| Non-motoring > Sony Xperia Z woes | Miscellaneous |
Thread Author: smokie |
Replies: 29 |
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Fri 18 Apr 14 23:06
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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I've got one of the above, through Virgin, about 14 months old. A week or so back it would not stay on. However when I got it back on the charger and got it 100% charged it worked fine. So I did a factory reset. Exactly the same, and when I take it off charge it also stays on, until any button is pressed. On the charger it does everything normally. Sot it went off to the Virgin people. They cam back and said physical damage. I'm not that happy at that, the phone has not been consciously abused and I don't even think they've opened it (it's a waterproof one). Everything is intact, it has screen protectors front and back. Virgin give me free insurance with my plan which is replacing the phone )£79 excess, may be a refurb). I have to send back the old one or get charged £105. Do the team think this could just be a problem with the battery? They are available on eBay, and YouTube shows how to open them up (although they lose their waterproofness, which I can live with). The other thing I just noticed is the Sony warranty lasts for two years... EDIT: What I forgot to say was that even broken ones seem to command a good price (> £105) on eBay. Last edited by: smokie on Fri 18 Apr 14 at 23:18
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Sat 19 Apr 14 00:10
Sony Xperia Z woes - Fenlander
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We suffered same Virgin "con" with daughters Blackberry late last year. Multiple software type buggy issues. They are very keen to have phone sent back as if they were doing a warranty repair. Once in their hands it is claimed all due to damage not covered under contract so they want £105 (I think it was that same figure) from us to replace with a new phone. They out and out lied about the extent and location of the damage as we could see when it was returned. So obvious they have a policy to replace not repair and try to stiff users under the damage excuse. No joy at all from their customer service at any level and in the end we just didn't have the will to fight so bought a used phone on Ebay to replace it for half the repair fee... and have ended all our Virgin contracts as they came due for renewal. Last edited by: Fenlander on Sat 19 Apr 14 at 00:12
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Sat 19 Apr 14 06:59
Sony Xperia Z woes - Crankcase
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Last time I had woes with Virgin, on a different problem, I bought a replacement bit of kit. I also mailed head honcho direct (address culled just from internet somewhere) with my disappointment with their customer service. I got a call back in two days, a personal email address to converse with, a named contact, a cheque for the kit I'd bought based entirely on my say so and a follow up to make sure all was well a few weeks later. They were outstanding. It was about three years ago, though. I guess it's all changed. |
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Sat 19 Apr 14 07:53
Sony Xperia Z woes - Fenlander
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>>>They were outstanding The whole point is that isn't outstanding service... it's dreadful. It should not be up to the customer to trawl the net for a CEO contact to get a proper response and fair settlement when problems occur. |
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Sat 19 Apr 14 09:09
Sony Xperia Z woes - Crankcase
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Ok, well obviously I meant outstanding after contacting head office. |
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Sat 19 Apr 14 18:23
Sony Xperia Z woes - Stuartli
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When my HTC One X's battery failed after just a year last July (it can't be removed), HTC arranged immediately for it to be collected, repaired and returned entirely at its own expense under the two year warranty. The phone was collected from me on a Tuesday afternoon and returned on the following Friday lunchtime. First class after sales service and attention. |
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Mon 5 May 14 14:09
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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So here's the update. I called Virgin and said I wasn't happy with the diagnosis (not consistent with symptoms IMO). The phone then came back from Virgin with a letter saying physical damage, not covered by warranty. Attached was a really blurry pic apparently showing the damage, but I think the pic is of another phone as I can't recognise a similar part on the Xperia. Called Virgin, they said it was returned as "beyond economic repair", and that the damage was to the SIM port. Told them that didn't tally with what the repairers had said, and reminded them that the SIM port is covered by a waterproof lid, also that I'd be sending my phone to Sony for 2nd opinion (risk to me of £14.40 if not covered under warranty, to return the phone). New phone arrived from insurers - as I had been without for quite a while I started using it. They requested I send back the old phone, or get a £105 charge. After speaking to Virgin, I sent old phone back to Sony, and it came back within 5 days repaired. They sent a list of the parts used (2) none of which seemed to relate to the SIM port - no charge. So I mailed Virgin CEO saying I wanted 1) £70 excess back 2) record of claim deleted 3) keep both Xperias, for my inconvenience. CEO office called today. "As a gesture of goodwill" they will refund the £70. The remainder is up to me to negotiate with the insurer. Now, the insurance is free with the plan and I don't have any separate contract for it. I told them that it was for them to deal with it (deleting the claim and negotiating retention of old phone). (btw they said they use 3rd party repairers as though their crappy faulty diagnosis was somehow my fault.) Am I being unreasonable? |
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Mon 5 May 14 14:24
Sony Xperia Z woes - Fenlander
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>>>Am I being unreasonable? No. Seems just as in our case they were willing to bend the truth to get a contribution from you.... and when escalated through complaint channels no-one really wants to give a proper and full resolution. Sadly after 5yrs plus being happy with Virgin phones never again. |
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Mon 5 May 14 14:26
Sony Xperia Z woes - No FM2R
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>>Am I being unreasonable? I don't think so, but I might suggest an alternative approach; It seems to me that financially you;re more or less, which should be good enough, its just the hassle factor. So I would be replying along the lines of; 1) Please explain the relevance of your statement that you use 3rd party suppliers. Do you take responsibility for their work on your behalf? Are you dissatisfied with your choice of supplier? 2) Please let me know a correspondence address for said 3rd party suppliers since I wish to pursue this further with them, including discussing your seeming dissatisfaction with them and you holding them responsible for this issue. 3) Please confirm whether it was a member of your staff, or a member of the 3rd party supplier who incorrectly stated that the damage was SIM port related and, if your own staff, on what basis did they do this? etc. etc. You get the idea. |
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Mon 5 May 14 16:21
Sony Xperia Z woes - BobbyG
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Did you know that you can get the Sony Z in a perfect curved shape?? Yeah, my colleague discovered that one night when we were participating in a go karting event. He dropped his phone as he got out the kart which he didn't notice. The next driver drove over the phone, it must have stuck to the sticky slick tyre and when it came firing off half way round the lap it was a perfect curved shape! |
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Tue 6 May 14 16:59
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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I asked for their response in writing, here it is. ... I was sorry to hear your phone had developed a fault which meant it had to be sent away for repair. As we discussed the phone wasn’t repaired in this case because the phone was deemed to be our of warranty due to damage to the SIM port. When a customer sends a phone away for repair it goes to our 3rd party repair company UTL. The engineers are fully trained and accredited by all the major phone manufacturers to inspect and repair their equipment. They found that the damage to the SIM port voided the manufacturer’s warranty. When this is the case a repair can still be attempted but would be chargeable alternatively we advise customer to make a claim on insurance which in this case I can see you made a claim and were sent a replacement. I can understand your concerns and frustrations with the repair process and why you sought out advice from Sony who were able to repair the phone. As we discussed this is something the manufacturers can do as the warranty for the phone belongs to them. Regardless of Sony’s finding with the phone the insurance claim was still made and so would still show on your insurance claim file with out insurance providers New Asurion. As I mentioned to get this clarified you will need to speak to them directly. You will also need to speak to them regarding return of the handset they sent to you. You can call them on 0845 604 8846. As discussed we don’t offer compensation, I did however offer to refund you the £70.00 for the insurance excess fee. You’ve refused this offer so this has now been withdrawn. I’ve passed your comments regarding this matter back to the relevant teams so we can address any training issues and procedures as needed. I can appreciate this may not have been the response you were expecting however I hope this information helps resolve your query.... Any further comment guys? Worth going legal (small claims?) or do I take the £70, hand back the phone and move on? |
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Tue 6 May 14 17:10
Sony Xperia Z woes - Focusless
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>> I did however offer to refund you the £70.00 >> for the insurance excess fee. You’ve refused this offer so this has now been withdrawn. >> >> or do I take the £70, might have to fight for that? |
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Tue 6 May 14 17:26
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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I didn't actually refuse it, I said their response was inadequate or something like that. I've been with Virgin for phone, internet and TV from way before it was ever Virgin, and had 2 mobile phones from them on top tariffs for some years, and now a 3rd SIM for the iPad. This just feels arrogant and bullying to me, as though I'm at fault, which I don't believe I am. The crux is really their 3rd party people incorrectly diagnosing the issue and from there it all went downhill. |
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Tue 6 May 14 17:32
Sony Xperia Z woes - Boxsterboy
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| I would claim the £70 in the Small Claims Court and remind them how long you've been a customer, and that you will be taking your custom elsewhere when the time comes (hoping that doesn't inconvenience you too much). |
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Tue 6 May 14 17:36
Sony Xperia Z woes - No FM2R
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>>or do I take the £70, hand back the phone and move on? Move on and tell everybody what happened any time the subject of customer service etc. etc. comes up. I'd always take the offer of money, even if I intended to still cause hassle and pursue further. Unless I was actually after more money. I guess the point is to work out in your mind what you want, or what would make you happy. Then work out whether that is at all likely and how hard you are prepared to fight for that. You'll not get more than £70, I shouldn't think. So it depends what level of apology you want or what level of hassle you wish to cause. On the subject of the extra phone, then I wouldn't send that back unless that's going together with the removal of that claim from your record. |
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Tue 6 May 14 17:57
Sony Xperia Z woes - Lygonos
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This thread brings back warm memories of arnoldsucks.com which was pursued relentlessly to remove it from the web. arnoldclark.150m.com/ Still there under yet another web address. Last edited by: Lygonos on Tue 6 May 14 at 17:58
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Tue 6 May 14 19:40
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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The £70 is a straight refund of the excess, for the claim caused caused by their dodgy diagnosis. I wouldn't have thought that was negotiable by Virgin, they caused me to incur that cost unnecessarily. I was hoping to keep the second phone, now repaired (thanks to my own effort). They eBay well :-) though I may keep as second phone. But the insurance company are saying they will charge me £105 (probably still worth keeping!!). As they have been fine but are independent of Virgin (despite the fact that the insurance is a free benefit of Virgin subscription) they won't care that I am in dispute. I don't care about an apology, or getting more than £70. I'd hoped to keep the second phone. But I must say given how long this took to resolve (which involved a lot of time and effort on my part due to two glaring issues on their side, even if I hadn't sent the phone to Sony) Virgin mobile's current attitude whiffs a bit. I suppose lots of people try it on. btw I just called Virgin media to find out the steps to cancel and they offered me £9.00+ off my monthly bill. Which I would have probably got anyway if I'd asked, but that does "soften the blow". |
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Mon 14 Jul 14 18:30
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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This is dragging on so I thought I'd update. Virgin had agreed to pay me £70. They mailed my wife (who's email address is on the account) to ask whether the money should be paid to my bank account or my Virgin account. This was in May. I have spent mucho time and money trying to tell them my Bank account. They gave me a specified name in the CEO office to talk to, who was the guy who dealt with the issue when I raised it. He was never there. And either ignored messages or they simply did not pass them on. Anyway I got to speak directly to him a week ago Thursday. They were closing at 1300 and he agreed to pay the £70 into my bank account, and it ought to be there by the following Monday. So when it hadn't arrived by Thursday I was back on email and phone. A mail today says "I can understand your frustrations and I apologise if I’ve set the expectations too high here. The refund of £70.00 has been overturned and rejected as we’ve followed our repair process and the phone was found to be out of warranty so we would have been unable to repair it." So they have one last chance to cough up the £70 or it's off to the ombudsman. They have a deadline of Thursday to get back to me to tell me when the money will be in my account, or provide me a letter of deadlock, which is the first step to a complaint. Their customer service has been pretty awful throughout this entire experience. I don't know what recompense I might be eligible for, but I am going to backtrack through my email and phone records to include all the effort I've put into resolving this. I am shocked that they seem to think they can rescind an offer made in email. |
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Mon 14 Jul 14 22:39
Sony Xperia Z woes - Fenlander
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>>>Their customer service has been pretty awful throughout this entire experience. I don't know what recompense I might be eligible for, but I am going to backtrack through my email and phone records to include all the effort I've put into resolving this. Which is why we walked away before such frustrations started but just marked Virgin's card as far as this household are concerned. |
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Tue 15 Jul 14 07:32
Sony Xperia Z woes - Meldrew
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| Virgin might be well advised to spend some money on customer service and less on the grisly TV adverts with the Scottish accented actor! |
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Thu 31 Jul 14 17:08
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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Anyway... they missed the deadline of coughing up the £70 so I mailed them to say if they didn;t sort it by the Wed I would raise a complaint with the ombudsman. I gave them an extra two days then, being a reasonable sort, called them on the Friday to check they hadn't reconsidered. The guy from the CEO office was quite rude (again) and said not, so I said I would raise a complaint, which I did. The complaint form asked what I expected in resolution. I asked for the £70, plus £15 for phone calls (0845 number) plus quite a few hundred pounds for time wasted, stress blah blah. I had a call from a different person in the CEO office yesterday, much more sympathetic, initially offering the £70 + £15 for calls and asking me to accept there and then. I asked for the offer in writing so I could consider it. The offer was upped to £185 which I have accepted. I hope they don't rescind it again!! |
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Thu 31 Jul 14 20:07
Sony Xperia Z woes - Manatee
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>> I hope they don't rescind it again!! I predict they won't, although it's always difficult to forecast what thoroughly incompetent organisations will do. If a complaint becomes a formal one with the Financial Ombudsman, then the service provider (insurer for example) has to pay a fee, win or lose, currently £550 IIRC. A lot will roll over if the cost of giving in when you call their bluff is lower, or if there is a good chance they will lose anyway. The £550 incidentally is just a recovery of the costs of providing the ombudsman service, which also charges levies to firms. Another wonderfully efficient "non-profit" public body. |
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Tue 15 Jul 14 08:02
Sony Xperia Z woes - Manatee
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Virgin Media seem to have a customer provocation culture. They seem to be hell bent on destroying the brand, which they pay Branson for. Whether Branson knows or cares I have no idea, but NTL Telewest have taken a brand that stood for being on the side of the customer and done exactly the opposite. I left them a couple of years ago when they put the price up (which was their prerogative) but they carried on charging me for about three months, money I never got back. They did the same to my aunt and uncle though I got that back for them eventually. They were unbelievably unhelpful. Related briefly here, previously. www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=11921&m=265126 |
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Tue 15 Jul 14 08:47
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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| Just to say that my issue is with Virgin Mobile, essentially a separate company from V Media - who have usually been really good for me. |
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Tue 15 Jul 14 09:36
Sony Xperia Z woes - rtj70
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Virgin Mobile and NTL/Telewest merged and became Virgin Media. Well in fact they were still NTL:Telewest until they agreed a deal with Branson to become Virgin Media. The combined operations are now owned by Liberty Global. I suppose they continue to use the Virgin name because they think there is some value there and people trust them, they provide good service, etc. Anyone remember the sites nthlellworld and ntl:hell? They were well known for poor customer service. |
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Tue 15 Jul 14 09:47
Sony Xperia Z woes - CGNorwich
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| Just to play devil's advocate, you have to ask why mobile phone companies are apparently so reluctant to meet their warranty and insurance obligations (it's not just Virgin).. I have seen estimate that at least 40% of all such claims are fraudulent. Obviously it's no excuse for turning down genuine claims but it does go a way to explaining the companies' cynical attitudes. |
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Tue 15 Jul 14 12:16
Sony Xperia Z woes - smokie
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Yeah CG, I am fully in tune with that in many contexts. A (respectable and quite well off) mate got "caught" at the checkout having overlooked self-scanning 2 bottles of wine (out of 6 he'd bought). They were apparently very good about it but he was whinging nonetheless in relating the story to me (as you do...). I did point out that in his dress-down state they didn't know anything about him and whether it was deliberate or a genuine mistake. The two Virgin's may well be linked somewhere up the top but there is nothing linking them at the customer level, except some cross selling. They more or less told me so at Mobile when I threatened to go to a different TV etc supplier. This was confirmed when I called Media to discuss Mobile's approach, where I successfully got a reduction in cost but that would have happened anyway if I'd made the call (so the bloke told me). Last edited by: smokie on Tue 15 Jul 14 at 12:16
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Tue 15 Jul 14 13:25
Sony Xperia Z woes - Slidingpillar
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Others may do it now, but at the time I went properly deaf, Virgin pay as you go phones were the only ones you could top up by visiting their website and do the whole thing with your computer and credit card. Which is why I use them as all I can use a mobile phone for is texting. |
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Tue 15 Jul 14 13:29
Sony Xperia Z woes - CGNorwich
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| I think they pretty much all do now. You can also top up at most ATM machines which you might find handy. |
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Fri 1 Aug 14 09:23
Sony Xperia Z woes - Zero
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| I can even top up my phone using my online banking account. If I had a top up fone. |
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