topic Customer Support? in PCs & Accessories

Customer Support?

ears182 — Sun, 23 May 2004 21:35:04 GMT

Apparently Sony cannot tell me whether the AGP slot in my PCV-RX406 is AGP 2.0 or AGP 3.0.

Apparently the reason I cannot be told is Sony do not support upgrades -

"Dear Ian, 
 
I'm afraid we can't provide any technical information as we do not support hardware upgrades. "

I am astonished. They provide a guide in PDF format on how to install new hardware on their website but they cannot provide an answer to a simple question because they do not support hardware upgrades?

I thought I was paying a lot of money at the time for a quality product and support when I purchased a Sony brandname. 

However, this is far from true given the integrated motherboard, poor specification OEM components (such as the MX graphics card) and disappointing support (historically, this rant is a product of a year of Sony's 'customer support').

In future I will return to building my own PC using products from reputable organisations who provide adequate customer care!

I will publish my experiences with Sony on technical support forums I subscribe to in the hope that others will be able to come to a more informed decision than I did beyond a mistaken belief that Sony equals quality!

Apologies to other readers not interested in this rant.

Dr. Ian D. Wilson PhD

Customer Support?

idwilson — Tue, 06 Apr 2004 08:23:02 GMT

Apparently Sony cannot tell me whether the AGP slot in my PCV-RX406 is AGP 2.0 or AGP 3.0.

Apparently the reason I cannot be told is Sony do not support upgrades -

"Dear Ian,

I'm afraid we can't provide any technical information as we do not support hardware upgrades. "

I am astonished. They provide a guide in PDF format on how to install new hardware on their website but they cannot provide an answer to a simple question because they do not support hardware upgrades?

I thought I was paying a lot of money at the time for a quality product and support when I purchased a Sony brandname.

However, this is far from true given the integrated motherboard, poor specification OEM components (such as the MX graphics card) and disappointing support (historically, this rant is a product of a year of Sony's 'customer support').

In future I will return to building my own PC using products from reputable organisations who provide adequate customer care!

I will publish my experiences with Sony on technical support forums I subscribe to in the hope that others will be able to come to a more informed decision than I did beyond a mistaken belief that Sony equals quality!

Apologies to other readers not interested in this rant.

Dr. Ian D. Wilson PhD

Customer Support?

robertmillar — Tue, 06 Apr 2004 08:46:54 GMT

I had the same problem when I tried to get information on USB support for my Lexmark Printer/Scanner/Photocopier. They said that they could not provide support when 3rd party hardware or software was installed.

I will of course in future vote with my feet and bypass Sony WAIO.

Customer Support?

kee-lo_ — Tue, 06 Apr 2004 11:05:06 GMT

They said the same thing to me about FireWire....

Customer Support?

intradinkq — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 10:49:45 GMT

With Sony you are buying design and brand. Support is something they have always been bad at. In fact it i's used a textbook example in management of a company that focuses in brand at the expense of customer service.

I couldn't even get support for a Sony product I wanted to buy :!:

Customer Support?

tellingd — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 11:05:26 GMT

Certainly agree about the 'brand' thing 'dink.

Customer Support?

kee-lo_ — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 11:42:47 GMT

Totally agree with Faraz, it's all textbook stuff.
Well if they want to be that way, just don't get a VAIO.

Customer Support?

idwilson — Thu, 08 Apr 2004 18:11:33 GMT

Quite a common opinion then.

Thanks for the input lads, and yes, brand name got my money and now that I've had a look inside the box it seems to me that the brand name is all I bought....

What bothers me the most is I sat down for a long time discussing the purchase with the rep and nowhere in the documentation did it mention integrated mother-board or MX sound-card.

Indeed, the configuration of the PC and lack of detail makes it very hard to upgrade without their help -but I guess there is no surprise there.

That said, I am very pleased with my monitor - but there again, Sony always have been good with the that side of things.

Customer Support?

kee-lo_ — Thu, 08 Apr 2004 18:20:09 GMT

A lot of sales people do not know what's inside the box, they have never seen inside the case, and have no idea what the motherboard has on it or what it can possibly do.

Customer Support?

idwilson — Thu, 08 Apr 2004 19:49:17 GMT

Aye, the point being that the rep had nothing to go on but the official documentation, which was inadequate.

Of course, I imagine a lot of end users will be happy with their purchase and won't be interested in these details.

Customer Support?

robpaxton — Thu, 08 Apr 2004 20:17:57 GMT

Aida32 should give you the AGP bus speed and version (under Motherboard, Chipset) - it's available from http://www.aida32.hu/aida32-download.php

Customer Support?

tellingd — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 05:58:53 GMT

Aye, the point being that the rep had nothing to go on but the official documentation, which was inadequate.

Of course, I imagine a lot of end users will be happy with their purchase and won't be interested in these details.

I am one of those "happy" users :smileygrin: To be honest I wouldn't know an integrated motherboard if it mugged me in broad daylight But I do like Sony stuff

Customer Support?

idwilson — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 06:51:28 GMT

Thanks Rob, it did indeed. Wonderful utility and well worth my rant to learn about it.

Best wishes

Ian

Aida32 should give you the AGP bus speed and version (under Motherboard, Chipset) - it's available from http://www.aida32.hu/aida32-download.php

Customer Support?

kee-lo_ — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 12:25:09 GMT

I am one of those "happy" users  :smileygrin:  To be honest I wouldn't know an integrated motherboard if it mugged me in broad daylight     But I do like Sony stuff

Dave, I don't think it's got the enegy to take your wallet

Re: Customer Support?

ears182 — Sun, 23 May 2004 21:56:40 GMT

sony sucks! as far as support, no motherboard manuals for my sony vaio an even getting on this web site deserves a George cross. fifteen years of fiddling with my computers and it makes me wonder how much the people who compose this web site have spent awake in the last decade,
is it not supposed to be easy to follow links to pages, rather than spend your life trying to get information?
no more sony vaio for me next time, I will build my own.
strange i dont seem to be able to reply to the post ,is this a sony bug.

Re: Customer Support?

reaper — Mon, 24 May 2004 14:20:15 GMT

yeah i have been wanting to find out about my motherboard aswell,

but i have been unable to conntact e-support due to the fact that it doesnt except my user ect

i would also like to point out that most of the vaio's are next generation pc's ,,,,and why exactly cant you upgrade i dont understand that sony dont support it

,,,,,,,,well what they proberly mean by that is if you have any problems with your new hardware then they cant help you

i also thought it a bit weird that they wouldnt tell you if it was 2.0 or 3.0 compliant .....

i have a matrox parhelia 128 (agp) in my vaio and everything is fine

parhelia haveing to be 3.0 compliant

regards ben

Re: Customer Support?

reaper — Mon, 24 May 2004 14:20:15 GMT

Re: Customer Support?

kee-lo_ — Mon, 24 May 2004 15:09:05 GMT

Yep sony don't like giving help or support with motherboards. Sony want you to buy a VAIO, use it, then get a new PC instead of upgrading. Seems to me a waste when people in Iraq and Africa are starving. !angry.gif|___jive_emoticon_name=angry|jivemacro=emoticon|class=jive_macro jive_emote|src=angry.gif!

Re: Customer Support?

kee-lo_ — Mon, 24 May 2004 15:09:05 GMT

Re: Customer Support?

reaper — Tue, 25 May 2004 08:36:25 GMT

ha

i finally got an answer to my mother board question and it was from the usa support.......
they told me this

The motherboards in Sony computers, like a lot of manufactures are considered OEM versions produced by a number of motherboard developers such as Asus and such but are to the specific specifacations of Sony and not available on the retail market. The model number for the mother board contained in the RS224 would be relative to Sonys part number

which didnt really answer my question
but sort of tells me i could well need a new mother board
heres the thing thou if i did get a new motherboard

for example we will say it had 1xagp 5x pci ect

hold exactly could you???????????

on the back of my sony it is basicly molded so it can only fit four slots ???????????

they def need to sort out there machines for upgrades i mean everyone upgrades ffs

they offer there machine with programes such as adobe premiere which is basicly telling you that your pc will be 100% fine running those programmes

but they have forgot one thing most people who use premiere also use matrox rt x cards ............. which mean we need to know all the specs and beable to f.....in upgarde if it isnt good enough

sony people if you are listening which most of the time i dont think you do,,,,,,,, why not have a sony support dude always in the forums ????????????????????????????

and sort your machine and support out ffs