The following article appeared in a Call Centre Focus newsletter in the UK on 18 March 2011.

_____

Fed-up owner allows Lamborghini to be demolished

A group of men smashed up a Lamborghini – with consent from its owner.

Businessman Han Nan allowed the men, dressed in blue boiler suits, to demolish the car because a dealership would not fix a fault.

He took it to the dealer in November to have an engine malfunction fixed. But it was returned still faulty and with a damaged bumper and chassis.

Crowds in Qingdao, China watched in shock as the £140,000 motor vehicle was reduced to a piece of twisted metal – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jOuMbH3lDk.

Fed up with the poor customer service, he decided the only way to protest was to smash the car up – on World Consumer Rights Day.

The stunt comes on the back of folk singer Dave Carroll, who wrote a song about United Airlines and a broken guitar. The song chronicles his year-long attempt to win compensation from the airline [see next posting below].

_____

I’m now thinking that the last time Sony Customer Service lied to me about fixing my Sony Vaio SZ5, I should have taken it to the Reception area at Sony’s UK Headquarters, smashed it with a sledgehammer , and then posted the resulting video on YouTube. 

Perhaps this might have captured Sony’s attention. Sadly, everything I tried came to naught, and I finally ended up with nothing more than a letter from their legal department.

Meanwhile, if you’re personally experiencing problems in dealing with Sony’s technical or customer service departments, please read my postings below.

At the very least, you’ll  feel better from knowing that you’re not the only person in the world who has: (a) experienced outrageous service from Sony; and (b) been left feeling totally amazed that Sony’s attitude to customer service could conceivably be so shockingly reprehensible, or that Sony’s senior excecutives really don’t care and simply won’t reply to letters.

Perhaps between us, as fed-up owners of Sony Vaio PCs, we may eventually be able to make enough noise to cause Sony begin to pay attention.

It’s an amusing song, called “United Breaks Guitars”, outlining Dave Carroll’s experience of customer service at United Airlines. It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo.

Once you’ve watched this video, you may also be interested in:

1. The prompt and impressive response from Taylor Guitars at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n12WFZq2__0.
2. The fact that United Airlines only paid attention to this complaint once Dave Carroll’s video had been viewed over 150,000 times on YouTube – see Fox News report at http://www.youtube.com/watchv=QiH2hJHPQvk&feature=related.

So, clearly we must all now hope that Dave Carroll will buy a Sony Vaio PC and then write a song about his experience.

Then, perhaps, Sony Vaio will recognise – and start to do something about – their truly appalling technical and customer service.

Alan

I feel compelled to tell the world about my experience, over the past nine months, for four main reasons:

1. So others can avoid the misery, frustration and expense that I’ve suffered at Sony’s hands;
2. So senior executives at Sony get the message that it ought to be unacceptable to lie, mislead or ignore customers in the way that Sony have treated me;
3. So senior executives at Sony will think twice, in future, before launching products with inadequate software development and testing beforehand; and
4. To provide a mechanism for others who have suffered at the hands of Sony Vaio to voice to their frustrations, with a view to encouraging Sony sit-up and take notice.

I have not had the benefit of even a single day of productive use of this Sony Vaio PC since I first pressed its power button on 31 August last year.

This PC has been back to Sony twice for inspection and repair, unsuccessfully in both cases. Indeed, I even had to threaten to report its loss to Lincolnshire Police in order to get Sony to return it to me again, so I can show the world what a supposedly “perfect” Sony Vaio PC looks like in reality.

Unfortunately, now I’m getting ahead of myself, and letting my sundry frustrations with Sony show, instead of telling you my story calmly, objectively and step-by-step.

First let me tell you a little bit about myelf, so you can see that I’m not some kind of nutter with a grudge against Sony.

As it happens, I’m an experienced management consultant with special expertise in helping organisations improve their customer experience. So I recognise both good and bad customer experience when I see it.

I have to say that dealing with Sony Vaio has been the very worst customer experience I have ever come across, either personally or professionally.

My intent, in creating this blog, is to provide a vehicle for people who have experienced appalling service from Sony Vaio, either in terms of products or services, to share their experience with the wider world, with a view to urging Sony to take product development and customer service more seriously.

My next posting will explain how the problems with my Sony SZ5 started.

Alan

Let me briefly take you through these problems, so you can get a sense of how things developed. Subsequently, I will let you know how Sony responded along the way.

1. Problem #1. Initially, on Day 1, I couldn’t register my PC online (as recommended by Sony). Every time I tried to submit my details online, the application process shut-down. Hence, I ended-up having to phone the 3-year next-day onsite support number (a service for which I had already paid extra), in order to register my PC.
2. Problem #2. Then I couldn’t upgrade the Windows and Sony software properly by following the onscreen prompts (again as recommended by Sony). Essentially, what happened was that the Sony Club Vaio application wouldn’t work properly, and, as a result, two of the three Vaio-related desktop icons became corrupted during the update process. Again I had to call the 3-year, next-day onsite support number, only to be told that Sony were already aware of this problem. I was directed to install a patch from the Vaio website. This patch not only corrected this specificproblem but also enabled the Sony software to be updated via the Sony Club Vaio website. Incidentally, there was no mention of this problem in the documentation accompanying my PC
3. Problem #3. Then I couldn’t burn the recommended recovery discs. Again I had to phone the 3-year, next-day onsite support number to resolve this problem. Ultimately, this problem was solved by completely recovering my Windows and Sony software applications from the PC’s hard disc (by pressing F10 on start-up).
4. Problem #4. Then I discovered that I couldn’t play DVDs in both Windows Media Player and WinDVD on this PC. Eventually – having deleted and re-installed the original and updated versions of the nVidia driver, and having switched repeatedly between Speed and Stamina mode on this PC (a hugely time-consuming process) – it became clear that Sony believe it is “normal” for this PC to play DVDs either through Windows Media Player or WinDVD (whichever is used first) but not both. This problem is not made clear in any of Sony’s promotional material or technical specifications. Indeed, all my other PCs offer this functionality. Indeed, I have since purchased a new Toshiba PC that happily plays DVDs in both Windows Media Player and WinDVD with Windows Vista Business Edition installed, so this is clearly not an unreasonable requirement. Also, Windows Media Player automatically comes up first in the list of applications when inserting a new DVD, so it is highly likely that this option is going to be selected first – thus negating any benefits of having WinDVD pre-installed on this PC. Again, there is no explanation about this problem in the documentation accompanying this Sony Vaio PC.
5. Problem #5. To resolve the problem of not being able to play DVDs in both Windows Media Player and WinDVD (which I see as an essential requirement), I was advised to upgrade from Windows Vista Business Edition to Windows Vista Ultimate. This I did, as instructed. The end-result was that I couldn’t even play CDs, let alone DVDs, because my Sony Vaio SZ5 told  me there was “no sound card installed”. Clearly there really was a sound card installed, which was working properly earlier. Obviously, the upgrade from Windows Vista Business Edition to Ultimate failed catastophically (although I have no idea why). At this point, I gave-up and re-packed my Sony Vaio SZ5, in its original packaging, ready for return to my supplier, Port-P . . . at which point wmy real problems started.

More news in due course.

Alan

Instead, Sony told me, not once but twice, to send my PC back to their offices in the UK for attention.

On each occasion, my PC came back to me in the same unworkable condition.

Frankly, I find it really depressing that Sony was not even willing to engage with me in a dialogue around the technical problems I was experiencing, let alone doing something to resolve them

Having sent two letters by registered post to Sony’s CEO in the UK, copied to the CEO of Sony Vaio in Europe, and yet having received no response from either CEO, I guess, like me, you might start to feel the same negative emotions towards Sony Vaio PCs.

If there is perhaps even one Sony Vaio user, somewhere across Europe, who has received a brilliant service experience from Sony when their PC went wrong, then it would be great to hear a contrary voice.

Meanwhile, I have to tell you that Sony Vaio provided me with the worst product and customer service experience I’ve ever experienced (and I’m over 60 years old).

Hopefully, my experience will help others who are thinking about buying a Sony Vaio PC to paus and re-consider their decision, lest they end-up having the same sort of experience as me.

Incidentally, if there’s anyone who would like to buy an unused Sony Vaio SZ5 with a three year onsite warranty, do please call me, as I’d be happy to sell my Sony PC.

Also, if case there’s anyone in Sony who wants to take me to court in response to this blog, I need to make clear that I have backup copies of all the emails and wav files necessary to defend myself in court.

Alan