I bought the new 40" HD LED TV on November 20, 2010. By December 17, the damn thing wouldn't turn on. I had registered the TV so I could activate the warranty. I went online and went through the troubleshooting steps. No good. I got an online agent, went through the online steps again with him, again no good. He gave me a number to a repair service to call and said that Sony would cover the expense since the TV was under warranty.
I called the service and they asked me for the event number. The damn Sony agent didn't give me an event number. She asked for my phone number, so I gave it to her, she said there was no corresponding event attached to that phone number. Not her fault, so I thanked for her time and turned around and called the Sony number. Of course, they're only open Monday through Friday 8am to 8pm eastern standard time, so I have to call the after hours support number. I go through the troubleshooting steps for a third time and get an event number. Halle-flippin-lujah! I call the service back, get the same agent and give her the event number. No record of it in their system. She says that sometimes it takes up to 4 hours for those to transmit. I realize this isn't getting scheduled tonight so I thank her again and hang up the phone for the last time that night.
Fast forward three weeks. Due to mandatory overtime at work and then my sleeve surgery, I haven't had time to get the TV taken care of. I pick up the phone and call the service company. Still no match on the event number or my phone number. AAARGH!!!! Again, not her fault, it's Sony's. I thank her for the last time and I call Sony AGAIN.
I get a very pleasant woman who bent over backward to help me when I told her what was going on. She found the record of my previous call so she doesn't make me go through the troubleshooting again. She gets a good event number and tells me that if I fax the receipt over with the event number, they will send me a replacement unit in 5 to 7 days. Unfortunately, the only receipt I have is a return receipt I was able to print out from the Walmart website showing that I bought it from Walmart Ship to Store. I tell her exactly what it has and she says that will be fine, to fax it with the event number on the top center. I get it faxed over and I think it's all over. How wrong I was...
The next day I get a call from Sony, a different agent this time, who informs me that the receipt I faxed over is not acceptable for warranty work. I could actually hear the blood pounding in my ears and my pulse started skyrocketing. I was able to argue with this guy for about two minutes before my body started sending urgent signals to stop. I said, "Your agent told me yesterday that what I sent would be fine. I work in a customer care situation and in my company, if an agent says something that is against the company's policy, the company still holds up what the agent said and then deal with the agent later to satisfy the customer's needs. I have told you I don't have what you want and your agent told me yesterday that what I sent would be fine." He refused to budge. I finally hung up because I seriously felt like I was going to collapse.
Dad and I went to Walmart yesterday and they said to bring in the TV with the paperwork and the remote and they would be glad to refund my money. We took everything in today and got my money refunded in about 10 minutes.
I'm going back later next week to buy a Vizio 42" HD LED TV. It costs a little less than the Sony.
I've had my eyes opened after that. Won't buy another Sony product after that unless I have no choice, and I'm going to make sure that my friends and anybody else that wants to listen hears about their horrible customer service. Of course, its only my opinion, but on my blog, I am GOD!
SONY customer service: DEFINITELY PERNICIOUS CRITTERS!
No comments:
Post a Comment