PRS300 Faulty Screens and inexistent international Support

[sigmax]

Hi There!

I feel like this post should be made Sticky for a while at least.

International (and any) potential buyers BEWARE:

1) There is a batch of FAULTY eink screens (being installed NOW by SONY at least on the PRS300). This has been mentioned before in this forum, but it should not be minimized, as you can figure it is crucial for an ebook READER that the screen works OK.

Well it does not. I just discovered that mine, bought around last days of October 2009, has the faault: When exposed to solar light (not the heat, the LIGHT), it starts to erase.

Let me stress this (I know, it is unpolite to play with fonts size, but I think it is a must:

It is most problematic. I am banned from reading outside or near a window!.

2) When trying to find support for this fault, I find out that SONY does not even have support outside USA and CANADA for these devices.

I live in Uruguay, South America, and a friend of mine brought me the prs300.

So now I am stuck with a new piece of garbage reader, just entering summer time and vacations, I will have to hide in dark places to read. jeje well that is a bit of exageration, but anyway:

Bottom line:

Sony readers (at least PRS300) are potentially flawed
Sony readers got no support outside USA and CANADA.

This (I think anyone will agree) is a nuisance.

Taken from SONYSTYLE Website:

"Paper-like Display for Easy ReadingFeaturing E Ink® Vizplex™ technology, the Reader Pocket Edition delivers an astonishing almost paper-like reading experience, which makes it easy to read, even outdoors in direct sunlight. " ..... NOT NOT NOT


Regards,

Enrique.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sigmax

2) When trying to find support for this fault, I find out that SONY does not even have support outside USA and CANADA for these devices.

This is incorrect; they are also fully supported in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, and probably other countries too.

Sony will still help you if you live elsewhere, but you'll have to pay the shipping costs.

[sigmax]

hi Harry....

I dont know how to do the trick. I try online support and they dump me off, stating that the device is only sold to USA and Canada Markets.

I just had an online chat, and the guy told me to reset the prs300, as if it would resolve the sun problem I will try tomorrow on direct sun again) but somewhat I am afraid that resetting it won´t help.

Also he gave me the link to latinamerica SONY representatives, but my country has no Sony support it seems.

Let´s see how does it ends.

Regards,

Enrique.

[Loose_Appeal]

Can you try to take a picture? I wanna see this.

[NickC]

I have noticed the same thing: the page fades in direct sunlight (black seems to get less black and/or white goes grey).

It's not permanent: I found that if I retreat out of the direct sunlight to somewhere with a little shade, it becomes perfectly readable again.

Nick

[sigmax]

I will try to get some pictures ... but anyway I found these pictures in another website about this problem:

http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/viewt...=263158#263158
(inside the forum, you will find the pictures, with the smeared page).

Mi PRS300 does not smear it, but erases it. I think it is just a different angle for the same fault.

[sigmax]

Hi there....

Been at the beach this weekend. It was a rather cold, windy, cloudy (it poured rain at a time in a scary way) but we managed to do some beach reading.

I am showing you three pictures. You can see the actual rather cloudy day. Then You can see the sony prs-300 behaving as I told at the beginning of this post. I also posted a picture of myself just for you to depict the clothing (rather cold day) so this rules out heat, and even direct sun.



I must remind you that SONY says in their website that the device is good for reading EVEN IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT ..... NOT! heheh. Well I am quite pissed off. Not nice at all to have paid EXTRA bucks (Compared with other similar readers) just for "quality" (certainly the sony has LESS functionality) only to find that the reader is useless OUTDOORS!!!

This is why, coupled with the other complaints on even older SONY models, that I am pushing the motion to keep this post (or similar) sticky for current buyers to beware of the faulty screens on SONY products. Heck! I am even considering buying a web domain (like einksucks.com or sonyreadersucks.com and placing all the relevant information in there too, so other people wont throw away their money on these faulty products.



Regards,

Enrique.

[lilac_jive]

My 505 does this and it is rarely an issue. When I was in the Bahamas, I would just angle myself (if I couldn't get an umbrella, I'd rather have those even without my reader) so that my shadow would cover it.

Also, just so you know, this problem occurs in other eink devices, not just Sony. It's an E-Ink issue.

[sigmax]

lilac_jive,

My other ebook reader, which I regretfully sold, is a SONY PRS505 and it does NOT display this issue over the sun.

I think that you are too easily dismissing the point that it is a faulty screen, and is contrary to the specifications in the sony website (read under direct sunlight).

In my case, there is no shadow that fixes it. Correction: The only shadow is to get the reader 180° off the sun. No other angle would fix it.

AND ALSO it almost entirely smears the text (and in streaks). Is extremely difficult to read.

I don't know about OTHER readers. I would like to read about firsthand experiences, and some pictures, but as I said, EVEN if it happens on other readers, it is a problem. These little gadgets are too expensive, for us to accept such things. The screen is central to the usage of the reader. A faulty screen pretty much negates its usage.

[sigmax]

let me put it in another way: If most or all of the readers (which I think is NOT the case) do perform like mine, when used outside (even if sun is hidden over clouds and cold), then I must definitely say that eink technology is a failure.

[xtine]

@sigmax My 300 fades a little in sunlight, but not so much that it becomes unreadable, like yours. Have you called/emailed Sony about it? Maybe you could send it back to them and ask for a replacement?

[sigmax]

I chatted with SONY. Believe it or not, they seemed not to have this issue logged into their software. The guy had to "talk to his superiors" only to give back the inmortal answer of "please, try resetting the device, it will be fixed after resetting".

I even actually did it, just in case some magic would happen, but then no magical fix happened.

They won't give me warranty being me down over here. I am not prepared to send the device up to them. It would cost almost 30% of the entire device cost only to ship it. Then there is the local customs office problem. I think I am stuck with this faulty reader.

I will try to chat with sony again, just in case. I will keep the thread posted on it. I will even give the guys the link to this thread, so they can read the whole thing.

Enrique.

[xtine]

Good luck, I hope you get your problem sorted out.

[sigmax]

hmmm... the sony people with their usual expresiveness and attentiveness:

Megon_> Thanks for waiting, Enrique. I am sorry that the Service Link is not accepting the Postal code. I'll be glad to assist you with this.

Megon_> Could you please confirm where the Reader was purchased?

enrique> it was purchased on Orlando, USA on October 13th this year

enrique> The store was inside a Prime Outlet Mall.

Megon_> Since, you have purchased the Reader in US and you are located in South America, you may send the Reader to the Sony Factory Service Centre in US for Service under warrenty.

enrique> IS there any way to fix it more close to my country ? (in argentina for example)

enrique> if not, I can try to send it into USA, but please give me instructions on how should I proceed

Megon_> Since you've purchased the Readerr in U.S., it's required to send it back to the Sony Factory Service in U.S.


So ... Sony is NOT global NOR regional it seeems... Hence here I stand, stating the same as my first post and the title of this thread: PRS300 Faulty Screens and inexistent international Support.

Regards,

Enrique.

p.d. needless to say that sending the sony to USA would cost the same or more than the reader itself (like 70 U$S for the shipping itself, plus loads of money when my local customs office stops it on its way back, not to mention the possibility of receiving the exact same prs300 with nothing fixed at all).

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by sigmax

lilac_jive,

My other ebook reader, which I regretfully sold, is a SONY PRS505 and it does NOT display this issue over the sun.

I think that you are too easily dismissing the point that it is a faulty screen, and is contrary to the specifications in the sony website (read under direct sunlight).

In my case, there is no shadow that fixes it. Correction: The only shadow is to get the reader 180° off the sun. No other angle would fix it.

AND ALSO it almost entirely smears the text (and in streaks). Is extremely difficult to read.

I don't know about OTHER readers. I would like to read about firsthand experiences, and some pictures, but as I said, EVEN if it happens on other readers, it is a problem. These little gadgets are too expensive, for us to accept such things. The screen is central to the usage of the reader. A faulty screen pretty much negates its usage.

Oh I didn't say it wasn't a problem, just pointing out that I have the same issue and I work around it. My mother has a 505 like mine but hers displays no problems. My other point was that it's not exclusively a Sony problem. If you search on here just for "sunlight" you should see quite a few threads on the topic. I do know that the Kindles that displayed this problem were easily returned, but some people had to replace up to three units. I have a hard time getting mad at the device maker since they did spend a ton of money on the eink, and to have to go through the time and money to replace users units probably sucks. Eink should have done a much better job quality checking.

But since you unfortunately are pretty much stuck, here's what I do. When I was in the Bahamas luckily in the morning the sun was behind me when I was facing the beach. So I would just angle myself so my head shadow would cover the screen, or use the flap for the case to create a shadow. In the afternoon it wasn't a problem because the sun was coming from another way. I've seen the same problem even in the winter, so it's pretty clear it's not heat. Likely though (from your description) your's must be more sensitive. I know mine gets to the point where it is unreadable, but that is in direct sunlight.

And finally, in regards to international support, you're really only going to get it in the country you bought it in. There are few Sony Reader repair centers as it is.