CompUSA, Lewisville, TX / Sony VAIO Repair Experience

# 7 for April 23, 2002

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on April 22, 2002:

From: Ron Miller [Email User]

RE: CompUSA, Lewisville, TX / Sony VAIO Repair Experience Please feel free to forward the following to Email User Late in 2001, I purchased a Sony VAIO computer from my local CompUSA store in Lewisville, TX (phone: 972-459-2275). By January, it had developed an intermittent fault -- when software revisions required restart to become effective, it would turn off but could not be restarted immediately (after several hours it might, or might not, restart). My own troubleshooting efforts included using Norton Systemworks, which detected several bad sectors on the hard drive that it successfully dealt with, but which did not solve the intermittent non-starting problem. Once the problem was very repeatable, I took the machine to the "Service Technicians" at the store where I bought it. My original trouble ticket (SO # 74720821) indicated that the problem was "intermittent", and the person who took it in advised that the description made it sound like a power supply or motherboard problem, but not likely the hard drive.

I told him I was particularly concerned not to lose the information on the hard drive (though I had burned CDR’s of the photos and data I was concerned about, there was a host of other application software, networking, DSL settings, etc. which I did NOT want to have to go through the agony of reloading and resetting). A week later, I called to check the status of the repair and was told that the technician had found bad sectors on the hard drive and had ordered a replacement (Sony apparently insists on having the original hardware item returned in exchange for any warranty repair parts which they furnish). I asked to speak with the tech, who told me the machine had "started up fine" for him, but since it’s in the shop we should replace the hard drive. I re-explained that it was an intermittent problem, and that if he would simply do the alt-cntrl-delete reboot he would see it for himself – which he did.

I further re-explained that I did NOT want to lose the data from my original hard drive and asked him to at least ghost it over to the new one if replacement was, indeed necessary. At this point, I also asked him to install a second, identical hard drive from his store stock (at my expense), so that I might use it as backup against future disk problems. (All this is documented in the stores own computer records, which they read back to me on each subsequent follow-up call). Another week later, the response to my status inquiry was that he had ordered replacements for the motherboard and the power supply, but that the motherboard had arrived "DOA", and had to be reordered, with no estimated delivery date. I asked if it wouldn’t be simpler/faster to send the machine to Sony themselves for repair and was told that they cannot do that unless requested to do so by Sony.

I asked if it might be possible to just replace the original machine with a new one and the answer was that Sony doesn’t allow that except in the extremely rare occasions when they themselves are unable to effect a repair. I complained that I was continuing to accrue DSL and Internet provider charges while unable to use them due to the defective computer and asked for the phone number to appeal my case directly to Sony. I immediately began repeatedly trying to reach the number I was given and achieved nothing but busy signals for 4 continuous hours. The next day I did manage to contact the "wait queue" and was on hold for 45 minutes before actually talking to a living person. After complaining about Sony’s non-availability, I explained all of the above and the Sony rep suggested the technician was mistaken, and that either CompUSA or I could mail the machine to Sony and they would repair it. Next I called the Service Supervisor back at CompUSA. She reviewed the history and said that she could send the machine to Sony, but she had just talked with them and that the new motherboard was expected momentarily, so I agreed to wait long enough to see if that truly cured the original problem. Another week passed, and when I called to check status (now with the supervisor directly), she regretted to report that the technician had now ordered replacement memory chips and a new CPU, again with unknown delivery status (if you’ve been keeping score, you realize that he has now ordered virtually all the pieces-parts of a complete computer, less CD drives). I reinforced my desire to end up with a second hard drive, which contained all my original software, and she agreed that ghosting a copy would be no problem. The following Friday when I called her, she said the parts had arrived, and after some difficulties with the memory it was now repaired and ready for pickup. So I went to get it that same evening. She asked me to sign the warranty repair order, which I did, and when it appeared she expected me to depart, I asked if I didn’t owe her for the second hard drive. Unable to find record of it having been installed, we decided to bench check the unit to see exactly what was inside. Not only was there no second hard drive, the technician had replaced my original 60 Gig drive with a 40 Gig and none of my personal software had been ghost copied onto it. Although she now began to share some of my frustration with the performance of her technicians, she parroted his explanation that the number of bad sectors on my original drive had made it impossible to recover that software (I of course knew it had been working fine before they replaced it). She asked if he had not called and explained that to me, and I let her know that no one from her store had called me since this entire episode began, and that I had to initiate all follow-up calls myself.

She responded that she had been "having some problems in that department". She phoned him (he was at lunch), and asked if he had "just ignored" my request for a second hard drive. Whatever he responded, she told me that he would be back in 10 minutes and would make the necessary repairs. I waited to be sure he understood, first hand, exactly what I needed done. Thirty minutes later he arrived (8:45 P.M.). He said he now understood that I wanted to end up with two, 60 Gig hard drives and that he would ghost copy my original drive onto the second one. He said it would take him about an hour and that he would extend his shift and stay as long as it took to make the machine right. He suggested that I could wait, or return and it would definitely be ready for pick it up at 9:00 A.M. the next day. I elected the latter. When I arrived at 9:30 A.M. (now Saturday), a different technician was on duty. He explained that he needed about 30 minutes to finish the installation of a new 60 Gig drive. When I asked if he was talking about the second one, he said no, that the 40 Gig would have to be returned to Sony in exchange for a 60 Gig warranty replacement and I would need to return the unit to the store to have it installed when it arrives.

I explained that once it was out of that store, my machine would never return to that site for service again. I asked him to complete the work currently in progress, give me the machine back and call me when the warranty replacement hard drive arrives so I can install it myself. When asked about the ghosted software, he said the original drive had already been returned to Sony and was now totally unrecoverable. When I asked to discuss the situation with the supervisor, he explained that she doesn’t work weekends. Ultimately, one month later, I took home a machine with virtually new internal hardware throughout, I am now having to reload all my personal software, data/photo files, restore DSL and networking access, etc. And I still do not have that second hard drive yet.