stray411
New member
This is a long post that some of you may be interested in if Sony is on your list of purchase options. I posted this on another board, but figured I should add it here as well.
I just left my position (on good terms, I'm not here to bash anyone) at Sony as a Tech Support supervisor for a new job. While there I did support mainly on PCs and Monitors, but also did TiVos, DVDs, VCRs, DSS and Clie as well. I definitely would recommend that you stay away from Sony. Here's why.
1. The LCDs - The SDM series specifically have some huge issues. Not sure of exactly what the engineering problem was but basically over half (well over half) of the monitors produced would work for a month or 2 and then fail. By fail I mean they would work for 30 minutes or so (until they warmed up) and then start displaying some nice psychadelic colors. In some cases just powercycling would fix it, well at least temporarily, but more often than not the symptoms would recur shortly thereafter. NOTE: Sony CRTs are still top notch for the most part.
2. LCD Exchanges - Let's say you called with the monitor problem above. I would have to have you recreate the problem with me on the phone. Well by the time they call most people have disconnected the monitor and haven't turned it on in at least 24 hours. So I have you run the self test and all is fine. Guess what, call me back when the problem is occurring. And yes the phone tree is probably one of the worst out there, expect to be on the phone waiting for at least 30 minutes and that's if you choose the right option.
Oh so now you call and the problem is occuring. This is a $1000+ monitor you bought 2 months ago keep in mind. Well, I'll tell you what we'll offer to exchange the monitor with a refurbished (yes a refurb) monitor. You will be responsible for shipping one way and you'll get that monitor in 7 - 10 business days. Most people fly off the handle at this point. I worked with several customers who were on their 3 or 4 exchange within one year. That's just ridiculous.
3. Repairs - So your CDRW drive isn't working anymore? You want us to send you a new one? Not at Sony. We'll be sending you a prepaid shipping box that will get there in 5 business days, which you will use to send the entire PC in. Turn around time? Once again 7 - 10 business days. Another hotheaded customers I would have to deal with.
4. Support - So you just got your new Sony PC, but you only worked with Win 98 and this XP seems to be written in a foreign language or something. Well we don't do user training, sorry. Can't get online with your broadband modem? Well let's ping the card. Got all the replys back? Call your ISP. Oh you installed an older version of Easy CD Creator and it overwrote your CD drivers? Reg edits? Hell no, we don't do that at Sony, that'll be a format and recovery for sure.
Or let's say you have a Sony PC you bought over a year ago. Sucks to be you, Sony PC warranties are only good for 1 year and you only get free tech support within that one year. We have fee based support for you, only $1.95 a minute or $19.95 a call. And that one year is a little misleading, that is a one year hardware warranty. We only support the software we installed (including the OS) for 90 days, after that you're paying for support on it.
5. Consumer products - Not too different from PCs. A few of our consumer model DVD players will just stop reading disks after about 8 - 12 months. Usually just after the one year mark when the warranty ends.
TiVo/DSS/WebTV units have an ultrasensitive modem that fries very easily. We've had plenty of cases where there was a thunderstorm 20- 30 miles away that hit a phoneline and fried the modem in these units while not affecting phones, answering machines or PCs connected to the same line. And no, Sony does not cover acts of God under any warranty.
There's plenty more reasons not to buy, but I think this gives you the general idea. Sony is supposed to be one of the best, but falls short in too many areas. Do your own research, but I for one will never buy a Sony product again. Just a heads up.
Stray
I just left my position (on good terms, I'm not here to bash anyone) at Sony as a Tech Support supervisor for a new job. While there I did support mainly on PCs and Monitors, but also did TiVos, DVDs, VCRs, DSS and Clie as well. I definitely would recommend that you stay away from Sony. Here's why.
1. The LCDs - The SDM series specifically have some huge issues. Not sure of exactly what the engineering problem was but basically over half (well over half) of the monitors produced would work for a month or 2 and then fail. By fail I mean they would work for 30 minutes or so (until they warmed up) and then start displaying some nice psychadelic colors. In some cases just powercycling would fix it, well at least temporarily, but more often than not the symptoms would recur shortly thereafter. NOTE: Sony CRTs are still top notch for the most part.
2. LCD Exchanges - Let's say you called with the monitor problem above. I would have to have you recreate the problem with me on the phone. Well by the time they call most people have disconnected the monitor and haven't turned it on in at least 24 hours. So I have you run the self test and all is fine. Guess what, call me back when the problem is occurring. And yes the phone tree is probably one of the worst out there, expect to be on the phone waiting for at least 30 minutes and that's if you choose the right option.
Oh so now you call and the problem is occuring. This is a $1000+ monitor you bought 2 months ago keep in mind. Well, I'll tell you what we'll offer to exchange the monitor with a refurbished (yes a refurb) monitor. You will be responsible for shipping one way and you'll get that monitor in 7 - 10 business days. Most people fly off the handle at this point. I worked with several customers who were on their 3 or 4 exchange within one year. That's just ridiculous.
3. Repairs - So your CDRW drive isn't working anymore? You want us to send you a new one? Not at Sony. We'll be sending you a prepaid shipping box that will get there in 5 business days, which you will use to send the entire PC in. Turn around time? Once again 7 - 10 business days. Another hotheaded customers I would have to deal with.
4. Support - So you just got your new Sony PC, but you only worked with Win 98 and this XP seems to be written in a foreign language or something. Well we don't do user training, sorry. Can't get online with your broadband modem? Well let's ping the card. Got all the replys back? Call your ISP. Oh you installed an older version of Easy CD Creator and it overwrote your CD drivers? Reg edits? Hell no, we don't do that at Sony, that'll be a format and recovery for sure.
Or let's say you have a Sony PC you bought over a year ago. Sucks to be you, Sony PC warranties are only good for 1 year and you only get free tech support within that one year. We have fee based support for you, only $1.95 a minute or $19.95 a call. And that one year is a little misleading, that is a one year hardware warranty. We only support the software we installed (including the OS) for 90 days, after that you're paying for support on it.
5. Consumer products - Not too different from PCs. A few of our consumer model DVD players will just stop reading disks after about 8 - 12 months. Usually just after the one year mark when the warranty ends.
TiVo/DSS/WebTV units have an ultrasensitive modem that fries very easily. We've had plenty of cases where there was a thunderstorm 20- 30 miles away that hit a phoneline and fried the modem in these units while not affecting phones, answering machines or PCs connected to the same line. And no, Sony does not cover acts of God under any warranty.
There's plenty more reasons not to buy, but I think this gives you the general idea. Sony is supposed to be one of the best, but falls short in too many areas. Do your own research, but I for one will never buy a Sony product again. Just a heads up.
Stray
