Sony Z Series - Support Woes

[pyro9n]

In the middle of November my Z Series (11 months old under warranty) went back to Sony with a broken screen.

It came back with a fautly trackpad and keyboard. After a minute or so of use the mouse would fly all over the place and/or the keyboard would enter keystrokes indefinately (like a key had stuck).

Back to Sony. It's been "fixed" and returned to us with exactly the same fault 3 times. It's clear that its never been properly checked, or my notes on the fault read. One engineers report says "new hard disk due to slow performance!". In total the unit has been back to Sony five times and I've been without the laptop for two months.

Today we've been told that it cannot be fixed and offered a  take it or leave offer of £868 for a laptop which including a spare battery cost £1766.00. We asked for a replacement, but one is not available.  Two months, and I'm told I cannot have what I want, a working Z Series, or enough money to buy and equivalent replacement.

Perhaps as importantly no one in customer services will tell me who they report to, or what the management structure is so I can speak to someone in charge.

I've been a loyal Sony customer for years, owning several Vaio's and a stack of TV and audio equipment.

My case reference is

534 55 56

I've been promised but not recieved a call back from  Miss Aine Connealy - Supervisor of the Zepan team.

I've been an advocate of the Sony brand for years, and feel like it's completely lost the plot.

We've been treated with comtempt, calls are not returned, no one seems to know the processes, customer service staff are elusive, not wanting to answer questions such as "who are you", "which call centre are you in", "who do you report to". These are essentials when raising a complaint so an organisation can improve. 

At this stage I intend to make sure that I never buy another Sony product, and more importantly that everyone I know understands the way Sony treay loyal customers. 

Who runs UK Customer Services, I would like to speak to them about the way I've been treated?

Message was edited by: pyro9n

[isdberlin]

If it's any consolation (i doubt it, but i'll give it a shot) sony's  repair and customer service in the USA is even worse,  even much much worse than what you describe in Britain.

but same sony style!

no one knows what's going on,  there is no communication between departments, and the customer is the Enemy.

how often did you hear the refrain,   "thank you for patiently waiting"?

i bought THREE z series computers since september 15, 2010. the first one had a defectivie display,  returned that.  the second had a defective hard drive.  sony promised to send a new hard drive to an "onsite" repairman.  after FIVE MONTHS it still hadnt come and someone admitted that it was on "back order".  i was able to return the computer, but it took six weeks and several taxing  phone calls before i was reimbursed.  in a final burst of blind faith in sony,   bought my third one.  it does not allow basic rotation of display -- i need to use portrait mode --  because the graphics card is "incompatible"  with the computer.  on a $3000 computer!  support said sony would install the correct graphics card for me.  i waited three weeks for the part to be sent to a local technician, it didnt come, thankyouforpatientlywaiting,  finally i sent the computer in to their repair station,  where they told me they will do nothing because, well,   the computer just does not support a basic feature like monitor rotation or even extending one's desktop to another monitor,  and that's that,  it doesnt have to.   sony has exhausted my capacity to hate.  after spending two hours complaining my way up some mysterious chain of command, i am allowed to return the return the computer, even though it is four days over the one-month return period, a month in which i was waiting for so called support.   

sony should of course make public that their "top of the line" z series is unable to perform basic computer tasks.......... i wish a computer magazine would expose it.

i'm switching to mac,  finally.  they have great support and the mac book has all the features of the Z series,  it is equally overpriced,  but i've seen it , and it works.