Complain about a product or service

Sony Computers

Jana of Whidbey Island, WA October 28, 2009

Purchased a Sony VAIO laptop in November 2008 for 2,000. The computer has NEVER worked properly, and I have made numerous phone calls and paid for numerous troubleshooting calls for this computer. Not even 2 years old, and I am now having to pay 750 more for a new motherboard, hard drive. No remorse or ever admitting that I got a lemon of a product.

Over 3,000 of my hard earned money spent on this, plus over 80 hours of frustration and lost working hours due to not being able to use the computer.

Leon of Asheville, NC October 27, 2009

Puchased new Sony CW laptop, upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate to take advantage of XP Mode, found out Sony had disabled their brand new laptops ability to run virtual technology, making the windows upgrade useless and me unable to run XP software. Returned to store, got money back. Never buy Sony again!!

ASPASIA of ATHENS, Greece October 26, 2009

I bought a new sony VAIO laptop from a store in Athens (big chain) called PLAISIO. Within 9 days of the purchase I discovered that the w-lan card of the computer is not working properly. I asked for an immediate replacement and they denied me telling me that there is a seven day policy involved and it had taken me nine days to discover the problem. Then they made me talk to a sony representative who not only would not change automatically the laptop but they made me waste all my morning doing recovery and then saying it needs to be sent to ITALY and it will arrive back in 5-8 working days- I think they have a lot of nerve.

andrea of Marina del Rey, CA October 22, 2009

My ac cord failed. It is covered under warranty. After several calls and 3 weeks, they finally sent me the replacement 'brick' but not the wall adaptor. After repeated calls, I still have not received the correct part and had to buy one. I did not receive satisfaction, the service reps were not helpful and it is now 5 weeks and I still do not have the parts that I was promised. They repeatedly told me that the part had not been listed in the system and they were doing it then and it would take 7-10 business days. Still no part!

Michael of London, United Kingdom October 21, 2009

In brief: can't get Sony support (and VIAO update doesn't work) I bought a VIAO laptop 2 years ago (a VGN-NR21E/S). The VAIO update was always unreliable. There was no problem with browsing or Windows updates. I registered with e-support. After resetting the hard drive (to its original state, as 3 Mobile had caused problems), VAIO update never finishes, with 1 second remaining, forever. The support page gives a Proxy Error when I select country (UK). I can get to the UK site via the US site, but when I enter the product code I get the Proxy Error. I have an email welcoming me to Sony's e-support, but the only link is for activation, and all it tells me is that the account is already active, with three links, one is useless and the other two give proxy errors, although the names do not suggest I would get any support there. (I now use a Vodafone dongle for mobile internet, and it works well). I don't like the way they shield themselves from users problems.

Cyrus of Gibraltar, Gibraltar October 10, 2009

Less than 9 months ago I spent £1400 on top of the range 'flagship vaio fw21z' models. After approximately 8 months the wireless function of this supposedly super flagship laptop stopped functioning, further to that the LED lights at the front also stopped working. Now by this point I may have been worried but I remembered this product is still under warranty so great, I call the store I purchased from and arranged for them to collect my laptop and they send to sony for my free repair.

All is well and good for me for the next month and a half whilst I am left without a laptop and wondering why this repair takes so very long. I have already at this point been informed by the store owner that "well it will take a lot of time as it is Sony and they will never honour the guarantee. how can this shop owner after my spending so much money on vaio products (I bought two laptops during the same year, 2 months apart) be telling me this now. Surely a company of Sony's size and reputation cannot do this to clients. Surely this is not the way they make money. A company whose products I have trusted for so many years (yes I also own a PS3, 2 bravia tvs, and a blu ray player)

But sure enough much to my shock and horror I get the dreaded news back that my laptop will not be fixed, not only that but I will be charged 738 Euros for the repair. Okay lets ignore the fact I paid in pounds for my product and now I am being asked to pay Euros which will cost me even more due to exchange rate and the bank fee for paying in a foreign currency. I call up pathetic excuse for a customer service center, looking for an explanation. Apparently my wireless switch will not be repaired under warranty as I have pressed it. Sorry but if it is a switch at the front of the laptop that has the functionality of turning it on or off why would I as the owner of the product not be allowed to 'press it'. If this was not allowed it was nowhere on the instruction manual that was never provided with my laptop. Again I still cannot get my head around why this does not fall under guarantee, I mean surely if it is a button that has an on and an off position, the owner of said product must have the ability to select as desired. If this was not meant to be 'pressed' would this not have been better designed to not even be an on or off switch and just be a feature that is constantly on?

Again the sad pathetic excuse of customer servce agents cannot answer my questions. At this point I spot something else on the invoice I have been sent, I am being charged a high rate fee for the repair. So naturally I enquire about this high rate, no one seems to be able to explain to me why I am being charged a high rate for the repair. Every agent I ask gives me a different answer related to something irrelevant to my question. By this point it is completely clear in my mind I am getting no where, no body can answer any of my questions, no one can assure me what is repaired under warranty or not, at one point I am told by a customer service agent that "well sir you must understand that the terms of our warranty can change on a daily basis", seriously do any of the agents have any form of training? Now here is a summary of my issues, I am being told that my super top of the range laptop will not be repaired under warranty. The cheap plastic parts it has obviously been built from are not strong enough to be pressed to turn on or off. Talking to customer support further frustrates me as I get no real answers from anyone. No one can truly answer my questions regarding the high rate for the repair I spend much time thinking about this, do I spend a further 738 Euros for a replacement cheap piece of plastic that I have been told I cannot press or do I use half of that money and get myself a new DELL for half the price (Same spec machine too) and have money left over? 2 seconds later I am calling up dell and placing my order. I once again phone up 'customer support' and ask for my laptop to be shipped back to me without a new shiny piece of 738 euro plastic button.

Now yesterday I receive my laptop back, to my surprise when i open up the box it came packed in, I have a letter saying thank you for your continued support of sony (in Spanish even though again my machine is an English machine) and this includes a free DIRT CLOTH. Now of course this has made it all the much better now, in fact seeing as you have been so generous as to give me a free cleaning cloth I will immediately call up the office of consumer affairs and fair trading and inform them that I want to drop my case immediately as Sony have offered not to repair my laptop but have given me a free cloth instead.

As for the cleaning cloth to be used on my fw laptop, I have come to the conclusion that no matter how much you polish a turd at the end of the day it is still a turd. A real shame as I have always been a fan of sony products.

Mrs of 35 Shardelow Avenue, United Kingdom October 6, 2009

I bought my daughter a new Sony Vaio VGN CS35X laptop to return to University with. 10 days after we received it (puchased from Sonystyle because our local showroom did not have the range and suggested buying online) it refused to boot up. I contacted Sonystyle customer service who arranged to have it collected. They refused to replace it or give a refund even though it cost £1168 and had only worked for 10 days. They also said it would be back in 5 working days.

One month later and I am still calling them every couple of days to find out when we can have it back. They are unhelpful on the phone and everyone you speak to says it is not their responsibility and they refuse to let you talk to a supervisor. I have now been "escalated" which makes not a jot of difference. They hide away behind a large complicated company structure and refuse to take responsibility for their poor service.

I am never going near this company again - oh, except for the county court hearing, lets hope its very inconvenient to them when they have to attend. I have lost £1168 , my daughter still has no laptop and I have spent hours making phone calls and writing letters and emails. Never buy a Sony their customer service stinks.

Jared of Phoenix, AZ September 30, 2009

I had a Sony Vaio laptop that I purchased about 8 months ago fry one day. I plugged the ac adapter into the laptop, plugged it into the wall, and my laptop started smoking. I quickly unplugged everything but the laptop no longer turned on, and the little green LED on the ac adapter didn't light up when it was plugged in. Obviously the ac adapter was defective and sent way too much current to the laptop and burnt it up. I brought it into a Sony Style store to get it repaired. The sales associate put the laptop through a battery of tests and came to the exact same conclusion. I handed him the receipt for the purchase of the laptop 8 months prior, he agreed that the repair would be covered under warranty, I filled out a work order form and left laptop in his care.

3 weeks passed and I had received no contact from Sony. I saw on the work order receipt that I could check the status of my repair online. I attempted, but apparently my work order number wasn't found, so I called the store. I was informed that my warranty work had been denied and that they had attempted to contact me at the number on the work order, which they definitely had not. He put me through to the general customer service line, and the agent there gave me the runaround about why the warranty work was denied. She then put me through to the repair center, where the agent there told me, and I quote, "we found liquid *in* your laptop." I knew this wasn't possible since I take great care of my laptop! If there was liquid in the laptop, it happened somewhere between the Sony Style store and the repair center! He went on to tell me that there was "a massive amount of corrosion" and that there was no way the work would be covered under warranty and it would cost 650 to repair. After arguing with the guy for a good 30 minutes, I requested the laptop be returned to me and verified my address with him, the exact same address that was on the work order.

2 more weeks passed and I had no contact from Sony and no laptop. So I called customer service back and they informed me that it had already been delivered! The agent verified my address again and, of course, they left off my apartment number. Turns out the laptop was sitting at Fed Ex because it couldn't be delivered. I went to pick the laptop up and, coincidentally, there was another guy there picking up a Vaio that was sent back to him from the repair center with no apartment number! When I got the laptop home, I COMPLETELY disassembled it, and could not find a single indication of water damage, as I had known all along. What I did find was a burnt out connector where the motherboard hit the power supply, which I also had known all along.

ronnie of dollingstown, United Kingdom September 25, 2009

8 month old sony vaio laptop, hinge broke, Sony refuse to repair it ,say it is not covered by warrenty

Leejanice of palos verdes estates , CA September 15, 2009

My teenage son bought a Sony laptop in January 2008. By October it was having "dim screen" problems. He got a repair box from Sony but we managed to get it fixed. In November 2008, it crashed. Was sent back to Sony for warranty repair and returned with the hard drive wiped clean. By June it was broken again. My son didn't want to send it back for another faulty repair and lose everything again, but the computer never worked again. He finally called Sony who told him it was out of warranty now and they wouldn't fix it. So I decided to call them. I literally spent 3 hours on the phone escalating from "Customer Service" to "Escalated Customer" to "National Customer Service" only to be told that they would not pay for the repair and I could do whatever I wanted to do. They also refused to give me a supervisor (saying she is too busy supervising) or the phone numbers of the legal department or president. She actually told me that the president is too busy to speak to customers. Anyway, I called the general counsel's office in San Diego. His name is Michael and his number is on the State bar website. Spoke to his assistant and the PR assistant. Today I got a call from an Executive in Customer service. He had the nerve to tell me how this computer had worked for 8 months before there was a complaint and it was now almost 2 years old. I have asked all of the Sony people how long they think a product should last that cost 1000. Anyway, he finally agreed to repair it at Sony's cost and gave me his number to call when it breaks again, which I have no doubt that it will

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