Ever Had Problems With Sony VAIO Extended Warranty?

Engin Sezici, a blogger at sys-con.com, wrote a very disturbing story about his extended warranty experience with his Vaio laptop. If you’ve ever had problems, just reply to this news post and we’ll try and get Sony to help you. Anyway, Engin writes, “This morning when I walked in the office, I realized my Sony VAIO (VGN-TXN17P) was not turning on. After a few attempts, I gave up but at the same time I recalled that I purchased an extended warranty for the laptop from the Sony store at the Boca Raton Mall. Last time I was at this store, they looked up my warranty registration in the store computer and told me that I had the best warranty coverage, and if anything goes wrong with my VAIO, a technician would be dispatched to my office for prompt action.

Well, I never wanted to see that day but today I had to make that call. I called the 800 number at the SONY website.

A professional support technician answered my call in Costa Rica, listened to me carefully, entered notes in his system and told me that he has no record of my warranty information in his system.

He gave me another toll free number, 800-301-8723 with my case confirmation: E38804770.

I dialed the number and went through the same dialog and got the same answer.

This time I was told that “Sony must have given me their phone number, they have nothing to do with Sony VAIO computers or their warranty work, they are an outside company and they are no longer providing any warranty services for Sony.”

The woman on the phone said she would transfer me to the right extension who may possibly help me but hang up the phone on me.

Now after going through this same circle of information a few times more, I am still sitting at my desk at the end of the day, and wondering if this entire Sony VAIO Extended Warranty they sold me was a big huge scam?

If you Sony folks are reading my frustrated blog entry, please contact me at engin(at)sys-con.com so I can hopefully complete this story with some sort of an ending.”

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05
Nov 2008
POSTED BY Christopher MacManus
POSTED IN

Opinion

DISCUSSION 39 Comments
  • aznlpguitarist

    I work for the sony style and my best suggestion is to bring it into the store, esp into the store u brought the warranty at. There shud be tech there to take care of your laptop

    • Amigirrrl@yahoo.com

      well I HAVE A WARRANTY and still cant get anywhere!!! Have had my computer 8 months and it has been functional for about four of those!!! Cant get a decent bit of help from Sony! Tell me theyll repair it, never show up! Want me to send it in for repair,but cant tell me when i would get it back and flatly refuse to replace it for me!!!!!!!!!!!

  • aznlpguitarist

    I work for the sony style and my best suggestion is to bring it into the store, esp into the store u brought the warranty at. There shud be tech there to take care of your laptop

  • Dr A

    Sounds like you need to call ServiceNet. AON (the first number you called) stopped covering sony warranties in june of 2006.

  • http://X Dr A

    Sounds like you need to call ServiceNet. AON (the first number you called) stopped covering sony warranties in june of 2006.

  • Marcelo Queiroz

    I purchased my VGN – SZ430 in may 2007 with a 2 year extended warranty plan on Sony style store of the Woodbury Premiun Outlet, NY. Now I’m living in Brazil and the notebook became useless a couple weeks ago when it started restarting everytime when I turn it on, like an infinite loop. By the way, the CD drive stoped working properly some months after I bought the product, problem that oftenly comes back until this total crash of the notebook. Now, I’d like to know if I can mail the notebook to the store (or anywhere else) and pick it up on december when I’m gonna be back to NY.

  • Marcelo Queiroz

    I purchased my VGN – SZ430 in may 2007 with a 2 year extended warranty plan on Sony style store of the Woodbury Premiun Outlet, NY. Now I’m living in Brazil and the notebook became useless a couple weeks ago when it started restarting everytime when I turn it on, like an infinite loop. By the way, the CD drive stoped working properly some months after I bought the product, problem that oftenly comes back until this total crash of the notebook. Now, I’d like to know if I can mail the notebook to the store (or anywhere else) and pick it up on december when I’m gonna be back to NY.

  • Stan M

    Since you are still in your warranty period, you should be able to get your notebook serviced. However, since you are in Brazil, you would have to ship your notebook to the US (San Diego Repair center). Just call the 800 number for VAIO Support, and arrange a work order. You will have to ship it to someone in the US though, as the Repair Center will ship the fixed notebook only to the US destination. Hope this helps!
    Stan

  • Stan M

    Since you are still in your warranty period, you should be able to get your notebook serviced. However, since you are in Brazil, you would have to ship your notebook to the US (San Diego Repair center). Just call the 800 number for VAIO Support, and arrange a work order. You will have to ship it to someone in the US though, as the Repair Center will ship the fixed notebook only to the US destination. Hope this helps!
    Stan

  • Chelly B

    i’ve been going in circles trying to get the fan replaced on my vgn-sz260p laptop. i also bought the 3 year warranty (in june 2006) and i’m having a really hard time getting through to anyone to help. I’ve gone to the sonystyle store where i bought the laptop, but they just gave me a phone number. the person i talked to at that number gave me the same 800-301-8723 number that Engin was given, and since then its been a pretty dead end. i paid for the stupid warranty, now i just want my computer fixed!
    ————————————————————————–

    Chelly,
    If you are not getting anywhere with the service promised by the warranty you bought, please email SonyListens@am.sony.com and someone will be in touch with you shortly. Sorry about the delay in my response here..
    Stan M.

  • Chelly B

    i’ve been going in circles trying to get the fan replaced on my vgn-sz260p laptop. i also bought the 3 year warranty (in june 2006) and i’m having a really hard time getting through to anyone to help. I’ve gone to the sonystyle store where i bought the laptop, but they just gave me a phone number. the person i talked to at that number gave me the same 800-301-8723 number that Engin was given, and since then its been a pretty dead end. i paid for the stupid warranty, now i just want my computer fixed!
    ————————————————————————–

    Chelly,
    If you are not getting anywhere with the service promised by the warranty you bought, please email SonyListens@am.sony.com and someone will be in touch with you shortly. Sorry about the delay in my response here..
    Stan M.

  • Jenny T

    I bought my Sony Vaio laptop at the beginning of August 2005 and paid for an extra 2 years of warranty on it.
    All went well until July of this year, just a week before the extended warranty finished – the screen on my computer went down – I could still just work out the icons in shadow so I know that the actual workings inside were ok but there was no backlight to light up the screen.

    I contacted Sony who agreed to pick up the laptop as it was still in warranty, and it went to their service centre to be repaired. I got the laptop back a week or so later – but the fault was still there. I sent it back again but this time it didn’t turn on when I pressed the power button. So back it went to Sony, who sent it back again, still not working properly. I then got it back with the screen working but it had no sound! So I sent it back again.

    I filled in an online comments form and they gave me an extra year warranty on the computer, which would be great – if I actually had a computer to use!

    Since I sent the laptop off the last time, I have phoned weekly to see what is happening and after many phone calls they agreed to give me a new lap top.
    I heard nothing for over 2 weeks and each time I called I was fobbed off and told that someone from Sony would call me back within 24 hours which didn’t happen.
    I have started noting down the names of all the people who I have spoken to – they have all been lovely to chat with, but couldn’t actually help me at all.

    I eventually heard from the sony service centre with the offer of a computer (model VGNFZ31M) which has been returned by another customer and reconditioned! Initially they didn’t tell me that this was the condition of the laptop – they only admitted this after I probed them, because they don’t stock the laptop they offered on the sony style website anymore.

    After some investigation I found the VGNFZ31M on offer on discount computer websites NEW for only £649.
    I know that the laptop I owned was nearly 3 years old, but it was within warranty, and was over £1000 when I bought it.
    I explained that I felt this was unacceptable, and I that I thought I should receive a new laptop comparable to my old one in price due to the amount of time I had been without a laptop and the disruption to my work it has caused.

    After waiting to hear again – I was offered a laptop from the sony vaio NS series worth £499. After not having a working laptop for 4 months and after the terrible service I have received I expected more than this.

    Separately – I spoke to a salesperson at sony style and asked what the current comparative new laptop would be to my original laptop – they were very helpful and told me one of these would be comparable:

    Laptop VGN-FW21Z, 500GB, 4GB RAM, Blu-ray Disc(TM) Drive £1269.00
    Laptop VGN-FW11S, 300GB, built-in Blu-ray Disc(TM) Drive £979.00

    Eventually, because I am now desperate for a computer to work on –(it has now been over 4 months since my laptop was first sent off )– I have agreed to the reconditioned laptop…….so I feel that I have accepted what they wanted out of desperation – I need to do my accounts and work at home before Christmas!

    However – that was over 2 weeks ago – and I still haven’t received the laptop, or managed to get through to anyone. Again yesterday I phoned to try to find out what is happening and I was promised that they would call back within 2 hours. That was over 24 hours ago.

    I am now ready to give up. Which I expect is what they wanted!
    I feel bullied and pushed into accepting a reconditioned returned laptop rather than a new one equivalent in price to my initial outlay as a good will gesture over their terrible repair and service record.

  • Jenny T

    I bought my Sony Vaio laptop at the beginning of August 2005 and paid for an extra 2 years of warranty on it.
    All went well until July of this year, just a week before the extended warranty finished – the screen on my computer went down – I could still just work out the icons in shadow so I know that the actual workings inside were ok but there was no backlight to light up the screen.

    I contacted Sony who agreed to pick up the laptop as it was still in warranty, and it went to their service centre to be repaired. I got the laptop back a week or so later – but the fault was still there. I sent it back again but this time it didn’t turn on when I pressed the power button. So back it went to Sony, who sent it back again, still not working properly. I then got it back with the screen working but it had no sound! So I sent it back again.

    I filled in an online comments form and they gave me an extra year warranty on the computer, which would be great – if I actually had a computer to use!

    Since I sent the laptop off the last time, I have phoned weekly to see what is happening and after many phone calls they agreed to give me a new lap top.
    I heard nothing for over 2 weeks and each time I called I was fobbed off and told that someone from Sony would call me back within 24 hours which didn’t happen.
    I have started noting down the names of all the people who I have spoken to – they have all been lovely to chat with, but couldn’t actually help me at all.

    I eventually heard from the sony service centre with the offer of a computer (model VGNFZ31M) which has been returned by another customer and reconditioned! Initially they didn’t tell me that this was the condition of the laptop – they only admitted this after I probed them, because they don’t stock the laptop they offered on the sony style website anymore.

    After some investigation I found the VGNFZ31M on offer on discount computer websites NEW for only £649.
    I know that the laptop I owned was nearly 3 years old, but it was within warranty, and was over £1000 when I bought it.
    I explained that I felt this was unacceptable, and I that I thought I should receive a new laptop comparable to my old one in price due to the amount of time I had been without a laptop and the disruption to my work it has caused.

    After waiting to hear again – I was offered a laptop from the sony vaio NS series worth £499. After not having a working laptop for 4 months and after the terrible service I have received I expected more than this.

    Separately – I spoke to a salesperson at sony style and asked what the current comparative new laptop would be to my original laptop – they were very helpful and told me one of these would be comparable:

    Laptop VGN-FW21Z, 500GB, 4GB RAM, Blu-ray Disc(TM) Drive £1269.00
    Laptop VGN-FW11S, 300GB, built-in Blu-ray Disc(TM) Drive £979.00

    Eventually, because I am now desperate for a computer to work on –(it has now been over 4 months since my laptop was first sent off )– I have agreed to the reconditioned laptop…….so I feel that I have accepted what they wanted out of desperation – I need to do my accounts and work at home before Christmas!

    However – that was over 2 weeks ago – and I still haven’t received the laptop, or managed to get through to anyone. Again yesterday I phoned to try to find out what is happening and I was promised that they would call back within 2 hours. That was over 24 hours ago.

    I am now ready to give up. Which I expect is what they wanted!
    I feel bullied and pushed into accepting a reconditioned returned laptop rather than a new one equivalent in price to my initial outlay as a good will gesture over their terrible repair and service record.

  • Stan M

    Jenny,
    I am truly sorry about the whole, pretty much horrific experience you had with Sony. I assume you are in the UK? Let me know what city you live in and we’ll see if we can help you out. If you were given any event numbers for your particular issue when you called in that would help too.
    Stan M.

  • Stan M

    Jenny,
    I am truly sorry about the whole, pretty much horrific experience you had with Sony. I assume you are in the UK? Let me know what city you live in and we’ll see if we can help you out. If you were given any event numbers for your particular issue when you called in that would help too.
    Stan M.

  • david

    I bought a vaio and it was crashing all the time, and after couple of days it crashed completely, so I had to format c drive( with the help of sony technical support), and lost some of my files. but when I went to sony style store, they refused to exchange it, and said it was not a hardware problem!! (you know they just check hard drive, processor, …). and I have extended warranty. I talked to sony customer service several times but they said it is the store policy, and e can not help you.

    I will never ever buy sony vaio again.

  • ltsony

    have Sony SZ330P Laptop and 3 year extended warranty. laptop always overheating. 2 repairs was done without any effect, 2 more repair were done to fix what first technician, who worked on laptop, has broken. Now try to replace keyboard. Sony offered to fix overheating also, but 4 days later they called me telling that 'repair cost more money then you have on your warranty contract” and offered me $690 dollars instead
    I do not have any limit for repair in my warranty contract! I still have 2 more years on contract.I paid for laptop $1900 and $260 for warranty and expected to have working laptop for 2 more years. Any suggestions what I can do?

  • orba

    Your best bet is to take the money. The lap top you have is from 2006. The way the warranties work is that it is the cost of the notebook plus the warranty and once you exceed either repairs or technical support in terms of dollar amount they are going to offer to buy you out of it. The notebook you have was replaced by the sr series which you can still get with a downgradable xp disk if you want. But based on the series it sounds like a very fair deal to me. The other thing is that unless you have a 5 year warranty, or you just bought it last year the warranties that sony sells start at date of purchase of laptops not when the manufacturing warranty ends. The SR notebooks on the Sony site start around $1000. Hope this helps…

  • peterhall

    I purchased a Sony VGN-SZ430N Vaio August 2007 ,I also puchased a 2yr extended warranty.I recently notice it started overheating and not booting up.I located my extended warranty and called In my problem.My contract say I have a 30 day waiting period before the contract goes into effect.I was told after waiting to locate my contract,first they could not find my paperwork..They informed me my contract had expired ,disregarding the 30 day waiting period
    stated in the contract.They also informed me my contract only covered spills and srops.That is not what my contract
    says.The rep also informed me my contract started day of purchase,which is not what the contract says.Thsi is in total disegard of the manufacturers original warranty.It was my understanding the warranty extended once the manufactuers warranty expired.In other word I was paying for coverage that was already extended to me,which made the Sony warranty null and void.

  • peterhall

    I purchased a Sony VGN-SZ430N Vaio August 2007 ,I also puchased a 2yr extended warranty.I recently notice it started overheating and not booting up.I located my extended warranty and called In my problem.My contract say I have a 30 day waiting period before the contract goes into effect.I was told after waiting to locate my contract,first they could not find my paperwork..They informed me my contract had expired ,disregarding the 30 day waiting period
    stated in the contract.They also informed me my contract only covered spills and srops.That is not what my contract
    says.The rep also informed me my contract started day of purchase,which is not what the contract says.Thsi is in total disegard of the manufacturers original warranty.It was my understanding the warranty extended once the manufactuers warranty expired.In other word I was paying for coverage that was already extended to me,which made the Sony warranty null and void.

  • Abdulla Faisal

    Hi, any idea if i purchase any vaio model from USA and ship out side the USA to any country.
    My question is : any international waranty included or can I buy the waranty.

  • kristofk

    Buy a DELL – they have the best warranty I have ever dealt with !!!

  • invinciblekk

    Sony customer care sucks, actually the way SONY treat the customers is ridiculous.
    I bought VGN-SZ645P laptop from sony site in March 2007. Three months later my first problem came up with the unit. I contacted the customer support and asked if they can help me out on this. All they did was sending a prepaid box to send my laptop to the service center in San Diego. The service center held my computer for more than a week and said told that they have replaced my mother board and did a factory restore, which made me lose all the data and software I had. You know how painful it would be to lose all the data and software and how pain full it would be to re-install again.
    Another two months later, my mouse pad started acting weird, the mouse pointer was moving in the opposite direction. This time they sent a technician as I insisted to send it back to the service center.
    After another 2 months, there was another issue with my laptop. Again, the same story repeated. Pre-paid box, service center, lose everything.
    Each time I had issues, I asked for a replacement, the answer was always a big NO.
    Now, my warranty expired and again issues with the computer. This time they don't even care to listen to my issues over phone. If I want their assistance, they start with a initial diagnosis fee of $49.99 and it goes up as they try to fix the issue. I also took the laptop to a sonystyle store, the technician told that he will charge me $100 to start diagnosis and then it goes up depending upon the problem.

    All I want to say is, the SONY people knew this computer is a defect piece, but they DON'T want to replace it. I paid almost $1600 to buy this. Is this laptop worth my money? Are these people (SONY) worth doing proper business?

    I know that I cannot do anything now and just live with it. But, I wanted to share my BAD experience with you all about “the worst” customer support people ever and the way they treat customers.

    KK

  • Steve

    I have to say, the more I hear about Sony support the less likely I am to buy one. I'm coming up to deciding to buy a laptop and for the first time ever, feel like treating myself to a high end one (the Z series looks really good to me). But having had quite a few hardware problems with my current/last one, a Dell XPS, I would want to be able to make easy contact with engineers in the event of an issue (my motherboard and hard drive both failed on the XPS).

    So hearing that it's difficult to get hold of anyone, and that you have to send the laptop off and wait ages for an inadequate fix make it very difficult to justify the change. While the Dell hardware was disappointing in failing at least twice, the support in comparison sounds superb. On both occasions I was able to speak immediately to support engineers who stayed on the phone until they had verified the fault, then sent engineers around to replace the faulty part. That is far more important to me than the otherwise attractive aspects of the Sony Vaio, so unless I browse to a different support experience over the next few days I think I'll stick with Dell…

    • Amigirrrl@yahoo.com

      I have 2 Vaios ,one good, the other is crap and i cant get any help from these people even though its only 8 months old and still under warranty!!! Don’t buy Sony…….I NEVER will again

  • Altoiddemon

    yeah my Sony has issues… I brought the computer in 3x (there will be a 4th at this rate) and they've done NOTHING to repair the problem..
    I'm pissed!

  • Altoiddemon

    yeah my Sony has issues… I brought the computer in 3x (there will be a 4th at this rate) and they've done NOTHING to repair the problem..
    I'm pissed!

  • Grace

    Bought the 2 yr extended warranty a few weeks ago (with my Vaio laptop) but when I attempt to put this on vaio.eu/register, as suggested in the accompanying book the correct page appears but it just wont work! An “error on page” appears on the very bottom left of the screen. I have tried to contact Sony but get nowhere by email and since I live in the UK I do not want to have the expense of ringing the US. Any suggestions please?

    • Cloudwolf616

      is ur vaio still in its original warranty? if not then u cant add extra after that

  • Maarten

    I bought for my own company an expensive Sony Vaio laptop 2,5 years ago. I bought an extended warranty pack with it inclusive next day business support for a €350 extra in the Netherlands. Now the laptop has hardware failures. I called the Sony Vaio helpdesk and they simple tell me the extended warranty with NDB pack could not be sold with the type of Sony Vaio I bought. We cannot help you since our computer system does not allow it. We are in Ireland and we do not have contact with accredited Vaio service companies. Goodbye! I even activated my extended warranty pack within 30 days of the sale. No message came back that what I bought was not valid. Also my supplier never received a message what he sold cannot be sold. Nice guys at Sony.

  • Billy

    Very dissatisfied VGN-Z owner here. I finally had to send my computer in for repair. I bought it about 14 months ago, and got the extended warranty with accidental damage. I’m an experienced computer designer/electrical engineer. I’ll go over all the details, but I sent my computer in for repair on Dec. 29 2010. They received on Dec. 31. I waited and called about Jan 6. They said my repair order was set up wrong, and nothing had been done with my unit. I called back the following week and they said my unit was diagnosed, and that they would order the parts. I call a week later, and was told they were getting quotes on the parts before ordering? Today, it’s January 19, and I call and ask again. I was on hold over an hour, and they dropped my call. Called back and waited another hour. Now they tell me that I “damaged” the unit, but because I have accidental damage coverage, they would repair. The unit was in great condition – no cracks and no drops. Anyway – I don’t like being told I did something I didn’t do. They tell me they just today ordered my parts. No eta on the parts. They say I have to wait 30 days before they can escalate the problem/repair. So, I have to wait 7 week before they will do anything?

    And what was wrong with the unit? Main reason I sent it back in was the power button popped off. It’s poorly designed. Since I was sending it in anyway, I made a list of all other issues. 1) The VGA connector doesn’t work – although I suspect software. It used to work, and I really don’t care because the HDMI port works. 2) The power connector is getting loose – it works, but I’d like it repaired. 3) Not sure if this is a problem, but you can’t “eject” the flash memory cards so I asked them to see if the ejector mechanism works. It never has since the day I got the computer. I have to use pliers to remove memory cards. 4) Four of the rubber feet came of the bottom of the unit – I asked them to replace. And lastly, although I though it was a software problem, my unit would crash about once a day. I’ve suspected Flash, Outlook and sony drivers, but despite my best debugging, I could never figure it out.

    So, as you can see, a really minor repair. And my computer has been out of my hands for more than 3 weeks, I’m told I have to wait another 30 days before they will escalate the parts ordering process. Then they have to replace the parts and mail back. Meanwhile, I have work to do. Ordered a Dell. At least I know I can get great service from them.

    If anyone really wants to contact me, my email is BillyGarrettJR@aol.com

    • Amigirrrl@yahoo.com

      My sony vaio is 8 months old! Crashes ,freezes,and screen blanks out blue and black! Can’t get any help! Begged for a replacement and flatly told NO….No eta for repairman, no eta for shipping repairs…just tough luck!!! I will never buy another Sony product again

      • JammieLeigh2009

        I know it’s been a while since I wrote about my last Sony computer problem (VPCEB24FX), and Sony did finally correct the situation. After speaking with a technician from the company by phone, and her trying to access my computer from her work computer, and nothing working (the computer got crashed completely and would not go past the welcome page), the company sent me a box, and asked me to send the computer back. In the end the hard drive had to be reformatted. Have you spoke with a tech? see if they can access your pc? Maybe they will offer to take yours back tot he factory as well. I hope so.

  • Jammieleigh2009

    I had a VPC model notebook by SONY, and after several crashes, “operating system not found, a corrupted touch pad, and the final crash last night which killed everything on my 6 month old computer I believe it’s time to send her back to the factory. I hope they obey the 2 year warranty as I am making copies of it just in case. I am a college student, and like many of you, i rely on my machine to do my work. We need reliability, and this isn’t helping any of us. I will let you know what happens. There’s a box on the way for my computer

  • Jammieleigh2009

    wait.. i gotta correct that. the damn thing crashed again…

  • Gen331

    I purchased a Vaio Laptop last year and added a $300 Extended Warranty
    with accidental. I used it last summer, when the screen broke. My hard
    drive has since crashed, and I have been attempting to contact Sony.
    The first woman I spoke to was one of the rudest people I have ever
    spoke to, I felt I was calling a parole officer. She transferred me,
    then they transferred me, and this went on for about an hour until I
    finally found a number of someone who would speak to me. He informed
    me that because I had already used my warranty once before, that I had
    exalted all of my warranty because essentially Sony has spent more on
    repairing my unit than it is worth. I was being told that fixing my
    screen was worth more than $900, which seems outrageous. I was then
    told to have a good day and the call ended. I was completely shocked,
    and feel like I have no one to reach out to. I want to see where in
    the fine print does my warranty ‘exalt’ itsself within the three year
    period, and I want to see an itemized list of the total charges of
    repairs of have supposedly racked up that are worth more than $900. If
    anyone could please help me, I would be beyond grateful. Spending
    $1,100 between the computer and the warranty not even two years ago
    and having it be worthless now will be heartbreaking and seems
    absolutely like a flat out LIE on Sony’s end.
    Thank youGenn331@GMAIL.COM

  • Burneski

    Sony is a screaming short.  The worst run company maybe on the planet.  You would think they could at least organize their warranty department.  3 year warranty covering everything on my daughters computer, VAIO VGN Z690 quits working,  She goes to school in the U.S. Upload all warranty info for U.S. computer . She is home for xmas in Canada. sony says no problem and sends a box to return to Canadian repair depot.  3 weeks later Sony calls and says sorry not covered by warranty in Canada as an american computer. want $600 to fix or $75 to return unfixed.  Followed their instructions totally and then this. Asked for supervisor, sorry nobody. Are they nuts??  Never another Sony product as poorly run companies lead to poor products.
    burneski@shaw.ca

  • jeff

    I can only hope ANYONE considering buying a Sony laptop will search the web and NOT BUY IT. Their product quality has really gone downhill and their support might be the worst I’ve ever experienced. My son’s laptop (it was bought to go to college) has repeatedly been sent back; just got it back (again) with a new system board and one week later the computer warned us the hard drive is about to fail. Yes, I was lucky in that I bought the extended warranty, but that just allows Sony and the extended warranty company to point fingers at each other as to who’s responsible for what when it comes to making this all right. I also happen to have a Sony WEGA with the optical block issue and customer service has been as unresponsive with this issue. I used to think Sony was a quality product – I will never purchase anything Sony knowingly again. I am also taking the opportunity to tell everyone I meet about this and when I’m in Best Buy and places like that I make a point of saying, loud enough, how crappy Sony products and customer support are.