Thumbs Down to Sony

[tSkye]

Minolta used to produce their own lenses in their own factories to ensure the best quality captured on their cameras. Not surprising that I'm still using the 100mm macro for its sharpness and stunning quality.

It was about time the old Konica Minolta 7D and macro lens was due for general servicing. I checked out the Sony Service Centres on their website and decided to give a call to their main Service Reception at Wisma Atria to check if they were open. Calling twice in the space of half an hour, both times I received a recorded message indicating that I should try another number, which I did, twice, only to find a "Please leave your message after the beep."

So I gave up, called the Bugis outlet and asked if they were open and whether I could bring my camera there for servicing. Yes to both, he said and so I drove all the way there only to find out that they only accepted Sony digital SLR cameras. Wisma Atria was the only place, I was told, that had support for servicing KM equipment.

Excerpt quote from Sony's website, "Effective April 1, 2006, Sony Electronics will be providing service and repair of certain Konica-Minolta products in the United States. Sony is pleased to provide existing Konica-Minolta customers an excellent customer service experience."

And so I parked at the open space at Wheelock at 1.30pm, planned for an hour of parking, and made my way to Wisma Atria, only to find out more troubles lay ahead. There were two different queues made, one for KM and one for Sony. I selected the KM one.

I saw the numbers ding ding ding one after another... 151, 152, 153... 164, 165... Giving up after waiting for half an hour, I selected the Sony one instead, by then, the people who came after me with their Sony products in tow have already left. It took me another half an hour before my turn came. Guess which one came first?

The actual time I actually wasted over there was unknown to me.

The only thing I that could help me recall the timing was this:

Approximately one and a half hours of waiting time, excluding time taken to travel. The prejudice against KM users and needless to say the unfortunate parking ticket really leaves a sour and negative impression on Sony's service. Their website reads, "Experience unsurpassed service" and guarantees an "after-sales service a satisfying experience". I guess today's my own experience that Sony's come fall short of their expected reputation.

[Edit] PS: I noted that about a dozen boxes of PlayStation 3 consoles were there for servicing today. Hmmm. Some food for thought.

 

[ricohflex]

Naturally.
They are not keen on servicing KM.
I can confirm that for Sony products they are on the ball.
So you are the KM customer and they treat you like this. Then how do they treat the former-KM staff who now work for Sony?

I want you to think carefully how the former staff from KM who came under Sony's wing when KM was bought over, are being treated within the company. I think they are really suffering silently. This always happens when mergers/acquisitions are made.

 

[night86mare]

eeyer.

in any case, the parking ticket is not their fault.

 

[tSkye]

I want you to think carefully how the former staff from KM who came under Sony's wing when KM was bought over, are being treated within the company. I think they are really suffering silently. This always happens when mergers/acquisitions are made.

I am emphatising with those employees as of this moment. However, that treatment or should I say, the mistreatment should at least be made known. Put in brackets on the website (KM products to Wisma only) or a note * Sony customers have a higher priority, rather than proclaim excellent service. The question here is, for an existing KM user to be treated well, won't he continue to expand his kit by purchasing more Alpha lenses and upgrading his camera? Unless you're not interested in this potential customer, who's existing kit gives him a higher percentage to stick to your brand.

Night86mare, I'd only partially agree that it's not their fault for the parking ticket. I have over estimated Sony's capabilities and placed an hour of parking's worth. Should have either done two, took a train there or parked in those electronic parking places.

Nonetheless, in stark comparisons to Canon's Service Centre, I still believe they fall flat.

Servicing Canon's stuff enables me to park at Canon's own parking lot, which is free. They have an abundance of hot chocolate and coffee, unlike the empty water dispenser without any cups at Sony. Sending in just my lens to calibrate, Sony charges per item shipped to their repair facility, even if my camera is follwing along to ensure it works on my body. Whereas Canon allows the flexibility involved to tag along your equipment's worth, to make sure the whole kit works as planned.

I guess I have been too used to the treatment Canon offers me for my EOS 5D that bringing back the 7D's macro lens for general cleaning has given me a shock in comparison.

 

[Dream Merchant]

Send in a hand written letter to the Chairman of SONY in Japan, and CC to the MD or CEO of SONY Singapore (likely to be a Japanese as well). Povide them a link to this thread.

One thing I learnt is that the Japanses cannot and will not take public embarassement of any kind, and will probably go to great lenghts to correct a public embarassement.

 

[tSkye]

Not an embarassment. It's just a feedback of what I noticed at Sony Service Centre.

 

[eow]

what time did u go?
so far never encounter such problem. and in fact the waiting time is signicantly faster than in the sony queue
(a km5d user here)

 

[Galdor]

Yup, so far no problem at all. I've waited less than 20 mins in all my visits. :think:

 

[raincool2005]

this is the first time i heard this problem, so far all my visits to Sony were smooth.:think:

 

[asterixsg]

this is BAD. like DM said, you should definitely write to Sony management and let them know about this incident. nothing much can be done about what you experienced, but at least they might work towards improving the situation.

 

[invisibl3]

Sony products tend to give a lot of problems... had to send several notebooks for repair and it always takes them about slightly more than a week to repair them..
My friend even sold of their mp3 player after using it for like a month plus...
Their products seems to be over rated esp the notebooks ... not sure about their cams though...

 

[Yappy]

Go to their website and make some noise.... it will help.

 

[jsbn]

Actually, u shldn't have parked at wheelock place.
The one and only time my friend parked there was out of sheer ignorance and subsequently after seeing a $8 parking fee, he never parked there.

These days, whether we go Orchard, we'd juz park behind Prince Hotel.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

Actually, u shldn't have parked at wheelock place.
The one and only time my friend parked there was out of sheer ignorance and subsequently after seeing a $8 parking fee, he never parked there.

These days, whether we go Orchard, we'd juz park behind Prince Hotel.

he parked at the open space carpark, the URA one lah...

i parked wheellock normally, cos parking quite empty... then dun have to keep constantly go check if coupons enuff anot...

prince hotel how much ar?

 

[tSkye]

It was just my estimation, based on my frequent visits to Canon, that it would take less than an hour. I never expected it to stretch to two hours. The main point here is the discrimination against KM products while serving Sony customers very fast. For the time, I have already indicated it in the first post, with the time stamped on the tickets. I think next time, if I ever return, is to select the Service and not the KM queue.

 

[jsbn]

he parked at the open space carpark, the URA one lah...

i parked wheellock normally, cos parking quite empty... then dun have to keep constantly go check if coupons enuff anot...

prince hotel how much ar?

Haven't drove there for a long time. I think its a dollar plus (wazzit $1.20? $1.40?) per hr I think.

Anyway, the one behind Somerset MRT one where lotsa motor usually park there I think after 6pm is per entry basis right? :dunno:

 

[yanyewkay]

it's a sony.......
like.no.other

:bsmilie:

i'm also a sony supporter! let me count the number of sony items i have in my house..
:think: oops.. only 1 Sony PSP.. I only wished it was made by Nintendo instead.. :bsmilie:

 

[rOnGrEn]

bro, sorry to hear of your unpleasant encounter at Sony servicing KM stuffs.

But to be fair, would just like to share my experiences. Actually, similar to the experiences of other bros here, When I went to service my KM5D on two occasions (the latest occasion in Dec 2007, and with each occasion taking 2 visits, thats 4 queues at the KM lane), I was pleasantly surprised to see the queue for Konica Minolta products moving significantly faster than Sony products. They had a seperate counter for KM pdts/spareparts at the counter beside the lift, and about 3 to 4 counter servicing Sony products. I only waited for 2 people in front of me, servicing their KM pdt and getting spareparts for another, whereas the Sony counters were handling all the Sony pdts, from dSLRs to digicams to audio equipment, to video cameras, to vaio laptops, and even Playstation3. I think your experience might be an isolated incident, perhaps the guy handling the KM/spareparts counter was not around? Having said that, I do think Sony should have done something to ensure the queue at KM counter was being handled, and a feedback from you to Sony regarding this incident will prevent such things from happening again and is certainly welcomed.

Just some food for thought too, say I order a char kway teow from a hawker stall called "ah hock carrot cake" selling both char kway teow and carrotcake, and I noticed after waiting for very long that the people who ordered after me were getting their carrotcakes first, I will have asked the uncle if he had forgotten my order..perhaps not too good an analogy, but did you let the Sony counter staffs know about the situation? If you had and they still insisted on servicing the Sony pdts first, then it will be a different story altogether.

 

[raincool2005]

what time did u go?
so far never encounter such problem. and in fact the waiting time is signicantly faster than in the sony queue
(a km5d user here)

eow... i tot yr queue is special one. :bsmilie: the people there knew u by face.

 

[zcf]

I had been to Sony service centre before, and I encounter both situations also.

I think it depend on whether they have enough staffs at the point of time, if they are fully staffed, KM has less user, so will likely be faster than Sony user (more users).

However if it's under staff (staff go for break, holiday etc), Sony staffs do seem to serve Sony counter more frequently than KM counter, that's may explain the delay......