Sony are Scammers

[manbitescat]

Why does a multi-national company like Sony find it necessary to scam their customers? I purchased an A6300 at the beginning of January, on the basis of a £100 cash back deal.

I used the Sony website to provide 'a picture' of both the invoice and the serial number of the camera, saved the image as a pdf and uploaded it. After nearly 3 weeks I thought I'd phone 'customer support' to see how my cash-back was going.

Was informed that no upload had been received. I emailed another. I then received a confirmation that the email had been received. Today I get an email, telling me that the cash-back period had expired and I was no longer eligible. I phone so-called 'customer support', who inform me that my picture is a scan and not a photograph and therefore tough titty, no money.

This is the kind of behaviour i might expect from a back-street used car dealer, not an international corporation. It's puerile, petty and pathetic. I swear to god I will never, ever, ever buy a Sony product again. Furthermore, I will do everything in my power to persuade others not to purchase your goods.

It's not the money, it's the attitude. I uploaded a perfectly legitimate image of the invoice and the serial number from the package and this appalling company have used the most devious means to avoid paying my cash-back after I spent over £800 on one of their products. Go to hell Sony and the sooner the better, the world is better off without you.

[Sean_Mc]

Hi manbitescat,

Welcome to the Sony Community.

I have escalated this with Sony and will be back in touch as soon as I have an update for you. 

Thanks,

Sean Mc

[IamNic]

Hi @manbitescat,

it is understandable, that you are very upset after such a bad experience with the support.

Sony is such a big company, that sometimes one support worker doesn't know what the other already did.

Please stand by and wait until the support got back to you.

- Nic

[manbitescat]

The support guy on the telephone said to me that I had made a scan rather than take a photograph. In fact I used my iPhone and an app called 'Tiny Scanner'. This uses the iPhone camera and then offers a choice betwen using an 8 bit 256 greyscale image or a 1bit B&W image. I saved the image as a PDF and uploaded the 1 bit image because I thought it was clearer. The website asked for the serial number either from the camera or the package. I wasn't entirely sure which was the serial number, so I photographed the entire package label. In either case, it's a lame excuse not to pay out...

[manbitescat]

How anyone can argue that this image is not a photograph, I don't know. The website didn't specify the bit-depth. If I had made a pencil drawing or perhaps an oil painting of the label, or decided to communicate the label through the medium of dance, then support may have a case...

[manbitescat]

It also upsets me 'cos I've always rated Sony products and really like the camera...tho' that wasn't my response to the Sony feedback questionnaire they sent me....

[EdwinaU · Accepted solution]

Hi manbitescat,

We've received an update for you from support.

They apologise for the unintended inconvenience. Your case has been checked and your cashback claim is a valid one which has been validated manually. The cashback transfer will be made as usual within 28 days from the acceptance date 01/Feb/2018.

To clarify, the picture of the serial  included through the case from the beginning was invalid because it wasn't taken from the camera itself. A valid serial number picture was sent on the 30th of Jan which is why they could authorize the cashback this time around.

Best wishes,

EdwinaU

[manbitescat]

Many thanks for all your collective help in this matter...