Very Angry and disapointed with Sony

[Bonnie007]

Well I never thought I would say that I was disapointed with sony, but I am. I have been the owner of a sony lap top for about 3 years, and never ever had a problem with it.
So when I needed to upgrade my lap top I decided to stick with a sony vaio as I was so impressed with my last one. Well that has ended up being the biggest mistake of my life!!
I recieved my sony Vaio laptop AR31s around about 9 weeks ago. I have had a few problems with it, more so software, but have either posted a question on these forums or found the answer on here.
My problem now is a cracked screen. I was doing some work on my laptop, when all of a sudden i heard a crack or pop sound and the screen went all white with black lines going from one corner to another. When I looked closely, there was like a cobweb effect at the top right hand corner of the screen, and then 2 big lines from that going down to the bottom left corner. It was clear to see the screen had cracked.
So I got straight on the line to sony, who told me to take it into my local shop for them to look at it. I did that the following day, and the man in the shop agreed it was cracked, he said the black lines was the liquid leaking through. He phoned the warranty line and spoke to them about it. He was asked was there any damage to the laptop, to which he replied there was nothing wrong with it except the screen. I take it they were trying to work out whether I had dropped the laptop.
As I was going into hospital the following day for an op, they agreed to pick the laptop up from the sony shop, and return it with in to 10 days.
I phoned Sony last week to find out how the repairs were going, and I was told they were still waiting for a price to replace the screen (this was past the 10 days that was promised)and that they would call me back when they had the price. I asked why do I need to know the price of the screen? Only to be told that they do not cover screens under the warranty!!
QUOTE WARRANTY: If within the guarentee period the product is determined to be defective, due to improper workmanship or materials Sony or an ASN member in the guarentee Area will without charge for labour and parts, repair or replace the defective products or parts.
Sony are trying to tel me that it is my fault and not theirs!!
I have been told that the cost of repairs will run into hundreds of pounds, and that I should claim it on my home insurance! NO WAY !! Why should I make a claim on my insurance and lose my no claims on it, for something that is NOT my fault.
I have phoned consumer protection, who have told me it is within my rights to get this replaced, and that I should take it through the company I purchased the laptop from. I did this, only to get a letter back from them, quoting exactly the same as sony quoted to me, they will not replace the screen under warranty and to claim it on home insurance.
I have now been back onto consumer Protection, who have now passed it onto trading standards. I am also trying to get in touch with citizins advice to see what else I can do. I will not let this go. Why should I be punished for something that isnt my fault.
Sony you have really really disapointed me.
Bonnie

[kee-lo_]

Do they still have the laptop Bonnie? How can they prove it didn't happen during transit to the repair bay?

[SSBx]

I hope Sony come to their senses on this.

We all(?) buy a laptop from Sony feeling (hoping?) it's a quality product from a respected company, and that in the off chance there's a problem they're such a well established company that they sort it for us without fuss or problems.

I'll be checking in on this thread to see how it goes.

/SSB

@Sony, the consumers are watching you

[andrewparkes]

I hope Sony come to their senses on this. 

We all(?) buy a laptop from Sony feeling (hoping?) it's a quality product from a respected company, and that in the off chance there's a problem they're such a well established company that they sort it for us without fuss or problems.

I'll be checking in on this thread to see how it goes.

/SSB

@Sony, the consumers are watching you  

That was the reason i bought mine, big mistake, complete joke of a service. They just dont care because they are a big name so losing the odd customers every now and then really wont make any difference to them.

[Bonnie007]

Well I finally got my laptop back today, AFTER paying the £531 !!!
Sony would not back down on it at all. Trading Standards said my only hope was to take it to the small claims court and fight it there. But that would take months, and I needed my laptop, all my work was on it.
When I paid the money, they said I would have the laptop back by the following tuesday, When it didnt arrive i called them again, to be told that they didnt have the part they needed, and that it wouldnt be in until the following monday. Phoned on the Monday to find out when it would be getting sent to be, to be told once again that the part hadnt come in and wouldnt be in until friday!! Eventually it did get sorted. They are quick enough to take your money, but not quick enough to get it sorted.
Im just still very angry about it all. I really feel I have been treated unfairly by sony. But this will certainly be the last time I buy one of their machines. As someone said ont his thread, you buy from a company like Sony because you think they will be easy to deal with. What a joke.
Anyway, been testing the laptop out this afternoon, to make sure all is working ok, but I now seem to have a software problem. Internet Explorer is not displaying all the graphics, png images i think, they will only show if i click run as administrator first, which is a pain in the butt. Anyone got any ideas what I can try please ???

Thanks for all your help so far guys, im sure it wont be my last post here lol
Bonnie

[kee-lo_]

Bonnie,

I would still bring it up with the small claims court, you might get that money back. Plus Watchdog is back this Wednesday at 8pm

[iawilli98]

Looks like it's corporate policy for Sony to fob off customers!

As a note I am a Systems Architect for a large multinational organisation and have been working  with computer equipment on a daily basis for over 25 years. As a result of the following I have managed to persuade our purchasing unit to avoid Sony computer hardware like the plague. its Dell, Apple and HP for us from now on. i have never ever had this kind of problem with any other vendor. ( I also had an issue with a Sony DSLR Camera which I ended up taking to court and winning compensation and damages over).

After owning this Laptop for 2 months the silver finish around the wrist rests and track pad buttons wore away to reveal the black plastic underneath.

Upon contacting Sony via its online Vaio warranty service I got the following reply in broken english (bear in mind no one from Sony has even taken a look at it yet)

---------------------------------------

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting us.

Kindly be advised that this is considered to be Cosmetic Damage, & will be chargeable repair.

After providing the information below , will have the Repair Center engineer call you to discuss Cost

-----------------------------------------

So I phoned them up and got a nice asian chap telling me exactly the same thing.

essentially if I bought a car and two months along the paint fell off during normal use, would it be fair that the garage insist I pay for a respray without even looking at the car? anyway...

So if you do consider buying a Sony AW XX MF bear in mind the laptops coating will most probably wear away within the first couple of months of use leaving some nice black patches on the wrist areas and Sony will expect you to pay more that £150 for the repair.

I have no other options available that I can see other than taking the issue to my local small claims court (alot of time and hassle I really dont need)

So all in all the above post appears to be the 'norm'

[Blencogo]

So all in all the above post appears to be the 'norm'

It also appears to be more than three years old, about a different model and a totally different problem.

If you have a problem I would start a new discussion.

[iawilli98]

I did and nothing got responded to. After discussing it at work a few of my collegues have had similar experiences with Sony where they will use everything they can to wriggle out of fixing their stuff. besides, quite a few review sites and forums say the same thing (well they deffo do now).

[iawilli98]

different product, same warranty problem.

[chfletc20]

Get the number for Steve Dowdle MD( if you are in the UK) and pester them, thats what I did when my last Vaio kept breaking down, eventually they replaced it with this new VPCE model which now keeps crashing with the blue screen and the mouse pad does not work correctly