Don’t Buy Sony Ericsson Phones
by Michael
In November 2006, I purchased two Sony Ericsson Z525a cell phones. Within in three months, the screen on one phone turned blank white and could not be reset without being sent to a repair center. A few months later, the second phone had the same problem with the same result. Fortunately, the phones were still under warranty, so my only (not insignificant) cost was shipping. Unfortunately, the first phone is malfunctioning again and the warranty has expired.
A call to Sony Ericcson support proved fruitless. Since the phone was no longer under warranty, servicing the phone would cost over $100. That cost combined with the cost of shipping the phone a second time, exceeds the retail value of the phone. The support rep and her supervisors refused to waive the service fee and pretty much stonewalled me as far as connecting me to someone who could and would waive the fee or even replace the obviously defective phone.
Since 1999, I have had one Nokia and two Motorola's and all of them were reliable. In fact, I've gone back to using the last Motorola between phone repairs and it has been as reliable as the day I bought it in 2004. If only the Z525a's performed as well.
So now I'm left with a useless brick of a phone, the prospect of buying a new phone, and a lesson learned that Sony Ericsson does not care about the quality of its products or the customers that buy them. It used to be that if you bought something with the Sony name on it, you were assured that it would be the best product of it's kind on the market. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
One final note. It wasn't until after the first phone malfunctioned that I read the reviews on CNET that pointed out this particular problem with this phone. That means that everyone who bought this phone has probably had the same experience. In fact Sony seems to be aware of the problem. One of the things the support tech told me, was that the phone had to be TURNED off daily in order to ensure that the screen would not go blank. How ridiculous!
Sony made a bad phone, and the consumers are the ones who get stuck with the bill.
Posted under Close to Home on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 14:08
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