On December 11, 2010, I bought a SONY all-in-one pc directly from SONY's website. For the model I bought, SONY offered a $200 rebate. Just so you know, SONY's website sucks. This is not good for a technology corporation looking to recover from its fall from the number one consumer electronics giant that it once was. The pc arrived on December 17th. I unpacked it, plugged it and powered it up. I waited and waited. A faint windows set up screen appeared briefly and then faded into the ether net. I tried several more times and the SONY was very consistent. It did the same thing, fade out without a sound. I called SONY tech support who instructed me to boot up using a few different F keys. Nothing. Tech support told me that that they would immediately contact a local technician. After over a week+, I had heard nothing. I called SONY again and they said that they would contact locally subcontracted tech support to respond as asap. A local service tech person called on December 30 and said that he would try to make it to my home on the 31st. On the morning of December 31st, the tech person called and said that he was at a gas station repairing their satellite and would not be able to come to my home until January 3rd. The tech guy showed up on January 3rd. In this room, he opened the parts that SONY had sent him for the repair of my PC. SONY had sent him plenty of RAM sticks, but nothing that he could use to repair my pc. He left and told me that he would call when SONY sent him the right components to make my pc functional. On January 7th I was contacted by another local technician who came to our home on January 8th. He also could not repair my pc because SONY had not provided him with the correct components. He was courteous and apologized, explaining that the giant corporation was revamping its system (aren't they always?) and he was waiting for parts ordered in October of 2010. Not good SONY, not good at all. Gino, the technician, left.
In the interim, I had emailed SONY three times and received no response. I then called SONY customer care and demanded a refund. I told them that I wanted a customer return number and they directed me how to obtain one. They also made sure that I understood that I was responsible for return shipping, insurance and a possible restocking fee. I packed up the lame device this morning and shipped it back to SONY. It cost me $71.36 to do so. I am planning to dispute the charge on my credit card. So much for SONY. Buyer beware.
Update: SONY refuses to refund the cost of shipping and insurance ($71.36). However, they did this today while informing me that when I first called them to request a refund, the rep could have offered me free shipping! So, SONY is not only technologically and organzationally challenged, they are also duplicitous.
Capital One, another corporate bloodsucker, does not allow disputed charges of shipping costs.
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