Sony VGN-BX570B

Just a warning to all that might want to buy this Sony laptop.

We bought two VGN-BX570B laptops and they were assigned to two of my employees. One of those employees used the laptop for about 3 months until the hinge on the laptop seized and the lcd case surrounding the hinge spread apart and the screw holding the LCD to that hinge broke. Obviously this is a hardware failure and should be covered under its warranty. Boy, was I wrong. Not one week later my second employee reported to me that his laptop (exact same as the first) had a hinge sieze and the case surrounding the LCD broke. "No problem, we will just send that one into Sony just like we did the first one." So I called Sony to find out what the status of the first laptop is. I was told that it was on hold pending parts replacement payment. "What? This should be under warranty." "We don't warranty hardware damage and our engineers have deemed this laptop hinge breaking as being done by the user which is not covered." I was livid. It's obvious this is a hardware flaw. If it wasn't apperant before the second laptop broke, it sure should be now. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told by the technician, "No". I don't understand "No". Why would I, the paying customer, be told "No"? I was livid again! This kind of customer service is rediculous. Here is where it gets even better. So I called Sony support to report the second laptop breaking and after talking to the technician, I find out that not only are the parts under warranty and that the flaw is obviously a hardware issue, that the laptop is covered under an onsite warranty. "You mean I didn't have to have my employee sit on his butt for 3 weeks while Sony figures out what to do with this laptop?" I will never be buying Sony equipment again.

 

Wow..that's nuts. I haven't had to deal with Sony tech support for my notebook yet, but had to once with a television and had a similar experience.

A lot of companies have customer/tech support like this though, Sony might be slightly worse, but they're certainly not one of a kind.

 

Which is why you start at Teir 2 support everytime, and make sure you look at the documentation that comes with your notebook. All of the BX's have a 1 year onsite warranty, and for the most part I've heard good things about the tier 2 support, and awful stuff about their tier 1 consumer support.

 

How do you go straight to tier 2 support though?

 

Here's the number. I found it on their B2B website a while back and made sure to keep it. 888.476.6938

 

I'm won't be surprised if the hinges break again after another 3 months.

 

I've had my BX for close to 9 months and not had a problem with it, and I can tell you the hinges work just great on mine. Way to be positive jsis.