[condor]

My first experience with Sony's Auth Service Center for their audio equipment is giving me second thoughts about going in for Sony products.

I have a Sony portable audio player, and had to take it to the service center since it was not coming on. Took it to the ASC in Jayanagar, and gave it in for repairs. They note down the contact details on the JC, and say will call. More than a week later, there's no response.

I call, and either they dont respond, or the call is forwarded & then it gets disconnected. People who finally answer say they will call - ref prev para for continuation of the story of their response.

Apparantly I am not alone in this. Wait a bit in their reception on may be a saturday (that;s the day we get time to do such stuff) - and you can hear others who come there to complain about the ASC's functioning.

Coming to the bigger picture, wonder how Sony expects to grow with this kind of A.S.S. The lack of competence extends to their show rooms too. Ask their sales people about any product, the guys wont know much. But then this is not unique to Sony.

Even if A.S.C worked like it should, Sony says it may not service anything that;s older than 5 years. So if you have a Sony product, should you plan to not have it more than 5 years ? If yes, then why should one pay the premium for a Sony or a Panasonic. The koreans seem to make more sense - pay a little less for more features, use it for the same period and then go for the next gen product.

Agree that supporting a product for a longer period can be a challenge. But the A.S.S experience even during the support life of the product is discouraging.

Checked the web a bit, and found some more stories about their support & servicing quality, from other areas of the country.


Meanwhile, any help is welcome.

[greenhorn]

modern electronics seem to have been miniaturized to the point of having becoming unserviceable by conventional means. just like, say a motherboard, they will replace it till the warranty runs out. after that, you better get a new one.
sad, but true....

[gopz]

I had a Sony VAIO SZ laptop (Its a premium laptop) and I had to visit the service center a couple of times but I rate their service as top notch. Maybe because it was a 1.25lac laptop, I got premium service!

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

modern electronics seem to have been miniaturized to the point of having becoming unserviceable by conventional means. just like, say a motherboard, they will replace it till the warranty runs out. after that, you better get a new one.
sad, but true....

Yes true, but then we also have modern manufacturing process as well as modern communication technologies. So things could have been better. You are right and spot on from the hardware side. But here the calls could have been answered properly and in precise manner.

If they are not able to repair because of complexicity,then it should have been replaced. Even motherboard replacement in city like Vadoara takes 10-12 days.

Originally Posted by gopz

I had a Sony VAIO SZ laptop (Its a premium laptop) and I had to visit the service center a couple of times but I rate their service as top notch. Maybe because it was a 1.25lac laptop, I got premium service!

Might be true.


My experience with sony is also bad. My father had bought Sony Music system from Duabi in 1995. REcently it started giving problems. So went to sony service center for it. After 15 days they called up and said they dont have the specific part. Till then the call replies would be that " I ahve contacted SONY and the parts would be coming soon" .
That system was repaired for 250 rs at local TV repair shop.

[linuxtechie]

Originally Posted by condor

My first experience with Sony's Auth Service Center for their audio equipment is giving me second thoughts about going in for Sony products.

I have a Sony portable audio player, and had to take it to the service center since it was not coming on. Took it to the ASC in Jayanagar, and gave it in for repairs. They note down the contact details on the JC, and say will call. More than a week later, there's no response.

I call, and either they dont respond, or the call is forwarded & then it gets disconnected. People who finally answer say they will call - ref prev para for continuation of the story of their response.

Apparantly I am not alone in this. Wait a bit in their reception on may be a saturday (that;s the day we get time to do such stuff) - and you can hear others who come there to complain about the ASC's functioning.

Coming to the bigger picture, wonder how Sony expects to grow with this kind of A.S.S. The lack of competence extends to their show rooms too. Ask their sales people about any product, the guys wont know much. But then this is not unique to Sony.

Even if A.S.C worked like it should, Sony says it may not service anything that;s older than 5 years. So if you have a Sony product, should you plan to not have it more than 5 years ? If yes, then why should one pay the premium for a Sony or a Panasonic. The koreans seem to make more sense - pay a little less for more features, use it for the same period and then go for the next gen product.

Agree that supporting a product for a longer period can be a challenge. But the A.S.S experience even during the support life of the product is discouraging.

Checked the web a bit, and found some more stories about their support & servicing quality, from other areas of the country.


Meanwhile, any help is welcome.

Hmm had been a bit lucky in this case. However Sony, on there own part are very reluctant to accept a problem in the product, many of the time there staff have no idea about the issue. I can understand your problem, you have paid for the warranty and now you are cheated with same.

Best of luck, of course this is of no help.

~LT

[NetfreakBombay]

Called their toll free number and they sent someone to my place to fix the home theater system (it was not in warranty).

Service is pricey (was charged ~2k for replacing motor that loads CD/DVD) but worked well.

Maybe it depends on particular service center.

[condor]

@greenhorn, I have been in the cust support field for long enough to have seen repairs to changing parts to changing units. It's more about their attitude.

@netfreak, that's possible. Whenever the next time happens, will check out another of their service centers.


OT:

@linuxtechie, pls avoid quoting full messages in your replies. Quoting is far more effective if you quote the specific point you are replying to - this helps focus your message. Thanks !

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

... Maybe it depends on particular service center.

It sure does. A.S.S. is seldom carried out by company FTEs. The service is usually outsourced.

Only in some instances the vendor is large and has many locations (like HCL or Onida). There is some predictability if volume & throughput is high.

Otherwise, there will be a local electronics repair outlet who is entrusted with the role. If it is run by a committed individual who puts his heart into it, it is run like an excellent institution.

If not, it is an apathetic institution displaying the characteristic lack of responsibility. Here, even the employees show the "kiske baap ka kya jaata hai" attitude.

Pity we don't have service consciousness the way it is woven into the fabric of Japanese society. There must be many in Sony India who say "KBKKJH"

[shiv]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Called their toll free number and they sent someone to my place to fix the home theater system (it was not in warranty).

Service is pricey (was charged ~2k for replacing motor that loads CD/DVD) but worked well.

Maybe it depends on particular service center.

Service is pricey.....i agree on this.....

i had a sony DSC H1, the lens system had gone bad and they gave me a quote of Rs 17500.........that was almost the price i bought the camera for......Well not to blame Sony as their cameras use carl zeiss lens which are very expensive....

I gave it to a local camera shop and he got it done for Rs5500......he should have cannibalized it from another non-working camera..... and its been working fine since......the point here is that they might be lots of your next-door electronics shop which may service or repair your system......i know its hard to trust them with your expensive systems but in my case i had no other option....Luckily it worked.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Any idea about how much would it cost to get my Home theater amplifier serviced? Its been around 3 years that I bought the system and I was thinking of getting it serviced as a lot of dust might have got settled.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by VJ_MAVRICK

...Its been around 3 years that I bought the system and I was thinking of getting it serviced as a lot of dust might have got settled.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it!

But, seriously, don't you think 3 years is a very low time to get an electronic stuff 'serviced'. Now, that is unless you are living in a very dusty environment; are you?

[condor]

If this is one of the player+ speaker kind of HT units, like the DAV series : suggest you open the cover, carefully dust the innards with a vacuum cleaner. Do remember to use low power.

+1 to the note from @HappyWheels. Clean the head with a good head cleaning unit. Try a branded one for this part - may be even Sony.

Else, unless there is a real problem on hand, donot give it to the service center.

[NetfreakBombay]

If you call Sony call center, they will send soneone to do service at your place. It costs 500 Rs.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

@HappyWheels: Suresh ! No matter How clean one's ambience and environment are, dust definitely gets settled and I can see that for sure while trying to load any CD. Its not conked for sure but to keep it healthy,thought of geting it done through the technicians.

@Condor: Parwath! Yea, I can use a good head cleaning Sony CD for sure but as stated above just wanted to get a health checkup done on the system too and nothing more than that.

@NetfreakBombay: Now that looks like a good deal and will find out.

Thank you folks for the pointers.

[anuragn]

Getting it "serviced" from Sony sounds good.
But make sure that they really have "servicing only" on their menu. It should'nt happen that the technician opens up the system, finds everything in working order, hence simply closes it and charges Rs.500 for home visit.
Otherwise, if you are comfortable, get some known electronics shop guy to service it in your presence. Shoud'nt take more than 1 hour. That's what I did last sunday for getting my old Yamaha stereo amp serviced, and the guy very happily accepted the 100 bucks I offered.