First "taste" of Sony customer support

[gvtexas]

Bought an SJ30...love it. Opened the *factory sealed* box and it contained two manuals. After looking at the PDF files on the CD, I realized that Sony did not include one of the manuals (wasn't the Get Started or the Applications one, was the general instruction guide...can't remember, it's at home).

So...

Off I went to the Sony site to e-mail a request for a printed copy of the manual that should have been in the box in the first place. Found a place to e-mail support (proved to be difficult to find on the site in the first place), and asked for the missing manual to be sent to me.

First reply from Sony: "To order a manual, contact Parts and Accessories department at this phone number."

I e-mailed back that "no, I don't want to buy a manual, I want the one that your employee or the fulfillment house employee forgot to include in the box...who do I talked to to get a copy sent to me."

They emailed back: "You should contact the dealer where you bought it for a replacement. In the meantime, to order a manual contact our Parts and Accessories department at this number."

SO...I'm supposed to bludgeon the dealer into opening up another factory-sealed box (and there was only 1 other box) to rip off the manual from to replace the void I got in my factory-sealed box, thereby rendering his other box one manual less than what it's supposed to be?

In the meantime, I printed out the PDF file of the manual that was missing and gave up the fight. Life's too short!

Gary

[Berto2112]

Funny I don't think my SJ-20 came with a general manual.... I have the "Read this first" green book that says chapters 1,2 and 3 on the cover...and then I have the blue "Add-on applications guide" Is there another book I should know about, or is this all I'm supposed to have?

[russr]

This is a funny thread as Sony only includes two printed manuals...the Getting Started/Read This First and the Add-Ons manual.

The other manual is on the CD I believe, but in any case, you didn't get short changed as that's all that all of us got as well.

[Berto2112]

Ahhh....good. Not that I really looked for/needed it. True geeks don't read the manuals. We're perfectly capable of breaking our toys on our own without the help of a manual....

[gvtexas]

Originally posted by russr
This is a funny thread as Sony only includes two printed manuals...the Getting Started/Read This First and the Add-Ons manual.

The other manual is on the CD I believe, but in any case, you didn't get short changed as that's all that all of us got as well.

Aha! Wonder why they didn't tell me that...

When I opened the PDF for the third manual, the pages were the same size as the printed versions and the cover was the same design, so I assumed that it was supposed to be in the box! There are PDFs for the two printed manuals provided, thus my assumption.

Anyhow, as why wife informed me, "why do you want the manual...guys don't read instructions anyway." Well, yes, but...

;)

Gary

[T1000X]

What manuals? Oh, those stupid book like things that come with the Clie! I haven't read any of the manuals that came with my past Clies except for maybe the NR70V I had for a while. Real computer geeks don't need a stinkin' manual!

[rob_squared]

Whoa whoa whoa, are you telling me that people actually READ manuals?

[Berto2112]

Now you're just talkin silly.....

[coklat]

i read sj30 manual 3 times from a to z.. not for the sake of being afraid of missing anything, but because on palm III, IIIx and IIIc i bought before, the manual is indeed about 3 times thicker... is palm-os getting 3 times easier to use? ;) hmmm...

[Derango]

So, sony's manuals are 3 times as bad :)

[t68]

hahahah, customer support...!

[Saturation]

You can skim the manual very quickly, so reading need not be an issue.

If you haven't used memory sticks before, then the description of the Palm launcher directories and why they are so from the VFS, what directories are created by default, what directories are read by default, are the only things unique about the pdf manual in the Clie.

[rprice54]

welcome to the club gvtexas.

[DigitalDeath]

Try dealing with Dell

[Berto2112]

I had a Dell about five and a half years ago and at the time (don't know about now) their customer service was, by far, the best I ever had to deal with. I'd call them at 3-4 in the morning with problems. When got my first 3D accelerator vid card (go Banshee!!) it created some problem in the BIOS with the integrated video card. I called Dell and they guy couldn't help with that cause the problem was still new. He got back to me a day later asking for my email because he had one of the techs write a new BIOS that deal with Creative Labs Banshee cards. He emailed it to me and problem fixed. I can honestly say I've never seen customer support like that from any other company....ever. Just my $0.02

Berto

[pigburger]

Did you ever check the list of contents of the box for whether or not it came with 3 manuals? It should be on the outside of the box, inside one of the manuals or a seperate piece of paper. Just a thought.....

[fjl307]

I bet your "first taste"of Sony Support tasted like s_it didn't it???

[keeperkeith]

i believe sony may have the worst customer service....i've also had bad experiences. I've dealt with many companys and Sony's support has been the worst. I was supposed to have recieved a 32mb MS rebate last summer....called and called...they said it would be there in 2 weeks. Never came. I just gave up. Also had a bad experience with a cybershot digicam. Sony makes some of the best stuff, but their cust. support SUCKS

[gvtexas]

Originally posted by keeperkeith
support SUCKS

Well...it's at the very least erratic...

After my rounds with the manual thingie, I sent an e-mail in about a problem with MSImport. Got an e-mail back within an hour saying it was beyond e-mail support to diagnose/fix this issue...and gave me a toll-free number to call.

Called it, and in the course of half-an-hour, talked to two levels to tech support, who were VERY helpful and the problem eventual turned out to be my accelerator I was running on the handheld.

But the phone support they provided was top notch, can't complain.

So it's a hit-and-miss thing with Sony support it would seem...

Gary

[Gordalan]

I received my SJ30 for my birthday at Christmas. I have'nt used it much except to download some material from the internet.
Anyway. the on/off button is stuck and will not come up. Not a big problem as I can use the buttons at the bottom. I would like it to work properly though as its brand new.
I contacted the Vancouver Sony office, left my number and was not called back. I will be in BC March and I thought I could take it in.
I next called a toll free number I got from a dealer. This number is our of Toronto. On getting a live person I was asked I don't know how many questions, then the line went dead. I called again a week later and went through the same questions again, this time I found that they were going to mail be a box to send the durned thing back, postage paid one way only, with a return of about 1 week to 10 days.
I complained about the Vancouver office which generated a phone call from them, one week from my original call, the girl said she had been too busy to call back.
Rather a long winded thread but the whole experience was frustrating to say the least.
Gord

[exiii]

Sony support has always worked well for me. My only complaint is the long turn-around time to fix a device. With my Palm, it was a quick exchange. But that was a long time ago.

[mrdeucie]

Originally posted by pigburger
Did you ever check the list of contents of the box for whether or not it came with 3 manuals? It should be on the outside of the box, inside one of the manuals or a seperate piece of paper. Just a thought.....

I read the list of contents and Operations manual is supposed to be included with the SJ30.

[LilBill]

THE ONLY PROBLEM I HAVE HAD WITH THAT MANUEL IS THAT I STILL CAN NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO HOT SINK ANY GAMES I HAVE READ THAT BOOK COVER TO COVER AND HAVE YET TO FIGURE IT OUT CAN ANYONE HELP ME ...... SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE AND LET ME KNOW OR E-MAIL ME AT LILBILL@CINCI.RR.COM THANKS

[redeye6]

I 've had great support from sony, My digitizer went south on my sj30. Contacted CS went through the hard reset routine with them twice. CS sent out a shipping box overnight I packed up my sj30 sent it Fedex post paid on Thursday, I had my clie back in my hand on the following Tuesday. Since Monday was a federal holiday I was expecting to see it maybe by friday. It has new screen, no scratches. Aint bad for a cross country fix (WV to CA) I guess they work on weekends in CA. hehe

Vince

[blueflame]

God Bless California and our climate
Andreas

[fjl307]

I never understood why when you call Sony cust support US they always have to ask for your personal information. AHHHHH!! What buisness is it for them to know??

[wickedhousepart]

Sony support in Canada kicks.

I called them twice within the first week that I bought it with general questions about memory sticks, upgrades, application support, transferring files and running them off the MS, and they have been 110% helpful.

The calls werent rushed, the guy put me on hold to pull up insider data on how to workaround some tricks, I would definitely give them an A1 rating.

But that's Canada. Cant say much for USA support since I'm not allowed to call it. Then again, Canadians are in general very nice and talented people on most support lines. That's why Sprint USA and MCI have their long distance carrier inbound call centers three miles from my house here in Canada, I guess. !

:)