Share your experience!
I have had two Sony televisions. The old CRT Sony Trinitron and a new 46" LCD Bravia. They really are very good. Sony seem to make very good televisions.
I have also had a few other products by Sony.
None of them were up to any decent standard whatsoever!
Up until recently had a Sony HDD video recorder. It went wrong and the sony customer service dept. took six months to eventually tell me there was nothing they could do and I had to take it to my nearest Sony authorised repair center. That was 40 miles away in Lincoln! After keeping it for six weeks without calling me back, I eventually managed to get them to tell me it needed a new hard disk drive and it would cost almost the same as the whole recorder cost in the first place! It would also be guarenteed for only three months!
I refused and went there to collect it back. All I can say is it was an almost unsigned back street dive on an edge of town run down industrial estaste. Not somewhere you would associate with Sony. I now have a HUMAX HDD video which is much better. Much the same was for the Sony VHS recorder I had some years earlier. A replacement read/write head replacement to cost 1 1/2 times that of a new Panasonic Video!
So, to summerise: Sony TVs - very good, anything else Sony - rubbish, Sony Customer Service - pretty much a waste of time!
Thanks for reading.
Hi there,
Sorry to hear of your misfortune with your Sony Video Recorders! If it's any conciliation to you I also had a Sony Video Recorder which lasted just 13 months and right outside the guarantee period, how convenient was that for Sony?!
I didn't bother with a repair and opted for a complete replacement. Like you I went with a different brand 'Panasonic', sometimes it is better to stick with brands you know and trust. Ironically my previous video recorder was also a Panasonic, I still have it packed away in it's box and it still works! It's now 24 years old!!!
I guess we live in a disposable society these days, manufacturers buy cheap components and have their products made in foreign countries where labour is cheap, consequently they rarely last as long. Like you say; repairs cost almost as much as the original unit.
Fingers crossed those telly's last a bit longer than your VCR's.
Sorry to hear you've had a hard time with some of your products jomille7441
If ever you're having trouble you can always post on this forum and its possible other members may be able to help you or at least give some advice.
I can't agree though that "anything else Sony - rubbish".
I only ever buy Sony products and have never had a problem with my Alpha Camera, TV, PS3, Tablet, Desktop, Laptop, or numerous Walkmans over the years.
There can be faults with any electrical device / manufacturer, maybe I'm just lucky.
I think jumpsuit hit the nail on the head..,
"there can be faults with any electrical device / manufacturer, maybe I'm just lucky".
I hope some of your luck rubs off on me jumpsuit, I love my STR DN1040, hopefully that will last the test of time. Fingers crossed!
From my general experience, equipement is replaced more often due to it being outdated that replacement due to faults.
All companies have a small expected failure rates on either 1st day, 1 year, 2,years 3 years etc. Its when failure rates are higher than expected is when there is a problem.
Sometimes your lucky and experience very little failures/faults, other times you have to rely on your warranty (or just plainly unlucky)
There is that too. When my Sony VCR stopped working it was right around the time when digital switchover was taking place and back then people were given terrible advice by the industry.
Fearing that buying another anologue VCR would instantly be outdated and be a waste of money I upgraded my recorder and bought a digital DVD\HDD Recorder with Freeview built-in.
Of course now switchover is complete we realsie that even old VCR will still work if you have a digital freeview box connected.
Oh well, all is well that ends well as they say!