When dealing with Sony Style support...

Be aware that it may take multiple calls to resolve your issues, and that very little is ever resolved on the first call. You're in it for the long haul; immediate gratification is likely to be unsatisfactory.

1. Be prepared for long wait times on the phone.

2. Most likely you will be disconnected at some point in time, so...

3. Always get names and reference numbers at each point of contact to be able to refer to when you inevitably get disconnected or routed to Lower Punjabistan.

4. Be polite and patient.

My epic tale of woe certain to become the latest blockbuster box office hit:

I ordered a Z11 a few weeks back from the Sony Style outlet, and the day after I received it, Sony added a bunch of higher-end configs *AND* put out a 20% off coupon, good for 2 days.

Since Sony will not retroactively apply coupons, you have to go the old return and reorder route. I placed my order for a 512GB SSD quad-raid Z at a lower price than the 256GB SSD had cost me, got an RMA # for my first unit, sent it off, and all is well, right?

Wrong.

My new order got stuck in the "processing" state and when I finally called and inquired after several days, they ran out of stock before my order could be filled... but of course never bothered to inform me.

So... net result: I have 0 computers and the 20% off coupon has expired.

Joy. Bliss. Rapture.

I figured it couldn't hurt to call in and lament the unfairness of the universe since Sony had accepted my order, but couldn't fulfill it. Might as well try.

The CSR rep I spoke with got her supervisor involved and set up an arrangement where I could get 15% off any new config or 20% off any outlet config. The only problem was that there were no configs left with either the 512GB or 384GB SSD configs. Phooey.

She says to watch the outlet inventory over the next few days to see if new configs come in that will meet what I want and we set up a callback.

She called me back on Friday morning. The only configs in the outlet without spending moon money were 256GB, 192GB, or 128GB SSD configs. For performance reasons, I'd prefer the 192GB triple-SSD. I asked that, since there were no configs left that came close to what I originally ordered, if I purchased a lower-end config, could they throw me a bone by including the 2-year warranty in the purchase? The CSR said she could not do that on her own, but that if I emailed her the config and the warranty inclusion request, she would foward it to her supervisor and would call me back that day once she had an answer.

Of course I never got a return call. And the same CSR and supervisor would not be in until Monday (today). And the discounts they agreed to give me expire today.

So bright and early this morning I get up and call Sony customer service. After a lovely period of listening to staticy hold music, I reach CS. They cannot (or would not) forward me directly to the CSR or supervisor I had been dealing with, so I gave this new CSR the reference number I had, and walked them through the situation (since they didn't really understand it). He said he had to transfer me to sales.

Insert another long hold period here.

I give salesperson reference number and explain situation. Again.

Salesperson puts me on hold.

And disconnects me.

So after cursing a blue streak (my cats looked at me shocked), I call up again, this time going directly to Sales.

22 minutes waiting for a human.

Human answers. I preface my conversation with "I apologize in advance if I seem terse, but I am very frustrated because..." and proceed to outline what had happened just this morning.

Human is very apologetic and asks for my phone number in the event we get disconnected. I re-re-re-explain the full scenario, recounting history from the egg, and that I have to place an order today before the discount expires and am still awaiting an answer regarding the warranty inclusion.

She states that she can speak with the actual supervisor I had originally been working with (OMG! <sarcasm>Really?</sarcasm&gt and see what they can do.

Insert long period of staticy hold music. I keep looking at my phone, just *WAITING* for the call to drop.

Maybe my glaring at the phone helped, because after several minutes she came back online. Bad news: They can't just throw in the extended warranty.

AARGH!!

Good news: They can, however, give me a 24% discount on the order rather than the original 20%. I do some quick mathemagics in my head and say "ok". She then says that she can also give me Express shipping for free.

So at the end of the day, after many trials and tribulations, I got my Z11 with the Verizon WWAN and 192GB triple SSD RAID, with 2-year extended warranty and express shipping, for $1,370 net after tax.

Yeah, it's not as cool as the 512GB SSD config that got cancelled, but it's also $500 *LESS* than my cancelled order, even with the 20% off, so I'm happy.

Bottom line: Be patient. Keep trying. It may work out in the end after all.

P.S. FYI: Even though the Sony Style website shows the best deal through Sony Financing on Vaio computers to be 12 months 0% financing, there must be either a purchase threshold that gets met or some temporary deal, because I ended up with 24 months 0% financing on the purchase rather than just 12 months.

 

Wow that is a story you got there, at least you (almost) got what you wanted for an even lower price and with an even better financing option (24 months, 0%!). I believe in this case patience did somewhat payoff, most people would have just quit at the long wait times.

What are the minimum payments per month by the way?

 

Not sure. There are definitely required monthly payments, unlike some 0% offers which don't require any payments until the end. I just plan on throwing $100 a month at it, which will have it paid off well before the due date.