Phone not repaired on warranty

[RaulP-G]

Hello everyone,

I'll tell my story and sorry if it's a bit too long:

I bought a Z3 here in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, end of October. Phone is fine.

2 weeks later: screen is unresponsive in some areas. I take it to the shop I bought it. They say they will take it to service. After a few weeks they say, basically, that I made the phone wet and it was not covered by warranty as water got inside due to a dent in the USB port flap. My response is:

1.- I send a phone with no dents, scratches or damage at all, after 2 weeks of usage, I didn’t drop it, or scratch, or press, or force in any physical manner.

2.- Although Sony claims it is waterproof under IP68 certification (gently placed under no salty water not deeper than 1.5 meters, no longer than 30 minutes), after 2 weeks I didn’t have the chance to test it, and to be honest I was not interested in that. Furthermore, I didn’t make it wet in any way, rain, splashes, humidity, etc.

Points 1.- and 2.- leads me to the conclusion that Sony intentionally damaged my phone at technical service in order to have an excuse to blame on me on making it wet when damaged, which is not true (either damaging or making it wet).

I have checked other forums and user’s opinions and basically, I have found people who had similar problems, especially on waterproof issues; in short: when Sony claims it is waterproof when it is not, and does not want to apply warranty in this case (which is not mine as I never made it wet). Furthermore, in some cases they just send the costumer pictures of rusted PCB as a proof, and when the customer disassembles the phone, they find a totally different PCB scenario, where there are no traces of rust, proving that Sony cheats with those kind of made up proofs.

Although living in Holland, I’m from Spain and searched the situation there too: most of the consumer complaints in Spain are against Sony due to these devices, number that actually overcome complaints against telephone operators, any other appliances manufacturers, car manufacturers or insurance companies. This issue has been escalated to justice, which is enforcing Sony now to refund the price of the phone or provide a new device.

Unfortunately I bought the phone in a country where civil rights are not as “settled” as in Spain, and when a fraud as the one I suffered happens, is your word against a big company, so big company wins as you are only one consumer and hence, less.

Obviously, after spending 500 euros for a device which fails and service voids warranty by lying, I am not precisely happy.

Regards

Topic edited by Rickard

[Rickard]

I'm very sorry to hear that 

As warranty and repairs is handIed at a local level i recommend that you contact your Local support for assistance in this case.

But an authorized service location will of course not damage your phone or try to avoid repairing your phone on warranty. Repair phones is what service locations do for a living and they would have nothing to gain from this.

[RaulP-G]

Hi Rickard,

Thanks for your reply.

I don't quite understand why you edited my post by changing the title, but anyway:

1.- Thanks for the tip on contacting Local Support, I did via the business where I bought the phone.

2.- I do not accept your latest statement, with which you are saying I am lying. Something that doesn't surprise me, after experiencing the fraudulent manners of Sony official assistance.

Let me repeat: there are users which have suffered from what I have stated: supplying pictures of rusted PCBs and then finding out that those pictures did not correspond to their case, this is called FRAUD. Yet in my case was, from Sony technical service:

1.- Stating that I made the phone wet (which I didn't).

2.- Blaming on a dent I didn't produce, I don't know whether they did it on purpose to avoid spending money on replacing components far from cheap (screen not working) or just they made it accidentally, but by this way they solve the case by "my word against yours", where in a country with not many civil rights brings the case to the only solution as of to fold a lawsuit from which most users will obviously refrain as the cost will be higher than the few hundreds euros the phone costed. Let me inform you that Sony in Spain has to spend thousands of euros after justice has tackled multiple cases stopping the fraud from Sony. In fact, many cases in Spain were that Sony voided warranty after making it wet under the IP68 certification conditions, and even based on all the commercials that now Sony has removed (people having a swim with the phone, taking pictures, etc, in all conditions). Spanish justice stated that commercials are binding with respect to warranty, so if in the commercial you show it can be dived into a swimming pool, your warranty cannot contradict the commercial.

In short, Sony technical service didn't say they don't want to repair my phone, they just want to charge me half of the phone's price fraudulently voiding warranty based on the fact that if I send the phone with no damage and I didn't make it wet, should they say I made it wet or damaged, I don't have a way to demonstrate I did not.

Thanks again. And again, you can edit or even delete my message, call me liar again or whatever you like to preserve your company's reputation, but more and more people are realising, you can just simply jump into the many forums with no censorship.

Best Regards

[Rickard]

Sorry to hear that you believe our authourized service locations would do this. But as a mentioned, they would have no gain in doing this. In case the damage is covered by warranty, Sony pays the service location for the repairs.

But if you have any reason to suspect that the damage was caused after you gave it to your shop, i do recommend that you contact your Local support about this so that they can look into this.

I edited your topic since it didn't describe what the topic was about and it was also a false statement.

[RaulP-G]

Dear Rickard,

It is not a belief, it is a fact (in my case and many others out there). As I explained, they DO HAVE gain on doing that, as long as they save their money on the repair, being the customer charged instead. Customer won't file a lawsuit as it is more costly than the price of the phone. Therefore, a win win for Sony.

And let me insist, thanks for your recomendation, but again, the shop where I bought the phone took it to the LOCAL SONY SUPPORT, so it is the Sony service who made all this mess. I really thank you for your recommendation to take it to the lcoal support, but actually it was sent there from the beginnning.

Finally, the title was not a false statement, as it describes what happened to me and, for instance and as I explained in my previous posts, as it is stated by an official court ruling in a EU country, making Sony pay swindled cusomters by law enforcement.

Thansk again and Best Regards

[Rickard]

I've very sorry to hear that you believe that but i assure you that it's not a fact.

But as already mentioned, you really need to contact your Local support in this case so that they can look into it. From my location, i can't even see if your phone has been sent to an authorized service location or not.

When i say Local support, i mean the Sony Xperia support team in your country. I think you are referring to the service location as local support.

There are no records of you being in contact with the Sony Xperia support in your country. I've checked your IMEI, your email address and phone number. So if you haven't been in contact with them, please choose your country on this page: http://support.sonymobile.com/global-en/contactUs/ and then contact them by chat, email or phone.

[RaulP-G]

Hi Rickard!

First of all, although I was a bit disappointed with all this I ahve to thank you your intention to help and your time.

Second, this weekedn I took again to the shop I bought it and told them to take it to local support, they said they did but they would do it again (this after starting almost a row with them, they gave in to avoid incidents with more customers around). Let's see. It would be very strange if they didn't take it first time but now I they promised they did. The shop I bought it is Mediamarkt Eindhoven, NEtherlands.

I'll keep you updated and thanks again

Regards

[emk]

Keep us updated

[RaulP-G · Accepted solution]

Hello!

Sorry for the late update folks, it was a while ago.

Finally I managed to make the dealer to give a new phone, it was an OEM unit, apparently they convinced Sony to get a replacement. So, after fighting, I got a solution, I gladly admit.

I have two questions:

1.- Once the new phone looged in with my credential, it didn't update the new IMEI in the Sony website, should I do by hand?

2.- To be honest, I am quite aware about the fragility of the phone, I am extremely careful now (for instance, never open flap ports to keep tightness, by using wifi to connect to computer or charging with the magnetic charging port), I know it is not like my N8 which was like a stone, and although performance is good (great processor, 3 Gb RAM, big screen and all connectivity equipment) I am afraid that the phone might fail again sooner or later, may be never, may be within warranty period or may be not.

Finally, thanks again for your help and interest, really.

Regards

Raul

[Rickard]

I'm glad to hear that

The IMEI is not registered in your account automatically. You need to register it on https://account.sonymobile.com

But i checked our system and from what i can see here, it looks like you have two accounts with different email addresses. One had two different IMEI numbers while one only had your old. I added the new IMEI to the one that only had the old IMEI so hopefully you'll see it now.

The flaps are of course designed to be used but it's recommended to be careful with the seals. Using a magnetic charger will also reduce everyday wear and tear. You can also find useful information about the water and dust resistance here.