Is Sonys, product longevitity and lack of support a concern for you? Should it?

I bought a VAIO yesterday and am absolutely loving it so far. But the only concerns I have, since I constantly hear rumblings come up from users, and ones in the past...are lack of support if something were to go wrong. And how some peoples VAIOS just break down out of nowhere, anywhere from 2 months into using it or a year. LCDs breaking, cracking, hinges falling off, etc. This really worries me because this very well could be the worst combination against a customer. Something goes wrong and you cant get it fixed, so you are screwed however much money you paid for it.

So I would like to know what the longevitity is like for VAIOS. Do they require more maintenance since it tends to be more fragile than other makes?

Thanks

 

I'm on my 5th Sony computer, 3 desktops and the SZ makes my 2nd laptop. I've found them to be no more/less durable than any other make/model I've owned, from high-end T-series Thinkpads to Toshiba and Apple laptops, and from Gateway to IBM to Dells. Support.....meh, forget it with Sony and just about any other manufacturer out there today. They all outsource it to India anyways and if you are smart enough to have found this forum, you won't get any real help from support anyways. Pay the extended warranty and worst case scenario is you get an upgrade in 18 months if and when your PC goes kaput....Best Buy has done this twice for me, no questions and no hassles.

I'm fine with Sony's product. You get a lot of gee-wizardry for the money IMHO.

 

Eh, too late on the ext. warranty. Hey, you still get service from other brands. If say my LCD is going to go out in less than a year, or anything else, I want to be sure sony is going to replace it no questions asked. But from what I have read, they run and hide.

After seeing the screen on this baby and the keyboard, wow it is going to be very hard for me to return it.

 

this "run and hide" is only when you're out of the warranty. if it's still within the warranty/extended warranty, they should fix it. Unless you dropped it and crack the screen and such, the additional "accidental protection" on the extended warranty MAY cover this. I capitalize the "may" because it depends on the clause of what covers as "accidental", and what you tell the customer service people.
No other company will cover any non accidental damage if the warranty period is over. In addition, MOST electornics have 90 day warranty anyway.

So bottom line, get the extended warranty on laptops. It's still better then nothing and sorry. And understand the clauses on what's covered on the extended waranty, and understand what kinds of tamperings that may void the waranty.

If it's too lateto get the extended waranty, you might want to return it and get a new one with the extended waranty. And if it's a recent purchase (as in days) they might work out something to give you the extended waranty on the current laptop.

 

learning asus this is like your fourth near identical post

 

I will tell you that there is probably NO manufacturer out there that will replace an LCD or cracked hinge no questions asked... That is what their service centers are paid to do; find out if a failure is a result of a manufacturing defect or user abuse... Do yourself the favor and enjoy the unit and not focus necessarily on the "what if's"... Hopefully you may never have an issue and this concern would be for nothing... If you do have a problem, just make sure that you haven't created the problem before blaming the service center for not repairing or replacing your machine for an issue... Just my 2 cents...

Don

 

Some people just can't stop beating a dead horse, and enjoy their new laptops in silence.

 

I've owned quite a few laptops over the years, both work and personal. I've had a Dell, a few Compaqs, a Sony, a JVC (ASUS shell, JVC guts), a Sharp ... and maybe one or two others. Some have been great, some ****. Some decent features but bad build quality, others not so great in the looks department, but workhorses.

So to date I haven't found one brand better than the other. The SZ packs a lot of power and features for the money and Sony's dual core machines are IMHO fairly priced.

 

SO true. I used to think the warranties from Best Buy and Circuit City were worthless, until they fixed my last laptop and gave me a gift cert for another (actually the same laptop). Get the coverage and be done with it. Take care of your computer and enjoy it. I've heard horror stories from almost every company out there so you can't just blame Sony....

 

My absolute WORST experience with ANY laptop was with an IBM Thinkpad T-40. These were lauded as the best laptops you could buy at the time. I had the removable DVD drive fail not once, not twice but SIX times. I even went so far as to try and claim the lemon-law status on this. IBM would send me a replacement (it had the corporate warranty) but ONLY after each and every 'effin time I had to spend HOURS on support, going thru their stupid escalation program and doing all the same **** time and time again to get to the ONE person who could authorize a replacement drive be sent to me. SIX times!!!!!! Dell came in close second...the first Latitude I bought had to go thru 3 keyboard replacements. They would send a guy to my house to do it but again, had to go thru all kinds of monkey business to get them to honor that warranty. At least with my Best Buy warranties I'm dealing with a guy up the street from me who really doesn't care much about the type of problem...they just send them back to the manufacturer if you buy the replacement warranty. And they typically WILL cover accidental stuff as they don't drill you like the manufacturer would to try and get out of honoring the warranty. Their overall apathy actually works in your favor here.

 

I saw mack warranty going for $199 3 years. Any thoughts on this "Mack" Company?

 

As another followup, I had a Sony Vaio Pocket portable music player I bought in January '05. I bought the 2 year replacement plan warranty for $21.99 at time of purchase from the SonyStyle store. It started acting up recently, I opened a case, and I just found out today they're cutting me a check for the cost I paid (sans tax and such).

So the extended warranty can pay off. Sony's worked for me in this case.

 

For expensive materials such as laptops, extended warranty is highly recommended.
Bestbuy offered (pestering) me to get the extended warranty for my TV, which I basically said "hell no!"

 

alright i have 3 days if i were to get this ext. warranty. its $329cdn for 2yrs on top of the 1yr sony. So 3 years total. I paid $1200 for my laptop. Is it worth it? I find $329 bit stiff.

So what should I do? First I have to decide If im going to keep this Sony and sell my ASUS or refund the sony and keep the ASUS. Oh man I cant decide, its so hard. All I knwo is, I am absolutely in love with this VAIO. The screen rocks, nobody compares...the keyboard wow....the look wow....


So please give me advice and fast as it is crunch time for me right now.