Problems with Sony STB ( as mentioned in previous post) service center has said Sony authorised replacement unit as my box was dead. Two weeks later, numerous phone calls, still no replacement. Seems that once you have spent the money with Sony and a problem with the harware arises nobody cares, after sales sevice is nonexistent. Beware Sony products they do not back thier products.

That's typical of multi-nationals.

C.M

That's disappointing. In the past I've always respected Sony as a manufacturer. My G420 computer monitor was exxy when new, but has been absolutely superb for the past 3 years while it was covered by an on-site warranty. However, one month out of the warantee, it's starting to play silly buggers. Still, it gives me an excuse to start looking at the sexy new lcd monitors available now. My greatest concerns are that they might not be able to match the performance of my old crt and that the brand name is no longer a benchmark or an assurance of quality or support.

This is certainly the case today with many brands that have respected names... they may not have respected names for long. But I guess their saturation advertising gets them enough business so that they don't need to really worry about customers that have problems, just customers that have money.

JSmith :ph34r:

I have quite a few Sony products. Two have had to be repaired under warranty. The main problem was that it took sooooo lonnnngggg...zzz...zzzz. A minimum of 6 weeks in each case for very simple repairs, despite numerous phone calls to Melbourne. There's only one place in Melbourne that fixes most of the stuff. I'll continue to buy Sony, but I dread the possibility of any more service problems.

I've always found Sony to be most prompt & helpful, however that's with their broadcast equipment. It seems their consumer service could do with a few lessons.

Trouble with Sony service is that they do very little themselves (mainly professional and computer gear) and contract out the rest to the "cheapest" for them. Being bitten on few occasions I no longer purchase any consumer stuff from Sony.

hornblower

Thats a point I've made in various forms for some time.

Sony's professional gear has usually been fine, as has been their attitude to its operators and owners.

However, Sony's consumer level gear has, in a great many cases, been mediocre and is combined with an arrogant "we are SONY, you unwashed, worthless consumer" attitude...

I've had a rough experience with Sony too. It used to be by going with a large name brand you were safe for service. Not any more it seems. From what I can gather, all brands service is slipping. Part of the problem is trying to wring every last cent out of the chain in order to increase profits. Apparently the Japanese take the view of a non-increase in profit to be a loss- was told that by a mid level chappie in Sharp a while ago. The penny pinching extends to paying authorised service centres rediculously low rates to the point where many have simply stopped doing warranty work. Getting a warranty repair for some brands in regional areas of Australia can mean shipping your device (even a TV set) several hundred km to a major regional centre.

I've also had a semi-humourous experience. I called up Sony to get a DDS tape drive repaired and the operator asked, do you want to speak to the professional service dept, to which I thought - you mean you have a non-professional sloppy service dept too

There's probably a tip there ... when calling Sony "Service" ask for the professional service dept, and you may get someone with a clue, rather than the proverbial Telstra "Reboot your machine and call us back in 30 minutes!" script!

Well this is going back in the late 80's when I thought Sony stuff was good quality I had an 85 model stereo tv which was at the QLD agent for 12 months getting a board repaired. It was an expensive tv at the time. Put me off Sony after that and I went NEC.

No problems here
My Sony Plasma was playing up, contacted Sony, who gave me the telephone number of their authorised service agent, gave them a call, they turned up the next day.
Checked the Plasma, took it back to their service dpt. I had it delivered back to me 3 days later...fault rectified

cheers

It's not just Sony, it's Panasonic too. Hopeless help desk, disinterested service centres, and Panasonic lie about contacting a service centre for you and when you email them you don't get a reply.

Pity the Japanese don't know how slack Australia really is!!

Well my experience with Panasonic is different... coresponded with their service agent by email, got a reply and phone call within a few days. Took it to their service agent [ATS in Melbourne (Balckburn)], got a call from the tech next day (yes, the actual human technical person working on my STB) and we discussed the problem and the fix. Got it one day later, no charge, and its fixed. Happy.

Back onto Sony...I have a Sony KVHRM36 (90 kg weight). I'm unhappy with the alignment/geometry. I know it can be fixed with the service menus. Will Sony come to my house and do this for free under Warranty? Should I pay for an 'expert' to calibrate the TV? Any suggestions?

thanks,
Scott.

Had a similar problem with the Sony KVHR32. I wanted to get the overscan fixed, called authorised agent, they sent a guy over and was all fixed under warranty.

Sony, Panasonic...all the big brands seem to have dropped off substantially in terms of (1) product quality/value and (2) after-sales service.

As stated above, it was always sage advice to buy a Tier 1 brand. You only bought Sanyo or NEC etc if you couldn't afford a "real" brand! Since these companies outsourced both the manufacturing and support, the ownership experience has been no better than a Korean brand like LG or Samsung.

Sony's financial woes are serious - they've appointed a "westerner" as as their CEO for the first time ever. They're culling most of their manufacturing, outsourcing it to Samsung.

As much as I used to be a Sony bigot (Sony TVs, VCRs, CD players, etc) I now think that the other manufacturers provide better value.

I have a Sony RPTV (worth $6K) and it took 2 repair attempts from their "authorised repairer" to fix it. The first time he said "oh you cant fix that its an inherent problem with all RPTVS" and introduced another fault. Second time they refused to attend on site without asking me to pay a callout fee - despite the TV being in warranty and being shown the receipt on the first visit!

But this is Australia. Support for consumer electronics is woeful, regardless of the brand. All we need is a ruling or directive from the ACCC to designate an acceptable warranty repair turnaround/response time. How about if it takes more than a month to repair your product, the manufacturer has to extend the warranty by a year, or offer you a replacement product?

On a happier note, I have an Arcam DVD player ($3K in 2001...brilliant player BTW) which had an minor intermittent (but still annoying) fault from after about 1 year into the 2-year warranty. Through the dealer, it had about 4 repair attempts, out of action for about 2 months over a 3 year period. In the end, the dealer and importer organised a replacement - even though it was a year out of warranty, and they'd never been able to replicate the problem. This goes to show what a good retailer and good importer will do to back up their products!

Just something to add, I purchased a Loewe TV set about 12 months ago. The set replaced an 86cm Calida 4:3 I had for 7 years that failed due to a faulty tube, the unit had had 1 repair previous to that. Interdyn did a favourable change over price on a Planus 81cm 16:9, got it home and the set started flashing over within the first few days, it was intermittant and only happened about 3 times, the screen would flash and once the unit turned itself off - I called InterDyn and they replaced the set within 2 working days without any real questions asked.

When I purchase something and it fails within the first 2 weeks to a month, I dont want it repaired, in my mind, if something is going to go wrong with 1 component, it is going to go wrong with another. And I generally buy good quality gear and pay the extra money as protection against the incidence of such faults. The fact that Loewe replaced a $3,500 set with a brand new unit without physically inspecting the unit - based purely on 1 telephone conversation and a description of an intermittant fault given by a customer, means they have engendered my loyalty for a long time to come.

When you pay a price, its not just for the equipment, but also the after sales service. Market standards are ultimatly set by the consumer - its just that not enough of us seem to care or make an adequate evaluation of all the elements of the purchase such as features, build quality, after sales service, delivery time. I have seen alot of posts about the Rank Arena 86cm CRT at a rediculously low price ($1700 OTA), It seems from the brief investigations that I made that 1. this unit is very hard to find and 2. Mistral dont seem to have a strong market presence. I would be interested to find out details of peoples experiences with warranty with these units given that Mistral who I think imports the units, only runs a customer care number between 9am and midday with a recorded message outside those hours telling potential customers or customers with issues to call back later.

If you purchase something cheap, expect the manufacturer to cut corners somewhere, expect cheap service. If you purchase something expensive, demand the right level of service, and if you dont get it, exercise your right as a consumer and never buy their products again.