Repair rip off!

[orlandoloop]

AT LEAST CROOKS USE A GUN!
I would like to find out just how many of my fellow Clie users have had the pleasure of dealing with Sony and their "FLAT RATE" repair pricing?

My power switch on my 760 stopped working. Sony sent me a box to send it back to them. Since I no longer have the bill of sale they (Sony Support) said to send them proof of date of purchase for warranty repair which I did. Now not only do they tell me that the information I sent is not enough to fix my Clie, it will cost $185.00 usd to fix it. However, if I choose to not have them fix it I must pay a RANSOM of $26.00 usd to get it back.

THIS IS JUST NOT RIGHT! Please send in your horror stories, if enough of us band together maybe we can effect a change in this unorthodox practice.

Michael

[Sideway]

Don't need to post this in two forums, do you?

[orlandoloop]

If I could put it as a header on Google I would. I just got off the phone with Sony and am still getting the run around!

[DEA]

Don't know why (other than their huge size) Sony doesn't seem to care about customer satisfaction or "customer delight" after the sale. Maybe it's something to do with the state of Florida's liability statutes regarding warranty service as I too am in Orlando, and have had similar unpleasantness from their product support staff. Nor were they easy to find. I got passed back and forth until I wound up back at the place I started. Very difficult to get to the right department (and probably deliberately so!)

I had a very dissatisfying experience with them when my N-610 was still under warranty. The cheap-a$$ flip cover kept falling off. I had run into one of Sony's sales reps at Best Buy just by coincidence and noticed that his upgraded N710 had one of the improved 'T' series flip covers but could not see how he had accomplished this. We had a long conversation and I consequently forgot to ask him before we parted.

That got me to thinking and I called Sony, asking if there were any upgraded flip covers since the 'N' series release or if they had any suggestions. They were only willing to send me the same cheap and poorly designed cover and plastic clip, and then, only if I would send them a copy of my original sales receipt from CompUSA, which I could not locate at the time. This, in spite of the fact that 12-months had not yet expired since the introduction of this model, (and they are demanding proof-of-purchase before they'll send me another 50-cent piece of crap to replace the piece of crap that came with the unit???)

I blew it off and bought an aftermarket case to solve that issue. And like most things with warranties that start to give problems almost to the day of warranty expiration, I started having problems with the unit not charging regularly in spite of the green light on the cradle showing that it was "on." Lately, I'm finding that the contacts on the unit and the cradle don't always connect well enough to get a HotSync every time either. Any thoughts on how to clean the contacts without causing wear or damage to either unit? Seems strange to go nearly a year without trouble and then have to start cleaning the contacts about once per week lately to get a good connection.

One thing is for certain. I'm never sending this unit back to Sony for service. Too much anal-retentive "Soup-Nazi" guilty-till-proven-innocent treatment! Apparently Sony works from the philosophy of volume only, not caring whether they keep you as a repeat customer. And maybe that works for them seeing as how huge they've become. But I think the law of averages will eventually catch up after enough people have been poorly treated. I've seen from other forums that your story and mine are not isolated experiences.

It doesn't have to be that way. There are companies with exemplary customer service. I sent back a damaged aviation headset to The David Clark Co. one time and explained that I had left my flight bag behind a friend's car. Not knowing it was there, she accidentally backed over it and messed it up pretty badly. I asked them to fix it and send me the bill as I knew it wouldn't (and shouldn't have been covered) by their 5-year warranty. Less than a week later I had my headset back and my old earcups from the old headset for spares, and an invoice that said, "No Charge." You think there's a good chance they will get my business again when it comes time to replace my head set? You 'betcha!

I think greed has spread among a lot of corporations and yous is just another tale of price gouging run amuck. Geez, you can buy the latest SJ-22 for $200 retail, and even less from an Internet merchant, so why would you pay them $185 for a unit with half the RAM? (As if you'd ever want another Sony by now ;) ) $26 bucks is also too much. Return shipping shouldn't be more than $10 (including insurance) to anywhere in the continental U.S.!

And "Yes," my next Palm device will NOT likely have Sony anywhere on it until they clean up their act. The downtrodden "little people" must resort to the only power left to them when huge corporations refuse to listen, or respond to a consumer's reasonable request i.e., the boycott, or voting-with-their-wallets! I don't intend to get rudel, unsatisfactory service on my next PDA.

[Addressed to any Sony executive or employee:]
Sony had better wake up, as those of us on a budget with not-so-much discretionary income, and factors such as high cost-of-living, runaway fuel prices, and a threat of war, possibly meaning the loss of more jobs, etc., all indicate that people are going to watch their finances more closely, and spend their money where companies care about satisfaction after the sale (if they can still afford luxury items, that is.) Look it up in the dictionary Sony and you'll find that most of your products fall into this category: LUXURY "...that which provides pleasure but is not essential."

Psychologist Abraham Maslow was right regarding transcendence and the hierarchy of human needs. We have to have food, shelter (and yes, gasoline,) but we don't have to have or "NEED" movies, audio CD's TV's, computers, or electronic personal digital assistants to survive. Luxuries don't matter if the basic needs aren't met as history has proven over and over in times like these.

You get my meaning Sony?

Best Regards,

DEA