I'm having problems with a clicking hard drive on a Sony Vaio VGN-FE11S. I contacted VAIO support who suggested I try a couple of things to no avail. They suggested sending the laptop for repair but threatened to charge me for the priviledge. I then got on to their customers service people, a Karl Barker, who finally admitted that this is an known issue with this particular model. Two months have now passed and I still have the problem. Apparently their engineers in Tokyo are "investigating". I've asked them to replace the machine but they refuse and it's a catch-22 situation, if I return it to the store where I purchased it, they'll send it to Sony for repair which is pointless since Sony themselves admit they don't know the cause. I'm stuck with a laptop that cost me £1300 two months ago and Sony just aren't interested. It's an absolute disgrace and I will never purchase a Sony product again.

Has anyone actually managed to communicate with the Vista upgrade team? I've sent countless emails, letters and faxes. A couple of calls were handled (after hours of holding) by rude, aloof and beligerent morons. I've paid TWICE now for delivery. The service is poor to the point of negligent, perhaps even fraudulent.

Has anyone actually managed to communicate with the Vista upgrade team? I've sent countless emails, letters and faxes. A couple of calls were handled (after hours of holding) by rude, aloof and beligerent morons. I've paid TWICE now for delivery. The service is poor to the point of negligent, perhaps even fraudulent.

My Sony Vaio developed a fault where it would start (lights on)up but not begin to boot. I have looked on the internet and this seems to be a common problem which sounds like a manufacturing fault. Tried to talk to Sony and as it was out of warranty it looked like a £800 bill. Eventually I did send it in hoping that they would acknowledge the problem and make a repair at a reasonable charge. What a mistake! their customer service is the worst of any I have dealt with. The courier didn't arrive, they didn't call back, I have spent hours on the phone - at 35p/minute - I was sent a letter that told me to call the wrong number. My advice is now that if you were foolish enough to pay over the odds and yours develops a fault - just throw it away and write off the £1300 - I have and it really hurts.

Hi guys, I'm a student in UK and this is my first post and coming out of EXTREME urgency. I have a vaio FE21M (white) bought may 2006 which is now under 2 year extended warranty(expensive affair). Right now my vaio is at sony's UK repair centre due to a major battery issue and I need your advice asap as I feel im being penalised for no fault of mine. I'll write the story in steps:-

1) 3 months back I had sent my vaio for repair as I felt that my battery was getting overheated and the battery charging(lighting bolt) icon in the taskbar used to never go off even when my battery reached 100% level(unlike my lenovo laptop in which it did go off at 100% and said 'charged'). I assumed from the start that it is normal. At that stage my battery still gave 2 hours back-up(reduced) and sony sent it back saying that it's ok after extensively testing it.

2) A month back one fine day my laptop just stopped recognizing my battery's presence. Even though plugged into the laptop the taskbar showed 'battery not present/on a.c. power only' like it does when you remove the battery. No amount of re-inserting/re-booting for next 3-4 days got it to be recognized by the system and obviously the power adaptor worked fine to run the laptop. The battery gave perfectly good back-up till the night before and just DIED suddenly! I needed the laptop for exams so used it for a month on ac power keeping my battery separate.
Then after 25 odd days when I plugged in the battery a few times(it still din't appear) at home it suddenly got recognized at one boot-up with the battery in,i.e.,the icon showed the battery ID with the charging 'lightning bolt' icon on it and battery details. This amazed me but the battery din't charge up at all even if left charging for more than a day.THE LEVEL STAYED AT 0% with 'charging' being shown!! I obviously called sony to take it away knowing something is weirdly wrong but regretting my laptop recognizing my battery for I knew they would say its dead by 'normal' use!!
*WHAT COULD CAUSE THE BATTERY TO NOT GET RECOGNIZED AND THEN RANDOMLY RE-APPEAR ONE DAY AND NOT CHARGE UP???

3) Sony calls me back and obviously says that the battery is dead and told me to shell out £200+ for replacement and labour since the battery is not covered under warranty. This was totally unacceptable to me after having shelled out £180 a month back on extended warranty and having seen my battery DIE all of a sudden. I told sony what all had happened and asked them for an explanation which they havnt provided as yet. My point is that the battery death IS A CONSEQUENCE OF SOMETHING BEING WRONG WITH MY LAPTOP'S CHARGING MECHANISM OR THE NON CUT-OFF OF CHARGING being the cause.
Sony keeps calling and saying we have passed the info. to the repair centre and they have tested it and said that the battery is dead so it will cost for replacement and i keep telling them to tell me if the 'death' is natural or a result of some other fault??!
I have found examples in US of people having the same problem and sony having mailed out new batteries to them free of charge outside the 3 month period. I faxed sony these documents to ask that why don't I get the same treatment in UK. Till date they keep calling to repeat that I wont get a free replecement but are never able to answer my questions and say they will escalate my case to higher level. It's been 1 and a half months now and I refuse to take back my laptop till they answer my questions which they never do.

**I think they are passing the buck onto me and not seeing it as their fault esp. when i had sent it for repairs 3 months back on suspicion of something being wrong and battery over-heating and back-up times reducing**
So,PLEASE ADVICE ME ASAP AS TIME IS RUNNING OUT AS TO WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS WRONG WITH IT AND WHAT SHOULD I DO??SHOULD I GIVE UP AND PAY FOR A NEW BATTERY OR FIGHT AS IM JUST A STUDENT AND CAN'T KEEP DISHING OUT SO MUCH MAKING ME REGRET EVER HAVING BOUGHT A SONY. THANKS.

I'm having major issues with my Sony Vaio laptop (VGN-N11M). 3 months ago the convertor for the screen backlight died, and at that point I didn't have a problem with their service - I could not fault them in any way. They were quick, curteous and I had the laptop repaired and back within the week. This time, however, lines appeared on the left and top of my screen. The guy originally said it would be a hardware problem and arranged for it to be picked up. Now they're saying its a crack in the LCD screen and this constitutes physical damage, therefore, I have to pay £550 to get a £560 laptop repaired - yeah right! As I told them, a laptop which has never been out the house except to get repaired, and spends its working life on a table is extremely unlikely to have 'physical damage' and so there is no way I'm paying that. To cap things off, I asked for photos so I could see this apparent damage, as if that is the case, then that has happened in transit with their uplift, and a week later I am still waiting, despite being promised each day that the photos would arrive with me! Their service is an absolute shambles, and I would urge everyone to steer clear.

Service in the UK appears little better. I returned a Vaio laptop for repair on July 18th 2007. It's now August 6th. I've had to phone them (35p/min) a few times. I don't seem any nearer to getting it back. They've said I can't have a loan unit.

Would I buy another Sony product? I leave you to answer that.

My Sony VGN-AR11S has an utterly irritating problem. From time to time the power lead pops out. Even when it is in securely, the laptop loses power and goes onto battery. I then have to play with the lead in order to make it work again.

It has been back to Sony but I had to chase them repeatedly. It took two months from the first contact with them to receiving the courier bag in which to send (ugh!) the laptop.

It came back 'repaired' but now, a couple of months later, the problem occurs again. It's now out of warranty and the latest case I posted to their e-support has sat there lonely and unread for a week.

Deja vu...

I would not buy another Sony laptop and what's more I'm telling my considerable number of personal and professional contacts not to. If I can keep this laptop going for another year or so, I'll buy a Macbook Pro because both of my colleagues have had great experiences with them.

My cellar where I keep my computers got flooded. I needed a new pc, so I bought a top-spec Sony Sz (display model - no stock...) from a Sony store only to have the side cover come off in my hand after ten days.

I was told to send it to Sony for a Warranty repair, received an SMS to confirm receipt and estimate to repair - 5 days, and waited... Twenty-five days later I had a call from some random Sony bloke who said

the Sony Centre says you dropped it, so it's not a warranty issue

Did they tell you I had told them that I didn't drop it?

No.

Did they tell you it was ex-display?

No. We'll get back to you.

Two days later, I get an SMS telling me it's on ut's way back - fantastic! Really excited. It arrived this morning; my wife stayed in to receive it, only to find that it's still busted. They have done absolutely nothing in THIRTY days.

After years of buying high-end Sony products (I had the first UX in England - imported from Japan), I will NEVER buy Sony again and will strongly advise people not to as well. It's almost impossible to speak to anyone, and when you can, they give you another number to call, which is unattended! Class!

Brought my first ever home computer a vaio fe48e laptop, what a mistake. Everything was ok until it started playing up after the first week. 25mins in to using it it would shut down by itself, restart with a self recovery prompt with the result being a blue screen. This got worse with then a hardware error being reported. Rang the repair centre and was advised to do a full recovery, (why when it was hardware fault). Hey presto, didn't work!! Now the computer stopped working. Another phone call, advised me to send it to them, 3 weeks old and being repaired, gave them a load of earache about this, but wanting it to work, sent it away. 7 days later the laptop returned, opened the box, found a report saying HDD replaced, and full recovery done? wouldn't start first time and when it did, no recovery had been done??? Did recovery myself, ran for 15mins, and yet again crashed, with the hardware error again being displayed. Restarted by itself and then stopped altogether. Another call to them, asked me to do some tests while they were on the phone, nothing!!. Wouldn't replace or refund the cost of the machine saying they could not do this. After 2 weeks of arguing the machine went back for a priority repair with a senior engineer, 4 days later came back with the system board replaced. No recovery done again and yet again does not work. Rang up again with a sarcastic tone, and suggested that it is now un-repairable and a full refund was necessary. They agreed and said it would come out of the repair centre budget. 5 days down the line no refund given (case gone to the directors in Belgium). Why is it so hard when you spend a lot of money, to get something that works.
Just as a foot note, they use DHL carriers, the driver laughed when he saw the laptop was a Sony, had already pick up 8 that week (it was only Tuesday) and it was a regular product he collected. Same driver brought it back and said "see you in 2 days time to take it back". Looks like the name Sony is not only a standing joke, but keeps more than it's own staff in a job!!!!

I bought a BX61XN the build quality was poor, I telephoned sony and they wanted to charge me to put it right.

What a bunch if Wide boys!

I certainly wouldnt recommend Sony for its quality and or service.

Be advised stay well clear of Sony.

I had a sony vaio laptop. I paid £1400 for it and after 11 days, the keyboard stopped working. Called sony for repair which they picked up (after 90 minutes on hold mind). I got it back 4 weeks later and it still had the same problem.

I called them for an explaination to which they said they wouldn't cover my fault under warranty.

I took it back to sony center asking for a refund who refused under their company policy. I explained I needed a laptop for my business and they suggested I go out and buy a usb keyboard to plug into it - I'm sure that would be a very useful and easy thing to carry around on the train and on planes, right?

After a lot of noise, the sony center took it back for warranty repair after making it clear that a refund was not going to happen. They called six days later claiming that I had opened the machine and I must have messed around with it. This is complete garbage. I told them it had already been to sony once but they completely failed to make the connection that sony must have opened the laptop the first time to find a fault!? I felt like I was arguing with a brick wall who kept saying the same goddamned thing!

Despite arguing the point, explaining that the laptop was now 2 months old and I had use of it for precisely 11 days, sony still refused to repair it under warranty, citing that I had damaged it, and wanted £900 to replace the keyboard and something else inside the laptop. Sony center refused to handle any refund stating that user repair was not authorised under the warranty - which is a joke in itself! Apparently, sony center did me a favour by not charging me a £100 diagnosis fee!!! I found that just plain INSULTING!

I ended up giving the laptop to my neice (complete with a usb keyboard) for her to use for school work. I went and bought a Dell machine for far less money (£580) and their customer service, whilst not impeccable, is a lot better than Sony. I had a DVD drive stop reading disks about 7 months into my Dell ownership. They repaired it at my place of work the next day and not even a hint of a repair fee!

NEVER AGAIN SONY! I would advise anyone to never even think of purchasing a Sony laptop ever again!

Its also worth noting that on ebay, I can pick up a Dell replacement keyboard any time I need for less than £40. I would love to know what exactly costs Sony £900 to replace their keyboard.

Pathetic!!!! Trading standards were informed but got the same blank expression out of these people as I did.

very poor service of sony customer service(MJ ENTERPRISES) at gorakhpur up india

The colour has come off the orange strip around the laptop and the silver has faded to white! My space bar doesnt work and the click buttons fail to work a lot of the time. This is my second Sony Vaio..it's 15 months old.. would I buy another? NO! They cost more and are poor quality compared to many other brands

My Vaio VGN-CR31S was not working the day bought it from Sony Centre in Trafford Centre. It was getting blue screen of death randomly after half an hour of using it. I took the laptop to get a replacement. The sales persons at Sony Centre were initially trying to avoid replacing it, saying I've already registered my product online so they can't re-sell it to others! Then they started to identify the problem and fix it, making me wait for 3 hours. I had logs/records of the problem from the system to prove the laptop had a hardware fault but I was told anyone can generate those logs indicating I was trying to con them! After they finally realised there was a fault which they could not fix, and after much debating I got a replacement. But they asked me not to register it(!) and also not to create recovery disks(!), which is against what the sony manual says. I re-instated that I have paid full amount for my laptop I expect it to work following Sony's own instructions.

After all this, I did ask what compensation would I get for wasting my bank holiday weekend trying to fix a laptop which I bought a day before and wasting my time and money to travel to Sony Centre and back. The reply was, they have been in this business and they've never heard of any such thing as compensation. I was not expecting them to give me monetary compensation but any small gesture like a free mouse or earphones or anti-virus would have indicated they don't want an unhappy customer leaving their shop. I bought my previous laptop from Curry's (then Dixon's) and I got such a good customer service even when I went outside the warranty period.

I have written a more detailed complaint to the Sony's National Operations Centre (UK). Hope to hear from them soon. If Sony's attitude is the same as their sales team, then they will lose not just me as a future customer, but at least 15 others who realised what happened to me.

I had a problem with the trackpad on my VAIO VGN SZ1XP ceasing to work. Although I use my laptop everyday, this wasn't a disaster as I got a very portable wireless USB mouse. Recently I've found the keyboard cutting out intermittently for no apparent reason, and have also had issues with the battery. I didn't contact Sony.

I was considering just buying a new laptop (didn't want to send them it because they'd charge me a fortune for something that was possibly quite simple) but instead bought a new battery, not an official Sony one but a compatible one from Ebay.

I'm using it now, and for the first time in months my mouse is working again and my keyboard seems fine.

Conclusion: try buying a replacement battery first before sending it off to Sony.