Terrible Sony Support

This is what I have found out so far:

1. If a clean install of Windows 7 has been done, Sony will not support it.
2. If the Recovery partition has been deleted, Sony asks 57 Euro for media (Dell and HP offer these for free).

Any comments, or am I just out of luck?

 

What issues are you having?

 

Burning full recovery disks from Vaio Care on a new Vaio will mean if you want the recovery partition back you can restore it. If your Vaio has a problem and you need to send it back to Sony you can simply create a backup of your HDD for yourself then wipe the HDD and send the laptop back to Sony, or restore the HDD to factory with the recovery disks. That way Sony wouldn't know you did a clean install or have your private data on the HDD.

 

I also don't understand what the problem is.

Sony would not support anything that did not come from them. If you build in a new HDD - they will not repair it, no matter that it is in your VAIO.
The same with new Windows and new software!

Once you start your Vaio for the first time you are being asked to create recovery disks immediately! The same is written numerous times in all paperwork and manuals that come with the Vaio.

In case you did not follow all those instructions..... whose fault is it?

 

Well, I always do a clean install when buying a new computer, there are way too much crapware on factory installations, and my VAIO runs much better. I had some problems with the clean install and finding the correct drivers, at the end I figured it out, but VAIO support would not help, since the don't support clean installs.

The 2nd issue was just to get media for factory installations in case I had to sell my VAIO, the price is crazy.

 

57 euro for recovery media is a bit much. Dell will offer it as an 'upgrade' option for about 5 euro and I hear that if you ask Customer Support about it, they'll even send out discs in the post for free.

If you took the 'fresh start' option (assuming it was even available) theres not much bloatware and most of that can be uninstalled or disabled. The only real exceptions are things like VUAgent.exe which I swear to god is Sony branded spyware. I haven't found a way to stop or disable this VAIO Care service.

 

Both actually your fault. Sony give you a working machine and are ready to support it to remain like that. Any changes you make are at your own risk.
You could have just removed all unnecessary stuff and that's it.

Restoration disks are to be created immediately after you buy and start your new machine. You missed your chance I guess...

I agree though that 60 bucks is a bit too much... I'd say 30 bucks is a reasonable price though. At the end of the road it is your fault.

What do you mean? You just uninstall Vaio Care like everything else you don't need. I removed it and it is completely gone.

 

Well for the F_series for example fellow users posted guides on how to clean install and they're pretty comprehensive, then if a user has issues with it they can ask others about it. Sony_wouldn't offer help with how to do a clean install, but I don't see why you'd need it really when there is a lot of help on a forum like this. For the F_series many many posters in the owners lounge have done clean installs because of the bloatware... I'm just a little lost why it's a bad thing that Sony_doesn't help users clean install.

The second issue, from Vaio Care you can burn full factory recovery disks, these will restore your laptop to factory default with the recovery partition. If you didn't burn these disks and have since removed your recovery partition then that's your fault. Burning recovery disks is a very important step with a new Vaio in case something happens.