Very upset with Sony repair

I purchased a Z12 on 8/20/10 and on 9/20/10 it kept crashing and blue screening and telling me that I lost 1 of my raid drives and would reboot and say No operating system found.

Sony had me run hardware tests and they passed, then still crashing they had me do a system restore.....still errors and crashing.

Dropped it off at Sony Backstage on 9/24/10 and keep getting the same story....don't know whats wrong, then waiting for parts, then parts ordering system was changed and we have to reorder all the parts.

So now it's 10/28/10 ..... they have had this laptop for over a month, longer then I even had it.

Called today and they said that they have the parts "they think" and that they cannot give me any ETA on repair.

I have paid Verizon $60 for a month of service that I could not use.

Will Sony do anything for me because of the delay?
Is this normal?


Sorry for the rant....but I paid big $$ for this laptop + a 3 year warrany. I loved it for the 3 weeks it worked.

At this point I just want my money back....but since it's past the 30 days I know that will not happen.

Any suggetions/ thoughts would be appreciated.

Scott

 

Yes, it is normal, and no Sony will likely not do anything for you because of the delay. Do a search on the forum and you will quickly find that people believe Sony to be the worst manufacturer in terms of warranty service. This is the sole reason that prevented me from buying a Z.

 

Yeah, I guess that seals it for me too. I'm headed back to the Dell forums and waiting for a different model.

 

That sucks, sorry to hear.

I really hope my Sony Z lasts w/o ever needing repairs, cuz I know it's game over if it does.

 

Good support anywhere seems to be rare, so I don't see how you can single out sony as having horrible support. There's a guy right now on the HP section complaining that all he wanted was to replace a missing key on the keyboard... it's been 2 months and they still haven't fixed it because they are waiting on a part, and now when he asked for it back they claim to have broken his screen which is an irreplaceable 1600x900 version and they have to replace it with 1366x768.

 

You can score a Thinkpad X201 with i7 for $900 right now.

Sony NA == bad. Sony Japan == good. Sony China == good. It's just a sign of the times.

 

I had an IBM Thinkpad T60p that was great and thier support was awsome, they came to me always the next day.

I did look at the X series laptop, but liked the Sony better....guess I should have gone with the IBM.

I am on the phone now with Sony's customer relations. They told me the parts are now coming in Nov. after allready telling me they had the parts and where repairing it.

 

Dell's support is quite good also if you know how to handle them. I was never impressed with HP either, but they're nothing like what I have been hearing about Sony.

Yeah, only problem is, the Thinkpad screens are horrible. And that's one of my most critical requirements: a great screen.

It's really too bad about the Z, because so much about it is just what I want.

 

Dude, did you buy it with an AMEX card. If you didn't, you should get an AMEX card. Not only do they double the warranty, I've used it many times it couldn't be a more hassle free process. But, the big thing for you right now is that AMEX will buy the item from you if the store won't take it back within 90 days.

 

Well, considering I've had IBM (Lenovo) support where they pick the computer from my site within 24-hours and deliver the repaired computer back to me within 1 week - all this at their charge, I don't think your argument is very valid.

Some companies have a good process and experience in on-site-warranty replacement, even for consumer computers.

Others do not.

Sony falls in the latter category.

This is also for me the reason why I refuse to plunk down $3000 on a Sony Z-series.

Top price requires top service and Sony doesn't know how to offer it. It's a bulk consumer electronics manufacturer, not a professional IT-service company and it really does show in the warranty side.

 

limited to $300 on a single item
https://www212.americanexpress.com/...n_allccsg_shareddetails&type=intbenefitdetail

 

you can file a bbb complaint along with a atg complaint. and/or just talk to the manager at the store and tell him you want it replaced.

also reverse the CC charges

 

You should have signed up for square trade. 5 days guaranteed or your money back.

 

OK, after a very long phone call with Sony they called my local Sony store and told me to come in for a new Sony Z12 laptop in the box.

Went in and returned my empty box (Sony has the broken one somewhere)
and then they rang me up for a new laptop....but they did not have it in stock.

So now I wait a few days for the new laptop to come in.

Also, now I have a new sales slip with todays date. I guess I can either take delivery of the laptop or return it now that I have a sales slip with a current date.

I do really like the size and power of the Sony Z .... but now hate Sony support.

So now I have to decide what way to go.

 

Yes I am too... but its said for us to think like that after spending near 3K on a computer. I love the z... but I think next time i will go for apple. Support is very important when it comes to such complex devices.

 

What warranty did you get? Just extended or did you get ADH as well?

 

I got the full ADH for the $399 and when I bought the laptop with it they did an instant $200 off so I did not feel bad getting it.

The big issue was that the latop was only 2 months old and Sony has it for over 1 month.

 

Well, Sony took everything back and gave me back all my money.

Now I need to find a new light laptop.

 

Well, that's good that you got your money back at least (except the $60 to verizon). Very sad that it took so long, but it would have been downright offensive if you were stuck with such an expensive lemon.

Thanks for posting the result. Best of luck in your purchasing..... being picky about laptops => being disappointed with everything.

 

So you pick Dell instead? better service and a crappier computer... I guess it's a matter of choosing one evil over another.

Never had as much problems with any computer as with dells systems.

 

As a technician, Dells are far, far, far, far, far, far, far easier to service.

 

IMO the problem is that with Sony, there is no consumer/business division. "Generally" the business lines with Dell, HP, & Lenovo provide better support than their consumer counterparts. With Sony, I think the premium you pay over competing brands is to cover their R&D costs (higher cost of living for the Japanese staff compared to other Asian countries) and less so to the support division, which probably lacks good management.


-This is just my speculation.

So what are you looking for now? The Z is in a class of its own, so it might be hard to find a comparable laptop with the similar specs, i.e builtin WWAN card, dedicated graphics, i5/i7 chip, light-weight, high resolution, backlit keyboard, etc. You're gonna have to sacrifice some features (don't worry about SSD, you can do an upgrade yourself with any new laptop).

 

Yeah the only thing even sort of comparable was the HP Envy 14: similar graphics power, similar size, great SSD options, though quite a bit heavier. But now HP has downgraded their 1600x900 screen, so the only display option is pretty low-res...

 

Envy isn't even remotely comparable to the z. You'll have to lug one around to understand.

 

dells are fine, sonys are fine. you just need to find what you want.

 

My screen cracked, sony fixed it, they sent it back. We all have our horror stories for each company.

 

Well, after thinking about what I really want for a laptop 2 things standing out. Less than 3 lbs. and SSD disk.

I can’t believe I am even thinking this let alone typing this….I might get a Mac 13” Air loaded with the upgraded CPU and 4 GB of ram and 256 GB SSD.

It can run Windows in a VM for the stuff I need there, never mind that it seems just as fast as the Sony Z with the SSD disk in it.

I know I will lose a lot of the bells and whistles that the Sony has, that I really did not use.

I have a MiFi for on the road 3G and I never use a DVD drive.

I still am looking for a Windows laptop….but have not seen anything great.

 

I don't know why it took 1.86ghz + 128gb ssd MB + 4gb air took 30mins to install sp1 RC windows 7 on boot camp wherease it only took 10mins on vpcz with i7-620m + 256gb + 8gb.....

what would be causing the most significant difference here?

 

I've owned a Dell before and whilst it was easy to obtain discounts i found the customer service and support to be quite unprofessional.

I've also owned a few Macs and have had my computer in service. My repair took a very long time for one but i credit them for offering me a new replacement the second time my laptop failed. They also refused when i had another fault to send UPS to pick my laptop up (I live in the UK and this turned into Apple's policy) so i had to try and convince them to do this as it was not convenient for me to hunt down an Apple authorised repair store.

I've also sent a laptop to Sony for repair and the repair took long but they arranged pick up swiftly and i could have been billed for this job but i wasn't.

Fujitsu by far really has provided the best support that i have seen.

To the OP if you're looking for another brand you may want to start a post in the what notebook should i buy forum.

 

Dual/Quad SSD raid0 along with the vastly superior processor.