Sony Vaio 3rd motherboard repair in 5 months

_DanielJ

Hi everyone,

I've recently been having issues with a Sony Vaio E-series laptop that I purchased about 22 months ago (November 2010) for £787, and I'm unhappy with the way it's being handled by Sony technical support. I'm hoping that someone here might be able to advise me on what to do to resolve the issue.

TLDR Version: In warranty Vaio suffered 3 motherboard failures in 5 months. Sony offer another repair rather than replacement or refund. Is this reasonable?

Full Version: Laptop sent for repair in March 2012 for trackpad issue. Fault diagnosed with motherboard, which was replaced. A few months later issue returned, laptop sent back again in July. Again, fault was with motherboard, again this was replaced. About 1 month later, in August, laptop failed for a third time not detecting the battery. Sent back and tested - motherboard was found to have failed.

Sony Support offered to replace the motherboard once more, with a brief extension on the current 2 year warranty (originally 4 months and after arguing increased to 9 months) and a promise that a 4th failure would result in a replacement laptop or a refund - bear in mind this failure would have to be with the motherboard.

I said I was unhappy to accept the laptop for a fourth time after this series of major replacements in such a short period. I was told that this has been taken to the highest level in Sony and that it has been looked at by a VIP team who have given a 110% guarantee that it will not fail again. Since it's just replacing the motherboard, the technical requirement is very minor so the VIP team can't offer more guarantee than on the previous repairs (and why were these also not conducted to this VIP standard?). I asked for a technical report to see exactly what they had done to repair the laptop. After a week of chasing them, with a mid-week conversation telling me they would typically offer a replacement or refund after 3 failures, they finally got back to me today to re-iterate their original offer and steadfastly refused to backdown. I never got the report, and I have rejected the offer whilst I seek alternatives.

The problems with the laptop and the way the case has been handled reflects very badly on Sony, and has been a significant inconvenience for me. I can't trust that the laptop will serve me reliably, and I cannot afford to risk it failing at a critical time. This is in addition to the significant time I spent backing everything up and transferring it around each time the laptop fails, and losing out on its use for a week or more each time.

As an added complication, I work as a researcher at a university and the laptop was purchased through the university system. When I quoted the SOGA at them, they said I'd have to take that up with the retailer, which as far as I know was Sony Online.

Any help you can offer would be really appreciated.

visidigi

Question is, purchased through the university system - how exactly was that purchase performed and who is listed as the actual owner of the goods in terms of purchase method.

If its the University then it would be B2b and not B2c, resulting in less rights.

Needs to be clarified for rights to be correctly explained.

_DanielJ

visidigi wrote: »

Question is, purchased through the university system - how exactly was that purchase performed and who is listed as the actual owner of the goods in terms of purchase method.

If its the University then it would be B2b and not B2c, resulting in less rights.

Needs to be clarified for rights to be correctly explained.

Good point and thank you for your reply. I will look into the details (once our procurement officer returns from holiday) but I presume it will count as B2B then given that it came out of a grant rather than me paying and reclaiming from the university.

In the case that it is B2B do you know what my rights would be there? Also can you comment on whether you think my complaint is reasonable, and what I could reasonably expect from them? How would this compare to a B2C situation?

_DanielJ

Any further help guys? I'm still struggling with this

bod1467

The rights will be whatever T&Cs were agreed between seller and purchaser, normally the seller's T&Cs. So I guess you'll have to wait for the PO to return from holiday.

_DanielJ

bod1467 wrote: »

The rights will be whatever T&Cs were agreed between seller and purchaser, normally the seller's T&Cs. So I guess you'll have to wait for the PO to return from holiday.

Fair enough - I will find out the details on Monday and report back.

Aside from this, can anyone comment on what the case would be if it were a B2C matter and how reasonable my claim is? Even if it turns out to be B2B I'd still be interested to know my rights for personal purchases in future.

_DanielJ

Ok, so the contract would be B2B, and the details for which I'm not in possession of at the moment. However, it sounds like they won't be as good as my standard consumer rights

Can anyone advise on how this would play out in a B2C context?