Appalled by warranty service from Sony Vaio

[Sarduk]

A week after I got my laptop (~ 10 months ago, Sony Vaio SZ3), one of the side plastic panels was coming loose. You could apply little pressure and it would come apart slightly. It never really fell off, but could easily snap (which is a big problem, because then it would be hard to argue it was due to a fault to begin with).

Sent it back, was repaired on guarantee. Returned promptly.

10 months on, exactly the same build fault is occurring, on exactly the same panel. No excessive wear and tear, no physical damage - just the same fault, likely the result of poor build quality.

Now, Vaio are claiming the fault is a physical damage and will cost £148 + VAT to repair, and it cannot be done under warranty.

I have disputed this and told them that they repaired the same thing, free of charge 10 months previous.

In reply, they said "Replacement parts only have a six month warranty, regardless of your overall warranty".

While I do not know whether or not this is true, I replied that the fault isn't with the replaced part, but how it is attached to the base unit.

They sent me a picture of the supposed damage - can you see any? I sure can't, and nor could the embarrassed representative who was talking to me on the phone:

I am waiting to hear back from them, but I am not confident - 4 phone calls and they are still saying it is the result of my physical damage.

If they do not repair it under warranty, I am going to pay them to fix it, have it returned, sell the laptop, buy a Dell and then sue them for my costs and expenses (on the basis of harming my statutory rights and not upholding the warranty).

My laptop is coming to the end of its warranty, and I usually replace around about this time (and it was going to be another £1600s worth of Vaio kit), but thank goodness I've experienced this now rather than later.

 

[platypus]

Buying a Dell is all well and good, but if you accept liability by paying for the repair, you sure as hell won't have much of a case to sue them with.

 

[Sarduk]

Buying a Dell is all well and good, but if you accept liability by paying for the repair, you sure as hell won't have much of a case to sue them with.

Not if I make it clear in writing that I am not accepting liability, and just need the laptop back

 

[platypus]

Paying for the repair as per terms of their returns is accepting liability.

 

[Dano]

In reply, they said "Replacement parts only have a six month warranty, regardless of your overall warranty".

I don't see that they have a leg to stand on with that comment, the laptop is still in warranty and parts replaced by them must be included in that warranty as far as I am aware, they cannot shorten it just because they have replaced parts.

 

[platypus]

I don't see that they have a leg to stand on with that comment, the laptop is still in warranty and parts replaced by them must be included in that warranty as far as I am aware, they cannot shorten it just because they have replaced parts.

They can if they have it written down in the terms and conditions which are agreed upon and signed by the consumer.

Which they probably do, in the smallest possible legible font.

 

[Pug]

indeed, whilst i dont know the first thing about such law, i DO KNOW that my lappy has a minimum of 12 months warranty (more like 3 years using some other ruls - european? i forget), either way, 12 months. They cannot shorten that in anyway shape or form...

EDIT: Can they? thought that was a central law?

 

[PardonTheWait]

Give Trading Standards a tinkle, they give good advice and they know the rules. Then phone Sony back, and before you've finished saying 'Trading Standards have advised me to....' they'll gave bottled it.

 

[ICEx21]

If they say it's accidental damage then that isn't covered in the warranty that's more in the line of insurance I think.

 

[jamoor]

Sony Vaio machines are generally poor, I have owned a TX3XP which has been excellent, I have a SZ1M/B which is junk.

I have been impressed by Dell.

 

[Greenlizard0]

Not sure if this helps here, but aren't Toshiba and Asus' laptops supposed to be quite sturdy?

 

[Dano]

They can if they have it written down in the terms and conditions which are agreed upon and signed by the consumer.

Which they probably do, in the smallest possible legible font.

No, I don't think so even then, new goods in the UK have to have a 1 year warranty and them repairing it does nothing to change that whatever their terms and conditions, IIRC of course

 

[yak.h'cir]

Buy HP, my laptop came with a 3 year warranty as standard. I've just called them actually since I messed up the bios and they're sending an engineer to my house on Wednesday to fix it completely free of charge

 

[Sagalout]

I'd never buy another Sony laptop. The old Vaio I had was by far the shoddiest built piece of computer equipment I've ever owned.

 

[LordSplodge]

Both my brother an I have had Sony Vaios of varying models and they have not had very good build quality for the price, I had a hell of a time getting support when mine bust.

We have both had Dells and to be honest they are better built, especially considering the price. We didn't have to call Dell during the time we had them so I cannot comment on support (they where covered with NBD Business Support and I have used that at work and found it to be very good)

We both have Apple MacBooks now!

If I was to OP I'd go to Trading Standards. I had to do this when I had a problem withy Sony and it worked a treat!

 

[syke]

Buy HP, my laptop came with a 3 year warranty as standard. I've just called them actually since I messed up the bios and they're sending an engineer to my house on Wednesday to fix it completely free of charge

Dont buy HP.

My Laptop has a known fault for the model, and theyre wanting £269 even though they should extend the warranty, and its one of the models that gets the fault, but isnt in the part number that they require.

HP are quality laptops, but when it comes to dealing with them, they are absolutely shocking. I now have a £1100 laptop sitting gathering dust.

 

[Gaijin]

I found my Sony Laptop to be excellent up until I sold it. I dropped it three times at chest height (not at the same time!) and it worked fine afterwards.

Customer support for my PS2 was excellent, mine was 3 months out of warranty and the chap at the end of the phone organised it to be picked up and swapped next day regardless.

However, I absolutely agree that the quality control can be shocking, and when you report the problem, they do **** all about it.

I had a couple of pairs of EX71 headphones and the rubber coating for the wiring appears to rot and degrade upon contact with your skin/sweat. Thus it degrades to a paste and peels off.

Rang them twice to report this (six months apart) and all they say is "return to the supplier for a replacement".

They didn't care that the same thing would start happening again within a month, nor did they fix the problem over a year.

They even refuse to acknowledge it was a known issue, despite it being a very well known issue.

I'll admit it, these are the best sounding bud style headphones I've ever used. What I didn't like was the fact that the wiring basically rotted on me, for lack of a better word. Before I knew it, there were entire lengths of cable that were exposed when the shielding began to deteriorate. And this wasn't even three months after I purchased them that this began to happen.

The headphones still worked but it becomes a bit of a drag when you're listening to headphones that look like something you fished out of the garbage. Not only that, I know at least three other people that this happened to as well, so I know this isn't an isolated thing.

If they haven't fixed the wire issue, I suggest you go with something else.

 

[yak.h'cir]

Dont buy HP.

My Laptop has a known fault for the model, and theyre wanting £269 even though they should extend the warranty, and its one of the models that gets the fault, but isnt in the part number that they require.

HP are quality laptops, but when it comes to dealing with them, they are absolutely shocking. I now have a £1100 laptop sitting gathering dust.

That's crazy! They're doing a free on-site fix for me for a problem that was pretty much caused by myself!

 

[THMRK]

At Dell, we can't really shift the blame onto the customer by saying things like "oh, it must be user damage". If the customer says it's not, we cannot legally argue with that. We CAN ask for photos for proof though when it comes to this kind of thing. We're in a position to do that an assess the damage from there. But I've never, and have never been told to, outright say "It must be user damage" if the customer has not said so.

Either way, that kind of thing looks like overtight hinges. Which are common with some Dell laptops. Is it a known issue with some Sonys too?

I'd buy a Dell, and not just because I work for them. The business warranty is pretty damn good, tbh.

However, if they've collected it and said it's user damage there isn't a great deal you can do, I'm afraid. Even if it's evident it's not (and I think it's pretty damn evident it's not).

 

[Sarduk]

Well, it seems whining on the internet does get you somewhere.

I posted almost the same thread on the Club Vaio forums. I called back today (I was meant to hear back from them on Friday) and spoke to someone who read through the account history.

She said there has been a 'long update' made to it this morning, she read it out to me.

It was a notice from 'head office' citing my forum post, saying that the picture that showed no damage and stated an understanding as to why I was angry at the service. It also cited a service bulletin, and it is a known fault that should be fully repaired, free of charge.

I am impressed, because whoever saw the forum post took the time to find out my case (the only details I gave were that I had an SZ3, and the plastic panel was at fault), and gave the repair centre a whipping for messing me about.

So maybe it was just one of those things, and there is a bumhole engineer in the back-office who kept sending the support reps back to me to say it was my fault, my liability etc.

Thanks for all your messages, and +1 here for Sony Vaio (Head Office, at least).