I think it would be a valuable exercise to log and post my ongoing customer service experience with Sony. As many of you may have had bad experiences, I figured that I would share with you all what should prove to be an interesting story about how Sony has dealt with me as a customer.

As others have done in this forum, I purchases a Sony VPL-VW50 soon after it came out. Recently in another thread, it has been verified by many individuals that the Pearl does not actually display 24hz input correctly, even with a Sony PS/3! This features was clearly advertised and is documented in the manual. This in itself is not the problem, but I'll get to that.

So I confirmed a defect in the product by communicating what I found in this forum. Great, now we all know there's a broken feature. May be important to some, may not be to others. Whatever.

I called Sony's customer service and they had no information on the defect, or could not understand what I was trying to explain. That may be on purpose, or not, who knows. After an hour of explaining to someone that this was a confirmed defect I finally got my work order number and the address and number of the Lerado repair facility where Sony works on the Pearl.

I sent my projector into Sony's Lerado facility on Dec 24th, and it was received at the facility on Dec 28th. I expect somewhat of a delay because of the holidays, no big deal here either. I called the Lerado facility, and they were able to give the phone to a technician that confirmed that there was a "software update" (not my words, his) that will fix the 24hz issue. That sounds like confirmation to me. No surprise customer service knows nothing about it of course.

So here is where things get fun, and why I decided to post about it, and basically log posts about what is sure to be a fun and exciting adventure in customer service. I was once a victim of Denon's customer service where it took them 4 months to upgrade my receiver, and upgrade which they was offered for a fee, to their customers. Well Sony wouldn't mistreat their customers, would they? It might not be state of the art now, but the pearl was a sweet 5 grand (or less) when it first came out and I figured that kind of coin would at least get you good customer service.

So where's the problem? Well I called the Lerado service center today. Actually I called them again and again. I could actually hear someone picking up the phone and hanging it up. I could hear sounds in the background like an office, and other touch tone noises. This is the first time I've tried to contact them since I sent in my projector to get fixed. So I called the customer service number I first used to obtain the work order and asked why the Lerado service center wouldn't answer their phone? Well after a brief time on hold (I think they called the service center) the rep came back and said they were waiting for a part and apologized for the inconvenience.

Here's the kicker. I called the Lerado center back, and suddenly, someone answered the phone. I don't think I was targeted here on purpose, I think they hung up on everyone that was calling. My work number is not the same number Sony has on file, I just think that there is some deficiency here that has not been handled so instead of dealing with it, they simply just didn't answer the phone at all.

For god sakes, all they had to do is answer and tell me they were waiting for a part.

Sony's website says it typically takes 10 business days to effect a repair. I'll give them that. I'll give them twice that, and see if they answer the phone next time I call.

You can flame me, tell me the things I've done wrong to get my warranty issue take care of, whatever. I thought I would write about it here because something bad happened to me with Denon and I figured why not write about it from day one and see where it goes. Hopefully this is a non-issue but just in case, here it all is.

Maybe more people should be writing about this. I've certainly found other complaints online. The only reason I put this in this forum is because the Pearl was a >$3000 projector and I'm sure many people in this forum have one and certainly would be curious as to what would happen if they needed to have their projector serviced. All this technology is great... until you try to exercise your warranty rights.

Hope I haven't wasted anyone's time to much.

-James

Most service issues from all the large corporations are lousy to say the least.

On the contrary, I think this is a great thread, for two reasons: 1) To help "hold their feet to the fire" a little when they notice they are dealing with well-informed folks, and 2) I selfishly want to see how this turns out, as I have the same projector and the same problem :mad:.

My previous warranty experience was with Pioneer and the flaw with the HDMI audio on the Elite 84 AVR. It was a mixed experience: the initial customer-service droids had no clue what I was talking about, or even trying to do ("It's supposed to work that way!"), however once enough reports came to them that they confirmed the issue, they notified me via email, identified a local facility to take the unit too, and had it repaired on their dime. Two-day turnaround. Not too bad.

A couple of observations:

1) In this day and age, having to take a unit that has digital communication ports (USB on my Pioneer AVR; RS232 and ethernet on the Sony projector) in to a facility for a FW upgrade is inexcusable

2) Sony is waiting on a "part" to upgrade firmware?


Thanks for this thread James... I shall be following it closely.

Not at all a waste of time. This garbage is uncalled for. It's not just a Sony issue, all of the big corporations do it. They don't care if they screw you. Someone else will always buy. Microsoft did the same to me as did Sony and Denon to you. I had an Xbox 360, it's a known fact the launch models pretty much 99% have died. I thought it was all hype because I had mine for nearly two years before it died. MS lied to me, misinformed me, I don't care what the excuse was, fact is I was told I'd get an HDMI version because all new retail versions have one, even for the arcade core version. But I never did. I got back my same one, which died a week later, and had to be returned. I was again told I'd have a HDMI one this time, because it was going to be my third console. Again, I got back another non-HDMI one. And don't worry, you'll probably get flamed. Isn't it great how everyone says you're the one taking advantage of the corporation? "You didn't buy an HDMI version so they don't OWE you a damn thing other than repair yours" Or, "it's just 24p which you can't tell the difference between 60p anyway."

I think a lot of people are buying PS/3's now for Blu-Ray playback, connecting them up to their VPL-VW50 (and VPL-VW60's) and are finding out that 24hz input isn't working properly. I think most of them would probably like to use the 24hz feature, it's becoming a popular bullet point on many display devices. Motion looks a lot smoother and wide pans (in movies) gain a pretty noticeable improvement from displaying this 24fps at 96hz. Some might not think so, but I was personally interested in this ability.

Thank you for that compassionate response. I merely intent to document what is happening as unbiased as I can (is that possible?). I understand your Xbox 360 frustration. I have 2 friends that this has happened to as well.

Thankfully, Microsoft took so much heat, because so many people were filling up forums with complaints, that they at least extended their warranty to 3 years. They took a $1 billion hit for this. I was astounded when I read this. They basically admitted they were screwing up royally.

As for them promising an HDMI version? Well I don't know what someone in an Indian call center can do to authorize that. That was just bad form on their part. If I got back a projector better than the one I sent in, I think I might have a stroke. By the way, people working at these oversees call centers are not bad people, it's 100% managements fault for not providing them the ability to really help you. I work with quite a few Indians and they are damn hard workers. When our software doesn't work, we like to blame management for tieing our hands lol. Then again, we really couldn't afford to loose our customers so we are pretty careful about how our contracts are organized and how we provide support.

Now we have these expensive projectors and receivers costing thousands more, but I haven't read about any of those manufactures coming out and admitting they have customer service issues and taking a hit and trying to perform better. Probably not enough people are filling up forums with complaints like what happened with the Xbox 360. Now I can't be quoted on if Sony or Denon ever admitted they had bad service, so someone would be welcome to tell me if they have done so.

I think one thing that is exacerbating this problem is that my projector can only be fixed at a factory repair facility, and there is only one and that's in Lerado, Texas. There are authorized repair centers where I live, but I have called and confirmed that they can not work on the VPL-VW50. So it may not be an issue if you have some other Sony device that can be repaired locally. Still, that's no excuse for bad service, especially on a confirmed defect.

It's to bad you didn't get an HDMI version, I bought the Elite myself and it has not failed thus far. I really have enjoyed it, but I recently got a Wii and haven't been able to stop playing Super Mario Galaxy.

It has been told to me that Nintendo has amazing customer service (relatively speaking), for what it's worth ;-)

-James

On the contrary, I think this is a great thread, for two reasons: 1) To help "hold their feet to the fire" a little when they notice they are dealing with well-informed folks, and 2) I selfishly want to see how this turns out, as I have the same projector and the same problem :mad:.

My previous warranty experience was with Pioneer and the flaw with the HDMI audio on the Elite 84 AVR. It was a mixed experience: the initial customer-service droids had no clue what I was talking about, or even trying to do ("It's supposed to work that way!"), however once enough reports came to them that they confirmed the issue, they notified me via email, identified a local facility to take the unit too, and had it repaired on their dime. Two-day turnaround. Not too bad.

A couple of observations:

1) In this day and age, having to take a unit that has digital communication ports (USB on my Pioneer AVR; RS232 and ethernet on the Sony projector) in to a facility for a FW upgrade is inexcusable

2) Sony is waiting on a "part" to upgrade firmware?


Thanks for this thread James... I shall be following it closely.

On number 2. I contacted Sony customer service number listed on their web site (Dec. 24th) and they didn't know what I was talking about. When I got my work order and called the Lerado service center, I asked if I could speak with a technician to confirm the issue. He said there was a software upgrade that would fix the issue.

That could mean anything from a firmware upgrade, to a new board or component that contains the software upgrade. I'm not sure the distinction is important since he at least acknowledged there was a 24hz input issue.

Since Lerado service center wouldn't pick up today, I called customer support back and complained. They put me on hold briefly, and came back and said that the service center was waiting for a part. Again this could be anything, a new board, a programmer to update the firmware, who knows. I called the Lerado service center again and they magically picked up the phone all of a sudden. The lady I talked to their told me that they had it but it hadn't fixed it yet. She didn't seem to know anymore and I figured there was no point in wearing out my welcome so I thanked her and told her I would call back in a few days. I thought I thanked her, but I may not have. I didn't bark at her or anything.

You know, you feel bad for these people. A large company puts them there, expects them to do a job, that is not really situated in a way that can help the customer. What else can you do except keep calling, complaining, until they start complaining up the company chain about pissed off customers? Well I suppose if a major news site picked up the customer service issue, that would generate a response from high up the company chain, like what happened with the Xbox 360 reliability issue. I doubt that will happen here with the projector being such a low volume part by comparison. It's not likely to draw that kind of attention. However if there are others here having issues with various other Sony products and warranty repairs, please chime in. The more the merrier.

-James

Or she was just waiting for a call like yours so she could put you on hold while she did her nails. Then once she put on some nail polish she read her canned response to anyone asking "whats up with my projector", with, "it's the holidays, the part is being ordered to fix it."

lol, amusing, but it's likely she's the only one answering the phone and someone above her just told her to hang up on customers since the tech is either overwhelmed, or on vacation, and there's no way to give customers a status update anyway. Then again, maybe your assertion is correct.

When the poor lady at Denon got my call once a week, month after month, you could hear the misery that was her job pronounced quite heavily in the tone of her voice.

-James

Are you saying that the vp 60 has a problem with 24hZ?

Well I used BenQ service to get a replacement for a new PJ that had a defect. They told me it would ship after they received my current one. The next day after I sent mine 3 day UPS, I had the new one. They overnighted it when the tracking number was initialized. They also sent me the shipping label for the 1st one. Experience A+.

I am now in the process of getting some warranty work on the same PJ. I want them to check it out before warranty expires. They again sent a shipping label and committed to 5 day turn. They also told me my warranty was much longer than 1 year and the BenQ W9000 I bought was advertised as only 1 year. O.K. I have not tested this grace but I am very happy with the service I am getting. I am all too familiar with the BenQ 7700 issues after reading this forum for a few years. To date I have no complaints with BenQ.

I wonder if loosing $6B over that last 1.5 years has "tenderized" Sony in any way? This is not like them .... I hope.

Personally I don't like spending over $4000 for a PJ that will devalue 50% in 1 year. I upgrade every year too (3rd trip now). I consider 50% of my PJ disposable fun money every year. Heh, I never have purchased a bulb either! get about 900-1100 hours and wave bye bye to them. The next owner can purchase a new bulb and have about 50% off last years model ...

Well I used BenQ service to get a replacement for a new PJ that had a defect. They told me it would ship after they received my current one. The next day after I sent mine 3 day UPS, I had the new one. They overnighted it when the tracking number was initialized. They also sent me the shipping label for the 1st one. Experience A+.

I am now in the process of getting some warranty work on the same PJ. I want them to check it out before warranty expires. They again sent a shipping label and committed to 5 day turn. They also told me my warranty was much longer than 1 year and the BenQ W9000 I bought was advertised as only 1 year. O.K. I have not tested this grace but I am very happy with the service I am getting. I am all too familiar with the BenQ 7700 issues after reading this forum for a few years. To date I have no complaints with BenQ.

I wonder if loosing $6B over that last 1.5 years has "tenderized" Sony in any way? This is not like them .... I hope.

Personally I don't like spending over $4000 for a PJ that will devalue 50% in 1 year. I upgrade every year too (3rd trip now). I consider 50% of my PJ disposable fun money every year. Heh, I never have purchased a bulb either! get about 900-1100 hours and wave bye bye to them. The next owner can purchase a new bulb and have about 50% off last years model ...

Good news for BenQ. If they make what I want, you can guarantee I'll be checking it out.

This may not be indicative of all of Sony, I've read PS/3 warranty replacements or repairs have been somewhat swift.

As for bleeding money, well many would say Sony is an arrogant company that hasn't learned anything since the Betamax incident. They still happen to make some things I like though.

As to not wanting to spend over $4000/year on a projector, well I think you're in that forum ;-) Well I don't think it matters much at whatever price point you buy, it's going to loose value quickly. Probably much worse with PJ's far more expensive than mine.

But you would have to understand my purchase decision. I waited for projectors to achieve a certain level of picture quality before I would spend $5000. Until the Pearl was released, there really wasn't anything in that price range that could do what the Pearl could do. 1080p projectors for you and I came into their own when the Pearl was released. There was finally a 1920x1080p display device that was reasonably affordable. Sony possibly redefined that price range and now there are many very decent 1080p projectors in the 3 to 5k range that are good or better. Now of course better units are always coming out, but the Pearl was the first projector to offer what I considered good enough contrast and resolution (among other qualities) to finally move into the 1080p projector arena. And look at it this way, 1080p is the standard in HD-DVD and the Blu-ray camps. This standard will be around for years to come. It was a good time for me to take the plunge because I knew I could have this projector for years to come because of it's great qualities, even though cheaper and better units will continue to roll out it should remain very useful. At this point, you can do no wrong to buy a 1080p projector, but you'll loose your shirt no matter what you buy. In 2 years I could certainly buy something twice as good but it'll only cost me half as much. Not much loss there :-) The pearl was such an improvement in ability for it's time that I'm still pleased with it's performance today, except for the 24hz issue of course.

-James

Are you saying that the vp 60 has a problem with 24hZ?

There was a thread somewhere were someone mentioned that VPL-VW60's may have the issue as well. I don't have a link to that thread but being that the units are very similar, I hope that you will see what you can find out. Of course you can always attempt to call the Lerado Service Center to see if the VW60 is affecte4d as well, as Sony's front line support doesn't seem to know or understand what 24hz input means.

Be aware that you will not see the tearing on the bottom 5% of the image unless you are watching a movie that fills the entire area of the screen (full 16:9) at 24hz input of course. Extra wide aspect ratio movies, like many big budget films, will display with a black bar on top and bottom. Since it's just black anyway, you won't see any tearing affect at all because there is no image on the bottom to tear, but technically, it's still having the issue. This is one theory as to why Sony never caught the bug. They may have been testing content that didn't fill all the way down to the bottom of the screen, and assumed everything was alright.

The problem was also visible when I set my PC up for 24hz output and any kind of animation, game, desktop window movement, would cause the bottom 5% of the image to tear. It's horribly annoying once you see it.

I verified this with a PS/3 set to 24hz output and a full frame movie, Spiderman I think but I can't remember for sure what movie I used. Ironic it doesn't work properly with even a PS/3.

EDIT: Here is the thread. If you can verify the VPL-VW60 has this issue, we should expand that thread to include it. I borrowed a friends PS/3 to verify my issue. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12660190#post12660190

-James

I originally started my SONY projector journey with a VPL-HS20 a few years ago, after that I bought the VPL-VW50 which I recently replaced with a "Black Pearl". I had my share of issues with the VPL-HS20 (which I posted on the AVS forum) and always ended up with some "kid" in a call center having no clue what I am trying to explain. They could never tell me if there was a fix for the known problems but they wanted me to send it to Laredo, TX anyways. You would be shocked if you knew what kind of low-wage "monkeys" companies like SONY hire in the U.S. to do consumer electronics repair. I had no real technical issues with the VPL-VW50 other than the well known convergence problems. I tried to get some qualified answers from them at their booth at CEDIA in Denver last year. I could as well have called the headquarters of "Salvation Army" to find answers for my projector... I have accepted the fact that SONY's consumer U.S. customer service knowledege generally sucks. On the other hand their Professional Video customer support group is fast, knowledgeable and ... EXPENSIVE ... try $800 for a 15 minute firmware upgrade on a HDCAM video deck). Why I am still buying their projectors? Generally Sony's consumer projectors deliver a lot of "bang" for the buck. It's a gamble - If I am lucky I will get a unit that was not manufactured on Monday morning or Friday afternoon and maybe they gave their R&D engineers in Japan a few more days for testing before they "threw" the product on the market. Consumers make great beta-testers. Believe me ... they would not get away with that in the professional broadcast world. I bought my first two SONY projectors through authorized US retailers. I bought the black Pearl directly in Japan, trying to save a few bucks. Guys, the "Black Pearl" is considered a low budget projector in the range of available 3-chip engine projectors out there. I would not expect more for the money. For the price the image is great!
So my Japanese import is not covered by U.S. warranty - I can live with that...
If it was a >$10k projector I would probably be more concerned. SONY consumer customer service sucks - I know not to expect anything from them. I really don't care about their warranty and "expert" customer service representatives. The projector works fine for me (running it with a HD-XA2 and a DMP-BD10A - not too concerned about 24 fps). I had the opportunity to work for a well known Japanese electronics manufacturer for about two years (consumer and professional DLP projectors) and was in direct contact with the Japanese R&D engineers on a daily basis. These are the ONLY guys you get real ANSWERS from, not some call center guy who has never even seen the product. Just my two cents about customer service for mass-produced "hair-dryer" projectors from the big SONY corporation.
-Melgon

Makes me wonder if I am better off with the warranty from a third party company. I recently bought from what I later learned to be a grey market dealer and their site says that the grey market products are supported by their warranty. I originally wanted the manufacturer warranty on the item because everyone on the forums was telling me this could be an issue. After reading here, I am not so sure. My sales service experience with this company was the same bad that the OP wnet through with the manufacturer. Their customer service, once you could get to them wasn't bad so maybe I am in a better situation to have a 3rd party warranty than having to deal with Sony. *shrug*

Makes me wonder if I am better off with the warranty from a third party company. I recently bought from what I later learned to be a grey market dealer and their site says that the grey market products are supported by their warranty. I originally wanted the manufacturer warranty on the item because everyone on the forums was telling me this could be an issue. After reading here, I am not so sure. My sales service experience with this company was the same bad that the OP wnet through with the manufacturer. Their customer service, once you could get to them wasn't bad so maybe I am in a better situation to have a 3rd party warranty than having to deal with Sony. *shrug*

You are making the assumption this third party will stand behind their product, which after doing some additional research on retailer rating sites, this company has one of the worst reputations out there. Not trying to be a fear monger or rain on your parade, but their less the glowing reports about them says "buyer beware" in big bold letters.

I had an issue with Sony about a year ago, fixing my Ruby projector. I decided to call coorporate but got no where. I was then able to track down the President of Sales or was it the Executive VP of Sales for Sony via the Sony website. I think his name was on their prospectus. I left him a message stating that I buy lots of Sony products (expensive ones) and that I hope this is not how they treat customers. The next day I got a call from his secretary, who transfered me to someone who "Kissed" my ass. This person walked me through the process of fixing my projector and paid for everything.

I tell you this story because it all depends on who you get and what kind of pull they have. I got lucky and got someone who appeared to have lots of pull.

I had an issue with Sony about a year ago, fixing my Ruby projector. I decided to call coorporate but got no where. I was then able to track down the President of Sales or was it the Executive VP of Sales for Sony via the Sony website. I think his name was on their prospectus. I left him a message stating that I buy lots of Sony products (expensive ones) and that I hope this is not how they treat customers. The next day I got a call from his secretary, who transfered me to someone who "Kissed" my ass. This person walked me through the process of fixing my projector and paid for everything.

I tell you this story because it all depends on who you get and what kind of pull they have. I got lucky and got someone who appeared to have lots of pull.

Sometimes you have to start at the top and work your way down. I have stories relating to Mits and Priceline that fall into that same category. When all else fails....it's time to let Sr. Mgr know.

Please allow me to include Marantz as a company whose service is very sadly deficient. Ihave been waiting 4 months for my VP-15S1 to come back from repair. The parts are backordered and MAY arrive 1/14, but I doubt it as the parts have already been delayed once.

I'm glad there are people posting their experiences here.

I received an email from Sony yesterday, indicated I needed to call them for a quote. Turns out it was for my lamp, which is fine since it's got 1500 hours on it anyway and needed to be replaced one way or another.

The person I spoke to said there was a new chip that was need, presumably to fix the 24hz issue, and said it would be done in a couple days.

I haven't bothered them since so I'll just be going with my original plan and see if this turns into a protracted nightmare or not.

I'm glad people are posting experiences in this thread.

Companies are in the business of making money, and if enough people scream, then it becomes a market force that becomes visible up the chain. A company like Sony is so large, only a significant market pressure will sway their business.

I've read in other forums how PS/3 repairs & replacements are handled quite quickly. It's no secret that they are probably doing this because Microsoft publicly admitted their Xbox's sucked and extended their warranty to 3 years. Perhaps since the Xbox 360 is doing so well against the PS/3, that Sony is putting in the extra effort to make a good name for itself in spite of Microsoft's mistakes. Either way, it wasn't one loan person complaining that made these companies react and provide acceptable customer service, it was thousands of people crying out in public forums.

I don't know if anyone here reads http://www.theregister.co.uk or http://www.theinquirer.net or perhaps http://slashdot.org , but these websites are constantly blasting these large companies for their lack of service after the sale has been made. I find it quite amusing, and rightfully so.

Please allow me to include Marantz as a company whose service is very sadly deficient. Ihave been waiting 4 months for my VP-15S1 to come back from repair. The parts are backordered and MAY arrive 1/14, but I doubt it as the parts have already been delayed once.

Marantz and Denon are the same company for all intends and purposes (for those of you that don't know).

They had my AVR-4806 for 4 months, and I became unhinged several times. I would definitely recommend an in-store replacement program here. As my projector had a manufacturer defect, that required an upgrade, this wouldn't have helped me at all in my current situation. My receiver however, was also in for an upgrade, that was optional and which I had to pay for. Imagine, I'm paying them, and they take 4 months.

The higher end Marantz and Denon units in my experience are pretty exceptional. My particular receiver had a toroidal power supply, and was much more cost effective for me, than buying dedicated amplifiers. I really love my receiver but I will probably be looking at Pioneer next time because of this disregard they have for customers.

I almost took them to small claims court. You should check your local laws regarding small claims court and see if the value of your receiver in underneath whatever monetary limit your small claims laws permit. I understand lawyers aren't allowed in such cases (I could be wrong) so it would be interesting to see. I guarantee you if that every happens to me again, I will be doing that, and telling the entire world about it. I'm not trying to sound vengeful, but 4 months (or more) is in no way any kind of describable customer service by any definition. Further more, call the better business bureau and tell them about your situation. How on earth could Marantz/Denon have a plausible explanation for the BBB about a 4 month delay? Well they couldn't now could they.

I'm sorry buddy, been there, done that. Hopefully someone here has a suggestion on how you can get some resolution to Denon's severe lapse of customer service.

-James

I always asked for my call to be escalated... It seems to help... :)

Well alls well that ends well.

Turn out that Sony got the job done in two weeks. They sent my projector back overnight shipping!

The projector works as expected, and it was completely undamaged upon return.

Perhaps Sony takes service complaints very seriously, but either way I'm glad I had "one" good experience thus far.

Just thought I would update this since it's fair to give credit where credit is due.

-James

I hope I can give them a good compliment here soon as well. I just sent in my Sony Navitus remote for either repair or exchange. I miss it so I hope they get it done quickly. Should be at the exchange center in Laredo tomorrow... Here's to hoping... :)

I do believe part of the 'blame' for poor customer service fall to us, the consumer. I think that you really have to 'trust' the process - sometimes this trust is misplaced, but more often than not it is rewarded. If you pester these company service centers you will get caught up in their cutomer service machine, and that is never a good thing.

Two years ago, after only 4 months and less than 200 hours, the bulb on my Ruby went splat! Out of warranty, I was instructed to send the unit to Laredo. After hearing nothing for 10 day, I called, got the runaround, and really snapped my cap! I sat down, wrote a nasty letter to Sony, and proceeded to march it up to the mailbox. On my way out the door, I noticed that my Ruby was sitting on the porch.

They had replaced the bulb and powersupply, and sent the unit back to me overnight shipping .... suffice to say the letter went unmailed.

Well alls well that ends well.

Turn out that Sony got the job done in two weeks. They sent my projector back overnight shipping!

The projector works as expected, and it was completely undamaged upon return.

Perhaps Sony takes service complaints very seriously, but either way I'm glad I had "one" good experience thus far.

Just thought I would update this since it's fair to give credit where credit is due.

-James

Excellent, thank you James!

Do you by chance have any contact info for who the issue was escalated to, so I can attampt to short-circuit the initial 1st tier techs?

Thanks.

First tier techs are usually not techs. They are individuals who are taught to read from a script. If you ask a question that is not on their "cheat sheet" they are clueless. That is VERY true of virtually every ISP I have used as well.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for it to improve at least from the large companies --- they care about costs and not service which they have yet to understand the relationship between. In fact, you should consider yourself incredibly fortunate that you actually got through the voice mail system !!

Excellent, thank you James!

Do you by chance have any contact info for who the issue was escalated to, so I can attampt to short-circuit the initial 1st tier techs?

Thanks.

I don't think I got anything escalated.

You can go to Sony's web site and find the warranty information. There is a page that allows you to look up a service center using your product model number. I would suggest finding a local service center, unless your unit can only be repaired at the factory service center (Loredo).

After I complained to the front line customer support person about be hung up on (by no fault of my own), the fascility promptly answered my next call. Problem solved.

-James

I do believe part of the 'blame' for poor customer service fall to us, the consumer. I think that you really have to 'trust' the process - sometimes this trust is misplaced, but more often than not it is rewarded. If you pester these company service centers you will get caught up in their cutomer service machine, and that is never a good thing.

Two years ago, after only 4 months and less than 200 hours, the bulb on my Ruby went splat! Out of warranty, I was instructed to send the unit to Laredo. After hearing nothing for 10 day, I called, got the runaround, and really snapped my cap! I sat down, wrote a nasty letter to Sony, and proceeded to march it up to the mailbox. On my way out the door, I noticed that my Ruby was sitting on the porch.

They had replaced the bulb and powersupply, and sent the unit back to me overnight shipping .... suffice to say the letter went unmailed.

There's no blame on the customer when, on the very first time you call, to see how long you may be waiting, the facility is hanging up on each and every person that is calling the center. I called from my work phone, so since that number is not in their system, I'm sure they were simply hanging up on everyone because they were busy, had no techs, or whatever the excuse was. It's pretty damn bad when you can hear someone picking up the phone and immediately hang it up on you, while during that brief moment you can hear office sounds in the background. I would expect any customer to go berserk.

It was the day after New Years and I can understand people might be on vacation, but there is no valid excuse for this. The recorded message on their system clearly stated what the holiday hours would be an it's completely inexcusable behavior to be summarily disconnecting customers from their phone system. It certainly wouldn't be hard for them to have closed down for a few days longer and updated their recorded message to indicate that. But no, it seems it's more fun just to hang up on customers.

That being said, it was all resolved, and my expectations were exceeded. I was polite to all those that I talked to, and kept my furry to my self. I certainly didn't want to make the situation worse.

-James