Sony Vaio Z

sector · 08-31-2010, 02:04 PM

Hi Guys. First of all I want to apologise for my English. It's not perfect so Ill try to write as simple as I can so you can understand everything.

About 1,5h year I bought Sony Vaio Z21. I paid almost 2.000 pounds for that model. After (more less) 6 or 7 months I had problems with my LCD. The problems was white spots on the screen.

Here are photos how it looked:
Imageshack - img2721.jpg
Imageshack - img2722qxc.jpg

and here is one similar photo from web: http://obrazki.elektroda.net/46_1179383320.jpg

Because I was in UK for holidays I wanted to send my laptop to service to fix my problem. Everything was fine and went smooth as well. They took my laptop from UK and sent it back to Poland for free. I received a letter from someone important from Sony that he apologises for what happen and they are sending me for free microfibre cloth so I can clean better my LCD.

When I received my LCD I was confused because I've noticed that screen quality was a bit worst. I'm not sure for 100% but it looked like that. After using laptop for a few weeks longer I've noticed bad pixels as well. But that wasn't my worst problem. I had one scratch. It looks like its made under LCD surface. Like someone made it when they were replacing my LCD. So, they fixed one thing but at this same time they gave me broken LCD.

Here is photo how it looks:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...d/43d9cdbb.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...d/6ea61010.jpg

I didn't want to send my laptop back again because I was using it at work. I still had about 1 or 1,5 year warranty left. Then again, after a few months another problem. This time with keyboard. Here is photo of my R key:

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...d/3209017c.jpg

I was still able to use it, but it wasn't comfortable at all.

Then I was going to UK for holidays. So I wanted to send my laptop to service again.

It was Wednesday and I wanted to make sure that they will fix it. I was talking with Jenny. She told me from the beginning that keyboard will be consider as 'physical damage' and wont be fixed for free. She didn't even know what was happen. And about LCD she told me that I need to send them picture so someone will tell me asap if SONY will fix my LCD for free or not. She told me to send pictures now and someone will reply my this same day. I told here that I'm in UK just for holidays and I want to send my laptop from here.

Of course no one wrote me back. So on Monday I used Online Chat again. This time I was talking with someone else. That guy told me that keyboard is definitely broken by me and LCD looks like he was hit by something.
I was a bit angry so I told him that LCD is in perfect condition. I was using my laptop very carefully, because it wasn't cheap, and I'm almost sure that this scratch was made by someone from service. By the way - except that scratch I was manage to count at least 4 dead pixels. I told him about that R key that how can it be my fault if I was using my keyboard in normal way and probably that plastic wasn't strong enough and I was typing a lot.
After all he couldn't tell me for 100% if they fix it for free or not. Because I had to go back to Poland on Wednesday I decided to send it to them. I was for 99,9% sure that they will fix my LCD because of loads bad pixels on the screen. Jenny told me before that if I have more than 7 of the they will fix it for 100%!

Guy from DHL took my laptop from me on Tuesday. On Tuesday next week in Poland I had call from Sony Vaio Service or something similar in Poland. That woman told me that unfortunately they won't fix it for free and I need to pay for fix or pay 55.71f to get my laptop back. I just asked why? Why they don't want to fix it, because I'm almost sure that I have a lot of bad pixels. I could use glue for R key and live with it but I paid 2.000 pounds for Laptop and I want them to fix it! At least I want to know why they don't want to fix it!
She couldn't tell me anything. She didn't know anything. How many dead pixels do I have or what was happen with keyboard. It was just simply answer. They didn't fix your laptop and I don't know why. So I said it's not good enough for me. I paid a lot of money and I want to know what is going on. And if they want me to pay to get my laptop back at least I want to know why they don't want to fix that!
She told me only one good thing - about keyboard. She told me - if you can 'stick back' your key and you hear that 'click' sound, then Sony will fix it. In other case they wont.
Of course I said that I can do it. I can click my button back, but after pressing it a few times its going to click out.
After all she told me that she will try to find out what's going on and will call me back on friday.
She called me back on Monday with nothing new. She just told me that max limit for my dead pixels is 7px. So I told her - check my photo - its at least 5 px and a have more pixels on LCD! But what else she can say? She is not director or someone important. Anyway she didn't know why they rejected to fix if for free.

After that I told her that I want to talk with someone important. With her boss or someone else. She said OK - in max 2 days my boss will call you back but that conversation will be in English. I said ok, that's not problem. I want to talk with him.

Now is one week after that last call. No one called me.
I'm getting angry. Why they don't want to fix that? For me it its clearly more than 7 pix. And what about keyboard. I was using keyboard in normal way and they trying to tell me that's my fault. But how? You can't find any marks of using any tools to fix or broke R key. Its like new. This same with LCD.
And I paid almost 2.000 pounds for Laptop with 2 years warranty and now they want me to pay more to fix my problem that they should fix for free.

What do you think guys about all of that? Do I have any chances to speak with someone? Maybe write a letter to someone?

Thanks for any answers and once again apologise for my English.
Marcin

JP$ · 08-31-2010, 02:37 PM

Sorry friend. Unfortunately, similar stories of incredibly poor Sony customer service abound on this forum. Your experience is not unique.

You can try asking the Sony rep for a customer complaint department. I called and wrote a letter, but honestly it didn't do much good.

I would definitely call back and indicate that that lady told you her boss would call you back. It's happened to me before too where they tell you someone will call back and no one does.

mfpreach · 08-31-2010, 03:16 PM

Sucks man,
You *SHOULD* have complained right away about the screen.
As far as Sony would be concerned, it is awfully strange that you wouldn't complain about the screen scratch right away.

sector · 08-31-2010, 04:31 PM

Yeah maybe its strange but there are no chances that I've dont it! Screen is in very good condition. Without scratches on surface.

sector · 09-01-2010, 12:58 PM

Today I had a call from Sony Vaio. Lady told me that guy in service has found only one dead pixel. Am I blind or what? Does my photo looks like 1 px?

fr4c · 09-01-2010, 01:11 PM

try escalating until you reach a supervisor

FrinkTL · 09-01-2010, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JP$

Sorry friend. Unfortunately, similar stories of incredibly poor Sony customer service abound on this forum. Your experience is not unique.

You can try asking the Sony rep for a customer complaint department. I called and wrote a letter, but honestly it didn't do much good.

I would definitely call back and indicate that that lady told you her boss would call you back. It's happened to me before too where they tell you someone will call back and no one does.

I agree. If you were in the U.S., I could give you the number to Sony's National Customer Relations but I don't know the international number. You could try doing a search on your local Sony website or start a call/chat for the sole purpose of obtaining the number (and talk about nothing else).

Also, here in the U.S., on rare occasions Sony will respond to a complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau. If there's something like that where you are, I'd pursue that at the same time as you are trying to work directly with Sony.