Does any else agree with me that Sony Customer Service is terrible

[mawebli]

Sony Reader Shocking Customer Service I received a t3 reader from Sony for Christmas, in August it stopped working, it had been carried in a bag with a Kobo E Book, a mobile phone and two cameras, they were all undamaged.

Part of the screen would no longer refresh leaving a section of text from the previous page , others hav ereproted this fault on Sony Readers I assume an internal connection has failed - Sony choose to blame their customers for this.

Returned under warranty to Sony UK who said it was damaged by me which I dispute it was not dropped etc. it stopped working while being carried in a bag which was not dropped or taken out of my sight.

Sony asked for £180 to repair it nearly twice the price of a new one. They also say if I decline the repair they will charge me £28 'refusal fee'. if this is how they treat their customers holding warranties on their expensive items no wonder they are in such trouble and about to exit the reader market.

If you are thinking of buying Sony bear in mind that their customer service is poor and aggressively pitched towards making money from people with Sony gear rather than trying to hold onto or develop their customer base. I for one am unlikely to risk purchasing a Sony item again if you want to buy items without a guarantee or customer service you can always buy second hand.

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I wouldn't say "terrible" however I would have hoped that you would be informed of the £28 refusal fee BEFORE you sent the reader for repair under a system that I like to call "fair go". 

I have reported your complaint to Sony to see if they are at least willing assist in the "refusal fee".  Please ensure that you have the correct details in your profile for them to contact you.

Cheers

[mawebli]

thanks for this we will see what they say , however really my view is I did not break the item it failed under warrenty and I want it fixed ro repalced under the sale of good act.

I have already paid £7 to insure it on its journey to Wales to be opened , why would anyone buy an item from Sony of you do not honour your warrenties?

Many thanks

[mawebli]

Without wishing to appear rude I think the system I would like Sony to work under with regard to goods still under warranty is not so much 'fair goes' as my statutory rights and abiding by the terms of the warranty.

Charging customers a fee to decline to honour the warranty is sharp practice in any bodies book. Why would any one consider buying a TV or camera from a company who acts in this way? those items can be really expensive and not being backed by a meaningful warranty is not a position you want to be in on a purchase like a DSLR or wide screen TV , a Sony reader thrown away is very annoying but I can get a Kobo and not bother with Sony again as I would encourage anyone reading this post to do the same a thrown away DSLR kit could be a real blow to some people.

[Anonymous]

Hi there

When I referred to "fair go" - I was referring to the refesual fee.  I believe you should be informed of the refusal fee if Sony techs deem that the fault is not covered under warrantee before you send the product to them.

Warrantees are their for manufactureer defects/faults of the product. 

What was the engineers report anyway?  What was their reasoning for not being under warrantee?

When it was in the bag with other equipment, could something have banged the screen of the reader or the buttons or anything?  As this would be a likely cause? 

I'll be brutally honest here : Once the problem has been determined "not Sony fault" and therefore not covered under warrantee - it is extremely unlikely that decision is reversed.  I also cannot tell you of process of what happens when both parties disagree (as I simply do not know) - another member might be able to help on that one.

Cheers

[mawebli]

it was in the top pocket of a bag so not bouncing about much and is of a type that has a built in cover so the buttons, screen etc were protected

they can have a refusal fee in their terms and I am sure it was there but that does not mean they are not covered by the sale of goods act , it still sharp practice. 

They have not provided report or an explanation simply a PDF invoice for £180 and an email saying pay up or we will charge you £28.

I am pretty sure that a connection has failed inside the reader there is no damage to the screen and the non functioning area is an eighth of the screen defined by very straight square edges , the screen is not broken a section is just not being refreshed. The bottom half work fine.

Their techs must therefore have a view on the force that broke that connection and that would require a view on how strong the connection was prior to being broken. You simply cannot know, you can assert as much as you like but you can't know.

The reader was carried with a Kobo a phone and two cameras none of them are broken all doing fine , therefore in my view the bag was not exposed to unreasonable stresses .  I will probably attempt to recover my loss via the small claims court and we will presumably see Sony’s evidence then. I am really very annoyed to be bullied in this way by a multi national company trying to slide out of its responsibilities.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your detailed reply.  I fully understand where you are coming from !!!!!  I will pass this all on to Sony and get them to investigate this fully.

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@mawebli wrote:

They have not provided report or an explanation simply a PDF invoice for £180 and an email saying pay up or we will charge you £28.

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The way I read that, well....extortion comes to mind.  I would want an engineers report justifying the reasons why its not covered under warranty. 

As I said, Ive report this in, but can do no more until its logged on their system and its the weekend now. 

Cheers

[mawebli]

thanks very much we will see what next week brings and I will update all  then !

Many thanks

Martin

[mawebli]

I have now been contacted by Sony and they have had their best minds working on it.

Apparently I smashed it. So there.

I spoke to a call centre customer service guy called Bunmi who followed up with an email.

'As per our conversation our repair centre have confirmed that the fault on your e reader is as a result of physical damage. Unfortunately they are unable to ascertain under what circumstances this damage occurred.

As this diagnosis confirms that this is not a manufacturing fault, the service of diagnosis and labour and repair are a chargeable service as has been communicated to you'

i.e. we will not honour our warranty and give me £28 to tell you this

In discussion with call centre guy he assured me that all Sony products are tested by engineers and any physical damage , broken connections etc. is the result of physical damage and therefore not their business to fix. I put it to him that some connections, switches  etc. may be weaker than others i.e. assembled poorly and therefore liable to break under reasonable use – he felt this was never the case.

The Sony faultless assembly plant idea is clearly mendacious to anyone but a fool (or a Sony executive apparently.)

Told him I considered it was not of merchantable quality and I wanted it replaced he said take it to the retailer you bought it from – told him that was Sony – no dice on that front either.

So if it works when you take it out of the box the rest of your warranty is pointless, you may as well buy from Ebay.

As the owner of Sony TVs, Blue-ray player, phone etc. I am sorry to say I will be buying Panasonic, Kindle and Apple in future and Canon for Cameras (who fixed a four year old out out of warranty camera for free three years ago – how many Canon cameras have I bought since then? two. Considering a Sony camera? you would have to be mad. Anything that comes lose while you carry it around is your fault and yours to fix – no thanks.

Sony losing money hand over fist – its a mystery. There are many factors that lead to a brand losing its way as Sony have but poor customer service on premium products cant help.

[Anonymous]

Ahhhh bollocks.  I am truely sorry to here that.  I was hoping that at very least they would waiver the £28.

I fully understand where you are coming from, as I would also be disappointed.