This is going to be one of those extended rant things, but also a bit of advice and a plea for assistance. Just a warning so that people that know that they usually disagree with my opinions (also called "The People that are Always Wrong") know to look away now.

My uncle bought a Sony Vaio laptop probably 18 months ago. Against my advice (well, I think I told him anyway) he bought it in the USA. Now, this laptop is aweomse - the Vaios are an excellent product. 15" laptop screen, tiny profile, etc - it is actually a better spec than my desktop PC. It was a brand new model at the time, and he paid something like US$4000 for it - which at today's awesome dollar rates, is around AU$8000.

The laptop performed flawlessly for a while, then around a year later (just before the warranty was due to expire) it started playing up. Failing to boot, stuff like that. Looked like it was something to do with the power supply. So he calls Sony Australia and speaks to them about it - they were totally uninterested in dealing with him, because it wasn't one of their products. Because he bought it in America, Sony .au couldn't care less about it.

Eventually, he got onto someone at Sony in the USA, and organised a new power supply (US$100), which didn't really fix the problem. Further investigation revealed that it might be a faulty CPU. Sigh. At this stage it was out of warranty, and nothing could be done for free. However, Sony .au were still uninterested in helping, and logistically it was very difficult for my uncle to get support from Sony in the US.

So, basically, he's got a very expensive paperweight that has done nothing for 6 months or so now. So, if you're buying anything expensive overseas, make sure you get something like an international warranty so if/when it breaks, you're not going to be left with nothing.

Anyone that has any advice or suggestions about what I could do with this thing to try and get it fixed - I'd love to hear it.

sorry trog no advice but that title made me think the article was going to be on ps2 q3

that sarks

Yeah freewheeling - thats what I thought too!

whats not to agree with that troggle?
i knew ya couldnt possibly be wrong all the time :)

My mate bought a Sony 15" LCD monitor, about 3 grands worth a couple of months ago.

Sweeeet monitor, but its got a few problems. Some pixels blacked out in the top left corner and a permanently-red pixel right in the middle of the screen with a green one next to it.

A week after returning it for repair, it came back without being fixed or replaced. According to the tech it is considered an "acceptable" defect. A bunfight has occured but Sony continually refuse to fix or replace it.

For $3000 who would accept *any* defect! Its the "Can't be bothered" attitude that should keep anyone away from the four-letter "S" word.

DK

s*** eh? hehe

sony always had a good rep didnt they ?... trinitron tubes and the like ?... which companies (if any) is it safe to buy s*** from ?...

none

go through a small business i say cause a bad word from a customer can f*** a small business but if you say sony is s*** no one will beleave you or care

it does suck that an international company won't honour it's warranties globally. I think philips do as it happens, but that doesn't help.

regarding LCD screens, yes it is commonly accepted that a number of pixels may be dead or fixed on one colour. supposedly, the manufacturing failure rate is too high to economically release only 100% working ones.

both annoying things, but go to show, do your research when purchasing new technology.

Don't buy computer s*** oversea. And if you do, make sure you have got an international warranty and that the product is available here (so they have spares here etc)

don't ya love mondays experts

I have owned a Sony VAIO SR9G for a few months now, extremely a nice computer, There is nothing wrong with it.

Extremely sexy, nothing wrong with it, and im quite sure that its not a computer that will break down like said in the story, Id like to know the model number of the pc your uncle bought tho.