I was really anxious before I got it, as I just got done dealing with a lemon from Gateway.

Thankfully, my unit has been a joy to use thusfar, and has met all expectations of how slick this piece of hardware is.

And wow I did not know that "privacy filters" were so expensive. Those are just made to restrict a screen's viewing angles, right? Well the screen, while having a nice contrast ratio, is still a tn panel and thus viewing angles aren't exactly a strong point to begin with.

 

I guess one can get a lemon from any company.

My Asus z70va came with a bad screen and the reseller tried to pawn off on me one of Asus' defective screens. The reseller went out of business and ASUS really stepped up to the plate and replaced the screen and some other items as well as throw in a new battery for free.

When I needed one last repair, however, when it came back - it was clear the tech person had stripped it of all the upgrades. Didn't even bother to install the operating system. I couldn't even turn it on. I don't even think I got my own unit back -- just the case with junk installed inside.

Then ASUS refused to take care of it. And since then I've heard lousy things about their customer service.

I guess the customer service can go up and down in quality in any company.

But the thing about SONY is that they have "stall" built into their customer service. I don't see how they get away with the prices they charge and not develop a terrible reputation.

But I am glad to hear, madmook, that you are enjoying your Z. So many people who own one rave about it.

I got the privacy filter because I work while traveling on planes a lot and I have to be concerned about confidentiality. I must admit, however, that a "tn panel" is beyond my expertise -- but it sounds like it will help prevent prying eyes.

 

All companies have stall built into their customer service to protect themselves. I'm no lawyer but I do work admin at a law firm and I find it somewhat ironic that this point is even being made by anyone involved in legal services on a day to day basis because the casework we push through is always slow, expensive and exhaustive, as you well know. We have High Court actions that have been going since the mid 90s and they still haven't got a trial date.

Ultimately you are going to get what you wanted in as timely a fashion as possible within the myriad procedures one must go through when a dispute comes down to 'he said she said'. Its a shame you won't have your privacy filter in time for your business trip but its not the end of the world. You can improvise even if it is building a makeshift fort of national geographics and time magazines around your screen, or bagging a window seat and angling the screen away from the person next to you. You know the drill so I feel like I must be stupid or missing something to have to explain this to you.

You can't just call and expect them to write off the cost of replacement right there and then until it is proven they were actually at fault. I have been caught in the dispute between a retailer and their carrier over music hardware that cost alot more than 70 bucks (nearly 1500 bucks) and the dispute lasted alot longer than a few days (it went unresolved for nearly 4 months). And it hurt alot because I wasn't earning 400 bucks an hour. I was on minimum wage at the time.

And you know what? I did get angry about being stuck in the middle of a legal standoff that I had nothing to do with but I never harangued anyone on the phone because its pointless. Just like some unhappy/angry client calls (we call them 'crossies') asking for his lawyer and you don't want to speak to them so your receptionist gets an earful after making up some terrible excuse for why you can't take the call (s/hes in a meeting, s/hes on a call, s/hes at a closing). If you ever practiced you must have seen or done this before.

And that is why I am so confused that you chose to smash a minimum wage customer service representative on the phone and post about it here with what appears to be complete disregard for all the things said minimum wage Sony rep has to prove to his manager when a crossy calls. And the long list of guidelines and procedures, both legal and organisational he has to adhere to, has to run by his superiors in to write off parts as 'damaged in transit' or get fired.

I'm not saying you don't have a right to be unhappy with the service. I'm saying that posting about it here, haranguing an anonymous and 99% of the time completely innocent rep on the phone is not the right way.

If you want to make a point, you will make a much more effective one by cancelling your Z series order and denying Sony 4500 bucks.

 

It is Sony's way to handle this kind of things.
In my opinion a company selling premium devices for premium prices should simply send out a new protective film right away.
It is not something worth that fighting.

My experience for example with Dell is: You complain, they fix. At least as a business consumer.

 

I agree with all of your post except the very last sentence (quoted above). Because Sony doesn't employ data mining experts, and no-one in a position to change things will ever know about the correlation between cancellations of expensive orders and how smooth sales support is from a customer's point of view.

Yes, you can vote with your wallet, but it's more likely to go into aggregated statistics dumbed down to where even an MBA can understand them. If enough people do the exact same thing for the exact same reason, it will convey the message that high end Zs don't sell as well as expected on the US market. The net result is unlikely to be better service, but fewer high-end options on the US market, a trend that has already started.

My advice to the original poster is to do whatever will make your job get done most efficiently and reliably. Asus and Sony seem like odd choices for pro business, but there may of course be specific requirements (like weight quotas) that make the Z a player, and outweigh factors like lack of TPM security chips in the US models, non-standard HDs you can't replace while on the road, no fault tolerance, the port replicator missing multi-monitor support, no way to get a US model without a camera...
For that kind of use, I'd choose a Lenovo myself, but for home use, my Z is nice. It doesn't crush my lap, and is fast enough for most things.

 

I'm using the Z at work every day and run many VM's on it. Most of my collegues have a dell and they all want my vaio . There's no dell which meets the specs of the Z.
And for the support: all my collegues complain on the support of dell; in my experience , vaio support is far better compared to Dell or HP.

 

I know that customers service is bad, but use the PC and judge them by that too. I would look at the entire picture, not one part only.

How good the actual product is, says a lot about the manufacturer. I also bought the maxxed out system, and I think its amazing.
Take that into your considerations.

Btw the alienware choice is HILARIOUS, I think thinkpads would have been better or even asus UL series, but alienware?

 

Yeah I got to say this guy does not have a whole lot of credibility with me. I am not going to say he is lying but I feel his story is exaggerated. The privacy filter was poorly packaged, that I can not question. Sony customer support can be terrible, that I can not question. The rest of your tale seems a bit crazy.

The best choices for business are HP, Dell and Lenovo. I typically would not recommend the first two to consumers but to medium to large businesses I would. Business notebooks in general are more robust and business support is generally superior.

Specifically business customers do not need a small gaming notebook. I doubt anyone in a law firm would be use them for gaming. Those who did have gaming as a hobby would have enough money to have their own gaming system, whether that be console or PC. The form factor of Alienware machines just is not practical. It would be too thick and heavy plus for many of your firms employees it may have a screen that is too small. I would pick a manufacturer and then give them a range of options. The Vostro series of notebooks from Dell with the 3300, 3500, 3700 is an example. Another would be to offer T and X series Lenovo Thinkpads. You could turn to Toshiba Porteges or Sony Vaios if you want to class things up a notch, to reflect the image your firm may wish to portray with clients. On that note, Alienwares would have an entirely opposite effect.

 

all of the rant is actually about the folding privacy filter :/

 

I didn't "smash the clerk" I know it is not the clerk's fault, it is SONY's fault.

That's why I took my "rant" out here in a post rather than on the clerk. There is a review ofter the call and I made it really clear that the clerk did excellently -- it was SONYs procedures that were the problem.

And yes -- you are absolutely right -- they ran through a script I found outrageous and frankly cooercive.

And no -- I have never encountered that before and I am more than a little stunned that SONY is like that. But I guess I was just lucky.

Beleive me -- if it weren't for the rave reviews I am reading here and elsewhwer that is exactly what I would do. Wait until you see my next post to see what happened next.

Agreed!

You have misread the issue -- it is not the privacy filter -- it is SONY's handling of a customer who just spent $4500 to aviod replacing a privacy filter that SONY damaged.

And it was not "bent" the fold is permanent and renders the filter unusable.

SO here is what happened next!

I was promised on Thursday August 19th that 2nd level escalation would get back to me about sending a replacement within 24 hours. They took my phone #.

2nd escalation never called.

And instead I received -- wait for it-- another RMA to return the privacy filter!!!!

I just spoke to customer care today. They said there is nothing they can do but send emails, that they are not responsible for this.

I have no number to contact but I do have a way to complain -- send an email to their complaint department.
A lot of good that will do.

The representative said he would send me an RMA to return everythign if I want.

I wish the people who rave about this item weren't raving so much. It prevents me from sending it back.

But I am close to the end of my rope. I must admit my short fuse is because I am dealing with a lot of extremely stressful and somewhat dire situations elsewhere and I have very litle in the way of reserves. Theast thing I need right now is to be dealing with jerk of a company.

But I also feel uncomfortable with being put in a position of either being forced to lie or be stuck with a damaged item. And SONYs series of questions they make you go through force you to lie if it is SONYs fault.

The phone call was recorded and I did not lie -- so I don't know what the initial clerk did. But she must have done something because I did get the first RMA rather promptly (that is, for a heavy-handed bureacracy)

I would say SONY has cost me about 7 hours total in time -- not to mention having to deal with the emotional frustration.

But ranting here helps

 

Surely that very fact is testimony to the quality of their product, or its appeal to a niche market.

From the sounds of it, Sony can't send out a new filter until there is confirmation you've sent the old filter back to them. That, and the rest of what you've described (including trying to blame the shipping company), smacks of Sony protecting themselves from the people out there who will try and fraud them, and seems pretty standard. Honest people like yourself get caught up in the admin, which is unfortunate.

No matter what you do, that new privacy filter isn't going to reach you any faster, nor will Sony revamp its customer service. Unless a lot of people complain about the mediocre CS, I bet it the complaints just go into a "pain in the butt customer" folder and get shelved. If it were me, and the situation was causing me the emotional distress it is causing you, I'd take the above into consideration and push for a discount on the filter and let it go at that. Otherwise you are bringing down a lot of stress on yourself that isn't going to really have an outcome - principle isn't always worth stress. Best of luck for a satisfactory outcome.

 

Justitia,

Thanks for the data point regarding Sony customer service, but please don't get carried away. Save your energy for something more important than a $70 laptop accessory. Yeah, it's annoying that Sony couldn't pack it correctly and then didn't want to believe you when you told them it wasn't packed correctly. But you have a working computer, and you did get an RMA to send the bent filter back. So enjoy your new computer, send the filter back, wait a week or two to get a new filter, and go on with life. This is really a minor inconvenience/annoyance and not something worth getting stressed and emotional about.

Also, keep in mind that Sony probably sends out hundreds of accessories a day and probably has shipped a lot of privacy filters before without problems, and when things arrive damaged it's usually the carrier's fault. I don't think they are tying to be unethical. They are probably inclined to trust their own packing & shipping people more than the carrier, and their procedures are designed to address the most common or most likely problems first. It's obvious to you that it wasn't the carrier's fault because you've inspected the item. But to them it's an atypical case.

 

Wow. All that over a filter. Think if you had been simple and direct with them a new one would have been sent out - after all you held all the cards.

Instead, creating a big fuss and arguing led to an antiquated situation. Not surprising you ended up going the long way around. This isn't a Sony situation, it's a typical life situation.

Your earnings are irrelevant - your not going to win any cases that way - makes you easy to read too.

Think first and act calmy, makes you stronger and get the job done effectively and efficiently.

 

I agree with Justitia, the explanation may not have come acrossed as she intended however.

I cant see how Sony can justify this much hassle over such a small piece, particularly when it was part of a much larger order.

In respect to the Alienware vs Sony. Both laptops fit a certain set of criteria. They both are very small, have high end graphics performance, look good and have a decent processor. I don't why people say its a retarded purchase. The Lenovo t400 series is a little larger but is a little sluggish graphics wise.
Apple.... well don't get me started on them.
And yes Im in academia as well, so I can understand some of what Justitia is saying and understand her reasoning. Sony Vaio Z are quite popular in academic circles here, mainly due to the size and performance.

 

Ok guys, I'm closing this thread off since it is heading downhill. Feel free to start a new thread if your question/concern was not answered . . .