Sony denies PS3 warranty voided by using surge protector
By Dave Parrack
A story surfaced yesterday about Sony and its supposed lack of customer service, and spread around the Internet like wild fire. A forum member had claimed that Sony had informed him his PS3 warranty had been voided the moment he plugged it in to a surge protector. Now Sony have come out and denied the dubious claim.
The story (according to the original forum thread) went that official Playstation forum member Danjak woke up one morning to find his four month old PS3 had stopped working. So he phoned Sony (as you would) only to be told that by plugging the console in to a surge protector he had immediately voided his warranty, and it would now cost him $150 to have it repaired.
A host of games websites ran with the story, including us here at Gamer.Blorge, as why would this guy lie, unless he was in fact an Xbox 360 fanboy causing trouble? But now Sony have come out on the defensive and denied the claim outright. They have flatly denied that plugging your PS3 in to a surge protector voids your warranty in any way, after Wired contacted them to ask about the issue.
Sony went on to say that they’d be contacting the customer with the broken PS3 to resolve the matter and sort out any misunderstandings. That either means they’ll be sending the heavy mob around to rough him up or he’s actually going to get his problem dealt with.
So rather than Sony having quite the worst customer service in the world as was assumed from the original forum post and resulting stories, it actually turns out their customer service representatives allegedly don’t know their asses from their elbows.
It seems what you’re told on the phone if your PS3 goes wrong may be more down to luck and who happens to deal with your case than an actual quantified set of rules. I don’t think this resolution to the story quite excuses Sony from all blame, and they clearly need to get everyone at Sony HQ reading from the same song sheet.
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October 17th, 2007
“it actually turns out their customer service representatives allegedly don’t know their asses from their elbows”
You are all idiots. One person wrote a post on a forum and you not only take every word he says as gospel but you then repeat it, embellish it and libel and entire company’s customer service (which happens to be excellent) using it as evidence.
The 2 posts on this subject don’t make Sony look bad which is what you are aiming to do. They make you look bad.
October 17th, 2007
trev just pwned this website well said agree with everything said above bravo trev brovo.
October 17th, 2007
PS sorry for typo’s above.
October 18th, 2007
Warranty ain’t really an issue on ps3 as at last count only 1% of ps3’s had broken down (and how many of them plugged the console into a surge protector), really not an issue if one person has to pay 150. Better than having a certain box which has a 33% chance of getting a certain red ring of death (and that’s just for one problem).
October 18th, 2007
Sony has terrible customer service. I purchased a surround sound from them and one the speaker blew in the first 3 months. I called them and told them my problem. After an hour of asking the same questions and performing the same trouble shooting steps over and over I was told to send it to a service center in Texas. I asked if there was a closer place I could simply bring the unit to and I was told yes, but I would have to pay for the repairs. Fortunately I had the warranty in front of me and it very clearly stated that I could bring the unit to the nearest service center for covered repairs. The person I was speaking with, an off shore tech support person, knew nothing about Sony’s policies and very little about the product. He continued to argue with my that the warranty was wrong. I finally yelled at him and made him get his supervisor. Low and behold, I ended up bring the unit to the service center down the street. Sony support does not know its ass from its elbow, to turn a phrase. They are cutting corners by outsourcing North American support. The old saying holds true, you get what you pay for.