First: Conclusions from the following comment are- 1.) Registering your Sony product - (Pointless) 2.) Sony Customer Service - (More interested in sales than service) 3.) Sony's interest in keeping a customer - (I found no sign of it)
Sony DSC-T1 camera went out last week. A quck online search explained the CCD imager was bad, and that Sony had discontinued their assistance to customers with this problem. Several other major companies with the same issue continue to support repair or replacement of their products.
Online chat with Randall at Sony Esupport yielded a copy and paste reply of the information I had already discovered. He quickly gave me the main cutomer service phone number to call.
Marco (Rep. #430) explained that while a full recall was not made, Sony had posted information on several of its websites regarding the problem and their offer of repair assistance. I enquired as to why I had not received some notification, because by registering my product at purchase Sony had agreed to send me product updates. Marco informed me that registering the product probably only gave my information to the sales force at Sony Style, (which explaines the Sony sales emails over the years).
Marco then repeated what I had known as far as Sony discontinuing their support of this problem. I said that if that was as much as he was authorized to do, is their a suppervisor that would like to review the matter in order to keep a costomer for the future. He put me on hold and returned in 3 minutes to tell me that his supervisor had confirmed there was nothing they could do. He offered to give me the number of the repair facility to get an estimate on repair.
I said that I had already contacted them and was aware of the costs to fix the unit. This was simply a courtesy call on my part to see if they would meet the repair policy of their competitors in order to keep my business.
I then asked for the name of the supervisor he had spoken with so that I could include it on future correspondence. Marco gave me the name James. I asked if he had an ID number or some other iidentifying title. Marco became agitated at this point insisting that I did not need any more information on James. After some argument, Marco agreed to ask for an ID number from James. 10 minutes later he returned to inform me that James rep. ID was C7SS.
Sony has lost a customer, and I would suggest that anyone considering a product from them choose another more reputable company. Pick one of their competitors that stands by its products and promises.