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

[becreative]

Uf, I can understand your problem. I am disappointed too, although in my case everything was my fault. I have a Sony Vaio mini VPCW, I purchased 1 month ago. Everything was OK with it, I loved it very much (if I don't count with the always bad working touch pad. Grrr!). But one unfortunate day when I tried to wake up from my seat, accidentally I pull my little machine down. The downfall wasn't so brutal (it landed on the carpet), so I tried to pick it up as soon as it was possible, but just too late. No more response from my computer, I had to shut it down. Ok, I have the recovery disc, nothing can be wrong at all... I tried to swich it on, but nothing worked. Vaio logo appears, but nothing else. This can't be happening to me! Since 1 week I've tried to talk to the call center, who said, I have to pay 25.000 hungarian forint (100$) for the shipping, then Sony will answer me what they can do with it. But they said, probably this is a problem of the winchester, and if they have to replace it, it can cost 300$ or more! Oh, my god, I am a student, I bought this machine from my hardly spared money, I just can't spend another 300$ to fix it!! So I am trying to fix it consulting with my friends, or just wait another 3 years saving money for another one. I can't believe it can go wrong with such a light hit. I am sooo sad about this. And I really don't know what to do next. :'(

[ashtreex]

This is absolutely disgraceful behaviour by Sony. They can't possibly prove that the screen suffered damage by you. If you bought it with a credit card, have you investigated if you have rights there?

I  do think you should take this to the small claims court. I believe they are very helpful. Just think, you might get your money back and possibly even compensation for all the delay etc, and REVENGE!

This really is a warning against buying Sony goods. I have a little notebook, quite old now but upgraded to Windows 7 - fine but guess what, Sony refuse to provide new drivers for these perfectly fine machines.

[uselesssony]

Yes, suddenly everyone started breaking their VAIOs!?

Nothing suspicious if so many people have similar problems with their screens? SONY should be embarrassed!

[nadotech]

I have a very similar problem with a VPCF13 desktop replacement I bought at the end of November just gone. Oddly enough it has to do with the top right of my screen too!:smileyshocked:

I went to close my laptop and noticed that the top right was a little loose. Didn't pay much attention to it at first but then realised that the sides of the lid are quite flush. It almost seems as if the adhesive is coming off.

The shop I bought it from blew me off and told me I have to take it up with Sony, so I contacted the UK repair centre. They had me take photos of it and send to them (making sure the photos were under their required 1MB even) then told me that warranty doesn't cover as they put it 'physical damage and misuse'. I tried explaining that this laptop has just been sitting on my desk at home and not gone anywhere. Not been dropped or nothing, it just seems that they used glue that was not up to the task.

Now I'm stuck with back and forth email where Sony is sticking to the whole not covered under warranty line. Oh but they can fix this for me...for a price. I've already spent £1,700 on this computer and it's not even 3 months old! They want me to pay to repair bad manufacturing...OUTRAGEOUS!

I feel scammed. I am tempted to go the trades standard route but that is so time consuming, plus I work from 9 to 5 so when would I get the time to run around with this aggrevation. It's like buying a product, taking it home and have it fall apart only for the manufacturer to say no warranty buddy:smileyangry:!

I only bought this because I was trying to future proof myself as this had the best specs (Quad core i7 with 8GB RAM) available that I could walk into a shop and buy it (I needed it quick to do some work). If only Samsung had the specs because the netbook I bought from them over a year ago has really decent manufacturing to its case.