Jun 13, 2007 05:16 PM
2376 Views
Confused???
I rate the product as good and still don't recommend for it?
Well to set the fact straight, the product is real good one (as is expected of a phone coming from a brand like Sony and as is expected to get from a product that costs pretty more than 10K bucks to your pockets).
What forced me to write this negative feedback was the way my case was handled by with Sony customer care in the most careless and unprofessional manner, giving me such painful experiences of dealing with Sony CC manpower that I and my family members have to swear never to deal with Sony in future.
Excuse me for a comparatively huge write up but my frustration level couldn’t be justified with anything less. Read on if you find it worth to spend time on…
The story started in Feb 2007. The phone in question, Sony Z710i, was the first gift from my parents to my husband after our wedding. So one can imagine the value and emotions attached with the phone and the level of trust all of us had put in before selecting the same as the "Perfect Gift".
All said and done, my husband started using his new phone with pride. Not even a week after we switched on this new phone, all of a sudden it went blank. This happened while a call was on. We tried switch off - switch on several times in desperate try to put life back into the dead phone. None of us was ready to believe that a phone just a week in usage had shown down.
Well, as our most expected next step, we needed to take the phone to a "SONY SERVICE CENTRE" (This should well be renamed as SONY Problem Aggravating Center). From the customer care list we found out that the closest center to our place is some 12Kms away and it remains closed on Sunday. Both me and my husband being professionals, had no choice but to wait for Saturday to pay a visit there (Surprising, in a city like Mumbai, they have so few centers all scattered at huge distances)
Saturday arrived, and so did we at the so said service center. And the real ordeal began. We were made to wait for 2 hours for our turn to see a customer care attendant. The staff was rude to the level of insulting people waiting. Do we need to tell them that people waiting outside are not beggars, they are the ones who pay for your salary and who make your brand??? By the end of 2 hours, it was 5pm - closing time for the center. We had to literally bull fight to get in before they close in the doors of the center.
Once there we were made to wait for another hour and finally when we got our (God bless) chance to see the executive, she bluntly announced that “There is software problem in this Phone – we need to reload the software this will take 3 days to rectify”. With my previous experience, I knew this problem is gonna be a recurring one.
We were not falling for their charms and asked them to replace the handset, as we were not ready for further software problems with the phone. To this came the most amazing reply of their customer care executive – “Sir, if we give you a new handset, what will be the guarantee that the new handset would not have the same problem?” WHATTTTTTTTTT???Did we hear that right??? A customer care executive asking us for a guarantee for their own product – Their own cause and source of income???The only befitting answer we could’ve had for her was “What is the guarantee that we’ll see you alive sitting here when we come back after 3 days???”
After lots of arguments they finally agreed to replace the handset and asked us to be back in 15 days as a replacement takes that much time. This we insisted they give it in writing and the manager after certain more rounds of arguments wrote and gave us. We got a call from them asking us to come to pick our handset in about 17 –18 days, but again waiting for a Saturday, we reached the service station after 21 days and were taken aback when we got to know that there has been no replacement, all they did was to reload the software.
We waited for 21 days without a phone for which we had paid a handsome amount just to know that all they did was to reload the software. Sidelined is the fact that it costed a fortune and time to travel 12 Kms in a city like Mumbai just to buy this story from them. We argued that a software reload takes just 3 days so why had we been informed after 18 days that too with wrong information and incomplete resolution. After creating a scene, they finally agreed on replacing the handset within a week and also promised that they shall send in the new handset to our place and we wouldn’t need to bother traveling all the more again.
Satisfied we came back with our reloaded handset, now in working condition. We did get a call from them about 10 days later saying that our new handset has arrived but they have nobody to home deliver the same and shall do that in next day or so… Its June Mid now and we are STILL WAITING FOR A WORD FROM THEM.
Irritated to the core with this entire episode we have decided not to follow up any further. The Phone as of now is working fine apart from certain occasional misfires, like sudden reboot of the phone or sudden failure of the ringer etc. We definitely had not paid 10K for this kind of a service and behavior. In spite of best features and design, SONY did lost a few prospective customers from my family – may be more after reading my review!!!
Hope this review manages to put across its message to the intended recipient and helps saving on time, money and frustration for other customers.
I reiterate - However good a product might be, if it doesn't work for me.. its WORTHLESS!!!
