Sony's First Follow Up Call

December 23, 2009- With Christmas right around the corner I was expecting to not be able to do much until the new year with Sony. I just figured with all the cost savings they had by selling the defective Grand Wegas they would give their employees some much needed vacation pay (after all, these customer service representatives have to listen to complaints all day).

 

To my surprise, I received a call from Sony on December 23 to follow up with me. I figured hey, the Executive Review Committee must have received my letter and they are going to make me a new offer. Unfortunately I was let down again by Sony. They simply called to let me know that they received my letter and again offered my the same great deal.

 

This time I told the customer service representative that I knew of several small claims cases, one of which Sony had already lost, along with some class action suits. At first the Sony rep said they were sorry but this is the best they could do. I then went into a whole spiel about how the TVs should have been recalled and not a warranty extension placed on them and that I was never notified about a warranty extension. I further went on to tell them that any other company that has a product that fails on such a mass number of units it recalled and repaired or the customers are compensated. Not in Sony's case, they built the defective part, I bought it and now I have to pay for it, again. I told the rep I would be considering legal action unless fair compensation was offered.

 

This ranting apparently did something as the rep told me to hold one second. He returned shortly and of course did not have a new deal in place, but told me I could contact their legal department in San Diego. He gave me their address and fax number and I was on my way to a new department (in the United States no less).

 

So off went a letter to the Sony Law Department in San Diego, CA. In short the letter asked that Sony do 1 of three things.

1.  Repair my TV at no cost to me. With this I wanted some sort of assurance on Sony's part that a repair would fix the TV and I would not have to deal with the issue again in 2-4 years.
2. Replace my TV with one of similar size and functions at no cost to me.
3. Refund me a prorated amount of the cost of my TV. This calculation was based similar to the case that was won by Steve L in California. The cost of the TV prorated over an expected 12.5 year life span which left me with asking for about $1,800 in compensation.

Also included in the letter were the name and case number of the previously mentioned small claims case: Steven P. Linke v. Sony Electronics Inc. (California Small Claims Case No: 37-2009-00014241-SC-SC-NC) and a copy of California Civil Code 1790 which Sony violated along with its "implied warranty of merchanability." So I faxed the letter as I was instructed as well as mailed a copy and included the original letter that I had sent to the ERC 10 days earlier.

 

Again, I carried on life as normal, waiting on Sony to respond to the letters...