topic BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK in Z Series

BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

macka_moose — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:13:22 GMT

I have a Xperia Z3 compact. 1 year old and the back is cracked - my fault, I dropped it, otherwise it works perfectly.

Becauser it's waterproof I thought that I'd return it to Sony for repair - I expected a bigger estimate than a non Sony repair but it was only cosmetic after all so the bill wouldn't be that big would it?

I was shocked to get an email saying it was 'beyond economic repair' and that Sony would supply a replacement for £280... I then had to pay £20:54 to get my phone back and get it repaired locally (for £20), its sometimes called sharp practice. and its just as well that Sony dont repair cars isn't it.

Sony Ts and Cs state that a charge is payable if I decline the repair quote

I wrote to Sony and asked for a refund of my £20:54 as I had not declined the repair, they had refused to repair it.

Sony have so far refused to make a refund - Ive spoken to Citizens Advice and they advice me to go to the small claims court - but £20 ? Is it worth the effort? I've offered to abide by any decision made by a independent arbitrator - I've had no answer.

SO - Obviously I wont be using their service ever again but why have I posted this on here ?

Well I think that other potential users of the Sony repair service should be aware and pre warned!

If Sony write my phone off for £20 cosmetic damage - then presumably there are not many faults that they would fix, any phone that is out of warranty is potentially scrap, and it'll cost you over £20 to find out.

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

uterlydissapion — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 18:24:25 GMT

I share your grief and dissapiontment my z3 compact screen cracked so I sent it in for repair £131.00 later and a month of waiting to get my phone back and it still hasn't been fixed . After my repair was sent to the esculataltion team which didn't eaven bother to get back to me on the statuss of the repair . I now have to wait another 2 weeks to get my phone back . I could not be more dissapionted or angry with sony if I tried . my advise to anyone with a sony phone is to sell it and get any other phone you can as the customer service is pathetic to say the least .

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

macka_moose — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 16:34:13 GMT

And now they write to ask if I'm happy with the answer!
I think Sony have started a great money generating scheme, if only I'd thought of it I could be rich as well.
I'll offer to repair your stuff (phones, laptops, anything really) and when you send it to me I'll tell you its not worth fixing then I'll keep it unless you send me £20. Im sure I could make £10 out of each punter - and do absolutely nothing except put it in the post.
In a similar situatuon its called blackmail.

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

Christofer — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 13:14:38 GMT

Hi @WEH,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Though I can't say for sure in your case, in general when a device is judged to be beyond economical repair it is because there is more then just the cosmetic damage. I would suggest that you contact your Local support team for more information about why this decision was taken for your device.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

macka_moose — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 16:55:24 GMT

Thanks for the reply Xperia support, however your answer is not true in this case.
The phone is now repaired locally in Southampton using genuine parts for £20. It works just fine.
Sony support wont enter into any discussion on the mstter, someone just acted as judge and jury and wont listen to the argument.
1) it was MY phone so it my decision on whether the repair was cost effective or not. Sony should have quoted for the work as requested NOT tried to sell me another one.
2) I agreed to pay the cost if i refused to have the phone repaired - i never refused, Sony refused to quote.
3) Ive offered to to to arbitration on this as advised by Citizens Advice Bureau, to date NO REPLY from Sony.
This is shoddy practice in anyones books, Im really tempted to go to small claims court as a matter of principle, but have better things to do in my life. And so I just end my relationship with Sony and go back tp Samsung. That'll show you Sony!!

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

Uliwooly — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 18:18:51 GMT

I'm sorry to hear about your problem but you shouldn't generalize that the same experience will be the same to everyone, stay in contact with your Local support

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

exsanguinator — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 09:55:19 GMT

Yes,it's totally unethical of Sony.
They should've quoted you £600 to get it repaired, and then you could've made a decision if you wanted to go ahead and repair it.

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

BigChak — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 12:20:17 GMT

dude, just one advice, it is NOT waterproof!

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

Uliwooly — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:59:29 GMT

The phone it is waterproof, as long as there's no physical damage.

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

Lord_viridis — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 12:06:04 GMT

Had it had any kind of repair done on the device before, by anyone.?
If any evidence of 3rd party repair work was found, they will reject the repair as BER due to the unguaranteeable condition of the device.
I also would just point out, your £20 repair using "genuine parts" should not be treated as the same repair quality and you should forget the ip rating.
The parts required to repair properly cost a lot more than a single back panel at £20

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

macka_moose — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 08:46:37 GMT

Thanks for the many replies.
The reason I sent it to Sony and was prepared to pay a higher price was to ensure it was waterproof and remained genuine, once Sony refused to repair it I was left with no alternative, I had to gey a local repair.
One reply said that Sony should have quoted £600 - I assume that was sarcastic - but thats exactly what I think they should have done as the manufacturer, I might not like the price in which case it was my choice whether to pay to get it returned, no argument.
Someone on here (uliwooly) who may well be Sony employee, writes that I shouldn't generalise and stay in contact with local support, well, local support were the ones that ripped me off for £20 and wont refund so not a good solution! and secindly I didnt generalise, I pointed out what happened to me, if others have the same issue then I think its worth sharing the poor experience, thats the beauty of sites like Trip Advisor. I think poor customer service should always be publicised, power to the people.

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

macka_moose — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 11:05:43 GMT

Update - For Info.

I offered to go to arbitration with Sony, however they inform me they are not members of any trade body.

So I took it to the Advertising STandards Authority - the website is misleading and does not make clear that SOny will still levy a charge even if THEY decide not to repair.

ASA upheld my complaint and SOny has agree to change the webpages.

Your complaint – Sony Mobile Communications

Thank you for contacting the ASA and for your patience whilst I assessed your concerns.

Once we reviewed the ad in light of your complaint, we thought you had a valid point and instructed the advertiser to amend the ad - they have now agreed to do this.

Now we’ve resolved your complaint, basic information including the advertisers’ name and where the ad appeared will be published on our website, www.asa.org.uk.

Re: BEYOND ECONOMIC REPAIR - Unbelievable and poor customer service in UK

crashuk1 — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:17:23 GMT

Just don't buy their products they did the same to me.

This is one of the reasons why Sony Mobile sales are dropping of the cliff.

I have spoken to a lot of people that had similar issues they no longer buy Sony.