So I got my Sony VAIO TX750 back from customer support on Friday. After going through the nightmare of having a system that needed six motherboards, three LCD screens, two hard drives, and two DVD drives replaced before finally swapped my original unit out with this mini-laptop that has had problems of it's own. I did not think my opinion of Sony's technical support could go any lower. Unfortunately, I was wrong.As I wrote a week ago, my current Sony locks up and crashes every time it comes out of Standby. I sent my Sony back to customer service and it looks like they swapped out the hard drive and sent it back without even bothering to check if the problem got fixed. After powering the unit on, one simple test confirmed that the problem had not been addressed. This crashing occurs 100% of the time it comes out of standby and is one of the least intermittent computer problems I have ever had. It is literally impossible that Sony could have checked for the problem and not discovered it.
I sent this in when I did because I wanted to get the problem addressed before the holidays. As it is, I will be going home for Christmas next week, followed by a roadtrip to Florida. That means it will be another three weeks before I am able to send this back to Sony and at least another week before they can get it back to me. That means I will be without the laptop for six weeks rather than the one I would have had Sony had simply followed-up with proper quality control.
Fortunately, this laptop is my no longer my main machine. It is no longer my main unit precisely because of issues like this that haunted me the first two years of my PhD program. I finally decided to throw in the towel and buy a ThinkPad when I started law school last year.
Had I not bought a Sony when I first started school, I would likely still be using my original system, would have been spared the expense of purchasing a new laptop, and more importantly would have been spared literally hundreds of hours of lost time and productivity dealing with Sony's tech support and being without a laptop. I can honestly say at this point I would have been better off if my money had been stolen rather than put into a Sony computer. At least in that case I would have known I had to replace the system and would not have wasted the time dealing with Sony's tech support trying to get these units fixed.
Here is a chronicle of my experience with Sony over the last few years:
2 comments:
Ouch, that sucks. However, I'm sure your problems aren't representative of most people's experiences. Kara for example, has a vaio that has been completely hitch-free for him in 3 years of intensive computer-engineering use. Jason has had a vaio in the past too and I don't believe it troubled him.
I wouldn't buy a Sony over an IBM ceteris paribus, but an innovative design might still swing it for me...
I bought an HP summer of '06. It is still my main machine. I had to send it in once, just before the extended warranty wore out. It has a few glitches, but nothing major. I've been happy with this machine, though I am thinking about getting a tablet sometime soon if a new e-reader of my liking doesn't emerge first.
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