Reader Mike sends in this rant about his experience with PS3’s customer support. Long story short, his PS3 stopped working and he had to send in his old unit before Sony sent him a new unit — usually vendors send a new unit and you ship back the old unit, but not in this case. Sony sent him a replacement unit but not the cables and, being a nice guy, he had already shipped back all of the cables from his old unit. Much gnashing of teeth later we get this email:
So, my name is Mike, and on March 4th my (originally 40gb) PS3 stopped recognizing disks. I called customer support and after a couple of things they told me to try they shipped me a coffin to ship it back in. A.. Coffin came 3 day ground, B… return label was for next day air, C… console shipped back to me 3 day ground. Kinda crappy that they make me wait what seems like forever, but that’s not my complaint. On the 26th I receive my replacement unit.. Now when packing up my coffin I faithfully followed the directions and shipped back power cord, av cables, charge cable, and controller.. but lo and behold when I opened my replacement box.. none of these were there. So hey no biggie, I’ll call customer service and get them to send them, it was their fault, they’ll be quick about it… Nope. First I’m told I’ll have to talk to a tech before anything can be done.. why? But no techs are available then so one will have to call me… why? Finally today
I get past all that and they are pleased to tell me that they’ll send my stuff and to expect everything in 5 to 10 days….. It’s the 27th of march, I opened this service request on the 4th.. and now I have 5 to 10 more days to wait.. that’s absolutely rediculous. I’ve been a Sony fan since the 90’s got first playstation, ps2 and psp all on launch dates, have sony stereos in both cars, xplod amps and speakers, sony home stereo, and bravia tv.. and now I suppose a streched anus all from sony. Maybe I’m just an ass.. but I work in customer service, have all my working career, and maybe I just have a higher standard for how complaints should be handled. Well thnx for giving me someone to vent to besides the reps that aren’t doing anything to make me happy about this situation
I’d suggest trying to escalate this when you call back and we’ll get working on this end. Just pretend we’re Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting: “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.”
So Mike just e-mailed us with an update on his PS3 woes. Doesn’t look like it’s getting any better. Sorry, Mike. Maybe you should get an Xbox 360. ;)
Contacted customer service today, April 1, officially 5 days since they told
me it’d be 5 to 10 for me to receive my cables and controller. I called to
ask if there was a tracking number or anything so that I could find out when
I needed to be home, since they require someone 21 or older to sign for
packages (Sony, not UPS). I was told that “the situation was still being
investigated”. To which I responded, “then contact UPS, they weigh packages
before shipping them, and they should easily see the difference in the
weight thus proving that less was sent to me than I sent to them”. No dice..
They told me to give them a call back on Friday, officially one month since
my first call, and maybe they’d be able to update me on my shipment. I’m
getting so frustrated.
Finally, sweet closure:
So I just got confirmation from Sony that my long awaited package was sent
out yesterday afternoon.. woohoo. It took a while but as long as I’m back up
and running and can finally get back to Assassains creed. Thanks alot for
giving me a place to vent my frustrations so I didn’t have to go on a puppy
kicking rampage.