Sony has the worst cell phone customer support I have ever seen!

[JadenKing]

Good Mornign All,

I hope all are well.

First, let me start off by stating I have been a lifelong Sony fan for 20+ years now whether it be gaming consoles, laptops or cell phones. They were always first on the list. With that being said this past week has been the worst customer support I have ever received in my life.

Around 3 weeks ago I cracked my Sony XA1 screen. Upon readnig the warranty info I decided to send it to the Sony Repair Center in Illinois as instructed. After waiting a few days(not too long) I decided to contact Sony via chat/phone call for an update. I provided them all the necessary info and they continued to tell me it would be up to a 14 busniess day process. I was ok with it, being my first call and all. So maybe a day or two later passes and I think "hmmm maybe now they can give me SOME sort of update on where they are with the phone?". I mean, it's a cracked screen. Everything pertaining to the OS was fine. I was once again treated with the 14 allocated business day response. When I asked if there was a Supervisor or someone else with more information I was constantly told no one was there at the time. I was also told that the Tech Reapir team was independent and they could not contact them. That doesn't even sound believable. So I wait another day or two and try to chat again and each time I tried to connect I received the message "Connection Lost. Please contact your local administrator". Me , being in the IT field myself, automatically thought they blocked my MAC address. I tried connecting via chat with another laptop and what do you know? I was able to conenct just fine! Imagine that! With this chat I was informed the same old lines they continue to force feed me and I informed them I would be contacting Corporate to avoid this horrendous customer service. I have been trying to get in contact with them but I keep being redirected to terrible Xperia Support. 

So Buyers Beware-I was always wondering why major cell phone sercice providers stopped carrying Sony products and this may just be one of the components why.

[JadenKing]

And don't get me wrong-this isn't an attempt to be petty or anything of that manner. It's just ridiculous I have to poke & prod for any sort of information pertaining to the status of my personal property. If I knew they were going to be this shady/uninformative I would have took it to a simple cell phone repair shop for a 1 day repair. 

[JadenKing]

Edited due to personal information

[JadenKing]

Edited due to personal information

[CameronT]

Hi @JadenKing, welcome to the community. I am very sorry to hear about your experience with your repair

I had to delete your transcripts as they contain personally identifiable information about you and your handset, please read the discussion guidelines.

Please understand that this is an international community made up of mostly users. Different regions have different warranty rules and different repair agents. What applies to you may not necessarily apply to others. I understand that your situation is frustrating, but as this is a local issue the only team that can help will be your Local support team. I recommend you remain in touch with them in regards to this issue.

[shodaimezack]

hi,sorry about your phone but i need to know is this phone worth for you?because i think i want to buy this phone...i can live with bad customer support. thank you

[JadenKing]

At the time it was $300 but I believe the retail price has dropped to $250.

[DOA2]

Hello,

How did you get on with this in the end? 

I'm in the very frustrating situation of buying an unlocked Xperia XA in California, returning to New Zealand with it and finding it's dead out of the box.  Sony New Zealand refusing to even look at the device because they say the hardware is different in each phone region and not covered by any warranty.  Pretty annoyed really considering I've been a long time purchaser of Sony products.  First page of warranty booklet implies worldwide support/warranty.  Page 8 then details warranty only in region of purchase. Interestingly, a Sony authorised repairer in New Zealand will assess the phone for a fee.  Will this affect my USA warranty status?

I think mobile phones should at least have an international warranty.  I won't be getting caught again, and depending on how this all turns out, this latest Sony purchase could be my last.

I've had no response from Sony USA support via their web portal in 48hrs.

[DOA2]

Correction:  A Sony authorised repairer will now diagnose my phone's problem free of charge, yet the Sony NZ repair center will not even look at the device, even with me offering to pay the diagnostic fee.  Something is wrong here.