I'd just like to have a little rant about my feelings with regards to the customer support experience I have had in an attempt to fix my laptop, 2 months of age (when it broke down) and why I'm still no nearer to having it fixed.
The main problem I have is the fact that I work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. It takes me an hour and a half to get to and from work so finding time to ring your support line was difficult. The only time I could ring the support line was during my lunch break, where the costs because of ringing from a mobile, have considerably increased.
The laptop, a VGN-NR38E/S, was purchased from Argos last October where for the first few weeks it ran fine. One day, out of the blue, it crashed while I attempted to watch some free on-demand content from Channel 4's website and I encountered the BSoD. As per usual, I hut down my computer and from then on it's been a nightmare.
I've tried all ways to boot up, and even got onto Windows intself once, until it crashed 30 seconds later, however now it's just a case of black screen with a mouse and nothing more. I've tried using my own recovery discs which I created when purchasing the laptop and those didn't work. I contacted Sony, purchased some of their own recovery discs (in case mine were faulty) and was told they would be £25. I called back the following day to purchase and the price had jumped to £37.50 including delivery... Reluctantly I purchased them in hope however again once delivered they did not work.
The worst part is now to come though with the fact that I've now tried 4 times to have my laptop picked up for repair. I was told a pickup would be done which never happened. I allowed it a week or so and no pickup came. I called back, was advised there was no record of my pickup and that another would be arranged for last Thursday. I had to get my grandfather, who suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis and can barely walk, to sit in the house all day and await the delivery as no-one else would be around.
The delivery, once again, never came and I called back on Friday and was told system problems were to blame and that it should be picked up on the Friday. No-one was going to be in the house and Sony had failed to let me know so I could arrange for someone to be there. I got home and was no card had been left to say DHL had came to pick my laptop up.
I was also told I would have a call-back at 1:15pm to give me the details I needed to contact DHL myself and arrange a suitable pick-up time. No call-back was received.
I called back today and for some reason they had mixed up my old address with my new address for pickup and as such DHL were pretty much sent to the middle of nowhere looking for a non-existant address. No wonder it never got picked up.
Finally I've arranged to have it picked up from my girlfriends house on Wednesday. All in all, this has been a disgrace which has lasted over a month, and I'm severely disappointed in the service I've been provided. The laptop cost me £399.99 which I paid in cash up front at Argos. I've estimated a total tally of the cost it has been to me in an attempt to get this laptop fixed and it regions between £75-£85 which takes into account the recovery discs and the insane amount of minutes I've called the Sony Support helpline.
Has anyone else had this trouble?!
