Sony aka sonystyle.com RIPOFF - Sony does not "EXCHANGE" defective merchandise the business that doesn't give a dam New York City New York
On 3/30/02 I bought a Sony 51" HDTV (KP51HW40) financed through Sony Financial Services (no interest/payments until October). An Email said it shipped on 4/01, but website still showed "not yet shipped". Sent an email to inquire status but no response. Called 3 days later, they confirmed it was shipped via their white glove delivery service (setup & check working status).
On 4/17 the set was delivered, 2 men brought it in, plugged it in, had me sign & started to leave. When I asked if they were going to "set it up and make sure it works" they said it wasn't part of their service, but told me to go ahead and turn it on. The display had triple vision (3 overlapping pictures). They told me to read the manual-"it just needs to be adjusted". I called Sony.
What a worthless response system! 20 minutes to get a person who told me that I could 1) accept delivery and contact Sony Support to have it fixed, which she did not recommend, or 2) refuse delivery, which she recommended. So, I refused delivery. When I asked when to expect a replacement TV, she told me that Sony does not exchange and I have to purchase another TV!!!! That I could expect a credit within 30 to 60 days after Sony receives the set in their warehouse (in the same 18 days it took to be deliverd).
What company does not replace defective merchandise? SONY!!!! Sony does NOT stand behind their merchandise. They wanted me to pay another $2500 through a credit card and patiently wait for credit on the outstanding loan, which is still out there despite the fact that I do not have the TV it was supposed to purchase! Avoid SONY - go HITACHI!!!!!!
Andrea
North Port, Florida
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Chris
Watertown,Connecticut,
I resolved problem with Sonystyle.com
#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, August 29, 2002
I went through 4 months of back and forth with sonystyle.com., regarding being charged for a product that we returned!
Basically we bought a digital camera online. After some price comparisons we decided to cancel this order about a day later. But once its in the sonystyle system it cannot be cancelled! We had to refuse shipment to be credited. Also we were financing through Sony Financial. Well we refused shipment early Feb and tracked the package back to Sony which took a week. End of story?--wrong.
I then received a loan agreement from American Investment Financial(Sony Financial broker) on April 1, for the product which was cancelled and returned to Sony in February. We then made numerous attempts to have a Sony Financial representative return my call, as it states on the loan agreement that they will be the only one who can cancel the loan and you must call within 24 hours of this agreement, which we did. On 4/1, our first call we were told it takes 24-48 hours for someone to call us back. On 4/5, called back asking where was my callback, they put another request in. On 4/10 they issued me file # and put my call as "critical". They then noted that the two previous reps were putting my call requests to the wrong dept. They then told me they would change the request to goto the correct dept: Sony Financial. Well on 4/15 I called again, spoke with another Rep, her story was that they "probably" would issue a cancellation notice to me rather than a call back. I said that was unacceptable as per this loan agreement we have to speak directly with a Sony Financial Representative. She again put in a "critical call" and told me 24-48 hours. Well my last call on 4/19, spoke with rep., her story was that these representatives are backlogged and couldn't give me a timeframe for a call back. I then asked for a place to air my greivance and she gave me their website, apparently there is no mailing address for a letter.
Well after going back and forth with these people and writing a certified letter to Sony headquarters- but still receiving notices from Sony Financial for payments I finally contacted the Better Business Bureau in NJ. (I know this site does not promote BBB, but I had success with them regarding solving this issue) I then heard from Sony Headquarters in CA. directly. They cancelled our loan and straigtened everything out.
I believe persistance helps when contacting sonystyle.com. I wrote to them via email, I called every week, sent a certified letter of my complaint, then finally a letter to BBB and then headquarters returned and corrected my problem and I received a written apology.