Consumerist

sony

Dear Best Buy, Thank You For Losing My Laptops

By consumeristcarey 7.24.07

David brought two laptops to Best Buy for repair; neither was ever seen or heard from again. Best Buy sent David’s first laptop, a Sony Vaio, back to Sony for repairs. Unable to find the laptop after one month, Best Buy declared it irretrievably lost and offered David an upgraded Vaio for $200. One year later, the second laptop broke. Like the first, it disappeared forever after being dispatched to Sony. David writes:

I just recently started reading The Consumerist, and Lorraine’s nightmare with her laptop repair reminded me of my own nightmare of Best Buy completely losing two laptops I sent in for repair, leaving me without any laptop for a total of 4 months, as well as all the data I lost on the first laptop. It all started a little over 3 years ago when a relative bought me a top-of-the-line Sony Vaio at a Best Buy.

advertising

Coca-Cola Is The "Best Brand," Microsoft Beats Apple

By Meg Marco 7.17.07

Coca-Cola has come out on top of the “Best Brands” Harris Poll for the first time ever. Sony, the leader for the past 7 years slipped to number 2.

sony

Sony Cuts PlayStation 3 Price

By Meg Marco 7.9.07

Poor Sony. Despite telling Reuters on July 6 that they had no plans for a price cut, they’ve cut the price of the Playstation 3 by $100.

blu-ray

Blockbuster Sides With Sony Blu-Ray

By Meg Marco 6.18.07

Blockbuster has announced its decision to exclusively rent Sony Blu-Ray DVDs, much to the dismay of HD DVD owners. According to the AP, the decision comes following a test of both formats at 250 stores. Blockbuster found that consumers were choosing Blu-ray over 70% of the time.

sony

Crappy Spyware Bill To Give More Power To Spyware Companies?

By Meg Marco 6.13.07

The EFF is encouraging consumers to write their Senators about a new “spyware” bill that has been, in their words, “massaged by by lobbyists for the software and adware industries.” Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing says the bill

“makes it impossible for consumer rights groups to sue DRM companies for putting spyware in their DRM (like Sony did last year, with its rootkit DRM). The irony is that spyware is already illegal, so all that this act does is immunize big media companies that sneak spyware onto your computer.”

Spyware is spyware, we think, even if it comes with a Sony/BMG logo.

recalls

Acer Laptop Batteries Recalled Due To Fire Hazard

By Meg Marco 4.26.07

It seems Acer fell asleep during the whole Sony battery recall thing and is just recalling them now. Well, I do have a couple of affected Acer laptops, and so far the process is painful. The operators on the other end answer the phone in a language unknown to me (though one time I think I heard the operator say South Africa?) though they promptly switched to very understandable English after I spoke.

recalls

Sony Recalls Broken DRM-Filled DVDs

By Meg Marco 4.18.07

Sony’s latest bright idea was to issue DVDs with DRM that made them unplayable in their own DVD players. Yes, they’re just that committed to you, their valuable customers. Anyhow, they’ve decided to recall the discs. From IMDb:

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has discovered the source of a problem in their recent DVD releases that prevented them from being played on some players, including some manufactured by the consumer electronics division of Sony itself. The company said the problem was caused by an update of its copy-protection system, which it continually updates in order to derail potential hackers. Among the DVD movies affected were the new James Bond film Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction. Sony said that anyone who had purchased one of the discs and has experienced problems playing it may receive a replacement disk free of charge by phoning 800-860-2878.

Reader Mick will be happy about this, as he started a blog about the issue. The recall is probably due in part to his reporting. Good job, Mick! —MEGHANN MARCO

sony

Format War: "Top 10" Selling Blu-Ray Disc Sells 880 Copies

By Meg Marco 4.9.07

Format wars are bad for consumers, but it looks like they’re not too fun for the industry either. According to recent sales figures from Nielsen VideoScan, the number 10 best selling high-def disc “Babel” sold a whopping 880 copies. That’s fewer people than attended our high school.

sony

Round 10: Sony vs Exxon

By consumerist.com 3.2.07

Welcome to the Consumerist Archives

sony