Before you buy SONY read this!

rider11111 -- Thu, 10/18/2007 - 18:01

I am a long time SONY owner, I have have had SONY tvs all my life and im 52 so I have a lot of them. I bough my dream TV this year a 50 inch SXRD HD 1080 in 1080 out. I bought it from SONY so It would come stright from them to my house and not be handled as much. and payed much more to get it from them then I would have if I would of got it at a local store. The TV came not working out of the box, The HDMI would not work at all, so I called SONY and they said I would have to have a service call from a SONY service, so they could see if it was really not working. So they came to my home and said it was not working right but they needed to take it to the shop to see what it was. 7 weeks later and two new HDMI boards I get my TV back. Now I have a used TV that I payed RETAIL for. So I still want my money back or another TV as I have been telling them from the day I got the TV. I made to many calls to count and many times on the phone for more them 2 HOURS at a time. I went through all the steps and all the levels of SONY trying to get my money back or a new TV with no help at all, all they kept saying is the tv only has 30 day guarante, and I keep telling them it was in the shop for 7 weeks and they would not let me send it back. I called the executive review board at SONY and after hearing my case on the phone the pres. said I did not need to put in writing I should have gotten my money back and he would check everything out and get back to me. Never happened and I called them back 4 times and they have done nothing. You may want to think twice about buying SONY the customer service is GONE and the product is not what it used to be. I wont be buying SONY again after this.....Greg

scottwilkinson -- Mon, 10/22/2007 - 14:44

I'm very sorry you've had this experience. The Sony TVs I've reviewed have all performed very well, and I've never run into such a problem. Your story reinforces my preference to buy from a local retailer who can handle warranty issues directly.

I agree that, based on your experience, Sony's customer service isn't what it should be. But don't condemn their TVs outright; I believe this is an isolated case of a unit failure, to which all products are occasionally susceptible.

Scott Wilkinson
Video Editor
The Perfect Vision

Greg (not verified) -- Tue, 07/14/2009 - 14:50

Hello Scott
Yes the tv is amazing and after the HDMI boards being bad out of the box and SONY giving me no help I was very upset with SONY, And your right the TV is one of the best I have seen and I should have just got it from a local dealer it would have been cheeper, if I would have I could got a 60" screen for what I payed to get this 50" from SONY. Well Live and learn.

Rider11111

Jimmie (not verified) -- Fri, 03/12/2010 - 13:32

Your spelling is awful.

David Whittall (not verified) -- Fri, 03/12/2010 - 17:25

In contrast, until recently I had never owned a Sony TV. I always wanted to however as the TV/Video lecturer @ Cable & Wireless Training College, Porthcurno, UK, told me Sony Monitors were THE reference standard, used in Satellite Earth Stations and TV studios, around the World!

OK, that was back in 1976 when I heard that, and it stuck with me all these years. TV's were all analogue back then and NICAM was new.

Techology has moved on, with LCD, Digital, 1080i, HDMI, and Surround Sound.

I was going to buy a 32" Samsumg LCD Series 5 TV.

That is until I saw this new Sony Bravia KLV-32BX300, with 2 Year Sony Warranty, for Php29,900.

Here was a Sony TV, with a great specification, for the price, and excellent picture quality.

It did not have as many HDMI inputs, and no HDMI out, but had PC and USB. May not have matched up to the Samsung Series 5, in terms of full 1080i Specification? However, it was a 'Sony', and quite a bit lower in price, and that 2 Year Warranty, clinched it, for me.

4 days later however, it stopped working! Would not come out of 'Standby' mode, with the 'remote', or the button on the side! Disconecting the power did not help.

I contacted Abensons, whom I had bought it from, by phone and e-mail. I also registered on-line with Sony Philippines, and reported the fault. I said it was my 1st Sony TV product, and might be my last, and perhaps should have stuck to Samsung?

Sony Service came to my house, confiqmed the problem, took the back off, checked the connections etc. Declared that the unit had to be picked up and taken in to Sony Service.

Feedback from Sony Service was that it was a 'software' problem, not hardware related. This KLV-32BX300 was a new model, and they did not have the software to fix it, and would have to obtain from Singapore?

I e-mailed ABENSON INC. about this, advising them I bouit this TV for my brothes visit on 11th March.

Got a reply from Abenson, advsing me that a new 'replacement' Sony TV had been authorized. I picked up on 10th March. Got no complaints if Service from Abenson/Sonx ph continues like this for 2 years?

joe.crowe -- Fri, 11/26/2010 - 22:01

I know this is an old post but I can't help commenting in hopes others may learn. First never trust experts carte blanche without knowing what their personal experience and biases are. Yes Sony monitors were (are?) considered the "industry standard" for pro monitors but let's put this under a microscope. What Sony monitors were considered "IS"? BVMs (Broadcast Video Mointors), the model number indicated the size and pricing was roughly $1,000. per inch of screen. Knowledgeable production facilities always stipulated consecutive serial numbers when ordering to ensure screen phosphors were from the same source. Otherwise, a batch of monitors could be near useless for production use due to gamma differences. Most facilities actually used PVM's (Professional Video Monitor) as a much cheaper although still expensive alternative. If you think anything in their consumer line gets anywhere near the PVM level of quality you are dreaming so forget about BVM or whatever is todays broadcast quality monitor. Secondly, although Sony was considered "IS" this only means they were ubiquitous not necessarily the best. Installations that use Ikegamis feel they are superior and results seem to support this. In the pro video world Sony is known as Soon Only Not Yet referring to their moving target delivery dates for software upgrades, patches, engineering fixes etc. Also remember, this is the company that killed the superb and near indestructible Ampex VTR while forcing the 44.1/16 digicrap standard on us while swearing for twenty years that it was "perfect". Don't get me wrong, Sony have always produced some of the finest consumer grade video equipment available but their lead vis-a-vis the rest of the industry has shrunk considerably over time while the name premium has not. Also there is now the concern to determine where the set is actually built with home grown Japanese units apparently maintaining a significant edge over all the farmed out units. As I tell my friends, I feel it would take a minimum of two magazine subscriptions and about six months research for me to buy a Sony TV with confidence. I know I would walk away with a stellar performer but I would have earned it and I seriously doubt I would end up with the first one that caught my eye. Many who assume simply buying the name guarantees performance and quality uber alles could be in for a surprise. Hope your Sony continues to give satisfaction, no reason it shouldn't.

RIKK -- Thu, 07/29/2010 - 18:49

I had a similar problem with Sony blank dvd-r discs. bought a 100 pack . Only 2 of the first 20 burned properly. I thought my burner was packing it in,so I put in my regular maxell disc and it burned perfectly.Contacted Sony through e-mail and phone and all I received was a customer service survey!!!! I just had to fill it out and you can imagine how that went. Still waiting to hear back from Sony since January 2010.

Rikk N

TD160 -- Fri, 07/30/2010 - 10:03

O no not Sony again, read this http://www.avguide.com/forums/anyone-bought-the-new-sony-bdp-s350-bd-player

joe.crowe -- Thu, 07/28/2011 - 19:01

Doesn't it bug you to get an e-mail about a new comment you may be interested in only to find there is no such comment?

Paul Lane FB -- Sat, 08/06/2011 - 22:47

I will NEVER BUY SONY TV again. I bought a pricy 52" XBR in march 2008. The day after (really) the 2 year warranty passed, it died. Sony promised 100,000 hours of use and I figure I got about 12% of that. After paying a Sony repair guy $100, to come out and tell me that my TV wasn't working (duh) and that the LCD panels were all bad on that Sony "batch". He said it would cost 3K to fix it, and that he would recommend that Sony replace it for me. After many dealings with Sony customer service, all they offered was a replacement with that years (2010) "refurbished" model... for $1400 bucks. The price at Amazon was $102 bucks lower for a brand new model. I wrote numerous letters, some to a "review board" located in Boca Raton Florida (just a legal dodge state to screw consumers)
So I got nothing, nada, zilch. I will be contacting a local consumer radio guy, to raise hell, if that"s possible.
The kicker? Consumer Reports claimed this XBR model was the most reliable tested.
I will be buying a Panasonic or an LG this time around.
Sorry Sony, and I always wanted an XBR.