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General discussion

Sony Customer Support

Feb 4, 2005 4:11AM PST

Anyone has any idea how good or bad Sony's customer support is? I'm leaning towards getting one of Sony's notebooks and considering they do not come cheap, wanted to check that their customer service is up-to-par before I spend my wad of money.

I would hate to buy it and later discover that they have bad service. It would also help if anyone has any comparison experiencese.g. Sony versus IBM support. Thanks

Discussion is locked

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All bad.
Feb 4, 2005 4:17AM PST

My personal experience was all bad. This was on 20 plus laptops for the office. They earned a black scorch mark in my book. Also, a recent customer service survey had them in last place. Apple was #1.

As to IBM (and Acer) my recent calls have been dealt with quickly and the issues resolved.

-> But first let's clarify what you can expect from such support. They usually do NOT help you with virus, spyware or application issues. They sold you a laptop and they will fix a failed cdrom drive and so on. But many are screaming over the spyware issues and don't understand that this support doesn't include this.

Bob

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Sony Customer Support
Feb 4, 2005 11:14AM PST

Don't buy from SONY! I have been on a visit to a major defense contractor twice now and they have told me the horror of their VAIO notebook purchase both times when I was there. Lots of failures and terrible support.

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SONY customer support
Feb 18, 2005 9:43AM PST

I purchased a Vaio laptop very expensive price. Then after a year it began turning off even when in AC mode.
then I found Sony had recalled the deffective batteries. I emailed to them but since out of warranty fonly two days before the time limit date they give the run aroung and then said I had to mail the laptop to San Francisco to be serviced at my expense...
I think this products are assembled and produce cheaply out of the US with very low quality control.

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Sony Support
Feb 18, 2005 10:07AM PST

Sony has been very responsive to a problem with my daughters Vaio notebook. There response via e-mail has been very quick, but I haven't found the correct answer from them in 4 attempts. They usuall send you a link to a FAQ. Maybe the problem is the difficulty of my problem. So on a scale of 1 - 10, I would rate their effectiveness in solving my problem a "0".

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Not the best...
Feb 20, 2005 3:00AM PST

I had a Sony Vaio that I needed to run the Restore disk that came with the computer. I don't remember if the warranted period expired. Anyway, when I opened the Restore CD's, the second one had a mark on it that made the CD unreadable. I called Sony for a replacement CD and they would not give me one even though the Restore package had not been opened until I needed it.

Instead, Sony sold me a fresh copy of the Restore package for $30 which did get me going again. Since the CD was messed up from day one, I felt that they should have replace it for free. Based on this, I will never buy another computer from them.

On the other hand, I recently had some problems with this same laptop when I was getting it ready for sale. I called Sony and got unlimited tech support on the issue for $19.95. I probably spent 2 or 3 hours at least on the phone on the matter.

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Had good results
Feb 23, 2005 4:34AM PST

I've had to call them twice so far. The first time I called was related to a virus. I was having trouble recoverying my laptop. I wasn't thrill with there automated phone system, however once I talked to a live person (about 5 minutes) the lady got me fixed pretty quickly.

The second time I had to call was related to my harddrive. It had been making noise for several days and I finally called. Turned out I was just out of warrenty. However the support person who answer the phone talk to his suppervisor and got it repaird anyways. I only had to pay for it to be shipped to them which wasn't bad since they have some kind of deal with UPS.

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Sony Customer Support
May 19, 2005 2:15AM PDT

They are the worse when it comes to support.
I have a Sony Vaio FX240 that has went from bad to not working at all and I have been sending e-mail after e-mails and they remained unanswered. Now the LapTop does not turn on at all. It is not worth it, buy a DELL. I have one too and I never had any problem with it yet, only the battery went bad, I bought another, upgrade the BIOS and it is working well.

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depends who you get...
May 19, 2005 2:30AM PDT

As previously mentioned in another post.
Support is really HIT or MISS. When it
comes to support (or lack thereof) it
really comes down to who you get at the
other end of the phone. Not happy with
the resolution from Sony Support guy #1?
CALL AGAIN! Each tech has varying degree
of knowledge and some are really good, and
some are just pathetic. I see this across
the board with many other companies besides
Sony. I know that Sony in general has a
horrible reputation for support in the past,
but I do believe things have changed. I also
think they are outsourcing their calls too.

From my own recent experience, I would rate
them 8 out 10.