Are you having a laugh?

dmpoole said:
Pretty sure ARGOS isn't frowned upon on OCUK but just had a phone call after taking our daughters £69 Sony camera back after she had dropped it and made the LED screen a bit useless.
Is that Mr Poole?
Yes
It's about your camera, Sony say it's not their fault but there will be a charge if you want it fixing
How much
£65 :eek:
But it only cost £69
We can send it back to you for £25
I don't think so, bye

I don't blame ARGOS for this but surely Sony must have a brain in their heads to ever think that somebody would pay it - or would some people?

So what are your tales of totally ridiculous Customer Service?
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Problem is cameras are made by chinese working for 50$ per month
whereas SONY technician will be 50$ per hour here in UK.

+ It's very easy to assemble said camera and it was probably designed not the be taken apart. @ 65 quid it's a throwaway sadly :(
 
dmpoole said:
Pretty sure ARGOS isn't frowned upon on OCUK but just had a phone call after taking our daughters £69 Sony camera back after she had dropped it and made the LED screen a bit useless.
Is that Mr Poole?
Yes
It's about your camera, Sony say it's not their fault but there will be a charge if you want it fixing
How much
£65 :eek:
But it only cost £69
We can send it back to you for £25
I don't think so, bye

I don't blame ARGOS for this but surely Sony must have a brain in their heads to ever think that somebody would pay it - or would some people?

So what are your tales of totally ridiculous Customer Service?
Click to expand...

My terrible CS comes from ARGOS again in Newry.

I bought a DVD harddrive recorder for my parents in law took it home to set it up but their picture isn't great via the aerial. When the recorder doesn't get a great picture it shows a black screen. Therefore making the recorder actually useless. (The TV picture is not the best but it is quite watchable).

Took it back to Newry (same day) and they guy said he couldn't take it back because it was used? Kept saying he'd get his hand slapped or some ridiculous thing like that. He said we could have recorded something on it and he couldn't resell it.

Despite 1/2 hour of complaining he refused refund point blank and now parents in law have a 230 quid brick in their living room :(
 
jas72 said:
My terrible CS comes from ARGOS again in Newry.

I bought a DVD harddrive recorder for my parents in law took it home to set it up but their picture isn't great via the aerial. When the recorder doesn't get a great picture it shows a black screen. Therefore making the recorder actually useless. (The TV picture is not the best but it is quite watchable).

Took it back to Newry (same day) and they guy said he couldn't take it back because it was used? Kept saying he'd get his hand slapped or some ridiculous thing like that. He said we could have recorded something on it and he couldn't resell it.

Despite 1/2 hour of complaining he refused refund point blank and now parents in law have a 230 quid brick in their living room :(
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It's not Argos' fault that your parents get a weak digital TV signal, which certainly sounds like the origin of the problem. Digital TV doesn't degrade gracefully like analogue - it pretty much either works or it doesn't, with only the tiniest bit of middle ground which is no good to anyone anyway. It sounds like the signal is too weak for the DVR to cope with. Buy a signal booster or get a better aerial fitted.

That being said, I thought Argos usually operated a 30 day money back guarantee, and it's not like there's an obvious get out when it's not ear rings or whatever.
 
[TW]Fox;17458163 said:
How would Sony know how much you paid for it anyway?
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I can't believe you asked that question.
I'm pretty sure Sony would know the RRP of their cameras like our repair shop knew the RRP of domestic appliances.

[TW]Fox;17458163 said:
And I still dont buy this, why would you ask a totally unrelated question to the main point you were making? You wouldnt post a thread explaining how yesterday you saw a giraffe and then ask at the bottom 'So, has anyone seen Chelsea play recently'.
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It isn't unrelated, the story is about Customer Service but I'm not blaming ARGOS or Sony for the damage to the camera.
I'm laughing at Sony for telling me my £70 camera will cost £65 to repair and how cameras are made have got nothing to do with me having a laugh.
What if it was a £700 camera costing £650 to repair?
Now don't tell me if you walked into a TV repair centre after your £700 42" plasma is slightly damaged round the bottom 6" square of the screen and they tell you it will cost £650 to repair that you wouldn't laugh?
Or what if you were told your £7000 BMW would cost £6500 to repair when it was fully working except for a little damage to the windscreen?
I really can't see why I'm not allowed to laugh :confused:
 
dmpoole said:
What if it was a £700 camera costing £650 to repair?
Now don't tell me if you walked into a TV repair centre after your £700 42" plasma is slightly damaged round the bottom 6" square of the screen and they tell you it will cost £650 to repair that you wouldn't laugh?
Or what if you were told your £7000 BMW would cost £6500 to repair when it was fully working except for a little damage to the windscreen?
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You really need to stop using these analogies as people have explained umpteen times it's the cost of labour that is pushing the price up to what you've been asked for, this cost does not scale according to the product, but the components will. The amount of effort that goes into dismantling the screen housing on your camera in comparison to doing the same for a £700 camera is likely very similar. As a result the cost of labour to repair an expensive camera will be a much smaller chunk of the overall cost, whereas with your camera it's likely the majority of the cost.

So for a theoretical example:

Your camera:
£15 screen
£50 labour

£700 camera:
£45 screen
£55 labour

The components for the expensive product are three times as expensive, but the labour cost is similar due to the time required to replace being similar.
 
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dmpoole said:
I can't believe you asked that question.
I'm pretty sure Sony would know the RRP of their cameras like our repair shop knew the RRP of domestic appliances.
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And how many things are sold at RRP? What if your camera was originally a £200 model which was on special offer? Or just only £69 because it was an old model?

Or what if you were told your £7000 BMW would cost £6500 to repair when it was fully working except for a little damage to the windscreen?
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You just don't seem to have any sort of grasp as to how much things cost, do you? Firstly that analogy, like any you've used in this thread, is ridiculous because you would never receive a bill for £6500 to fix a windscreen chip on a car.

Let me re-write your BMW analogy for you.

Lets assume my car is an auto 530i, and we are now in 2015. It's worth about £1500. The autobox goes. BMW will want £2000 to fix it. And they'll tell me that.

OH NO! £2000 TO FIX A £1500 CAR!? OUTRAGEOUS!

Well no, its just what replacing an autobox costs - its £2000 if it was a 4 year old one worth £10k as well, and you'd just swallow that.

The cost of an item to buy doesn't really impact on the cost of repairing it. It might make repairing it pointless but there isn't really a way of making a camera cost less to repair simply because it costs less to buy, is there?
 
[TW]Fox;17462183 said:
Let me re-write your BMW analogy for you.camera cost less to repair simply because it costs less to buy, is there?
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Your analogy is flawed.
Let me re-write your analogy.

My daughters camera cost £10 but Sony want to charge me £65 to repair it - I can still laugh but a lot more.
I don't care about labour costs and what components cost but I can laugh when somebody tries to charge me £5 less than a new one would cost.

However with your analogy you can make a decision like I did about 10 years ago.
My next door neighbour sold me a car for an absolute steal of £300 and I knew he never used it.
About a month later the cam belt decided to do its worst and the repair was £500.
I've got loads of AA mates (not alcoholics) and they all agreed the car was still a steal so I had the new engine.

Paying £65 for a damaged repaired camera when I could pay another £5 for a new one is not an option or perhaps it is in Fox world.
 
dmpoole said:
Paying £65 for a damaged repaired camera when I could pay another £5 for a new one is not an option or perhaps it is in Fox world.
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Does anyone else think this is a bit like talking to a brick wall? Now he thinks I'd pay £65 to repair a £69 camera!
 
Give up dmpoole this thread has been a fail since the opening post,you worded it all wrong gave everyone the wrong impression and now you wont see the error in your ways.
 
I think dmpoole is assuming that we would pay the high repair cost? - pardon me if I'm wrong here Dave!

Seems to me that Fox is just pointing out the economy or rather false economy of repairing something against its percieved value.

Fox used the 530i, I'll use my old mans quater million (!) mile 528i.

Its just stung him for £900. Its probably , in the real world, worth less (albeit not by much) He knows its worth less than the repair cost, but the cost to him is still cheaper than replacement, like for like - he had the car from new & bar the £900 engine problem, its otherwise as near to "as new" as a good condition old high mileage e39 could be and I say that sincerely.....

So its worth his outlay to his mind.

You have the option of paying the correct repair rate or a brand new replacement camera, its built on a production line, repaired by hand. actually the repair cost is a bargain for the work involved!

Alas, £900 + a little more won't get Dad a new 5 series.

In a nutshell, its the items value compared to purchase price.

Now if anybody can decipher what I'm trying to get across from the above load of ********, your a better man than I !

:o


Its been a long day.....................
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
I think dmpoole is assuming that we would pay the high repair cost? - pardon me if I'm wrong here Dave!
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Don't know where you got that from.
I would expect every single person on this forum to laugh if they were told that an item that cost them £70 new would cost them £65 to repair.
I wouldn't believe for 1 second that anybody on here would pay it but would laugh at being told.
I have my doubts about Fox though because he's arguing so hard about it.

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
So its worth his outlay to his mind.
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I also thought the £500 repair of my £300 car was well worth the outlay so you're not making a point - I've been there.
I also laughed at that but it made sense to pay it.

So lets make this more simple.
If you took your £300 phone in for repair and they told you it would cost £275 to repair would you :

a) Yeah OK
b) **** ***
c) Laugh and say 'I might as well have a new one for another £25'

I would expect every one on this forum to choose option c (except Fox because he would want to make a point)
 
dmpoole, you're wasting your time here.
Some people on these forums seem to act like a pack of wild dogs and sensing they could twist your story and view it from a different angle have basically gone in for the kill.
I know what you're getting at and I can see the angle they're using, it's almost like bullying at school, they see a weakness in your story and all try and gang up.
If they put other people down it makes them feel better.

Of course it doesn't really work now though as I should imagine you don't give a flying what other people think.
 
Surely it would have been much worse customer serveice if they just told you it wasn't worth repairing and you'd be better off buying a new camera as it would probably work out cheaper?

What happends if the camera had sentimental value and the cost of fixing it wans't an issue? At least they gave you the option of repairing it so i would say that is pretty good customer service!
 
It must cost them a fair amount to fix the camera, the parts and labour won't be cheap. It's neither Argos/Sony's responsibility anyway since it was dropped. Just got to be more careful I suppose.

All in, I have no idea how this is poor customer service on their behalf
 
dmpoole said:
My daughters camera cost £10 but Sony want to charge me £65 to repair it - I can still laugh but a lot more.
I don't care about labour costs and what components cost but I can laugh when somebody tries to charge me £5 less than a new one would cost.
Click to expand...

But if that is how much it costs to repair (diagnostic, parts, labour & delivery) then what can you do? Unless Sony have a fixed cost for these sorts of repairs, then obviously the repair on some items like this are going to sound odd.
 
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