Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Just want to share my dismal (to say the least) service experience with Sony...
I sent my VGNSZ220 in to Sony repair on Aug 24th for the following: DC Jack is broken, Touchpad would often go "berserk" (drag finger across the surface and the pointer would go all over the place clicking everywhere, closing windows, etc, then stop responding at all), and would also not work after resume from hibernation (a few hibernate/resume cycles would sometimes fix this), and the keyboard had a problem with the space bar (you had to hit it just right for the press to register), and at least one key was sticking intermittently.
I received a call on or about Aug 28th with an estimate. They were not going to cover the DC jack under warranty because it is physically damaged (the center post broke). I do not agree with this, as I explained to the people at the repair center. I would understand and agree if we were talking about the LCD being cracked, or some other massive physical damage, but I can't help the design of the jack. I assume at some point just enough tension was placed on the plug to break the post off.
I refused to pay them approximately $182 to fix the power jack, and told them to fix what they would cover under warranty and send it back. They initially where not going to even do that, and then tried to say they werent going to cover the touchpad due to wear from a lot of use (I use my notebook almost every day for at least several hours) until I spoke to a manager at the repair center.
They did the repairs and shipped the notebook back to me, which I received on Sept 7th. Upon receipt, I attempted to power the notebook on prior to returning home with it. It would not power on, and I assumed that it was due to a dead battery. Upon returning home, I plugged it in and powered it on. The first thing I noticed was the battery light did not flash like it normally does, indicating it is being charged. I then got an "Operating system not found" message, which did not bother me because not knowing their SOP, I told them not to worry about imaging it as I had my original image to load back onto it. I unplugged it to see of the battery was registering at all, and the PC shut down as if there was no battery at all. I proceeded to load my image onto it, and when I booted the imaging software, the next thing I noticed is that the touchpad didn't work (I use Acronis TrueImage, which has full mouse/touchpad support). After leaving the notebook imaging overnight, I booted into Windows the following morning. Upon doing so, I found that the touchpad still was not functional, and that Windows was reporting the battery as "not connected". I also found that the Memory stick reader did not work. The drive appears in Windows, but with a stick in the slot, it keeps prompting to insert media.
At this point, I called Sony Support. After getting to someone in level 2 support, I was told I MUST re-image my PC with the factory image (even though the image I had loaded on was working perfectly prior to sending the PC out to Sony). After wasting an hour and a half or so reloading the PC with the factory image, I had the same results. I also discovered that the icon for the fingerprint reader in the top left corner of the logon screen shows "The Biometric Device is not connected" and that the WWAN module will not power up. If I try to turn it on, I get "Time out bringing up the WWAN module. Please check your device or hardware switch and try again." I called Sony support back, and they finally conceded that there was something wrong and set up to return it for them to "see what they could do".
When I sent this notebook in for repair, while there where annoyances, everything worked (Most notably, the battery).
At this point, I do not trust the technicians at the San Diego repair facility. I don't know the explanation for the touchpad, MS reader or fingerprint reader not working, but I've seen pictures of the system board online, and since the battery contacts are directly attached to the system board, I can only see one of two likely reasons for the battery not working: Either somehow the battery was destroyed while at the repair center, or the technician damaged something on the system board.
Now, normally I would open the notebook and see if I can figure out what's wrong. The Touchpad and such not working is probably something simple, but the battery showing "not connected" (when the terminals are part of the system board; it's not like something could have been left loose) stopped me from doing so.
This was my third, and now last Sony notebook. I had formerly recommended Sony notebooks to people who asked my recommendation. I now recommend STRONGLY against Sony and instead recommend HP Business PC's. My company has been recommending them (HP's notebooks) for about a year, and we have seen no issues, they perform very well, feel well build, have a 3 year warranty, Accidental damage plan is quite a bit less than Sony's, and best of all, NO BLOATWARE. They come super clean. About the only thing on them is usually Acrobat Reader.
This was really the straw that broke the camel's back. The other thing that has long been a huge source of aggravation for me is all the bloatware, and the fact that it is virtually impossible to reload a Sony PC with anything other than a Sony restore disc and have it work right. I reloaded this PC at least three times with XP Pro, following both instructions I found in a thread here and Sony's instructions, and it NEVER ran right. It would lock up on shutdown (Yes I know there's a fix; I installed the "fix" and it would work right for a bit and would go back to lockup on shutdown/restart), had some stupid number of processes after a clean reload with all Sony's "drivers" and such. The only way I found to have it run ok was to not install most of the Sony garbage and disabled the built-in camera.
Just figured I'd give warning: If your Sony needs warranty work, there better not be ANYTHING that might be able to be considered "Physical damage" or they'll try to deny warranty work, and I'd guess your chances of getting it back working right are probably 50/50 at best.
Sony service... or lack thereof.
Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by Cougar281, Sep 11, 2007.
