How wrong could I be?

Even a brief look at the two YouTube videos below will bring back bad memories and have you empathising with the pain of Sony PS3 customers.

Does anyone know how to reach out to the community of frustrated Sony PS3 users and invite them to join forces with us?

Bye for now,

Alan

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

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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].

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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

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