Loose rivets
1st Oct 2009, 19:30
I started out calmly enough, but after an hour, on the sixth call to Sony support and customer relations, I'm breathing fire.
After 35 years of promoting Sony, either as a user, or as a computer company owner, I have finally shut the door on them because of their attitude to their own design failings.
The saga of my T/V was horrific, some $4,160 spent on trying to get the thing going. My Sears Warranty covered my #^!!. But that's not the point. What was Sony's answer to the Light Engine issue? They are withdrawing support - world wide - for that technology in about a year. At first I felt sorry for them...they had, after all, produced one of the most photographically perfect pictures I'd ever seen. And I was looking. But when I heard what they intended to do, or not do, I didn't feel so well disposed towards them anymore.
The laptop problems started just under a year ago. The battery discharged at a rate that flattened it in about 4 days. The rubbish spouted by some of their support staff beggars belief, and no one knew what the problem was...for several calls. I told them that unplugging the battery meant that it stayed charged. They still wanted to try a new battery. :ugh: I told them that it rand for the normal time on heavy use. They still wanted to change the battery. DOUBLE :ugh:
Time goes by.
Another call, another answer, but this time it was from someoen with a brain. He'd spotted a bulletin of some sort. It took a few moments to find it, but there it was: Battery discharges at 10 - 15 % per day. That is normal.
NO IT :mad: ISN'T. I put to them a list of reasons why that is a bad idea for a traveling man. I labored the point about going through security at airports and having to unwrap the battery and plug it in just to satisfy the TSA that it really is a computer. (Yes, the battery should be wrapped.) Also, in the UK I like to go to places and lock on to a local signal outside pal's houses at all sorts of odd times. Mmmm...nuf said.
Today, after an hour, I finally got a customer relations person in the US. He finally, got the real picture of what was going on. We had arrived at that point via a list of...Oh, a list so long that I'll die of boredom just telling the tale. Finally he got it...the :mad:ing thing had been made like that. Because it had been made like it, there was no fault - there should be an ergo around here somewhere - anyway if there's no fault, they weren't going to compensate me in any way shape or form.
Finally I gave an analogy that sunk in.
Suppose even if you didn't have to pay for your gas/petrol, and you went to your car which had been parked for 4 days, and it was empty, what would you think? It's quite normal Sir, it was made like that, so it can't be considered faulty.
He agreed. But it didn't make the slightest bit of difference, they will not budge. Not fit for purpose? I fought the T/V one - until I feared that folk would dispatch themselves rather than face another confrontation. We'll see what Visa think of paying for another 'Not fit for purpose' product as a first step.
After 35 years of promoting Sony, either as a user, or as a computer company owner, I have finally shut the door on them because of their attitude to their own design failings.
The saga of my T/V was horrific, some $4,160 spent on trying to get the thing going. My Sears Warranty covered my #^!!. But that's not the point. What was Sony's answer to the Light Engine issue? They are withdrawing support - world wide - for that technology in about a year. At first I felt sorry for them...they had, after all, produced one of the most photographically perfect pictures I'd ever seen. And I was looking. But when I heard what they intended to do, or not do, I didn't feel so well disposed towards them anymore.
The laptop problems started just under a year ago. The battery discharged at a rate that flattened it in about 4 days. The rubbish spouted by some of their support staff beggars belief, and no one knew what the problem was...for several calls. I told them that unplugging the battery meant that it stayed charged. They still wanted to try a new battery. :ugh: I told them that it rand for the normal time on heavy use. They still wanted to change the battery. DOUBLE :ugh:
Time goes by.
Another call, another answer, but this time it was from someoen with a brain. He'd spotted a bulletin of some sort. It took a few moments to find it, but there it was: Battery discharges at 10 - 15 % per day. That is normal.
NO IT :mad: ISN'T. I put to them a list of reasons why that is a bad idea for a traveling man. I labored the point about going through security at airports and having to unwrap the battery and plug it in just to satisfy the TSA that it really is a computer. (Yes, the battery should be wrapped.) Also, in the UK I like to go to places and lock on to a local signal outside pal's houses at all sorts of odd times. Mmmm...nuf said.
Today, after an hour, I finally got a customer relations person in the US. He finally, got the real picture of what was going on. We had arrived at that point via a list of...Oh, a list so long that I'll die of boredom just telling the tale. Finally he got it...the :mad:ing thing had been made like that. Because it had been made like it, there was no fault - there should be an ergo around here somewhere - anyway if there's no fault, they weren't going to compensate me in any way shape or form.
Finally I gave an analogy that sunk in.
Suppose even if you didn't have to pay for your gas/petrol, and you went to your car which had been parked for 4 days, and it was empty, what would you think? It's quite normal Sir, it was made like that, so it can't be considered faulty.
He agreed. But it didn't make the slightest bit of difference, they will not budge. Not fit for purpose? I fought the T/V one - until I feared that folk would dispatch themselves rather than face another confrontation. We'll see what Visa think of paying for another 'Not fit for purpose' product as a first step.