Truly disappointed with Xperia aftersales service

[sc1207]

Hi all,

Just a bit of venting here. I bought an Xperia XZ back in October and it came with a defective headphone jack out of the box (the slightest movement on a plugged in jack would make the phone detect it as removed making my music pause all the time unintentionally). That was fine, I can accept that there will be some manufacturing faults in any production process so I sent the phone in for repairs (BTW in Hong Kong where I live they don't send a courier for your phone, we have to physically go to a service center and queue for service. Between travelling to the service location, queuing to see a representative, leaving, going back to the center and queuing again to pick my phone up each repair would waste about 5-6 hours of my time which I have to get an unpaid holidday since their center doesn't open on Sat or Sun). But I got back the supposedly repair phone only to find the proximity sensor (the sensor that makes your screen go black when you put it against your face) was malfunctioning and makes my screen go black and the touch screen un-responsive even when it's not against my face so I can no longer end calls once I started one. So I patiently took another unpaid leave day and sent the phone back for servicing. Now it's January, not even four months since I have bought the phone and the proximity sensor has broken down again. To trump it all since the phone has no extenal screws for better asthetics and the screen is glued on, they have to (I imagine) put a heat gun to it every time they repair my phone and soften the glue. Well now I think because it's been removed so many times, the screen is coming loose.

I'm really kind of fed up with this. Sony is honouring their warranty and repairing the phone, but since I have bought it I have had to take an unpaid day per month, 5-6 hours of my time and have all data wiped from my phone every month. This is torture, I have thought maybe this is just my bad luck and that this paticular unit is defective so I asked if they can just exchange it for another unit but they said they can't do that. I mean these days with so many brands and choices out there Xperia really has to do better. I am now considering to take this up with my local consumer council because I simply cannot keep taking days off to fix my phone and have all my data wiped every month.

I have been a loyal Xperia fan, and in fact have been using Sony phones when they were still Sony Ericsson but this really is the last nail in the coffin, don't think I will buy another. 

[MarlonUk1]

I am sorry to hear about this, have you tried contacting your Local support if they could do something about this?

do you check your device thoroughly in store when you get it back after repair? I don't know about the local warranty but if the headphone was defective out of the box it should constitute a manufacutere's defect and should be legible for replacement. not so sure though, so I suggest you talk to your Local support

[sc1207]

My phone was eligible for replacement within 7 days of puchase but unfortunately I bought the phone just before going away on a trip and by the time I returned home the 7 days had passed and I don't blame them for that. However, I have had to bring the phone for repairs 3 times already and twice for the same defect and they still refuse to replace the unit. This is not good customer service in my books.

[sc1207]

Just a little update, I can understand that call center staff sometimes cannot make decisions such as replacing devices without authorisation so I asked to talk to a manager or for the call center representative to provide me with an address where I can write to them or visit to explain the situation and was told that she could do neither. Really not helpful

[MarlonUk1]

we cannot really do anything on this forum since this a user based forum. and sony warranty are locally based and may differ in each region or area.

one great thing about having a physical service center nearby as compared to "send your device by courier" is that you can actually talk to someone, have you requested to talk to the technician or the superviser of the service center you have visited? did they give you a printed report of what repairs they did on your device.

if you are worried that the water resistance is affected during each repair, you can request to perform a vaccum test to see if the water resistance is intact

[dandy63]

You can also back up your data before any further repairs 

[NeoBeum]

In Australia we just harass the retailer until things get fixed