TZ recall done by Vaio Tech's with no love for Vaio's

Here is my story. On the day engadget announced the sony vaio tz recalls I went over to Sony's site to check out my TZ-170/n to see if it was included in the recall. It was, and not ever having had an issue with my TZ I was reluctant to have Sony do the work on it. What swayed me towards getting the recall work done was the brand new enticing offer of 2 years warranty offered by Sony if the work was done. I signed up the same day and 1 week later my Vaio world came crashing down

The Vaio tech showed up, mind you he had a shirt with a dell logo and carried an HP laptop. That should have been my first clue that this guy would not know what he was doing. I handed over my pristine TZ to the tech and 6 hours later he called me out of my office to tell me the work was done. In the meantime during the 6 hours of waiting I walked past him a few times and noticed my little TZ was completly torn down. All the pieces laid spread everywhere, and the tech had a video running on his laptop along with a pile of papers telling him what todo.

When I looked at my TZ after all the work was done I noticed the bezel was popping out. I asked the tech what was wrong and he sad, "Oh, a clip must have broken off you can use some double stick tape to fix that". Mind you my TZ was babied from day one, and went with me back and forth to Tokyo several times without ever having a problem and now Mr. Tech of Everything but Sony, tells me to use double stick tape to fix what he broke! The nerve! I told him to call Sony and get a new bezel out to fix it. He spent the next 5 minutes trying to push with all his might, the little part of the bezel back on. I was expecting the screen to break with all the force he was putting on it. After several minutes of this he called Sony on the phone and then left and told me he would contact me later.

Here I am with a broken TZ and for what? A 2 year warranty? Needless to say I was pissed. About 30 minutes later the phone rang and it was Mr. Vaio tech telling me they can't send out the part and I have to send my TZ to California. Now I was really livid. Sony's Rent-A-Tech broke my machine which I use for work on a daily basis and now I have to send it in to get it fixed! Since I had no choice I told him ok and for Sony to send out the box.

Later that day at around 4:30pm EST I got a call from Sony telling me they can send the part and another tech would be out to fix the laptop issues. I told them to make sure it was a different tech so I would not have the same problems.

The next day I got a call from Sony Corp, I assume, in CA. The person on the phone was very appologetic and explained that the rework should have been very simple and I should have never run into the problems I had. He assured me a new tech would be out that week to take care of the laptop and if he didn't do a good job to give him a call. He gave me his direct Sony email and phone number incase things didn't turn out well with the next tech.

On Friday morning I got a call from tech numero dos about coming out to replace the bezel. The new tech arrived around 2pm and had the work done by 2:30 ish. Now that tech 2 was finished I had the following broken, gouge in bezel, broken camera lense, broken battery clip, broken hinge clip, and last but not least a gouged out screw cover! Yippie I exclaimed to myself as the dumb-*** tech sat there literally spinning my TZ in his hands like it was a toy. I just couldn't wait for this jerk to leave. The guy mind you was extremly nice he just doesn't know how to baby my TZ. This guy knew what he was doing its just his method of doing it leaves much to be desired.

After the tech left I called Sony in CA and told the rep what happened. He told me he was very sorry and would get back in touch with me on a solution for all of my probems. So here I am typing on my TZ which has taken a serious ***-kicking via these Tech-holes (I am running out of whitty descriptives for the techs), and waiting on Sony to finalize their plans for me. Ill post back later when they finalize things. Till then, watch out for the TZ recall techs and if you can send your unit into Sony and hopefully you won't have my same experience or worse.

Attached is pics of the damage

 

Ouch, sorry to hear Skippy! These techs definitely do not know how to handle electronics delicately.. what do these guys do, work on Panasonic Toughbooks all day??

Might want to make a short note over in the main TZ Recall thread so there's a record of everyone's experience in one place.

 

Already done just thought my sad experience was deserving of its own thread for pity sake.

 

man skippy never get onsite repair because they generally send a tech thats contracted that doesn't deal with vaios on a everyday basis. Just bite the bullet and send it to San Diego

 

That is definitely a bad experience.

Just thinking - maybe you can get Sony to actually give you something in return for your trouble. (They can always claim damage back from the "techs" I'd suppose)

Now when I'm saying something its not that I expect them to offer you an aditional laptop, but maybe ask if you could get something like a coupon or a not to expensive item (possibly max 100$) as an apology.

It may be worth a try.

 

oh dear yet another bad tech story!
i'm really sorry to hear this and hope you get a good resolution to it

 

Man sorry about it. I know how it felt... whenever my tech guy had to take the battery out, I offered to do that myself as I knew the clip would be broken as he struggled some taking the battery out. I am sure Sony will take care of it for you one of the other way. Keep us updated!

 

dang..this sucks man

 

If I were you, I would ask for a brand new replacement. And I think this should be the lesson for others, never let a technician fixing your computer in your home. Send it to Sony Tech directly and let them fix it, rather than letting Sony hire 3rd party technician breaks your laptop.

 

Yep it sucks and hopefully Ill have a resolution to my problem by the end of the week. Now its time to wipe the harddrive before sending it in. I wish these little guys had normal sata drives so I could just switch the drive out with a blank one. Oh well guess thats what hiren tools is for

 

Have you tried the "Wipe & Erase" function included in the VAIO Recovery Center? (start > help & support > backup & recovery > launch VAIO Recovery Center > wipe & erase data)

I've used Eraser and DBAN before, but was wondering if the Sony utility did the job just as well - and if it left the recovery partition intact.

 

No I didnt try the sony util. Active kill disk always works great for me so I just use that. Took 5.5 hours to wipe the harddrive with a 10% verification, 3 passes. I am now restoring vista on the TZ before sending it into sony since thats what is on the recovery disks.

 

Well Sony's solution to my problems arrived today via 2-day air from Cali. Sony sent me a brandnew VGNTZ-370/B to replace my tech broken VGNTZ170/n laptop. It came with the official xp downgrade disk which was a nice option. I am glad sony made right with me on the tech's breaking my old machine. Of note, I didn't even ask for a new vaio or even a replacement, the rep at sony offered it to me and who am I to decline such a nice offer? Anyways, I hope noone else has my problems when they get their recall work done but if you do I recommend you call to sony and complain and maybe you will get the same grade-A treatment that I received. Tchau!

 

Sounds good.

Enjoy your laptop then.

(First very positive news about the TZ repair "thing")

 

glad to see sony did the right thing for skippy911. as a side note, my repair went quite smoothly. tech took about an hour to do the fix and left my baby in pristine condition.

 

Forum post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=303888

 

Ebay here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=110293407158

 

I sold my TZ before Z came out without brought to Sony to look at it. Now I have my Z, hope this won't happen to Z.

 

I just had a tech come by to fix my laptop. The camera utility now doesn't work, although I never used it before, so it's possible that I didn't install a driver or something when I did my clean install. There's also a big ugly gouge in the top cover. The tech did find that my cover wires were chewed up, so it did need service in the first place...but still.

Question: Why did you do a full recovery before sending it in, since I am going to have to do that now as well? Does it break the warranty to do a clean install of Vista? I also got rid of the partition when I did it. I have a TZ-150 and I also upgraded the RAM to 2GB from the 1GB. Should I switch that back in before sending it?

 

May be an idea.

I don't know how picky Sony is.

But making the computer seem to be in its default state is possibly a good idea.

 

Since doing an XP downgrade is supported by Sony and doesn't affect the warranty, doing a clean Vista install (or installing Linux, for that matter) shouldn't be any different.

RAM upgrade doesn't affect the warranty either, since that is the only part of the hardware on the TZ that is user-serviceable. It wouldn't hurt to switch it back to the original 1GB RAM, but I don't think it's necessary.

I think the primary reason why Skippy did a secure erase and OS restore was either for corporate security or personal privacy. If neither reason concerns you then don't worry about it, but you might want to backup your documents before shipping it out.

 

Since English is not my first language, I cannot be as eloquent and witty as Skippy was describing my own ordeal with the Sony-tech-to-hire.
The contractor-technician of Qualxserv company came to my house to fix the "potential issue affecting my PC model" (TZ-150), as Sony presented it. After having opened the computer's guts he fixed the wiring around the hinge that was a presumed cause for unwanted overheating. Then, according to a numbered sticker on one component, he concluded that my webcam should be replaced. He took out my webcam device and looked in the Fed-Exed kit he brought with him to discover that a new camera was missing!
He re-built my computer and was ready to leave. Just before he left I noticed that the camera window was cracked!!!!
I called Sony customer service, waited on the line for ever and finally talked to an "escalation supervisor" who rejected any responsibility on the part of Sony. He wanted me to send my computer to the Sony laboratory, which I cannot do since I write my dissertation on it and have all my research done on it. He said that the TZ model is not one of the models that receive at-home reparation (don't quite remember the words he used.) Well... I pointed out to him that they did think it was important enough to send a technician for the "potential issue" but to no avail! The inexperienced Qualxserv technician is supposed to order the new camera and the camera window that he broke and call me then to reschedule. In view of the bad experience described by many others that went through the same experience as I did, I am honestly afraid to have this guy's hands back on my computer.
It is obvious that Sony is basically covering up its manufacturing/design mistakes of the model and is trying to prevent a collective class action. But I personally do not know how to solve the problem.
If any of you, like Skippy, managed to get Sony seriously respond to him, please comment on the forum and advise.
Thanks.

 

I am very sorry to hear about that experience. I completely understand your predicament as I too am writing a dissertation on my TZ195. However, I opted to send in my laptop because I trusted the service center to do a much better job--and they did. It came back working perfectly and without any side effects or blemishes.

You could back-up all your work and have your laptop back in 3-4 business days... That's what I did, although I am not judging your decision in any way. Just noting the send back option is quick and painless.

Also, to be fair, Sony has done more than its fair share in addressing this issue. Computers, even high-end ones like the TZ, frequently have recalls and offering both in-home and send back options, as well as extending our warranties was about all we could expect. Getting competent in-home service is another matter. Ideally we should expect that but all PC manufacturers are forced to hire third party contractors for this type of recall since they obviously don't have the manpower themselves and have to provide service across the country. I've often found these contractors to be fairly inept... Sony could definitely demand better technicians but I am not sure they exist for this type of work.

Anyhow, best of luck getting your camera properly fixed!

Ben

 

Thanks for posting this. I was supposed to have my TZ150 repaired tomorrow morning by a QualxServ technician and I canceled the appointment on the phone just now. My camera and everything is just working perfectly and I don't want to risk some inexperienced tech ruining this computer. I still have my dang factory stickers on it, that's how "clean" and babied it is! I guess I'll just wait until December before I send it in for service as they appear to do a better job. My warranty doesn't expire till then anyway. Or I may not send it in and just keep it. It's been working fine for me all this time, and I don't forsee any issues. Y'know, if this thing fails on me, it won't be the end of the world. I've had it for almost a year now anyway. I'm considering just taking that risk.

 

Did anyone actually not have to send theirs in for repair, I checked my serial number and it said that my model was not affected, TZ31WN/B

 

I contacted SonyStyle.com about mine (delivery date tomorrow!).


Aaron_ > Sony recently discovered that a small quantity of VAIO VGN-TZ Series notebook computers sold between July 2007 and August 2008 may generate an unusual amount of heat around the DC jack inlet and LCD bezel.

Aaron_ > This issue is caused by irregularly placed wires near the hinge, or a dislodged screw inside the hinge, and may create a short circuit, causing localized overheating.

Aaron_ > Based on the information above, your computer is not affected by this.