Sony Sends Technician To Your House To Break Your Computer

A functioning touchscreen is an important feature of a touchscreen computer. Yet the Sony VAIO desktop that Frank purchased at a Microsoft store and had shipped to his home on the other side of the country had a faulty touchscreen. Since he was on vacation when purchasing the computer, It was too late for a store return, so he had to deal with Sony. They very helpfully sent someone to his home to fix the computer, but the technician instead broke his VAIO even more, then didn’t show up for the return visit where he was supposed to actually fix the darn thing.

I had purchased a Sony VAIO Desktop at the Microsoft Store in Costa Mesa, Ca. It was the top of the line model with touchscreen capabilities and an i7 processor. All in all, it cost me about $1,849. I had the computer shipped to my house in Arkansas by the Microsoft Staff. I received it when I returned from my vacation and I was as happy as can be. That is, until I noticed a flaw in my computers touchscreen. It did not registers touches correctly. I tried calibrating it and even reloaded the drivers for the touch screen. I still did not fix the issue.

I contacted Microsoft, and was directed to contact the store that I originally purchased the computer at. I did, and I was informed that I had exceeded the 14 day return policy and that I would have to contact Sony for the repairs. I told the associate that I spoke with that I had also purchased Microsoft’s Assurance program. He explained that I can use it, but it is a one time use program, and that I would forfeit the remaining 3 years of the coverage that I had purchased. So that would have made me pay 200 dollars more for a computer that worked, when I should have been perfect when I bought it. I was told the best solution would be to go through the manufacturer. So I did. Little did I know what kind of battle I was going to get into.

The following is a copy of the email that I sent to the Microsoft representative that has been trying to help me.

“In regards to my Sony VAIO Desktop repair I contacted Sony, and they sent a technician to work on my computer at my house on Friday July 1. Unfortunately, the technician did not finish the job and he did not contact me on Saturday to come back to fix it. My wife and I had to put our July 4th trip on hold to wait on him, and he never showed. They haven’t sent anyone to come back to finish it either. On top of that, he also bent the plastic on the blu-ray drive and has scratched the outside cover and wrongly assembled the computer when he replaced the screen. So instead of having my brand new computer fixed, it has now been damaged even more.

In order to correct this issue, I tried going through Microsoft but I had exceeded the 14 day return period and they told me I had to go through the manufacturer. I then was told that I had to talk to Sony in order to get my problem fixed. I have now talked to Sony customer service three times. The first time was to initially have my VAIO repaired. The service tech never came back, so I called Sony for a second time on Saturday July 2nd for 30 minutes in order to get it repaired and fixed and to complain about the job that they did. Now, it is July 6th, and I, nor my answering service had received any calls, so I called again today which took close to an hour. My computer is still not fixed. I finally had the technician company call me to arrange for someone else to come and fix it, but it won’t be until a couple days from now.

All in all, this whole experience has been a complete nightmare. With the computer being defective from the beginning, then having to spend an additional 100 dollars on an external hard drive in order to re-install the touch screen drivers, then being misled by the Microsoft Store associate about the Assurance program, and now it being damaged and worse off because of Sony’s solution of sending a technician. I have had the computer for less than a month, and I have not been able to truly enjoy it. Now it’s just a $1700 pile of electronic parts in a corner of my living room collecting dust.

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I feel extremely disappointed and I am fearful that my concerns will be ignored and my computer repair is going to be botched.”

If the tech manages to show up for appointment #3 and doesn’t maim the computer further, it’s time to escalate within Sony. We’ve learned over the years that Sony is most likely to respond to computer problems when the Executive Email Carpet Bomb is launched and lights a fire under their butts. Here’s a 3-year-old list of Sony addresses; a few minutes of research will surely turn up more.

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