Opnions on Sony Support?

Would anyone care to share their expierences with Sony when dealing with a faulty product?

My laptop is in repair for a fault in the hardware

 

Plenty of stories here pro and con - there is no real consensus and no real middle ground. It seems like people either have great experiences or really horrible ones. It'll also vary from country to country, too.

Best thing to do is do a search here to read experiences.

It might also help to know why are you asking.

 

I think that you could safely say... it depends.

It depends on what kind of warranty support you have.

It depends on what kind of failure you have.

It depends on where you live, possibly.

I bought a new Z from Best Buy just before Thanksgiving. On Jan 2nd, the system was in sleep mode and when I went to "awaken" it the screen was blank. I restarted it and got "Operating system not found". I checked the BIOS and it said I had no hard drive. I said, OhOh. Since it was late Saturday night and I don't work Sundays, I put the system aside and forgot iabout the best I could until Monday.

Monday (1/4) I pressed the On button and crossed my fingers/toes/arms/legs/eyes/etc.. The system came up and said Windows had shut dow...blahblahblah. Did a restore and everything worked fine. Used it lightly all day and no problems.

Tuesday (1/5) used it all day and early afternoon it froze then BSOD then :Opereating System Not Found", no hard drive, OhOhAgain. Called service. I got a very nice young lady who promptely agreed my drive was toast, checked my warranty and said I would get a call within forty-eight hours and a tech would come to my house to replace it. GREAT!

Wednesday (1/6) morning I got an email from Sony saying my part was out of stock (a plain vanilla 500 GB 5400 RPM 2.5" drive) and if I did not hear from someone within seven business days I should call a phone number. Bummer. Later the same day I got an automated phone call from Sony. My part was shipped and if I didn't receive a call by noon friday call them.

Thursday (1/7) I discovered that if I turn on the system and use it for a few hours and turn it off I only have to tell it to "Restart Windows Normally" and I can use it...for a while.

Friday (1/8) called them at two pm and got a less fluent support person and I said something to the affect that "I was told to call because nobody called me". Got a hard to undersatnd response something like "I'll look into it somebody will call you Monday or Tuesday" or at least that is what I want to believe he said. It could have been almost anything he really said.

Friday (1/15) I called the support number again since now it is seven business days past the time given in the email so I figure I am now at worst case. I get a different easier to understand but still less than fluent fellow rhat tells me the part is in transit and will be received by the tech on Monday the 18th. I got a little surly and asked what happened to the one that was shipped on the 6th...etc...bunch of bums...lousy service...finally calmed down and asked "so when will I get a call" within forty-eight hours. So Monday or Tuesday. Yes.

Wednesday (1/20) here I sit typing.

Why the bad service? I suspect because I live one hour from one major metro area and one and a half hours from another major metro area. I have onsite service so some guy has to drive here. I did customer support for twenty years it is no fun driving for a few hours to a service call...but we did it, I had customers that were three hours one way but that was a different time and different sized systems. I would gladly ship my system somewhere if it would get fixed. Right now I would give Sony a rating of one and they only get the one because the first girl was prompt efficient and pleasant. Since then...a zero..or less.

edit... forgot to mention: here I sit typing on my other computer. No call yet.

 

It really depends.

I had very good service - that was from Sony Germany.
(Battery died after 2 weeks for some reason)

 

My only contact with support was to order a replacement part. They would not help me find the part number, and once I found it myself by reading service manuals, they charged $13 for a single tiny rubber dot. Which they packed in huge amounts of bubble wrap (as if it could get damaged!) and shipped at five times the necessary cost.

Background: One of the feet had fallen off my Z because of inferior glue. This has happened to every Sony product I have owned, including laptops, TVs, PDAs and phones and hardly ever to any other brands. Normally, I can find the piece and glue it back on with real glue, but in this case, it was lost.

 

I've had fairly good experiences with the Sony Support.

I took in my FW to the E-Link Service Center (the closest authorized Sony Repair Center).

First time, I had some major light bleed between the screen and the bezel and it was hard to prove at first but I escalated the issue to the manager and managed to get him to replace the screen.

Second time, my right-click button stopped working. It was repaired but not replaced.

In total, the laptop has been in service for a month (2 weeks for each issue). I was kind of worried my FW would give out since the issue happened pretty close together close to the end of the warranty period, so I called Sony Support, explained my issues and extended my warranty by 90 days without questions. The guy just gave me a code I'd need to provide if I would take my FW to service during that grace period.

So, all in all, I gave it a 4 out of 5 (because I had to escalate the first issue and because they didn't replace the touchpad) but overall, not too bad.

 

If you're in the States, I'd say always start by calling after normal business hours so that you are directed to the Philippines call center -- superb techs that figured out a friend's computer issues when several stateside techs failed to unravel it.

For example, one does wonder in your case whether you have a failed hard drive or a problem in the electrical system. If the latter, swapping out a hard drive may not solve your issue and you will have been losing time...but anyway. The point is that the initial troubleshooting needs to be on target.

Secondly, always "escalate" when you feel that you've encountered a glitch: generally escalation helps dramatically. But again, do everything after hours so that you are escalating in the Philippines -- where the concept of service does not include shooting from the hip as much as it does in the States. The first level tech readily _chooses_ to escalate if s/he or you have the slightest hesitation about the issue.

Lastly, having on-site service is a more expensive level of service than the ship-in service, therefore you can always opt for the ship-in to San Diego where the techs will have a full lab to go over the laptop. (If you're having a noise issue, however, labs are not as quiet as your home so having the onsite tech verify your issue would be a good first step before a ship-in.) However, then you have to prepare the computer for transport, back up the drive, pray that Fed Ex doesn't lose it, etc. But you always have that option.

Good luck. Let us know what happens.

 

This would depend on the place you're situated in

If it's in Japan, you'll have to experience something else
If it's in Europe, you'll have to experience something else
Even if it's in Virgin Mega Store or Best Buy, you'll have to experience something else as well
And also if you are John or Ahmed or Sakura, you'll have to experience something else

That is my opinion

 

Just an update.

On the 20th a little after posting here, I called in again. Not sure where the tech support was but definately overseas. Anyway after explaining the current situation the tech bumped me up to level 2 or tier 2 or something support. The guy looked at my record a long time and figured out that the part (the drive) was still out of stock. The calls and emails had been from when orders were put in but it never actually shipped.

The tech suggested I send it to San Diego since they get the parts before the field techs. Next day I had a pre-paid box from Sony, packed it and it is sitting at FedEx in San Diego for Monday delivery.

I feel better about it being there than on-site anyway since I am a bit concerned that it could be the SATA circuitry or other motherbord circuitry that cased the issue (the drive now reports SMART errors so it is messed up regardless).

Bump my poll from 1 to 2+ and hopeful.

 

1, on account of them answering the phone with fewer options and faster than my ISP and my Bank. No more than that on account of them being ignorant, uninterested in assisting customers who have already bought a product, rude and obnoxious, and not trained well in the use or understanding of English.

 

My Sony service experience is now complete.

Despite the rocky parts after the initial contact, I am very happy with the service I received.

My Z was delivered to Sony on Monday the 25th. They didn't seem to get to it until Wednesday but when they did I received email confirmation and a very pleasant customer support rep. contacted me to verify the problem description and even asked it it had any other problems.

The repair was finished on Friday afternoon (replaced the drive and re-imaged it) and it was packed for shipping.

I expected to see it sometime Tuesday or Wednesday but surprise, it arrived at 10:30 AM Monday by FedEx Priority. So far it seems to be repaired and I am very pleased with the outcome and the responsiveness once I got past the "level 1" crew. Shipping it priority was that little extra that said they take customer satisfaction seriously.

I just now received a survey for my comments. They will get good marks. Overall I would say they earned a 3 to 4 on their service and it would have been a point higher if they could sort out their level 1 issues.

 

In terms of driver support Sony is absolutely terrible. There have been no real Sony Vaio FZ driver updates in over a year now despite Intel, Marvell Yukon and NVIDIA frequently bringing out new drivers for components of the FZ. It is just frustrating having to go around all the various component manufacturers website when Sony could do it for you and keep all the driver updates in one place.

I also had some trouble when my 8400GT graphics driver died. I took to Sony about 6 weeks before the NVIDIA card crapped out warning them that it was going to happen since I knew the fault existed (it was public knowledge at that point). So did nothing, gave it back to me, denied there was any trouble with the 8400GT and said it was my fault for not keeping it clean (which was a load of lies). 6 weeks later my FZ died because the 8400GT fried itself, I took to Sony and they replaced it. They admitted in part that I was right fixing my laptop but they tried to tell me that the8400GT cards in general were fine and that I was just unlucky. They did extend my warranty by a year. So basically they treated me like an idiot, when in this case I knew more than they died and then tried to call a customer negligent. I can't open up my laptop to clean it, it voids the warranty stupid.

Although overall I am happy with my FZ but I am not going to buy a Sony laptop again.

 

This seems very cryptic. Can you explain?

Cheers! - nojiri