never buy a Sony Vaio

[MetalGear]

well... what can I say... My Vaio is now just over a year old and so out of warrenty...just as I find out that the problems I have been having with the sound turn out not to be a driver issue (driver support is also the worst in the world) but likely a CPU memory addressing issue. Having replaced the sound card, and the memory and just about ever other replaceable part I can and having recieved no replies from Sony about anything else it can be I have assumed it must be the CPU. anyway... my 1.5 year old Vaio might aswell be junked now since I cant use it for playing games as the sound starts to crackle and screach. And to top it off the wireless has just stopped working.

So.. in summary.. thanks Sony for what is the most expensive useless peice of metal I have ever purchased and I applaude you for your clever evasive customer support, pure genius.

If anyone wants to buy a GOOD laptop... steer away from the Sony Vaio, thats the advice I give all my friends, colleagues and clients.

[sonypass33]

The problem here is twofold.

1.The service SONY provides to their customers is poor from something as simple as posting out Spiderman Discs to Auto-closing open tickets without checking if a resolution has been attained. Oh, and I still haven’t forgiven them for that reprehensible root kit fiasco either.

2. Since they moved their manufacturing centres to China the quality of their products has dropped dramatically. I’ve had many SONY products and can state this as fact. The first VAIO I bought that was made in China had a loose touchpad so you had to press and drag rather than glide your finger and also the screen was loose inside which meant almost every time you booted up you had to turn it upside down and jolt it to get the screen back on. The battery didn’t fit properly either so although the machine was stitched on and receiving power the power indicator in the taskbar would indicate “no Battery” until you open the compartment and shoved it in an extra millimetre or so.

SONY products are sold at a premium to other manufacturers and this premium means people expect the best which unfortunately under the Chinese factories is not the case.

I expect my SONY products to be hand crafted by Japanese virgins in a factory that looks like something out of a James Bond movie, not a dimly lit sweatshop where the kids can’t tell the difference between a Phillips head and a slot screwdriver.

[kee-lo_]

I try and steer clear of these sort of threads after what happened nearly two years ago, but since then I've been looking at other companies, and sadly, Sony are not the worst, the service I have seen given to friends and family is just appealing. So no, it's not Sony who are exclusively to blame, but they should set the standard, as they have done with the media centre (though lately I find their media centres below specs for what I need).

So even though people moan loudly about Sony, it's just one in many companies. DeLL in my opinion were the worst, cancelled our order, then when it arrived a hard disk was broken, the machine wasn't properly built and the 3rd box wasn't for us, and we had some strange bloke show up to collect it.

So if you thought Sony were bad just remember that scenario.

[micdonal]

All that being said, it certainly doesn't excuse Sony's behaviour (manufacturing defects, untested "standard" software crashing, failing Vaio updates, super-fast processors that work more slowly than 5 year old core duos of half the power and on and on and on). It really is a very poor way to do business. And at a premium price too! I spent nearly £2000 on my laptop and apart from watchig the odd Blu Ray film I don't even use it any more as my old desktop is far more efficient at the every day tasks.

I won't go near another Sony laptop at any price.

[kee-lo_]

I agree, this is not excusable, but they're not the worst company, far from it.

I know I've not had the best of times with Sony admins in the past, but I can't fault their products, they're still working and well to be honest.

[Thalamus.]

having recieved no replies from Sony about anything else it can be I have assumed it must be the CPU.

Hi Metal Gear,

I'm a bit confused did you contact Sony Vaio support to rectify this problem or as you joined the Club Vaio forum back in Jan 2007 did you post on the forum asking for help with your sound problems.?..

I wouldnt even know who to speak to about a repair. I still begrudge having it repaired since I started having these problems when it was less than 1 year old.

As I said, I begrudge paying to have something fixed in these circumstances. So did not do a search of contact details for repairs.

well, i did try to rectify it while i was in warrenty but when i phoned customer support etc they just kept saying its sound driver.. over and over... eventually i had enough, got a new sound card only to still have the same problem.

I'm confused further did you contact Sony Vaio support whilst in warranty or did you contact another repairer.?

If it was Sony Vaio support do you have the case number and date of when you first contacted them..

[VelkyZlyVlk]

Well... in the end of April, I got myself a new Vaio FZ21Z. I was overjoyed as the machine was fast, efficient and beautiful and was ready to proclaim that Sony is the best brand ever.

But over a week ago, meaning in the middle of July, the blu-ray drive stopped working, only making a loud noise. In my country (the Czech republic), there is only one company which is authorized to repair Vaios, with only a single place where you can take your computer to be repaired - in Prague, the company's name is Kapsch. So I went to Prague to be assured that the problem is probably only in the drive and therefore, I can get the laptop back in SEVEN DAYS while changing this drive is actually only a matter of minutes.

A week later, meaning today, I was told that the new spare part from Sony still hadn't arrived. I use the notebook for work, too, so every day without it is a real pain in the ass, especially since I'm going abroad for more than a week the day after tommorow (as I told them).

For the extremely overblown European price, what did I get? A fabulous piece of crap with zero support from the Sony and probably one of the most incapable repair service ever. The notebook didn't last for more than three months. I really am disappointed and next time I buy a new laptop, it is definitely NOT going to be another Vaio...

[MetalGear]

Hi.

I did 2 things..I emailed Sony Support and posted on the forum. Sony Support said I needed to update the drivers, so I did. The problem I had was when the system was brand new and had no software on it the sound seemed ok. But then when I started to play certain games on it the sound was aweful. so Sony just kept saying they dont support 3rd party software and that I should do a complete system restore, taking all the software off. Obviously this would 'fix the problem' because then there would be no sound to worry about since there would be no software running that would be of any trouble. Even now I have contacted them again they keep saying they dont support 3rd party software and that I should do a complete system restore and see if that fixes it.......hmmm.. so the circle begins again..

It seems that the Sony solution to my problem is to......not have any software on my laptop that creates noise.. awesome.. why didnt i think of that before.... I feel like such an idiot. Thanks Sony again for your guidance and wisdom.

In any event.. my laptop is now out of warrenty because it has taken SOOO long to fix this issue and i'll have to send it of to see if the children at sony can 'fix it'. The worry I have is that all they will do is a complete system restore...then wont be able to replicate the sound issue.. send it back to me and say 'yay, we fixed it, no sound issues now.. that will be £500...Thank you for buying Sony. I might try it.. watch this space.:)

[MetalGear]

sorry to hear you had these problems..... this forum seems FULL of issues with Sony VIAO's... I know everyone hates it when people complain but for such an expensive product why does everyone have to go through so much pain?

My sony vaio looks gorgeous...as a coffee table ornament its ace.. when people come to visit they say, cool... nice laptop......unfortunalty thats not the reason I bought it...

[MetalGear]

having recieved no replies from Sony about anything else it can be I have assumed it must be the CPU.




If it was Sony Vaio support do you have the case number and date of when you first contacted them..

Would having the case number and date help me now? I doubt I have it.. its about a year ago but I can look through my old emails.

[jumpsuit]

sorry to hear you had these problems..... this forum seems FULL of issues with Sony VIAO's... I know everyone hates it when people complain

Thats the bread and butter of this forum..trying to help those who have technical trouble.
The fun and general chat makes a nice distraction though.