Sony Corp Pisses Me Off

[porcelmc]

I have a fairly old Sony Bravia LCD HDTV from 2006. It works great and never had a single issue with it. When I moved i got lazy and yanked the DirecTV HDMI cable from the set breaking a few of the pins inside the female connector. The TV has only one HDMI input and one component input. Both go up to 1080i. I am waiting for the Bravia 3D capable TVs to come out this summer as I am not impressed with the Samsung or Panasonic models so I dont want to replace it yet. I am pretty dangerous with a soldering iron so I figured all I would have to do is replace the connector. Sounds easy right? Well I scoured radio shacks in San Diego with no luck. Tried a few well known electronics stores in the area and searched their online catalogs again with no luck. I knew I needed an "A" type connector in the V1.3 variant or lower.

Well this is where Sony comes in. I wanted to see how much they would charge me for the connector even though I knew it would be robbery. I figured they could at least give me the part # so I could shop around and get one on the cheap. So I started in online chat and they then referred to to the parts department whom I had to call.

I call the Sony parts department today and I am fairly certain my call was answered in India. My first call lasted about 10 minutes with the tech telling me to hold on every minute until he finally hung up on me. I called back and spoke to another Indian tech who made me wait for 5 minutes before referring me to their technical service and repair department. But this was after he tried referring me to Sonystyle thinking I needed a HDMI cable.

After waiting 10 minutes someone from technical service finally took my call. I am fairly certain this call was in America but who knows. I told her my issue and she of course put me on hold. She said they could not order a part for me and was about to transfer me back to parts deptartmet in India. I convinced her that they could not help me and she proceeded to tell me she could not sell me the connector nor give me the part #. She then asked my location and gave me a technical support # for my area. I asked her straight up if this # was for a 3rd party TV repair contractor and she confirmed my suspicions. I almost lost it on the phone and asked her if anyone that works for Sony, the company that manufactured my TV, can give me the part # for my connector. She says Sony does not give out internal TV part numbers, which shocked the shit out of me. She then said the 3rd party contractor might not even be able to give out the part number. At this point of the call I shocked myself by not going apeshit on the phone. I was fucking pissed and could not believe what I was hearing. That is total fucking bs. I told her I do not need someone to come to my house, tell me what I already know, and charge be $200 for a $5 connector. So I told her to give the # anyway just for gp and we'll see where it goes.

So now after getting the run around from Sony and wasting over an hour of my life combined, I contact the 3rd party contractor. I told him the part I need and he told me it was connected to a board. NO FUCKING SHIT SHERLOCK! He said their company would have to replace the whole board, and he mentioned that it was probly more than I was willing to pay since I was only looking for the connector. I asked him to just sell me the connector, and he said their company does not sell those connectors.

So basically Sony isnt worth a shit when it comes to customer service as far as I am concerned. This is why I will NEVER buy a VAIO.

I ended up calling a connector distributor in San Jose that is going to send 4 DIFFERENT types of HDMI connector sample kits for the total price of shipping and handling of $0.00. Yeah I am getting my part, plus others for fucking FREE. And I got 2 just in case I fuck the first one up. I buy bulk connectors often so its nice to know distributors in the electronics business still kick ass and actually care about their customers. Fuck Sony

[even13flow]

You story scares the ever living shit out of me. I've got an old Bravia LCD as well (right when they first came out, 52"). I haven't had any problems with it besides a dead pixel here and there but fear that when I do have a problem that it will be cheaper for me to buy a whole new set.

[Crazytallicafux]

Wow, what a load of bullshit and a run around. Our 42 inch Bravia which we have had for 7 months now had a few cells go and a thin Green line down through it when you watch programs. We called up and asked to get to looked at, fixed or replaced and it took them 3 weeks to send a tech out to out which proceeded in them finding the problem and telling us they needed to order the part. 2 weeks later we get a phone call explaining it has been delayed another 2 weeks due to some internal error? I feel your pain mate they are utterly garbage!

[deadone]

wow, they dont sound very professional at all.
and there is nothing more than these people taking your hard earned cash fast enough from you.
then when you want a little support then blow you off.

personally i have never bought anything from sony as i dont like them. except the ps3 which my eldest son bought

i always try and stick to toshiba if i can help it, so far never had anything remotley close to this kind of Customer support.

and it also just goes to show by you getting the parts for free there are always better places to go apart from large companies who only interested in your money

Mick