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

[jesnche]

Wow, Sony attitude in this case is incredible! The Warranty must be a secure for the clients in this kind of wrong experiences! Amazing.

I hope you can resolve this problem quickly and also I hope somebody in ClubVaio can help you.

Regards and Good luck!

[Blencogo]

Hi Bonnie,

Sony Europe Vaio-Link Support have kindly agreed to investigate this situation for you, so let's see what they come up with. I'm sure they will reach a fair way forward.

Fingers crossed! No guarantees unfortunately as most 'cobweb' cracks are caused by a physical impact.

[Bonnie007]

Thanks for you help, I hope you can get further than I have. I can assure you the damage was not caused on my behalf, if it was I would have taken it through my insurance. Im fighting for the principle of it. I paid just under £2000 for it, and I certainly dont expect anything to go within ust a few weeks of having it. Im not sure if there was any damage to the laptop during transit to myself, but I have no way of prooving it. I ust know for sure it wasnt down to me. My laptop is kept on my desk at all times, and only I use it.
I tried to phone sony again today, but surprise surprise when he puts my case number into his computer, (and after a long 'nowwwwwwwwww'), he suddenly says his system is down, and will call me straight back the minute its back up!! Still no call back, but I wasnt expecting to get one anyway.
Sorry for mouthing of here, but it just makes me so angry.
Thanks again
Bonnie

[kee-lo_]

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

Good on you, it's about time Sony stopped fobbing people off and making clauses in their warranties when it was clearly a fault in the development in the screen and not damaged by you on purpose.

Hope you win this case, it's a disgrace, and I'm suprised you've not had any complaints from the admins about agressiveness, when I tried to help someone here I was accused of being agressive just for mentioning the Citizen's Advice Bureau!

Good luck!

[Bonnie007]

Well I seem to be getting no where. Sony phoned me back yesterday afternoon, saying the damage is caused by physical damage, but they arent saying that I caused it. But because its physical damage the warranty does not cover it. The lady I spoke to said that, the way the screen went while I was working on the laptop was probably due to pressure building up behind the screen and then it just went.
So How do I now go about resolving this. No one wants to take responsibility, sony or the company I purchased it from.
How do I know that the computer wasnt thrown about in the van on its way to me, or dropped? I find this to be a real cop out by sony.
They have given me a price to replace the screen £553 !!!!!
The laptop cost me just under £2000, and no way am I paying this, or taking it through my home insurance.
I really want my laptop back as it has a lot of my work on it, and yes if i put a claim through my insurance I may have had my laptop back by now (although reading another post on here i very much doubt it). But it is the principle of the matter.
Somewhere between the laptop leaving sony warehouse, and going to the suppliers, and then being sent out to me, something has happened to it.
But noone will take responsibility for it, and why should I have to pay the consequenses????
I'm just waiting on trading standards to phone me back, hopefully it will be today. Im just out of hospital after an op, and have been quite ill since, and all this added stress is the last thing I need right now, but I can assure you I will fight this all the way, and even if it means going to the papers or watchdog.
All I want is my laptop back with the screen sorted, and without me having to foot the bill. I wouldnt have thought it was a lot to ask?
Oh and the other thing, sony will not go into any details on how the damage may have been caused, ie in transit or by myself, but surely if this is physical damage as they are claiming, where is the point of impact on the laptop? Surely if the laptop substained physical damage there must be some kind of damage to the caseing? I took the laptop into my local sony center and the manager there confirmed to sony that there was no damage to the computer apart from the screen. When I mentioned this to sony on the phone, they tell me that he is not qualified to make such a judgement!! Oh my sony are now employing managers in their shops that arent qualified ?
Oh i could go and and on here, but I better stop before im kicked off
Bonnie

[kee-lo_]

Sad really, but it's not going to be easy to prove it wasn't you that damaged the screen. The only thing I can suggest is asking Trading Standards what they'd do; as I've come to a total wall to how you could get some sort of resolution.

I would ask for a full written report, how did they come to the decision that it was damaged physically, not that I'm questioning it, there's a possability that somewhere along the chain someone did throw it on the van, there are a lot of clumsy people around nowadays who couldn't care less about stuff.

If I had escalation rights I would have asked VAIO-Link what their view on this was, but as I don't I can't really do much.

Might be a good idea to book an apointment with the CAB too, see what they have to say about it.

I think it's terribly unfair no one admits responsability, but this is 2000's for you, people are careless and ignorant, and do as little as possible, just enough so they don't loose their jobs.

[Thalamus.]

If I had escalation rights I would have asked VAIO-Link what their view on this was, but as I don't I can't really do much. 

That's not a problem someone obviously has escalated this already, see below..

Blencogo posted : Sony Europe Vaio-Link Support have kindly agreed to investigate this situation for you, so let's see what they come up with. I'm sure they will reach a fair way forward.

[amaru007]

1st thing i do everytime i buy a vaio (3 now) is to buy it from pcworld. i know their expensive-ish, but its so i can take their pc protection service, which is around £12-18 a month. extra expensise i know, but its the peace of mind that no matter what happens, your covered.
my 1st one after 9 months i dropped when carrying, didn't think much of it untill i started to hear cracking noise, looking under the case i found the screen cracked at the bottom. worked for a few days giving me plenty of time to move all my data to a usb hdd, and send it back to the pcworld techs.
downside is it took a few weeks to come back, but i had no worries about any refusals to fix it.

[Bonnie007]

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately its a bit late for me to purchase it from PC world with cover. But even if I had, I would have still gone along this route to get answers from Sony as to why the screen cracked.
Its all now in the hands of Trading Standards. They have all the details, so just waiting to hear something back.
Am just so cheesed off now, as this is 5 weeks they have had my laptop, and they havent bothered to get in touch to say what is happening, if it wasnt for myself phoning i would be none the wiser.
My friend was going to buy a sony laptop last week, thankfully I managed to get her to change her mind. I feel sorry for anyone that has to deal with Sony if anything goes wrong with their computer. I have never ever dealt with anyone like this before, and slow ? A snail would get there quicker, than sony.
Bonnie