Sony Vaio FS315S - broken. Yet again.
I bought the Sony Vaio FS315S just over a year ago, and was initially impressed with the quality of construction and general performance of the machine. I looked after it and used it regularly until I bought my MacBook Pro, at which point it was used in my company.
About 5 months ago, for no apparent reason, the screen backlight started flickering. This problem persisted and got worse until finally the backlight failed completely. Fortunately, it was still under warranty, so it got sent away to Sony and came back with a new battery. Yep. A battery. First thing you think of when the screen backlight fails totally, particularly when this particular model has two lamps. No, it couldn’t possibly be the backlight power inverter could it. Well, surprise surprise, the backlight did exactly the same thing with the new battery, as Sony would have known if they’d actually bothered to test it properly.
So, it went back again, and this time they did replace the inverter and fixed the problem, but there was a worrying rattle inside from a loose component that wasn’t present before I sent it to them.
This week, I switched on the laptop and it booted up into Vista and then promptly switched itself off. The damn thing is completely dead. I phoned Sony (on a premium rate number because it’s out of warranty - and was kept on hold for a ludicrous amount of time) and was immediately raped for £147. Non refundable. No guarantee of fix. They have 3 flat fees for repair, and if it’s the top one, I’ll be paying out £530. £530!!! On a thousand pound laptop that’s only just a year old! And, you don’t find out which fee it will be until you’ve coughed up the first £147 and waited for them to tell you. At the end of the day, they could tell me anything - I’m over a barrel, and they’ve got my £147.
This is outrageous Sony! I will never buy another Sony branded product again. Utter rubbish. I urge all who read this, in the most strong terms, DO NOT buy a Sony computer.
Yep. Same thing happened to me. Sony suck.
the same thing is happening to me right now
burn sony burn
Sony are usually very good. This sort of thing makes me think again…
Yes i agree fully, i had a problem with my Sony, and i took it back, There STUPID Policy doesnt accept a refund within the first 3 hours of actually buying the dam thing. Very annoyed, but everything else in which i buy for example the SONY HANDYCAM has been amazing, its just Laptops they cant get a grip with. Utter Caos !
The answer is a firm, but respectful and polite letter to the chief exec. You never know what might happen…
The telephone support staff don’t have the authority to do anything but follow the rules.