Many a video game character begins his story with amnesia, and the malady has befallen Chris’s real-life PS3. He sent his system in with an upgraded hard drive he’d installed because he was told he had to do so and even made a special note that he’d need the drive back.

Chris says Sony is washing its hands of blame, ridiculously theorizing UPS could be at fault.

He writes:

Three weeks ago, I sent in my PlayStation 3 to be serviced after it had the YLOD. When on the phone with the CSR who created the service request ticket, I mentioned that I had upgraded the hard drive and that I wanted to remove it from the system to get it repaired. He informed me that I had to send a hard drive in or the service center would simply return it unfixed (which I have later found to be untrue – They would have fixed it, drive or no drive). I told him I would be fine sending in my hard drive with the PS3 if he would notate that I was to get my same drive back. He agreed and I went on my way of sending the PS3 in for repairs.

Skip ahead two weeks and I get my PS3 back from Sony. I open it and the first thing I do is check to see if I have the right hard drive. Nope! In fact, I had no hard drive at all. I gave Sony a call and talked to a total of 5 people, each of them basically saying “the notes of the case look confusing but the service center specifically state that there was no drive included.” I know the drive was in the PS3 when it was shipped because I had to put the drive back in after speaking to the rep who created my service request ticket. I screwed it back into its drive tray, put the drive tray back in and screwed it in with the blue painted screw that comes with the PS3 for that purpose.

After talking to one CSR and four supervisors, I was told by the final supervisor that he would put a request in for me to be contacted by the next in line. I was notified that it would take a maximum of 48 hours. Three days later, I haven’t heard anything back. So, I give them another call, this time taking care to write down the names of the people I speak to. [A CSR] immediately promoted me to his supervisor Justin. Justin informed me that the service center gets final say and that he is unable to overturned anything. When I told him I was positive the drive was in it when it was sent, he told me to contact UPS and tell them that they lost it. I explained to him that the drive was inside the PS3 when sent, screwed into it securely so unless the box arrived unsealed to the service center, it was included in the box. He told me that UPS could have opened the package, removed the drive and resealed the package.

Eventually, I gave up and simply contacted UPS. Of course, they deny anything happened to the package (and the tracking information confirms that).

I am contemplating launching an EECB on Sony. Do you think this is the right course of action or can you think of another means of going about getting this issue resolved?

If you’ve shipped in a broken PS3 for repair, how has your experience gone? Any advice for Chris?

UPDATE: Sony sent Chris a PS3 game that he plans on selling for money for a new hard drive.

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