WHERE IS MY REFUND??

[pixiebean22]

E-mail below sent to Sony AGAIN today. 

My boyfriend bought me a laptop for Christmas, laptop proved faulty from day one, took weeks and months of back and forth with The Sony Centre in Waterford before they would even accept that the laptop was in fact faulty, they then contacted Sony about organising a refund, this same refund was allegedly authorised nearly 2 months ago but my boyfriend is yet to receive his refund.  The shop either have not passed it on or Sony did not actually authorise the refund.

WHAT IS GOING ON??  We have received absolutely no communication from Sony or The Sony Centre and have been forced to lodge an application with the Small Claims Court.  Why can't Sony just give back the money?  What is the delay??

Case ID #: 336302

To whom it may concern

I would just like to  once again express my disgust at the way I have been treated by Sony in  seeking a refund for a faulty product bought in The Sony Centre in  Waterford.

You will note that this matter has been ongoing since the beginning  of January, it is now nearing the end of April and I still have not  received the refund that Sony authorised nearly 2 months ago.

You  might want to look into the management of The Sony Centre in Waterford  because he seems to have an awful lot of unsatisfied customers dragging  your name through the court system in Ireland.  I have been forced to  lodge a Small Claims Court Application in relation to this matter  because as far as I know Sony authorised my refund nearly 2 months ago  but The Sony Centre have refused on many occasions to pass the refund  onto me.  I am 400euro out of pocket for many many months now.

I will never ever buy a Sony product again.  Your customer service  is an absolute disgrace and the people selling your products are  incompetent.

Despite filling out two fairly scathing customer satisfaction surveys in February I have received no contact from Sony.

I want a response to this e-mail as soon as possible and the matter  addressed.  Where is my refund?  Where is the money that Sony promised  me nearly 2 months ago??

[pixiebean22]

Sure glad I haven't been holding my breath on this one, I'd be dead and gone by now.

It's going to be another week before we have any update on this because the person in the Sony shop dealing with this is on holidays until next Tuesday.  For some strange reason the Manager/Owner can't deal with the matter in his absence.

[pixiebean22]

After another week of waiting still no sign of the refund.

Ciaran Cassidy and Donal O'Shea in Sony are two of the names that have been mentioned to me of people dealing with this.  I have spoken to Donal O'Shea myself but I haven't spoken to Ciaran Cassidy.  Does he even exist?

I called the Sony Centre again this morning and the person dealing with the case is back from his holidays but still the matter is bottom of the priority list.

My boyfriend (the person who bought the laptop) got a call from someone in Sony this morning to say that the Sony Centre would be calling him today on the matter but he hasn't gotten any call yet and when I spoke to the Sony Centre myself they knew nothing of the phone call they were supposed to be making.

I was told today by the Sony Centre that when the refund was initially authorised back in February they never got the money so this time they want to get their money from Sony before they refund our money.  Are they unfamiliar with consumer law??  Also, why couldn't this information have been passed onto me on the many occassions I have been in touch with Sony and the Sony Centre?

[pixiebean22]

Yet another day wasted chasing people who can't do the job they're paid to do.  According to Sony they can't understand what the delay is, as far as they're concerned the whole thing is an absolute joke now and the refund was authorised so we should've gotten our money long ago.  According to the Sony Centre, Sony are feeding the wrong information and that is not where the matter is at.  The Sony Centre maintain that they want their money from sony before giving us our money and they do not have this money as of COB today. Aside from the fact that that goes against consumer law, the obvious issue here is; who is lying?   If the Sony Centre are lying then why can't Sony do something about it and if Sony are lying why am i getting phone calls from sony saying they don't know what the hold up is and that everything has been finalised at their end???  I really need some answers and more importantly, my refund.

Message was edited by: pixiebean22

[pixiebean22]

Yet another day of passing the blame. Well done Sony.

[Thalamus.]

Hi Pixiebean,

We have again been assured that Sony Ireland HAS been in communication with the Sony Centre.

Sony Ireleand have stated the they will treat your Vaio as DOA and will credit the Sony Centre, however it would appear that the Sony Centre are not accepting this..:smileyconfused:

From reading between the lines I don't think Sony Ireland are happy that this has not been resolved.

We (Q&A Experts) are trying our best to help you resolve this..:smileyhappy:

My comments - I'm not sure if you are aware but the Sony Centres are independent retailers and not owned by Sony so perhaps the manager is just being difficult and holding off until he has funds to refund you..:smileyconfused:

Hope this helps..

[pixiebean22]

The guy i spoke to in Sony Ireland seems completely baffled by the whole thing. He doesn't understand the delay seeing as the refund was authorised in february. The sony centre accept that the refund was authorised 3 months ago but insist they never received the paperwork and apparently they can't give us our money until they receive even a fax copy of the necessary paperwork from sony uk/europe.  I do understand that the sony centres are privately owned but i have been told by sony ireland that the refund needs to be processed through sony uk or sony europe so i can only base my posts in the information i've been given.  Yesterday the sony centre told me it's not unusual for it to take 6 months for Sony to sort out refunds.  Until my boyfriend has the money in his hand it's very difficult to believe what anyone has to say on the matter. I mean it's nearly 6 months now!

[Thalamus.]

Thans for the update..

[pixiebean22]

Well it would appear that all of this messing has been down to the Sony Centre.  Surprise surprise!

Sony confirmed to me today that the refund was never authorised in February like the Sony Centre told us it was.  Sony told us that the first they heard about this issue was just before Easter when I started ringing them directly (up until then I didn't know that this issue was being dealt with by Sony Ireland so hadn't contacted them) and on Holy Thursday Sony rang the Sony Centre and said that the refund was authorised and to go ahead and issue the refund to the customer (my boyfriend) and the Sony Centre said that's great, we'll ring the customer and let them know.  That never happened, no phone call.  I was then contacting Sony to say still waiting on the refund and they were so baffled about the delay.  They then rang the Sony Centre and the Sony Centre only then told them that they were refusing to give us the refund until they had either e-mail/fax confirmation so Sony had to then go back and get the refund pushed through with the credit department and that brings us up to yesterday.

I rang Sony and they were yet again baffled about the whole thing.  They rang the Sony Centre yesterday and the Sony Centre again gave some more rubbish excuses so this morning Sony e-mailed over a reference and written confirmation of the credit being given and the Sony Centre were to ring me, never got that phone call, waited all day for it and then I rang Sony to say that I still hadn't heard anything and they said they would get onto the Sony Centre and get them to ring either myself or my boyfriend with another update.  Another phone call I never got.  I ended up then having to ring the Sony Centre yet again who said they are still sorting out the refund.  Then the story changed again, the manager of the store (WHO SAID THIS WAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM) hadn't signed the cheque and had to leave the store and the cheque will be signed tomorrow morning and ready for my boyfriend by 12.

I've been promised a phone call tomorrow to let me know when the cheque is ready but I have never gotten any of the other phone calls so I won't have to hold my breath.

A big thank you to Sony Ireland for finally sorting this out (hopefully) and it finally being made clear who in fact was in the wrong in this whole disaster.

What an absolute joke the Sony Centre is.  I only hope this message reaches other people thinking of shopping with the Sony Centre and makes them think twice about it.

I really think Sony Ireland/UK/Europe should look into the management and service being provided by the Sony Centre in Waterford as we are not the first customers to go through this.  We have been told by the staff in the Sony Centre that other customers have been forced to bring the Sony Centre to court after being treated the same as us.  They misrepresented the laptop they sold my boyfriend (said it had 2GBs when it only had 1GB), then when the laptop turned out to be faulty they handled the whole matter in a shocking manner.  The Sony Centre told my boyfriend that they have photos and video of the fault occuring on the laptop but Sony have no record of these photos and videos ever being sent to them nor were they ever made aware of them.  On the strength of these photos and videos it was then that the Sony Centre lied to my boyfriend again and told him that the refund had been authorised by Sony back in February and that it would take 10 working days for the money and paperwork to come through.

[Thalamus. · Accepted solution]

I'll close this thread as it appears you've received your refund..

[pixiebean22]

My boyfriend collected the cheque from the Sony Centre this morning and the manager was his usual obnoxious self.

It remains to be seen if this cheque will bounce but as it stands the issue has been resolved at long last.  6 months later!  Do not shop in the Sony Centre!