Need Advice on Sony SZ4 warranty replacement, Z laptop?

I own a SZ460N that I purchased about 3 years ago from Sonystyle along with a 4 year extended warranty. I took my laptop into a Sonystyle for repair on 12/08/2010. The laptop had a lot of issues, overheating, random shutting down, loose hinges, stuck trackpad and letters, completely dead battery, loud noises when/if running etc. The store called me to pick up my laptop about three weeks later.

While doing my scan at the store, I immediately noticed that the screen was beginning to disintegrate on the upper left corner so I sent it right back for repairs. This was about the 2nd week of Jan. I finally managed to get a hold of Sony Repair today and have been informed that my computer is not replaceable so they are offering me a warranty buy back of about $700 along with the lap top as is.

Thing is, I am a student with a programming class this quarter which started on the 3rd, and have been struggling for 2 months without my laptop. To add to that, I bought the laptop for about $2200 before taxes. I would much rather they replace the laptop since I read that they discontinued the SZ460N because it was a faulty model in the first place.

I feel that the problems I have incurred with the laptop are not my fault. I invested a significant amount on what I thought was a quality product and I would just like to see Sony stand by that. I should also mention that they would not replace my faulty/dead battery, which I have had issues with from day one because it is not covered by the warranty. So on top of replacing the screen that got damaged in their care, I would need to buy another battery. Any thoughts on how I should proceed to get a replacement? Any thoughts, advice, assistance with this would be really appreciated.

 

I can chime in on the battery issue, afaik it is pretty standard practice in consumer electronics that the batteries are not covered after one year, regardless of whether you have extended warranty or not.

 

I can understand and respect that, I am just calculating the cost of replacing the battery and screen against the $700 warranty buy back, versus them replacing my laptop which would be preferable to me.

 

afaik it is pretty standard practice in consumer electronics that the batteries are not covered after one year, regardless of whether you have extended warranty or not.

My experience would suggest otherwise. In the past, I've owned both Apple and Lenovo laptops that were covered by an extended warranty. In each case, they replaced failing batteries without any question.

 

This laptop is about four years old. Four years can be the normal life span of a laptop. I don't think that the offer sounds unreasonable because your laptop is pretty old at this point. If you put that on ebay in perfect working order you probably wouldn't get $400 for it.
I can though see your point as well.
May be check the Sony refurb store for a refurb VGN-Z.
You could also put money to it and get a Vaio S.

 

chikidee, you probably wouldn't like what I'm going to say but I personally would go with Rachel's suggestion. That is to take that $700 & add a couple of hundred bucks (about the price of a new original Sony SZ battery) or so to it & buy a nicely config VAIO S notebook as its replacement.

However, you might want to try & get them to replace your faulty VAIO SZ with a refurb VAIO VGN-Z series notebook or something. In the worst case, I think you might be able to convince them to replace the faulty notebook with a new VAIO S notebook.

Good luck.

 

I would suggest taking the buyout, but I would ask them for a 10% discount on a new computer and a free extended warranty. Be nice and let them know how much you liked their product and brand but you paid x amount for the computer and will need to buy another one and want to buy a sony. Basically you are going to give their money back to them. Ask for at least 2 more things and meet them in between. Plus you still have your old laptop. You can get a good laptop for $1000 from sony. I would go for performance since you are programming.

I was just thinking that I remember reading that the extended warranty contract will be satisfied up to the price you paid for it. So if previous repair cost is x amount they would subtract x from price you paid. Read your contract's fine print. If you work with the store manager he can give you some type of store discount. Don't let them off easy....I have had a heck of a time getting my FZ-4000 repaired and just went out of warranty and I have another problem and first thing they tell me is it is out of warranty. I had Accident insurance and I wish I would have just thrown it down the stairs and got a replacement, but my conscious wouldn't let me.

Good Luck and Let us know what happens.

 

By the way, I didn't know that one is allowed to bring in the notebook (those that were bought a few years ago when the Sony Backstage service program wasn't available then) to a SonyStyle store for service. I thought they would make you call up the Sony (ServiceNet) Extended Service line to request for service....

 

$700 is actually a darn good buy back offer for a 4+ year old system.

As mentioned, take the offer, ask for a 10% discount, or wait for one, and get you a shiny new one for almost nothing.