Sony warranty - How good is it?

I can now speak first hand about how bad their warranty service is in the US. I have a Z11 (the ultimate expensive one), less than a year old with additional 3 year express service. After more than 7 weeks with a problem with the screen I still don't even have an ETA for the backordered part it needs.

Has anyone have any experience taking Sony to court for this? I'm considering small claims court so I don't have any attorney costs.

 

It means you get $1000 back... or whatever is on your original receipt.

 

Has there been a resolution in your case?

I am in a similar situation. Sony z11 (very expensive one), less than 1 year old, cracked LCD (for no good reason, very gently treated laptop), extended warranty repair and more than 2 weeks at their facility waiting now for a backordered LCD screen. No ETA and practically, from talking to them, they have no clue when it is going to be done. Owned many laptops that needed service in the past (Dell, HP, IBM). Sony is easily the worst service experience I had.

 

Guys... you need to finally understand that the price of the Z or any other model DOES NOT include any premium service! You paid for many extras which you might even not realize or use, not for any special treatment... I find it hilarious that you guys find the price of the Z a reason for additional complaining about quality and service of the machine - have given this example elsewhere already - An Audi S8 is by no means "better built" or "faster repaired" than Audi A6, although it costs much more! You paid for the extra space, the extra power, the extra comfort and security systems... but if anything - your car/laptop is even more likely to break down - the more complicated - the more stuff can possibly go wrong/faulty!

Also - to all - please include your country when you share experience - I am getting the feeling Sony's warranty is only or mainly bad in the US but determining that is valuable to all of the current and future owners of Sony Laptops.

 

I expected nothing more than a repair service similar to other laptop manufacturers. A laptop machine is a work tool. When it breaks I expect the manufacturer to be able to service it promptly, so I can get back to doing my work. I don't know in which world you live in, where a 7 weeks repair is acceptable and should not be challenged....

 

I never said it is acceptable, neither commented on your experience in any way. Just on the fact that you expect something special based on the fact that it is a "very expensive Z" (otherwise you wouldn't have mentioned it), whereas it makes absolutely no difference.

 

Edit: This is California, USA; Dealing with San Diego's Repair Center

I honestly have no idea what's going on with Sony's warranty repair services.
I've had a screen problem on my Z with 100+ dead pixels since Nov/2010 and to today I have not received it back. In Dec/2010 I dropped my laptop off at the Vaio Repair Center, for which I was told I would receive it back a week later... however they told me that the parts are on backorder and the ETA for release kept getting pushed back to who knows when.

On the bright hand, I called again this week and talked to a representative (at the repair center itself) on how I've paid a pretty penny for a laptop I don't have in my hands to use and told them they've literally had it almost 2 months. Upon checking a few things, she finally offered me a choice to exchange my laptop for one of same or better specs to which I immediately agreed to. Then she told me I should be getting a call in 3-5 business days to confirm the exchange along with a choice of what models I can pick from and that's where my current situation is. Considering I had this conversation Monday morning of this week, I will be expecting a call from someone starting tomorrow till Monday...

To those with similar problems, I would suggest you tell the customer representative to transfer you straight to the repair center as you can get a better idea of what's going on and what can be done.

In the meantime, I'll keep you guys posted *fingers crossed*

 

Please specify your COUNTRY! It is important to know on which end of our not so small planet the service is so slow!

 

Hello,

I currently work at Sony as an IT consultant and understand everyone's warranty issues that have been going on to my knowledge since November of 2010. I am not sure if there was a post regarding why there was such a big delay in parts, etc on these forum boards. One of the main reasons why there was such a delay in repairs in general was because in November the San Diego depot center deployed a system update throughout all of Sony’s HQ. This caused a backorder of numerous repairs for customers because the parts that needed to be ordered were not being processed correctly. End users who have the Z series and needed there SSD replaced, the main reason of the delay was because Samsung is currently on backorder on their hardware. This goes for any computer manufacture out there that is using Samsung as there SDD of hardware.

If anyone that has there unit still under repair for over 25+ days please send me a direct message with your information so I can see reason of the delay of that repair. I am currently based out of Scottsdale, Arizona at the Sony Style retail location. I’ve been a long time reader on these boards but never made an account till today. From a consumer stand point I completely understand where end users are coming from. I figured that I could try to my best abilities to help people on these boards to get there units back in a timely manner and everyone can get on with there busy lives. I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season and I hope Sony does get things back on track.

Cheers

-Vishal

 

I think they are great.

They tried 2 on site repairs.
Then they tried 2 off site repairs.

Couldnt fix it.

Then sent me a SIGNIFICANT upgrade. From a Z Core2Duo to a Z i7.

AND I got a Full 1 year warranty for the exchanged laptop.

 

Thanks Vishal. Currently they are processing an exchange for me so if I hear nothing from them by the end of next monday, I would like you to check up on my issue then.

 

I appreciate your goodwill and desire to help. If you were to order today a Sony Vaio Z, CTO, including a 512 GB SSD, your estimated ship date is Feb. 10th. It shows me that there is no shortage of LCDs or SSDs, but an allocation issue. I don't know the Sony supply chain system, but I assume it will upset any current Sony customer to realize that his recently purchased, serviced laptop requires weeks to get a replacement LCD, while those LCDs are readily available to new buyers....

 

Just got an update on my status, i should be receiving a call for an exchange today or monday... i hope it actually falls through this time!

 

YES! The price of a laptop (or any product or service in general for that matter) is directly proportional to my expectation of the overall quality and experience I will have with that product. That applies particularly in cases (such as this) when I pay the 3 year premium additional “express warranty” as well.

So, it does make me extra upset the fact I spent on my fully loaded z11 more than 10 times what I would have spent on an entry level netbook. That I used it only sparingly for a few months before it became defective, that I’m going now into the 8th week waiting for the repair; and to top it off, that there is not even an estimated date for when I would have it back.

I am the head of an IT consulting company that sells $70 and $70,000 routers from the same manufacturer, and trust me when I say the support that goes with the $70,000 ones is at least a notch up.

An for the ones concerned about geography, my experience is in the US, where after years of regularly dealing with IT vendors I can say I don’t recall such a dismal level of support for a supposedly business laptop that is nearly as bad as I have experience with Sony.

Prices and models aside, the hours I spent on the routine of calling and being told (always by profusely apologetic people) that you will have to wait 3 business days for any information, and once you call again after a few days the process just repeats itself over and over without recourse is just surreal.

If you allow me to be “irrelevant” once again, I used to wonder what happened to Sony’s top quality reputation of years ago. I like to believe that through my company I interact and positively influence buying decisions of IT departments for hundreds of companies. There is bad service that makes you never buy a product again. Then, there is such bad service that transforms you into a passionate advocate against products and brands. I wonder no more.

 

Just a quick update if anybody is interested. Just called the San Diego repair center and was informed, once again, that I have to wait other 3 to 5 business days for the work to be completed. I have no words…

 

Geobridge : Could you PM me with your first/last name, Event ID, and phone number please. I will try to see the status of the unit and attempt to send an email to my escalation department in SD. I cannot promise anything but I will at least try to find out 1. what is going on 2. speed up the process as fast as possible.

Thank you.

-Vishal

 

Well i sent my Sony TT into service late last year and my experience was overall quite a positive one.
I live in the UK but my Sony TT was purchased from Hong Kong and came with international warranty.
I went through Sony UK who set up my pick up for me and my laptop was sent to France. This all happened in very good timing.

However, what was slightly disconcerting was that i had to wait i think about 5 or 6 weeks for the parts to arrive so it took a while for me to get my laptop back. I think i was told at the start that it could take 7-10 days so well...

However, i sent my laptop in with several mods that didn't bother Sony and the damage Sony could have easily turned around and billed me but they never. I was expecting really to be billed. The nice little note i included in the box could have helped also .

Anyway, i can't really complain and would definetly purchase a Sony laptop with the international coverage again.

I've used Fujitsu international warranty and that has been the best that i have used. They told me to keep the laptop at home until the parts arrived and then within a week contacted me to contact UPS to arrange shipping. This was really excellent customer service and some companies won't go that far.

 

If waiting for parts for five to six weeks for a laptop is an overall positive experience, I wonder what less than a positive experience is....

Spoke to my IT guy at work, here in Southern California. Typical repair on Dell and Lenovo machines is 24-48 hours. Worst case is less than a week. This is his experience dealing with hundreds of laptops. In my opinion, unless Sony takes its after-sale service and repair seriously, they should get out of the computer business.

 

I had issues with some painted parts peeling off and a bulge or deformity in my keyboard casing and sent it off for RMA. Got it back from Sony within a week and everything perfect, but the store where I purchased it and returned it for repair told me that the Sony technician said that these issues were questionable and could of been my fault. Suspicious Sony people. The laptop is an AW21XY/Q, very expensive and these things happened after a couple of months. My personal conclusion: they like you when you buy all their products and when you have trouble they like some other!

 

Apparently the contributors to this forum have very different levels of expectations for service. Depending where they are, waiting 6 weeks or four attempts to repair a product translates into a “positive experience”.

Grace said in an earlier post that expecting additional quality for the premium we pay for a Z is “hilarious”. You can read this in the US Sonystyle website today: “Tailor made to those that crave the ultimate computing experience, the limited edition VAIO Signature collection….” Call me naïve, but in my view after-sales, service, and support should be part of any “ultimate computing experience”.

She then makes a point using an analogy of car models. She argues that by paying more we should just expect to get them bigger, crammed with stuff in it, and therefore they should be even more prone to problems. Ironically, she just described the American Car industry strategy for the past decades, and we know what came out of their disregard for quality.

I completely agree with IDG. My benchmark also is the service of Sony’s competitors here in the US, and although I can’t speak of other regions, I assure this will eventually push them out of the computer business here.

 

Well, the fact that i didn't pay for my damaged laptop has a lot to do with how i view things. They could have very well billed me for the damage but they didn't or ask any questions. I was looking over my old posts and i sent it in on 06-05-2010 and got it back on the 30-06-2010 (months in the middle lol).

The service could have been better and they could have tried harder find my parts earlier.
With international service sometimes things may take a little longer than usual.
I think better organisation is needed with parts. Also, if i was informed that it might take that long at the start i would be expecting it. When you're though expecting it be done in a matter of days and it doesn't work out well you become less than pleased.

I've also had experience with Apple and my laptop was fixed in the UK and i had to wait about a month for parts.

I've also had experience with Dell but i found the service to be less than professional.

 

I had a pretty poor experience with Sony's service...but the warranty was good.

When I had problems, they would send someone to my home/business. Eventually my unit had so many problems they wanted it sent to them, which was okay...except that it took them damn near a month to send it back to me...and it had more problems only a week or so after that.

They eventually gave me a *full* refund. Quite nice of them considering I had the system for almost 12 months. But they weren't making that unit or anything similar to it anymore (the 18.4" AW290J), so I suppose they didn't really have a choice. I expected to get some portion of the money back or something...but nope they gave me the full $2,700+ tax back. I was shocked, to be honest.

Sony took care of me in the end, so I'll always consider them for my future business. I just assume I got a bad system/bad service along the way.

 

Apparently there is a pattern taking shape here:

-Most people get bad service and have to wait for several weeks for any resolution.

-After attempting to fix the issue several times, or if it is an older model and parts are not available, they give up either refund or send a brand new replacement.

-The people that receive a new computer, full refund, or upgrade, particularly after owning the computer for a couple of years are happy, despite the poor service they received up to that point.

Unfortunately for me since my Z is fairly new and I don’t fall into any of these categories, even after waiting for 8 weeks I don’t have a computer. Is there anything (magic word) that I should say to service that will make anything happen? I PM VKuber but haven’t’ heard back yet.

 

Personally I do not shop Sony VAIO, ever. They have screwed us over not just once. But thrice, on three separate laptops.

The first one was a client's Sony Vaio VGN laptop with the faulty fan which they have recalled, it basically made far too much noise as if the fan's blades were hitting the ventilation grill..
We got on the phone with Sony, here is what they made us do before they sent a technician, even after telling them the issue was the fan:
1. Reinstall Windows ($95 to the customer). Because fans get fixed with a Windows installation..
2. Run diagnostics on the hard drive. ??
3. Call back in 3 days to see if the issue persists, even after they knew the fan simple was faulty 24/7.

So we call back the next day, telling them the issue again. Finally they decided to send a technician. It took them nearly 2 weeks to get the technician out. Overall time=2 weeks and 2 days, including weekends. The new fan failed after a few weeks. We ordered a ball bearing fan from ebay, replaced it. Been working fine for our customer ever since.

2nd Sony VAIO was the business', a VGN model turned out to be the worst. It also was a Sony VAIO VGN, slightly older then the 1st one. Motherboard died, needed replacement. Warranty only had 3 months.
We called in, after a few tests (wouldn't turn on) they agreed to replace the motherboard... They said a technician would call as soon as they go the part.
So we waited. And waited. 1 week later, no call. So we call Sony again, they say the technician has not received the part yet, but to just wait for the call because the part is on it's way to the technician. We wait again... 1 week goes by no call, nothing.
At this point it's been 2 weeks, we call again. EXACT SAME EXCUSE: Technician has not received the part, the part is on it's way to the technician.
So we wait, 2 weeks making it a month of time. ONE MONTH. We call in a little MORE then upset. We demand to know what is going on. They say they don't have the motherboard in hand, so we press them telling them how much we've paid and had to wait. They remain adamant that it will be repaired soon, but at the same time they say they don't know WHEN they will get the motherboard. So they tell us to wait.
To make it short, we waited over 3 months. Finally called in and said we wanted a replacement, refund, or repair asap or we'd be forced to settle it in court. What does Sony do? Immediately bucks up, saying we can't do that because they will fix the notebook. However we immediately bring up the consumer protection laws regarding warrany, were a product MUST be repaired in an ADEQUATE AMOUNT OF TIME. 3 months is not adequate for a laptop, when the industry standard is 1-4 weeks.
Let's just say Sony would not:
Dish out a replacement laptop, after 3 months of waiting.
They could not replace the motherbaord.
They would not refund us the money.

At the end we decided to just cut our losses, and stop recommending Sony VAIO.
Did I mention we got a call not 3 weeks ago from Sony (after 4 months...) saying they got the motherboard at last. Pathetic.


The 3rd computer was the same as the 1st, faulty fan. This time however the faulty fan stopped working completely. Overheated the laptop, and our client ended up with a fried laptop, however the warranty was out. BUT the fan was being recalled by Sony, thus was possible to get warranty work considering the issue was because of the failing fan.
I got on the phone with Sony, after a few words here's what happened:
1. Sony refused to admit the fan could have caused the issue with that particular model.
2. Sony admitted that a non working fan could destroy a laptop.
3. Sony admitted that the DEFECTIVE FAN COULD HAVE FAILED BECAUSE OF THE DEFECT. (Really? You admit that your product's cooling system could fail due to a defect, but refuse to acknowledge it as a possibility?)
4. Sony lies saying the problem is that the fan spins too fast, thus makes too much turbulence noise. False logic. Other brands have had issues like this, it requires a simple BIOS update to fix the power management for the fan to either increase the speed to the fan's max, or decrease it. Also if this was true, why did the fan only start causing noise later in it's life, not immediately after purchase?)
Furthermore, the real issue is from the use of a cheap sleeve bearing fan that falls off over time, creating greater friction for the motor and heat thus leading to a failure of the fan or at least incredibly annoying clacking.
5. Sony finally agrees to send a technician to check the laptop out to see if it was the fan that caused the failure, because you know Unisys' technicians are experts whom know that 64 bit Windows 7 is vastly superior to Windows 7 32 bit because it runs faster it does not have to do with specs. Or the fact that they don't even know jack about hardware.
Anyways they take 1 month to even send a technician out, which by then the customer had picked up their laptop and bought a new Dell laptop out of OUR recommendation.

 

I fell your pain Crimsoned (literally). I just hope mine won't take another 2 months to be ready. Your are also in the IT service industry and if you are like me, seeing a company treat customers with such disregard is unjustified and plain wrong.

The only problem they have with us is that we are in a position to influence a large number of people in their computer purchases. They are turning me into an activist and I won't feel right until I dissuade at least a couple of thousand people from buying Vaio; that's a good number of consumers I should try to defend against Sony.

 

My issue was resolved unexpectedly, in line with the above pattern, but for a relatively new machine. I was waiting, 4 weeks now, for a screen to replace a cracked LCD on my Z, purchased in March 2010. I decided to stop by the SonyStyle store, where I dropped off my machine 4 weeks ago, and see whether the local tech that took the machine in can accelerate the process (largely since he is part of the Sony Service center and not the extended warranty company). I didn't think much will happen, but to my great surprise he actually followed up on the status of my repair few days back but never received any response. He then spoke to the store manager and they offered me a top of the line, new machine they had in stock (quite similar to my unit but the latest model with an upgraded processor and a Windows Ultimate compared to my Prefessional). I wasn't crazy to having to rebuild my machine from scratch, but the timing uncertainty of the repair (4 weeks going, no ETA) was much less attractive. At least rebuilding the machine was under my control.

My take-away of the whole experience is that Sony Vaio is not yet ready for primetime computer business (as the service expected by business is lacking), however having the techs at the SonyStyle stores is a huge improvement. Also, the willingness of the store manager to offer a replacement on the spot (or go the CTO path if the desired machine was not available) should be highly commended.

 

I bought a Vaio CW series last Feb. First hard drive failure was in June. Since then, 5 more identical hard drive failures, and the ONLY thing Sony will do is replace the hard drive. They claim since the rest of the machine passes diagnostics, there is nothing wrong with the motherboard, power supply, etc. Warranty runs out in June 2011 after I made them extend it from the basic 1 year, and they are just playing for time. $900 piece of CRAP!

Moral of the story-- don't expect Sony warranty or service techs to be of any use. It is a crap shoot if they understand a computer more than you do, and my experience shows they know considerably less. Customer service won't even admit something else could be causing the problem. I am ready to sue them in small claims court.

 

ive two (bad) experiances with vaio link

1:in december 2010 i was forced to start using my vaio TT11WN again as my vaio P went "missing" in september after vaio link/flextronics lost it!!!

and the TT had a fault, usb ports/sd card/wifi/3g did not work or would reinstall

i emailed them and they said to use the recovery partition

i did, and got a screen saying it was corupted

had a great conversation with the "tech" on vaio customer services saying that i had to buy vista recovery discs for £50

and i said no, come and pick it up as its not a software issue

and that a corrupt hidden partition shows that it was never right in the 1st place.

he then kept on saying that if they pick it up and there is nothing wrong it will cost me £56 for the pick up/delivery charge...

i said yes thats fine several times and he said NO

he wants me to buy the discs, reinstall, run a dionostic, then if that does not fix the issue then he will send a pick up...!!!

i said thats silly as its only £6 differance, just pick it up then i avoid the silly two weeks plus work flow he sugested...

he kept on saying he was incharge of pick ups and will only okay a pick up if he deamed it...

and i had to keep telling him im fine with any charge for pick up/delivery

this went on for a couple times before i finally said

"how much more have i on my warrenty!?"

and he said two months

i said "right, then pick it up"

only when i wouldnt take no for an answer did i arange a pick up for two days time!!!

i was told they would pick up 8am to 6pm (10hour window!)

i said will they give me a better time frame, or at least a text/call on the day on when it will be picked up.

he said no they cant... even tho i know they can!!

on the day i waited till 5pm and then rang the pick up firm, DHL, they told me to ring vaio cust serv, and they messed me about, finaly admitted they canceled the pick up at 15:55 pm!!!

i asked why, and i wanted it picked up now. the woman was very rude told me to ring tomorrow and book it.

i asked her could she book it for me for the next avalable day, she said she could but "what differance does it make"

i asked to speak to her supervisior and she said he aint there.

anyways when i rang the next day, 1st thing at 8am, they said if i booked it last night i could of got it picked up but now i would have to wait an extra day...

when they picked it up, i had to wait 18 days for it back with no up dates from them, only after i rang up after two weeks i was told they was waiting on a recovery pack

on return it showed they repleaced the 160gb 1.8inch hdd and the fools installed vista in german!!!

i could not up grade to ultimate for the language packs as ms has closed the anytime upgrade.

ive since put w7 64bit on.

also while it was at repair i rang them up and used a vaio warrenty 1+ year pack code.

at 1st they said i could no use it as i had to do it with in a year...

i said normal vaios is one year, vaios with biz/pro have two years, was put on hold for ages before she said i can activate an extra year!!!

 

Please use the shift key when typing, it's there for a reason.

That does indeed sound like an awful story. Did they ever find your P?

 

I think your warranty repair process success also somewhat depends on how you discuss with them. I don't see a reason at all for being rude for a laptop. Whenever I had any warranty repairs, I kept being nice and friendly - if there were problems, I just escalated one step further via written requests. (1st step call Sony customer service, 2nd Supervisor, 3rd Mail to C/S, final stage Mail Quality Insurance Sony)

Did that once with sony all the way through (took me about 2 weeks). 100% success. Finally I got my first Z replaced by a new identical one, got a 256 -> 512 GB SSD upgrade and a 400$ store voucher for free.

 

You call 2 weeks and 3 letters in a success? It looks like they had the upper hand. Now let's see how long my Dell M6500 replacement took... Luckily they gave you that upgrade/ $400 store voucher (which something tells me won't work for products on sale and only regular price). Oh I got a free quad core upgrade, free 4 dimm slot memory upgrade, USB 3.0, and slimmer PSU without having to ask.
Chat started: 01/22/2011 12:18:48PM
Chat Ended: 01/22/2011 12:55:14PM
36-37 minutes~

I did not have to do anything apart from chat. No letters, no need to escalate the matter to super visors, nothing but a short chat.
Most of my chat sessions are in the 40 minute mark for any type of repair I need done. In fact Dell rarely questions me when I tell them the laptop is failing, they don't put me through stupid steps like do a recovery when an LCD is cracked.

 

In fact it was one 15 minute call for me and two emails which took me about an hour to write. You can call that hassle and of course you are right with that, but after all it was very worth the work. I got a brand new laptop and on top a >1000$ retail value as an apologize gift. I dont think you can expect something like that of a standard warranty. As long as I am happy with the product (I am!) and when it comes to service I always get what I want however I have to push a little bit harder or not, I do not care. Since I got my current laptop, I do not have any problem at all which required service - IMO this is far better than sending in a laptop every now and then even if they wrap your laptop in silk and treat you like a king. At least I am very impressed and happy about the reliability of my Z.

 

Bah wrong person,

 

No, they have not found my vaio P
it went for repair at end of august, was ment to arive a week later and they lost it...
they gave me the run arround on emails then ive been ringing them all of december till now and i got an apology from some senior guy and he said they will replace it with an upgraded model, i had a p11 they said i would get a p29 in two week time.

this was 8 weeks ago.
i rang up two weeks ago to folow up and the "advisor" said i have to send them proof of purchace. i said why, when im getting a replacement.
they then tryed to say there is no more vaios p instock and they will give me a "buy back".
i sent them the recept for £850, and they rang back the next day asking for my account details so they can give me %50 refund...

i said no way, they lost it, i want a replacement. the woman "sarah" was extreemly rude and would not put me to a supervisour

she kept on saying i would not get a replacement, only when i finaly said i dont want her to deal with my case again (this was the same agent that messed me about on my vaio TT case in dec...) that she said someone will ring me tomorrow.

the supervisour did, then next day, said that my account had marked that i was due a p29 vaio and that he will chase it, and that he will be dealing with the case himself from now on. rang they day after to conferm hes still on the case, was due to ring me today but didnot.

if i dont get it by the end of the month im going to demand a full refund as its disgusting how they have treated me.

 

wow that's a horrible story, it's been over 6 months now..hope everything works out. I used to think Sony Vaio's were the "Apple Macbook's" of PC's in terms of quality and service, but their service is horrible. I think Dell is the only PC company that has decent warranty service, and HP has great return service (no restocking fee, no questions asked). As far as I know, everything else is horrible.

 

Just dropped off my VAIO SZ at my local SonyStyle store for repair/service yesterday. I had the At-Home ADH extended warranty but I requested that they send it to their service depot for service.

It seems like bring in your broken notebook to the SonyStyle (Backstage area) for service seems like the way to go as one don't have to deal with frustration & the huge amount of time being wasted on the phone calling the service hotline. The technician at the SonyStyle store where I brought my notebook to is very pleasant, patient, & he completed the whole process of accepting the notebook in for service (paperwork, his quick little diagnostics, etc.) in a very short amount of time. I thought I should point that out & give him some credit for such excellent customer service.

However, I should be able to know in a few weeks time if Sony has improved their repair services when compared to what I've previously experienced. I can only hope at this point in time that my notebook will be fixed & the excellent service provided by that technician is brought over to the rest of my repair process.

I will post the latest developments of my repair/service once there's anything new. Wish me luck.

 

Their written warranty looks OK on paper. It's not the 3 year on-site warranty that some companies are offering, but it's OK. In the US, OK translates to 1 year of on-site repair, and a 30 day no-questions-asked return policy. And Sony will stand by to the LETTER of that written warranty.

That said, the problem with Sony US Service is not with their warranty; it's with the service itself and the "repair, rather than replace" policy that enslaves their Service department. Here is a list of the issues I see with their (US) service:

1. They are committed to the "repair rather than replace" policy, regardless of the number of repairs a computer needs
2. ALL levels of service/support have absolutely NO power at all to deviate from their script and provide real, customer satisfying service
3. they have 2 distinct service supply warehouses that refuse to share parts: the better stocked (ship to) Depot and the On-site service warehouse. No parts are shared between them and the on-site warehouse NEVER has any parts in stock
4. Nobody at Sony EVER calls you back. They PROMISE to - all the time - but nobody EVER does. If you want a status on a repair, you better be comfortable making repeated phone calls

​

I'm sure the service varies in other countries/areas, but the above has been my experience in the Northeastern United States.

 

regarding my lost vaio P

they upped the offer of 50% refund to £640 (75% of the £849 recept)

i had to reluctantly take it as they said that was it, i said this and said i was not happy

i even said i should at least get the difference (£210) in a sony store voucher,

they said i will get it in ten working days, ie/; two weeks

i think i will buy a ipad2 and nintendo 3ds

very unprofesional service

 

I still think you got a good deal..if you were to sell it today, you would definitely get much less than that anyways...plus the new P series start at 550 pounds. They still can't make up for the lost time though.

 

550, link please

yes but if they lost it, not they failed to repair it, and they only offered a partial refund. is really taking libertys

 

well it's $899 in the USA so I just converted it to pounds..going to the UK site it looks like the P is discontinued.

 

Quick update on my repair experience.

Today is the 11th day since I dropped off my VAIO SZ381 for service at my local SonyStyle store. Unfortunately, up to now, no one has bothered to call me up or even shoot me an email to keep me informed of the repair status. I wonder whether it is that hard to do the aforementioned. The only good thing is that I've more than 1 notebook & so it doesn't really affect me too much. However, I can see how hurting & pissed off a customer can be if the notebook that was sent in for service is his/her own notebook & this notebook is critical for him/her to complete whatever tasks he/she has.

Hopefully, someone at Sony can "smart up" & do a major overhaul of their repair services! If they don't do so & as much as I hate it, I can only see Sony losing more & more customers in the future with such "worst of the industry" technical/repair support.

My humble summary of Sony:
* Products: Super classy, excellent, etc.
* Repair Services: FAIL!

 

@SPEEDwithJJ, if I may predict the future (and just a wild guess). After 4 weeks of persistent calling and nagging to find out the repair status, Sony will offer you store credit for $600 since they no longer make/ stock parts for your (only a couple of years old) SZ computer. Take it or leave it.

 

Up to now, I've not made one call to Sony to inquire about my repair status yet since I left my notebook at my local SonyStyle store. I'm very, very patient this time & I can afford not to have to call them up & simply waste my valuable time as I can accomplish my work using other notebooks. I want to see how Sony handle this repair. However, I've not even been given a "work order" number to check on my status online (although I have a repair documentation receipt) & they didn't even bother to send me a simple email to at least acknowledge that their service depot has received the notebook for service or update me with that "work order" number.

All these just shows how bad Sony currently are & how much work they will have to put in to even compete with their competitors' repair services. I'll agree with you that the outcome will probably be what you've mentioned but it is still amazing, puzzling, & even shocking to some extent that they don't even stock parts to repair older products. Which other company is like that? This will only give people the impression that Sony does not stand behind their products after the sale & is in a way "irresponsible".

A quick comparison with my latest interaction with the Dell technical support guys (just last month) show that they at least seem to care about fixing customers issues. If this notebook that I sent in for service is a Dell notebook, I would have already received at least 5 phone calls by now informing me about the latest developments with my repair, assuring me that my notebook is being worked upon, & even asking me what else they can do for me. That is excellent service IMHO.

If Sony insist on keeping up with such crappy repair services, I'm really sorry to say that I'll not be buying any more VAIO notebooks (coming from a "loyal" VAIO owner who has/had own(ed) 7 high-end VAIO notebooks since 2006) & just bring my business to their other competitors. I have to admit that Sony makes great notebooks but it's not like others don't do so.

Anyway, I'll post an update (honest, no tweaking from the truth) to my case here in this thread every week or every 10 days or so & you guys can judge for yourself if buying a VAIO notebook is worth all the trouble, hassle, & money.

 

Quick update on my service experience.

Today is exactly 3 weeks to the date I dropped off my VAIO SZ381 at my local SonyStyle store for it to be sent in to a service depot for service. I haven't heard from anyone yet. Hate to admit it, but it seems to me like they don't give a heck to my repair at all. I did not receive any phone calls &/or emails from them yet. I totally have no idea what my repair status is at all but hopefully, they are in the process of fixing my notebook & not dumping it into a trash can or something. I'm not going to call them up & waste my time. However, I will continue to remain calm & be very, very patient, which will also reduce my chances of increasing my blood pressure to a "boiling point."

I'll post again in this thread in a week's time or if there are new developments to my case, whichever comes first. Wish me good luck.

 

On the failed battery I had after about 2 weeks and when my fan failed just within 2 years I had no issues with it.

On that note though, for the fan I went to a service centre directly -> fixed the same day

 

Awesome. That is what I would call top-notch service. There's no doubt that your service experience is easily way better than my current one, where I still do not know what is going on with my notebook repair on the 21st day after I dropped off my notebook.

I sincerely hope that in the future, no one will ever have to go through what I'm currently experiencing.

 

-> What can affect this is to whom you go.
I just called up the Service Centre directly - in fact, I called them a little before my warranty ran out, and then dropped the laptop off about 1 or 2 weeks later - just out of warranty -> as I had notified them in time there was no issue with getting a warranty repair.

I could imagine that Sony HQ will try to drag their feet a bit - if you go to a Service Centre directly you need to consider that Sony pays their wages too so they have a good reason to give you a repair if they can it earns them money.

 

A quick update on my repair services.

I've been very, very busy these last couple of weeks & simply didn't have time to come back to this site to post an update. About 2 weeks ago, without any contact from anyone since I dropped off my notebook for service, a package found its way to the doorstep of my home. The shipping label has Nexicore Services as the sender. Wondered what the package was until I opened it up. There it was, my repaired VAIO VGN-SZ381P/X. It was a mixed feeling seeing my notebook returned to me.

The good: My notebook was repaired. The "creaking" fan & clicking HDD were both replaced. They included a detailed list of what has been replaced. They even included a Sony Backstage paper folder with a small Sony Backstage microfiber LCD cleaning cloth. IMHO, it's always nice to receive freebies. It was very, very "fast" turnaround time too, which I'm very "impressed" considering that this is Sony we're talking about.

The bad: The LCD which has got black vertical "blotches" was simply not replaced & ignored even though the local SonyStyle Backstage technician that I had talked to had written down the issue (which he had also agreed) onto the work order document. The "best & most impressive" thing is that I dropped off my notebook with a pristine LCD top lid, but it was returned to me with lots of scratches (a few very deep ones as well) all over the LCD top lid! That probably proves that the technician who worked on my notebook wass very rough & didn't quite give a damn to the cosmetic condition of my notebook. To top it all off, the work list also stated that the palmrest was replaced! To get to the VAIO SZ notebook's HDD, one will have to take off the keyboard & palmrest to get to it. This is something I've previously done a couple of times without any tiny scruffs or whatsoever. This makes me wonder what the heck did the technician do to have to replace the palmrest. Was he/she so rough with my notebook while getting to the HDD that he/she simply destroyed my notebook's palmrest?

It definitely isn't a very good repair experience. I had thought of contacting Sony again to have my notebook's LCD & LCD top lid replaced, but I think it is better for me to just s**k it up & accept things as it is simply because I doubt they can do a good job with that based on this experience. Of course, thanks to that technician, his/her brilliant work has also meant that my notebook's resale value has gone down even further. I guess this experience just amplify my humble belief that " Sony makes great products but you just have to hope that they lasts a long, long time without needing to be sent for repair/service." Anyway, this will most likely be the last time I'll be dealing with Sony repair services because I'm not going to buy any more Sony VAIO notebooks (no matter how good they are when compared to their competition) & I'll be selling all my current VAIO notebooks soon (when I get some free time to take photos & list them for sale).

On a side note, a quick "googling" online seems to indicate that the company handling the Sony repair services is called Hartford Computer Group, Inc.

Lastly, for anyone looking at purchasing an extended warranty for their Sony VAIO notebooks, I'll suggest going with the SquareTrade warranty rather than the Sony extended warranty (that is administered by Service Net Warranty, LLC.). Good luck.