December 17, 2009- I contacted Sony after researching the problem I discussed with the Sony representative earlier in the month. During my research I found that the problem I was having was a much larger problem that hundreds, if not thousands of Sony Grand Wega TV owners were having. In fact, with most products you can google a product, say Sony Playstation, and up comes the http://www.playstion.com/ website, or maybe an Amazon listing selling the product. Or perhaps you google Honda Civic muffler looking for a specific part to replace a product, you get the same thing, maybe an Amazon listing for the product, Honda's website, etc.

Not with a Sony Optical Block. You google this little devil and the first website that pops up is http://sites.google.com/site/sonylcdrptvproblems/. This website has been amazing for so many Sony TV owners who have had problems. A gentleman in California who was able to successfully sue Sony in small claims court put this website together. You can think of the website as an outline or a research website to use should you call Sony and they try to BS their way out of taking responsibility, maybe you want to take Sony to small claims court, this is the website to use. Steve Linke did an amazing job putting this website together and the many users of the site owe him a great deal of thanks. Other website that come up when Sony Optical Block is googled include; getsatisfaction.com; avsforum.com; ecoustics.com.

So with my new knowledge of the issue I contact Sony again to respond to their offer to get someone out and repair the issue at my cost. I gave the representative my incident number (E-xxxxxxxx) and he pulled up my account and asked if I needed the number to the Sony Repair Shop. I said no thanks, and went ahead and asked him why I recall was not put on the TV as so many other companies do when their product was sold defective (similiar to what Toyota is having to do with select cars). He said that was not how Sony handled the situation and that an extended warranty was put out on the television but that expired in December 2008. Interesting, as that extended warranty did me no good as I purchased an extended warranty already. So there I was in December 2008 with 2 extended warranties (no notification from Sony by the way of it at the time) and a TV that was working.

After about 20 minutes of talking with the representative was transferred to another representative and my call was escalated to an upper level customer service department. Hmm.....maybe I was getting somewhere by knowing what I was talking about. The upper level customer service member got on the phone about 5 minutes later and reviewed my issues. I was informed that they were going to offer me a great deal to help resolve my problem.

Could this be? Did I just work my way through the Sony Customer Service to someone that would finally take responsibility for selling thousands of defective TVs? Would my wonder Blue nightlight finally be replaced?

C'mon, Sony is not going to own up to that big of a mistake now are they!

So the wonderful deal I was now being offered was a substantially discounted TV! Hurray! The cost to me, $1,200 plus tax. Of course that is for a TV smaller than the one that is broken, but hey, what a great deal right? Of course, the TV I was being offered at a huge discount was brand spanking new right? Well no, it was possibly a refurbished TV (I could not be guaranteed it would be new) and to rub salt in a wound, the TV could be purchased for just about the same price online. Not only did Sony screw me on my first TV, they are trying to do it twice by offering me a second TV.

I declined this offer as I was not quite convinced sending Sony another $1,200+ was the wisest use of my hard earned money. I was told that I could write a letter to the Executive Review Committee in FL and they would review my case. So, off went a letter to the ERC in Fort Meyers, FL.