Notebooks SONY-SONEX warranty! pro-scammers!?

Hey guys I really need your opinions and help for this one.
I always had the idea that SONY had a good customer service support...
This is why i suggested so many times to friends of mine to get a vaio when they were looking for a laptop! Although i had to find the hard way that SONY doesnt care if you bought a laptop with their logo on it!

Here is what happened!

The Vaio:
Last year my girl was looking for a laptop and we spend together two weekends doing some market research around Manchester to find a nice one for her! So we end up at the SONY CENTRE that few weeks ago was based inside the Arndale Centre in Manchester. There, she bought a new SONY VAIO VPCEEE2M1E (September 2010).

The SONY Centre Shop:
The laptop was working good for 11 months in a clean and smoke-free environment , had no issues. A year after (September 2011) she took it for repairment as the screen was turning black, kind of dimmed - for example sounds was on but no visual! At that point she was covered from the manufacturer's insurance. After she took it back, they informed her that they replaced the memory and it should be fine from now on. The problem started again and it was happening more frequently. She took it for repairment for the second time whereas they told her that she was no longer covered from the manufacturer's insurance and she had to pay £25 to extend her warranty for another 12 months (nobody mention to her that her extended warranty that she was just paying was with SONEX). After that, the SONY people kept the laptop for 3 weeks and called her to go back and because it was "fixed"!!!! When see went back to the shop they did not gave her any documentation and they couldnt tell her what was wrong with it. The sales assistant had no idea what they fixed!
NOTHING WAS FIXED same issue same black screen!
The 3rd time that she tried to take it back to the shop the Manchester SONY Centre was closed down!

The Phone Calls:
Then, she called Sonex but it has been a vicious circle on the resolution of the issue. The first time the automated message on the phone was saying that she had to enter the serial number of the laptop but when she was doing that it was saying that the warranty has expired. Then she called a premium line as they call it with 35p per minute charge. The guy at the premium helpline told her that he created a case number and that she needed to call Sonex because she had to go down the way of extended warranty and not the Manufacturer's one. She has explained him that when in SONY centre said that they reinstated her warranty they never said is not the manufacturer's one and that it is Sonex's. In fact, they told her that they logged into their system the info that she reinstated the warranty. Apparently, they didn't because when she calls to the premium line they say that they don't have this info. Anyhow, after she got a case number from the premium line she called Sonex again. This time the guy said that I would need proof of the reinstated warranty ; She told him "I don't have the documentation in front of me but I will look and call again". He said that she could use the same service number. Then she tried to call them with all info in hand-she called in the next 15 minutes at the same day and the automated message that her case number is not recognised and when she was trying the serial number option it was saying that her warranty has been expired. It is expiring in September 2012! After that, she called the premium line again but they said there was nothing they can do and I have to deal with Sonex.

She told them that with the number that she has, was not possible to pass through the automated message and is a dead end. He had the same number and when She asked for any other number from Sonex, any direct number or a person that recommends to speak to he said "I don't know-I have the number that you have and there is no person that I can direct you and I can't pass any line to Sonex". Then, I asked for his manager and he forwarded my call to an empty desk with a voice-mail! (seriously!)

Failure to communicate:
It is not only dissapointing but also unfair to pay for a warranty and not being able to have a decent customer service. Sony is or was-not sure- a very big brand and I was expecting the respective customer service. There are so many sony vaio in the market and you expect that there will be some service. It seems that their customer service is a scam, disorganised and overall unprofessional and with sales assistants that have no idea of what they sell.


To summarise, we cannt call SONEX because the serial number of the Vaio is not recognized from their automated system and when inserting the case number the machine says its invalid! And when we are calling the sony premium line, they say that they have nothing to do with it because they are not SONEX!

So i wonder is this a new way of doing business? Paying £600 for a laptop that it will expire after one year? confusing the customers when they ask for help and treating them like a tennis ball? Since the problem remained the same from the 1st drop to the sony centre does that mean that she should be covert from the original warranty?what the should i do?go legally against them?

Please if you have any advice or you know something more about the duo sony-sonex let me know!

 

Replaced the Ram? What a joke!

 

Can't help with the Sony - Sonex thing, but the problem could be a faulty switch (the one that is pressed when the lid is closed). This is normally situated around the hinge area, and could be as simple as needing cleaning. The dimming screen issue is what leads me to this conclusion, because when activated this switch dimms / turns off the screen. On an old laptop, I dropped it and thought I'd messed something up, the screen was shwoing the desktop, but it was very faint, figured out in the end that the switvh had gotten stick and sticking a toothpick in there sorted it.