Blatant Sony breach of contract

Sandtree

DreamweaverB said:

Jenni_D said:

I've read through the thread and I'm not sure the OP has answered the question - Did you buy it direct from Sony?

No not directly from Sony it was from an independent chain of High Street AV specialists.

So your consumer rights are with the retailer not the manufacturer, they too would be responsible for how they have advertised it. Did you retain any advertising materials for it? The problem is that warranties etc are normally clearly marked as "subject to T&Cs" which moves at least some responsibility on to you to ensure the T&Cs are acceptable particularly if you say it was one of the key reasons for deciding to buy it.

Having now seen the terms there are the two fundamental issues, firstly that its only for business users and secondly its only a best endeavours basis. 

It sounds like the 2nd fault has now been repaired by the manufacturer and so your issue is more of an in principle issue. It really comes down to a conversation between you and the retailer... they may offer to provide a loan unit in the event of a future issue if they agree they are at fault or alternatively a partial refund for the miss advised feature.

DreamweaverB

To update everyone, Sony just responded to my complaint and have advised a loan unit wasn't sent out due to a mistake at their end which was only discovered once the repair had already been completed.

They have apologised and offered to send me a free replacement projector lamp; this would typically be £300+ for me to buy so it's a reasonable offer.

Manxman_in_exile

Well that's good of them.

Looking forward - have you confirmed with them that you have bought and are entitled to all the benefits of PrimeSupport?  You just want to avoid it possibly happening again - even if this time they've accepted it was their error ...

Sandtree

DreamweaverB said:

To update everyone, Sony just responded to my complaint and have advised a loan unit wasn't sent out due to a mistake at their end which was only discovered once the repair had already been completed.

They have apologised and offered to send me a free replacement projector lamp; this would typically be £300+ for me to buy so it's a reasonable offer.

Sounds a reasonable outcome... surprised a "high end 4k projector" uses a lamp though, thought Sony was the same as the rest of the brands that their mid range use lamps and their high end ones use laser which tend to be all or nothing unlike lamps that fade as they age

DreamweaverB

Manxman_in_exile said:

Looking forward - have you confirmed with them that you have bought and are entitled to all the benefits of PrimeSupport?  

Their response made it clear I was entitled to a loan unit and it was just an admin error that led to me not receiving one.

Sandtree said:
surprised a "high end 4k projector" uses a lamp though, thought Sony was the same as the rest of the brands that their mid range use lamps and their high end ones use laser 

4K projectors start at a little over £1,000 while mid-range can be had for around £3,000. There were/are two models in the Sony high-end 4K range, the £6,995 lamp one I bought and a £9,995 laser version. For serious movie buffs there's even a top-of-the-range £24,995 laser projector...

When I bought mine the difference between the lamp and laser version was around £5,000 and even at £300 a pop you can buy a lot of lamps with £5,000.   

Sandtree

DreamweaverB said:
4K projectors start at a little over £1,000 while mid-range can be had for around £3,000. There were/are two models in the Sony high-end 4K range, the £6,995 lamp one I bought and a £9,995 laser version. For serious movie buffs there's even a top-of-the-range £24,995 laser projector...

When I bought mine the difference between the lamp and laser version was around £5,000 and even at £300 a pop you can buy a lot of lamps with £5,000.   

Their top of the range isnt £25k, they have a £50k and £85k models too in Home Cinema/Pro cross over then you get the true professional models above them. I guess I have just spent to long on AVForums where £3k would still be in lower end (which includes mine) and many claim to have 5 figure projectors like JVC NX9 and its predecessors.

You can buy a lot of lamps for £5k but realistically do you? You may lose 1 lum for every 2 hours of watching and so its not noticeable until after 2 years you change the lamp and suddenly its so much brighter. Its not hard to replace the lamp (at least not on my Epson) but havent come across many who are changing it every 6 months or such to maintain peak performance even if they've chosen to avoid laser to save the pennies and thinking they can get a lot of lamps for it. Plus the difference tends to go beyond just the light source.

LaDerniereSemaine

DreamweaverB said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

Looking forward - have you confirmed with them that you have bought and are entitled to all the benefits of PrimeSupport?  

Their response made it clear I was entitled to a loan unit and it was just an admin error that led to me not receiving one.

Sandtree said:
surprised a "high end 4k projector" uses a lamp though, thought Sony was the same as the rest of the brands that their mid range use lamps and their high end ones use laser 

4K projectors start at a little over £1,000 while mid-range can be had for around £3,000. There were/are two models in the Sony high-end 4K range, the £6,995 lamp one I bought and a £9,995 laser version. For serious movie buffs there's even a top-of-the-range £24,995 laser projector...

When I bought mine the difference between the lamp and laser version was around £5,000 and even at £300 a pop you can buy a lot of lamps with £5,000.   

But if you neglected to mention that you're not a business, howe would they know?  If all you did was complain that you didn't get the loaner unit, and their response was "Oops, sorry, here have a freebie" that isn't explicit or implicit confirmation that you're entitled to service if they have no idea you're in breach of the T&C's.

DreamweaverB

Sandtree said:

You can buy a lot of lamps for £5k but realistically do you? You may lose 1 lum for every 2 hours of watching and so its not noticeable until after 2 years you change the lamp and suddenly its so much brighter.

My projector is mainly used as a TV so in under 12 months it had 2,000 (low lamp) hours on it. Despite a claimed 6,000 hours life it had noticeably dimmed after 1/3 of that and fitting a new lamp turned it back into effectively a brand new machine with blindingly bright whites and colours popping etc.

The Sony projector I have is/was the top 4K lamp projector you could buy but I suspect it may also be one of the last as the market seems to be moving to laser-only. I was so angry with Sony initially that a few weeks ago I did try to buy a new JVC laser projector but no stock anywhere saved my bank balance from a five figure hit and Sony's recent apology/offer has calmed me down somewhat. 

Sandtree

DreamweaverB said:

Sandtree said:

You can buy a lot of lamps for £5k but realistically do you? You may lose 1 lum for every 2 hours of watching and so its not noticeable until after 2 years you change the lamp and suddenly its so much brighter.

My projector is mainly used as a TV so in under 12 months it had 2,000 (low lamp) hours on it. Despite a claimed 6,000 hours life it had noticeably dimmed after 1/3 of that and fitting a new lamp turned it back into effectively a brand new machine with blindingly bright whites and colours popping etc.

The Sony projector I have is/was the top 4K lamp projector you could buy but I suspect it may also be one of the last as the market seems to be moving to laser-only. I was so angry with Sony initially that a few weeks ago I did try to buy a new JVC laser projector but no stock anywhere saved my bank balance from a five figure hit and Sony's recent apology/offer has calmed me down somewhat. 

The Mrs suggested doing the same as she is into the giant picture but for day to day viewing I dont want a 120" screen personally so ours is just for movies or the occasional big budget TV series etc. 

Can't justify a 5 figure sum for myself... at the moment struggling with the 4 figure sum to replace the budget projector screen for an ALR one which I know will be better, especially in the day, but its a lot of beers to spend on a piece of fabric