Refurb Vaio Z 129 arrives pre-BROKEN

Such excitement and expectation!

FedEX just delivered my new Vaio Z 1290X with 256GB SSD and 1920 display.

I charged it and turned it on.

The right half of the display is entirely distorted! Vertical lines and what looks like a visual tear on the entire right bottom corner.
It's unusable.

Is this a user fix? Is it representative of Sony's commitment to quality?
I am prepared to ship this expensive but very light paperweight back on Monday and get a Macbook Air. This is so unacceptable. It sure seems that someone stuffed a broken unit back in a box and shipped it as refurbished expecting the purchaser--me--to send it in for the repair it should have had!

Any suggestions or comments on this? I am so disappointed....

Jeff

 

Could've been damaged in transit? Chill out, stuff breaks sometimes. Call Sony or whoever you purchased it from.

BTW, a macbook air could show up damaged too.

 

The box is perfect. No physical damage. Sony shipped this thing busted.

 

Still doesn't mean it wasn't dropped in transit. Either way you need to contact Sony.

 

I am waiting for a call back from Sony to see what they will do.

The box was well packed and had zero damage so damage from "dropping" is unlikely. More likely that someone returned the unit because it was broken and it was immediately turned around for sale as a refurbished unit with the expectation that the purchaser would wait through an extended repair process after having already paid for the unit. This is not an uncommon strategy from an economic standpoint although I will say that my refurb Lenovo several years arrived perfect.

This Vaio Z was also missing its noise canceling earbuds so I suspect that not much attention was given at least to this particular unit in "refurbishment".

I am waiting for a call back to see how Sony will respond and I will post their response. If they take pains to resolve this carefully they will have gained a strong advocate.

 

A box can take a significant impact without showing damage. You could throw that box off your roof and if it landed somewhat flat it would look fine still.

Refurbished units do go through a refurbishing process (think of the data liability if they didn't), but based on others' feedback here, Sony's process is far from perfect.

Anyhow good luck.

 

OP, my colleague had a similar experience. He returned the laptop and asked for a new one or his money back. Sony apologized big time. Well, end of story was that they did not have a similar 256GB model on stock and he got a 512GB one with everything else same config'ed as a replacement. Free, no premium to pay.

Calm down, it's just a computer. Give them a call and ask for a proper replacement. I bet they will come up with some gift for the inconvenience.

 

Happy to calm down eventually but right now I have wasted a day on this and Sony has not yet offered to "upgrade" me since they have no similar unit close enough in price and loadout. The current support person has offered a 5% discount on a newer, more current so more expensive unit with inferior processor and display but it does have a security chip and enhanced 2x2 WIFI antenna. I declined since I'm already giving up the HD display and agreeing to accept an i5 CPU. They are checking with their supervisor who has been unavailable....

Evidently Sony does not carefully check their refurbished units if they they have been returned for reasons other than function.

These are not inexpensive devices, are they--we may reasonably expect that Sony should get it right.

Hey it may still go well but the time invested has been appreciable.