Sony do not offer worldwide warranty or repairs - beware

[johnny_boy]

I bought a US Clie UX50 over the internet while living in the UK. It was roughly half the price due to the favourable exchange rate.

Unfortunately, 2 weeks ago I dropped it and the screen stopped working, I contacted Sony but they point blank refused to fix it because it was a US model so the UK centre said they wouldn't fix it. I contacted the US Service Centre and they refused to fix it as I was not based in the US, they refuse to ship internationally.

I tried Proporta but they cant get parts for the UX50 so I had to claim off my insurance and spend almost a day tracking down a UX50 which my local John Lewis department store are holding for me - their last one. :smileygrin:

Ok, I dropped it but I was prepared to pay for a repair but Sony refused to fix it which I think is pretty poor, it was only 10 months old.

Ok, I bought the US model but the UK model was just too expensive, there's a third off the model I'm getting on the replacement and it's still more expensive than the one I bought from eBay (brand new, sealed).

Sony have really disapointed me over this incident, my last 3 TV sets, my last two VCRs, my DVD recorder and laptop are all Sony, a brand I used to have faith in. This has severly shaken my belief in their service.

Why replace it with another Sony? The insurance company offered me an upgrade but nothing really matched the UX50, there are no other Palm computers out there with a keyboard, wi-fi and Bluetooth and I have a lot of Palm software so I had to bite the bullet and stay with the platform.

At least this is a UK model, so if anything goes wrong, I can send it to the UK Service Centre.

In this culture of globalisation, it's nice to see a huge multinational enforce such strict rules to allow them to continue overpricing their products in a particular market.

[kee-lo_]

This doesn't suprise me, Sony don't support a UK VAIO outside Europe, and even then if you're outside the UK where you bought it, they don't really take kindly to it.

IBM offer worldwide support, shame Sony don't

[jammold]

Well its about time Sony did!

[kee-lo_]

I agree with you there James

[HITS-UK]

I, too, have a UX50 and NZ90, both of which were bought for our support business. Sony's support has been atrocious when the UX50 lost its Wireless software and could not be restored it took over two weeks for it to be returned, and still it is not 100%. Unfortunately we are also committed to the platform which is more that Sony is given that it canned the Clie series last year everywhere except Japan. For a company that claims to have a high priority to customer satisfaction they have a VERY long way to go.

[kee-lo_]

Absolutely