SZ230 Power Problem

Update on March 28th

I finally received a brand new SZ450 yesterday. Yes, brand new SZ450! I really like thin LCA and the carbon-fiber casing.

Hello, Vaio users!

I am getting a little bit frustrated with my Vaio. I have a 8 month old SZ230P which I have sent to Sony Service center last Friday. It looks like they haven't checked my Vaio yet. Everytime, I talk to the service representative, I am hearing very different story from each of them. As a Vaio Enthusiast, I am really disappointed with their service quality so far.

Here is my story. My Vaio was fixed twice since the purchase for various prolbem such as no sound and no video. Since I had the in-home service plan, a technitian came to my house and replace pretty much every part so far. New speaker, no board, new LCD. While I have sound and video working, I have a new problem. The notebook is shutting off by itself. I was able to find very old article( http://www.physik.uni-freiburg.de/~zwerger/cip/Vaio/indexeng.htm) on the internet about very similar problem, but it was on older model. According to that article, the power shut off is caused by overheat of the processor. I am not sure if it's the same problem or not.

Does anybody have the similar problem with your SZs? Hope to hear from you.

 

(7 days since I shipped my notebook)
I like to share my horror story on my SZ230 with you.

Due to the power problem described above, I have sent my SZ230 to Sony Service Center using the box and label provided by Sony. I sent it out on Feb 16th vis Fedex Express. It was delivered to the Service center is Memphis, TN on 19th. Because of the President's Day holiday, it was assigned to tech on 20th.

Once I found out that it was delivered to the Service Center, I started to check the status on the Interent( www.sony.com/repair) However, it was showing that the product has not been received(It still say that) After talking to the support agent on Feb 20th, I found out that the web site only shows the status of repair which were sent to San Diego.

Anyway, I had to spend all most an hour talking to the support agent to find out what's going on, I have decided to call back next day. On 21th, I called the same number shown on the internet and then had to explain the support agent whole situation again since they didn't have update in the system and finally they transferred me to the Service Center. When I was getting to connected, I thought I was finally getting somewhere. However I was very wrong.

When I finally got connected to "Do***as" who is at the Service Center, he told me the exact same information. "It's assigned to the tech on 20th." Since it has been already two days, I asked him if he could find out further. Of course the answer was "Sorry, I can't"

So I decided to call back next day. On 22nd, I had to go through exact same process. I got conntect to "Do***as" again. Of course, no update. He is telling me that I should call back next Wednesday since the turn around time is 7~10 Business days, so I told him that I like to find out the status first before I get my notebook back. He still told me that I should call back next week since there is no update now. So I hung up and call the customer service to file a complaints, but it doesn't look like Sony has any Customer support team for this kind of issue at all.

Today, I called Sony again and explained the whole story again This time, I refused to get transferred to Service Center because I knew I will be hearing the exact same thing. Instead, I asked for the Supervisor. After waiting other 10 minutes, I was able to talk to the Supervisor. However, he wasn't that much help either since he was telling me to call back next Tuesdays OK, it's one day earlier than what Doug told me. I guess I can call this a progress

I have heard many horror stories on Sony Services, but I never imagined that I could go through one by myself. I guess my luck on Vaio kind of worn out after going through too many of them

 

(10 days since I shipped my notebook)
This is getting really ridiculous now. When I called Sony to find out the current status, I was told that it’s being transferred to San Diego for the evaluation and it will take another 7~10 business. It has been already 10 days since I shipped my notebook and I have to wait another two weeks.

 

I can understand the frustration with everything thus far as well as the lack of communication from Sony...

One question I have is (and don't take this in a bad way) since you have an SZ450 as well, are you in a position to use it instead of waiting for the SZ230 to get back? Not a solution to crappy service, but at least you won't suffer productivity wise.

Don

 

Wow. Unacceptable for certain. Especially with the home service paid for. I must say this sounds unusual though. I do not know that I have heard of 3 week turnarounds. To Sony's credit, mine have all been around 5 days. And tat has been from both Southern Cal and DC. Keep us posted on this one.

 

I just received SZ450 today and setting it up right now. Yes, SZ450 will ease my pain a bit, but I still have to share it with my wife

In addition, it's not an excuse for Sony's poor service at all as you said.

 

I agree that it's very unusual. With my 7 year experience with Vaio, I was always a happy Vaio user. Since this is THE FIRST TIME to get any kind of repair, this makes me even more frustrated

 

(13 days since I shipped my notebook)
I thought I had some hope when I talked to one of the supervisor who ensured me that someone from the service center will call me and let me know what's going on.
Guess what nobody called me. I had to call Sony again. This time I was transferred to Ba**y(CZ4N) at the Customer Relations Dept. However, I got the same answer from him. I have to wait until the technician take a look at my machine. My question is what they have been doing last two weeks? Of course, they had to send my machine to Memphis at the first place for some reason and then San Diego for the evaluation.
And again, he told me talk to service center for any further information. It looked like Customer Relations Dept didn't really care about the inconvenience the customer have to go through.
So I called again and asked to be transferred to Service center again. Guess whom I ended up with. It was that Do***as(G52L) again who recognized me and call me by my first name. Of course, he told the same old story. It got assigned to tech today and I should wait another day or two. So I asked him why nobody from Service center gave me a call today with the status. His answer was there was nothing to update so nobody called me. I was very surprised to hear this since it's one of the worst excuse in my opinion. They have had my machine for over a week now and they have nothing to update me even after one of the supervisor promised me that someone will call me.

Anyway, I filed a complaints to BBB since I don't see any chance of Sony actively resolving this situation.

 

(14 days since I shipped my notebook)
Again, I called the service center today hoping that I could get un update on my SZ. Of course, they still haven't looked at it yet. If I remember it correctly, Do***as told me yesterday that technician is looking at it yesterday. It turns out that it was just in the que of many other notebooks.
I have asked to talk to Supervisor and of course they said they can't do that.
And again, I have been told to check back next Monday or Tuesday.

 

How many calories have you burned with this? It sure sounds like you keep getting the run around.

On a lighter note, when I was a Sales Manager for CompUSA a year ago, Toshiba was telling us to tell customers who bring in their PCs for service that it would take 6 weeks minimum. This lasted a couple of months... I hope this makes you feel somewhat better at this point... It could be worse...

Don

Don

 

Yes, it's true that I am wasting quite a energy on this.
However, I really can't accept the quality of service I am getting from Sony.
If I haven't spent extra $300 for Sony extended warranty and it was the first time I send in the machine for the service, maybe I could have been able to live with it.

 

(20 days since I shipped my notebook)
I finally got my notebook back today. At the same, I got the e-mail from them this morning that they have received my notebook at the service center for the repair and the postcard which is asking for the feedback on the service. :S You can imagine what my feedback would look like.

Anyway, it's running fine now. According to Sony, there was gap between the CPU and heatsink which made the CPU overheat and shut-off by itself. I hope that this really resolved the problem.

 

Guess what... I got a call from Sony Corp today. This person told me that he is calling regarding my complaints to BBB. He apologized for the inconvenience I have experienced and asked me if I have got my notebook back. In addition, he asked me if there is anything Sony could do to make me happy.
Since I already got my notebook back, I wasn't expecting this at all. Of course, this made me feel good. I told him that I want either the refund of my extended coverage or the replacement of my notebook. He said I can choose one I like the most. I told him that I want my notebook replaced. He said someone from the Service center will call me and arrange the replacement soon.
By looking at others' experience, this would take a while, but at least it's good to know that my voice was heard by Sony.

 

Make sure you make special little marks, cuts, INSIDE the laptop. Ones only you can remember are there.

I have sent something into Dell before on the basis they would "exchange" my XPS notebook.

Found out all they did was replace the keyboard and some other "new" parts

but the basic idea being I still had the SAME notebook as before.

TRUST ME: Make little marks. Take pictures. When I confronted Dell with this

evidence I got a $700 coupon from them. And an actual new exchanged XPS.

 

I will keep that in mind 
BTW, I got the shipping box from Sony today. I was expecting to get the call first before I send my machine. So I called the call cetner to find out and as usual nobody at the call center knows what's going on. 

 

I knew Sony wouldn't replace my machine easily, but I was hoping it happens.

Today, I found out that it was all big lie by someone from Sony Corp. He never pass that message to Sony Service nor Customer Support. I got the box from Sony the other day without any explanation. Today, I was told that there was no explanation in my record about the replacement. If I send in my machine for another evaluation, they could consider it(I bet this would take another two weeks at least) I told Sony Tier 2 support that I don't want to do that and they told me that they can't do anything.

I just can't believe this is happening again I am not quite sure if I ever want to buy Sony again.

 

Update on March 16th

Now, they are saying, someone in the "Replacement Dept" will call me in two or three business days to arrange my replacement which is exactly same as what I heard last Friday(March 9th).
Should I run a poll on this? Who does think that I will actually get a replacement

 

Update on March 23rd

After another series of calls to Sony, I finally got a call from Sony today that they are ordering new SZ450(which I have requested) today and I should be getting it by next Wednesday. BTW, I have sent my SZ230 to Sony yesterday after agreeing on SZ450 as a replacement with Sony.

 

Great to hear a good ending to all your troubles. However, everyone here in this forum are going give you a "little trouble" by having you write us a review of your new SZ450! Just kidding.

 

Update on March 28th

I finally received a brand new SZ450 yesterday. Yes, brand new VGN-SZ450N! I really like thin LCA and the carbon-fiber casing.

 

hello,it's really nice to see you have a happy ending i'm also interest of the SZ450,did you got the Premium Series??how do you rate this machine????can i have a few image of the carbon fiber casting???should i buy it from sonystyle or bestbuy???and which Warranty plan should i get????(that's quite a lot plan to choose)thanks for your help!!!!!

 

Hello west!

Thanks for your post!

Here are some answers for your question.
1. did you got the Premium Series?? Yes, I got the Premium Series. I believe all SZ450 are premium series.
2. how do you rate this machine???? It's a nice machine, but I am not sure it's the best machine for Vista. I found it kind of slow even compared to my MacBook Pro running Vista on Boomcamp. It got only 3.2 rating on Vista Windows Experience Index because of the low score for gaming graphsics while my MacBook Pro has 4.5 rating.
3. should i buy it from sonystyle or bestbuy??? I don't think you can find SZ450 at bestbuy. You should check out online stores or place a special order at Sonystyle.
4. which Warranty plan should i get??? My experience with warranty plan is not that great. I believe some credit card provide the extended coverage for free. Why pay extra if you could get it for free You should check with you credit card for the eligibility of such a plan.

I hope this helps!