CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:01 pm Post subject: More Sony quality service for ya.

A customer is sending me a full G70 projector to service. The story is, the set failed, with an error code 35, and his HT company took it to Sony for repairs. They couldn't fix it, so they sent it to Sony in California, who deemed it unrepairable..AFTER 4 MONTHS... as the boards were discontinued.

What, no more board level repairs? Last I heard from people here, the facility in California had a good tech that knew these sets well, incl the G90. Did he get canned?

To hell with Sony! My boycott of their products continue.

Then again, were it not for crappy customer service by people like Sony, I wouldn't be as busy as I am, so maybe I should just shut up.

Mr. Green

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

I was the one who linked him to your site Curt ! do i get a finders fee Wink

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1164274

Athanasios

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:09 pm Post subject:

Hey thanks for that! No worries, I owe you one!

You know how customers are, no one ever tells me who referred them, and I always forget to ask. So to you and others that refer people, thanks much! I have no issues throwing favors to people that refer me, so remind me the next time you need a part or service, a discount applies. Smile

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

So you're upset at Sony for not supporting board-level repairs on a product which has been utterly obsolete (let's be honest - in the eyes of all but a few HUNDRED people) for years? They should keep the ability to do that, at the cost of some tens of thousands of dollars a year, in order to fix a single projector?

If you were a big fan of 286s, would you boycott Acer because they don't have a guy on staff to replace caps on a six-generation-old motherboard?

There might be other reasons to go after Sony, but let's be rational here - CRT projectors are an obsessive niche, and supporting them would be such utter folly from a business perspective that it would be more cause for alarm if they DID continue to support them than if they didn't!

(Oh, and does your Sony boycott include bluray players and discs? You know they get a cut, right?)

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:38 pm Post subject:

Actually, the mom and pop TV repair shops ARE indeed repairing boards, even for plasmas and other flat screens now. Some repairs aren't possible, but lots are.

I agree, it's a niche market, but if they have a tech on staff that can do board level repairs, why don't they?

Here's my honest guess:

Sony CAN repair the board(s), they just choose not to. Rather than charging a guy say $600 to repair a board or two in a G70, they charge $400 for simply looking at it and writing it off, when their computers say that the replacement boards are not available. My guess is that someone has a mandate out there that says to board swap only on something over X years old, as other components might be nearing the end of lifecycle on the same board, so they don't want a repeat customer trying to claim something is under warranty.

At 12 years old though, a G70 has a lot of life left in it, I'm only now starting to tell people with 19 year old sets to not expect much more out of them due to multiple failing parts.

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

km987654 · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:50 am Post subject:

Mark_A_W · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:00 am Post subject:

My dad paid $3000 for a 286.

km987654 · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:09 am Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:30 am Post subject:

Here's the flip side of the Sony:

I bought two $50 Toshiva DVD players for use in the guard room of the swimming pool local to me. Toshiba is a decent brand, right? I wanted a DVD player for hte MP3 reading functions, which is what the aquacize girls usually use. The second machine was a backup.

Both machines died within one weekend, this past weekend. I go out this AM, leave a loaner, pull their units. Both are dead in the water, won't spin up the disc. As an aside, I kid you not, the laser and motor connect to a PC board about 2" X 2", that contain all the logic and video processing. THe power supply is on a 1" X 2" PC board separate from the processing board. I should take a pix and post it, it's scary how small it is.

Anyways, I call the local A/V dealer that sold me the machines, as they have a year warranty on them. They give me an 800 number, say that I call it, someone will come by to pick up the DVD players, then they will send me two brand new ones. I have yet to test this (I will tomorrow), but holy crap, THAT'S customer service!