Quote:
Originally Posted by boxcorner
Has your stylus actually broken, or are you just concerned that it might?
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As I said. It's three weeks old and the stylus is broken. The tech support actually want me to return the whole unit to either the shop or the a Sony Repair Centre.
I have tried reasoning with them at the madness of this, but clearly the mail are being answered by someone referring to a script rather than using any form of common sense. Here is the latest reply.
"As my colleague has advised, as we have not directly sold the product we would be unable to provide a refund or replacement. As we supply the one year guarantee for your product we would be happy to have the unit inspected by Sony central services (details of which were passed by my colleague in previous e-mail), however if this is due to accidental damage, it will not be covered by the warranty.
Sony spare parts and replacement supplied accessories can be ordered from the company detailed below:
NEDIS UK
Hudson Road
Melton Mowbray
Leicestershire
LE13 1BS"
Obviously if the actual reader really was broken this would be fine, and is no doubt the normal standard company policy. It's the inability to do something different when it is clearly the sensible thing to do. If I go to the trouble (and is a bit of problem as I didn't buy it locally) of going back to the shop, what will happen? It's unlikely they will have a stock of spare stylus so they will have to open another unit and give me the stylus, or replace my unit. Either way there is a PRS-350 that has to be returned to Sony. Worst case they ask me to send my unit away for "repair". I just can't see how this helps me, the retailer or SONY.
BTW don't bother contacting the company address given. They don't in fact list any parts for the PRS-350 but out of curiosity I looked up the stylus for the PRS-600. They want £21.95 for it!
There is a big issue here, of having a Customer Service Centre staffed by low cost staff who are given little opportunity to do anything other than repeat the script to you, as opposed to a more professional outfit who actually deal with problems.
This is what makes me feel cheated. I'm sure we all love our eReaders. They are good devices, but they are not cheap. If you buy a premium brand like Sony I feel that quality service should be part of the package. If you go the low cost route then you have to expect that corners are cut. Sony is clearly marketed and priced as a premium brand and should therefore have the customer service organisation needed to support this. In my experience they don't. Looking at the posts in this thread I can understand why people object to random "I had a Sony TV and it broke" comments. You'll find a story like that for every brand. Things break, but like I said good Customer Service can sort these things out and bring a customer (and their wallet) right back.
Anyway, I've already spent more time on this than I should. I'll probably call them this week and see if talking rather than emailing makes a difference. If not I guess I'll just have to arrange a day off and make the trip back to the shop where I bought it.