Sony Vaio Z lemon and Sony Care extended warrantee?

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had experience with Sony Care extended warrantees and the Vaio Z. I purchased my Z series laptop last September, and have had three issues with it. First the blue ray burner failed, then the screen failed, and then the mouse. I kept using it since I needed it, first without the blueray, then with an external monitor and then brought it in when the mouse failed.
I never went anywhere with this laptop except in the house and took good care as one would with anything worth 3.5K. (It's top of the line custom). I brought it in for service early this month and then deviced to buy the 2 year extended warantee for $450 (w/ tax I'm in Canada).
In the extended warantee it says that if repairs take more than 30 calendar days, they will replace it with the equivalent model. It is now getting close, so I called Sony Care and asked what the procedure was.
They said they do not automatically replace it but launch an investigation! They say read the fine print on the contract.
I did, and both in the advertising pitch and the fine print it says "If repairs take more than 30 calendar days, a replacement model of equivalent specifications is guaranteed."
I am pretty sure it will go past the 30 days since the part is not in stock in canada or the US. Getting it from Japan takes 15 days just for shipping by express since the broker is really not efficient (I know it took longer than that for the shipment to be cleared by the Sony broker when I got it.)
So, have you had any experience with this?
What if after 30 days they tell me it has been shipped and will be there in a "few days"? I suppose I can insist on it and site breach of contract on their part even if it is in shipping somewhere.
Should I get a lawyers letter and send it to them on day 31 (I have lawyers in the family so this is no issue for me).?

I'm pretty disappointed in the durability of my unit, and even more so at SOny care (getting the care contract was another difficult thing...)

Thanks

 

I am so sorry to hear about this - all the more so because there are so many stories like it posted all over Sony forums (see this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...poor-sony-customer-service-screen-issues.html from a writer who has had his own bad experiences and is planning to publish a story about it). I know that the bad experiences are disproportionately reported on the threads, but there are just too darn many about Sony not honoring their warranties and even that they have fine print which gets them out of obligations that most manufacturers honor.

Best of luck to you and do what you can to demand your rights. The one downside of demanding a replacement: the language about an "equivalent model" probably gives them a great deal of latitude with respect to the term "equivalent;" who is to determine what is "equivalent?" Good luck and do report back. You may want to tell your story to the writer of the thread linked above, but do wait until there is a resolution, at least that's what I feel is the only fair way to do it.

 

I also have had so much bad luck with extended warranties that if I can't fix it myself I am putting that money towards another laptop rather then shove it up into one of these warranties.

They will do anything not to have to live up to the contract including not keeping faithful records and blaming as much as possible on the customer. An its always software, the computer never breaks, even if they actually fixed it they will still say "your system was corrupt, reinstall fixed it, hardware is fine. LOL. My VPC just came back from the service company and all said and done it took over 30 days and chances are its still broke (random "ssd error: drive 0"). Oh, and the TIME it takes is a joke. These laptops are lik Range Rovers and Jaguars, you need to have 3 of them, 2 in need of service and 1 actually usable (hopefully). I am looking at 3 Z laptops on my desk right now and that is my situation. Sony customer support and service is a joke IMHO, especiallly when it comes to these high priced units that should really come with a higher level of service. I know other companies where the service is tops on highend professional equipment.

 

Well, I will keep everyone posted. What I find perplexing is that shipping an LCD screen from Japan via Fedex, takes only a few days and this is much cheaper than them having to give me a new laptop.
We will see. The first thing is the demand letter from my lawyer, they will get it on day 31 and then I will refuse to take back my laptop it they tell me it comes in a few days.

"If repairs take more than 30 calendar days, a replacement model of equivalent specifications is guaranteed."

We'll see!

Anyone have email addresses of the canadian legal department and CEO?

 

I've heard very favorable anecdotes about Sony's extended warranty although its not possible to generalize from anyone else's experience.

 

While not a Vaio Z and not a lemon, I had a Vaio SZ691 (which I still use) that needed to be repaired due to some keys that were cracked and one of the hinges were slightly popping up. I had purchased a two-year plan with Sony for repairs and they were more than willing to fix the problem.

They had shipped overnight me a box to send back the computer for repairs and within 3 days I had my laptop returned to me in fixed condition (albeit with everything restored to factory settings - good thing I backed up everything beforehand).

It was overall a very positive experience, but then again it was rather minor issue compared to what other users experience.

But perhaps I just got lucky with it. I can say the same about Dell that I have received rather positive experiences with warranty. But I know countless others who definitely have NOT received positive experiences from Dell.

 

At one time, I used the phrase Dell From Hell repeatedly. I know someone who couldn't mention them without spitting a stream of obscenities.

 

I have had fairly decent experiences with low level problems with Sony, but I am truly appalled by the stories of their sleazy warranty tactics. You are far better off with a Square Trade ext wtty. They have less than 0.5% complaint rates with the BBB, are exclusive third party warranty provider for electronics sold on eBay and Amazon, promise to have a repaired unit back in your hands in 5 days or you get a check for the full purchase price of the product. They alone will warranty refurbed and even used product on eBay. Cost for new wtty about 40% less than most mfrs'. It's the real deal. Only downside: you have to use the mfr's wtty until it expires.

 

We just received my wife's refurbished Z13 from the SONY outlet and this thread is a little scary. The choices we are considering are the SONY extended warranty or a less costly 3 year from SquareTrade. The only laptop we currently have under warranty is a Dell Precision Workstation and the warranty service has been amazing. On site tech shows up the next day with a part that has been overnighted and fixes anything, including things I didn't think were broken, like the thermal paste on the CPU. Replaced entire keyboard when we lost the cap off of the pointer!

My question for anyone who has experience with Sony or SquareTrade, which one should I get. Buy the Sony or save some dough and buy the 3rd party warranty with their 5 day repair turnaround?

 

I guess we know my bias since I already touted the ST ext wtty. One thing's for sure, no one will provide the kind of on site care and feeding that a business class service ctrct (as on your Dell Precision) will provide. What I fear about a Sony wtty is all the stories of their not honoring it and blaming the problem on "software" or "user handling." Another thing that bugs me is that Sony's warranties allow them to refuse to provide coverage after they have expended the cost of the product on service (according to their own internal accounting, which is not subject to verification or audit), the warranty becomes null and void. Plenty of posts here telling of one wtty repair booked as, say, $600, then a second requiring, again according to Sony accounting, $900 of work on a computer costing, say $1,000 new. Sony sends check for $400 and says "sayonara, good luck with that!"

Hate to say it, but I really do hope that Sony Vaio service fiasco article gets published because I do believe it will force them to change tactics, as blogs will be full of horror stories - yay for Net Democracy! For now, I would go with the Square Trade. Google them for any recent problems, but in past their satisfaction rate has been near 100%. The reason they are so successful is that it's easy to make money in the ext wtty business, because the vast majority of people never need service so the profit margin on them is 100%. Only the sleazes try to get out of paying the legitimate claims, just to make even more money. Apparently Square Trade values their exclusives with eBay and Amazon enough to avoid sleazy practices. Also, their coverage is backed by a large insurance company; most third party wttys are not, and I have had a car extd wtty co go bankrupt on me.

Sorry to be on my soapbox about this, but it really galls me, and the number and severity of Sony service horror stories just on NBR are way out of proportion to any other "respected" brand. And btw, but this kind of disparity is common in homeowners and automobile insurance as well. Same mentality: why pay a legitimate claim if you have the power and legal staff to wear the customer down and force them to accept less? Even major brands, like Allstate, have had customer satisfaction rates below 50% while USAA and State Farm are over 90%.

Ok, I'm done.

 

Sony repair is a joke, but my experience with Sony Style has been good. I bought a Z which served me well until the LCD cracked, for no good reason, after 6 months of operation. Brought it to the local Sony Style store and the technician sent it to Nexicore (their extended warrantee service company). After several weeks of waiting for a new LCD, the store manager decided to give me a new machine. The new machine had an SSD failed after 4 months. Again I brought it in and again, after 5 weeks of waiting, the manager gave me a brand new, similar machine. This one lasted 3 days before an SSD failed again. It is now 4 weeks later and to my best knowledge (I am on vacation) it is not fixed yet. In an 18 months period of owning top of the line Vaio Z laptop, I have been through 3 brand new machines (where I had to spend about a week on each to bring it up to a fully functioning state), and a total of 4-5 months in repairs. It is fair to say that thus far, Sony repaired none!!!

 

If you want to see some pretty depressing/infuriating stuff on Sony Warranty repairs, policy, practice and parts supply, just do a search for posts by me. Go ahead. My experience with my Z11 has been, hands down, the worst ownership experience I have ever had for ANYthing that I've ever owned over the last 40 years - computers or otherwise. The cause? Warranty "support" - a phrase that still makes my blood boil to see in print.

 

It's now 29 days that the laptop has been brought in, and still sign of the display or ETA for that matter.
Tomorrow it is 30 calendar days and according to the extended warantee this qualifies me for a replacement.
It has also been 1 week since I contact the sony care dept. and was told a supervisor will call me within 48 hours.
Really great for their premier laptop that costs $3500.

 

Well, today I called twice and finally spoke to a supervisor who apologized for not getting the message last week and contacted me. He promised that tomorrow he would send me, by 9AM the specs for a new vaio Z which he will order for me according to the terms of the extended warrante.
He also gave me his direct phone number.

We will see where this goes...although I have my doubts. Do you know that you cannot order a custom laptop through the sony site at the moment in canada? It never updates and stays at the base model.

 

They came through! They sent me the specs on the replacement model which is the Z2190 with all the options I had. Supposedly they will order it right away (I hope!!).
So, you need to be proactive and anticipate the 30 days, get your papers to Sony Care ahead of time and then it gets done.

 

Good show!

 

Yes, Bravo - to you, tomb. No such kudos to Sony, who barely hit a ridiculously long 30 day deadline and required countless "badgering" by the customer to get there and, now, let's see just how long it takes for the replacement Z they "ordered" (from whom? it's not in production - do they have inventory of new Z1s for such purposes?) to arrive.

A+ to TomB. C- to Sony, and that could still be downgraded. As Tomb said several weeks ago, why not just replace the darn screen and get him his computer back so he could spend his time doing whatever he wanted to rather than calling and writing Sony and posting her for moral support?

...saunters away muttering to himself, something like "what do I see that no one else seems to see? ...

 

Unfortunately, this experience exactly matches my experience with Sony's version of "Responsiveness.'

 

Well, things seem to be ok...but I did ask the supervisor to give me an order date and ship date and so far he hasn't. I did call again today, and still no call back or response. I can only hope for now.

BTW, it's the Z2 model. There are no replacement Z1's anymore.

 

Hmmm....well, keep us posted.

Glad to hear it's a Z21 you're getting. Did you by any chance have 8GB RAM in your Z1, because that only comes on a pricey Z21 CTO as I understand it. Sounds like this may be a good opportunity for anyone who has a Z1 under wtty and wants to upgrade without the dollar investment (the "sweat equity" Tomb has had to put in is rather incalcuable.).

 

Yes, my model was a CTO and the new one is a CTO:
i7, 1080p;8Gb, 256 SSD, Blue ray burner
Only step up here in canada was a 512GB SSD.
He still never got back to me..I'll call tomorrow to the general number and see if anything is in my file.
If not, I'll just have to give Jim a call again. Heck, if this gets any less professional, I'll just have to give his full name and number to the masses.
That'll teach him.

 

Just an FYI, but someone started a new thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/610888-my-z11-died.html#post7909151 with a somewhat similar story to yours and I suggested he contact you about the warranty policy and process for getting a new replacement. Hope you don't mind.