Excellent Customer Support

[Conquest10]

I just got a Canon 420ex flash and wanted to know if I could use it on my Sony F717. I sent off an email to Sony. They sent me an automated email for stuff like problems with the batteries on a camcorder. It said if it didn't solve my problem to email them back. So I did. Then I got this:

Thank you for taking a moment to contact Sony Online Support.

As our response system is partially automated, your letter was
responded to without being read. Unfortunately, it appears that the automated
message you were sent was not applicable to your original concerns. We
apologize for this inconvenience.

The Sony DSC-F717 CyberShot camera is not a PictBridge compatible. You
may not be able to connect a printer directly to this camera. However,
once you transferred the images to your computer, you may print the
images using a printer connected to your computer.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to be of assistance.

The Sony Internet Support Team
Online Support and Services Center
CP1A
Ajit

This message and any attachments are solely for the use of intended
recipients. They may contain privileged and/or confidential information.
If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you
received this email in error, and that any review, dissemination,
distribution or copying of this email and any attachment is strictly
prohibited. If you receive this email in error please contact the sender and
delete the message and any attachments associated therewith from your
computer. Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated.

[BJ_M]

This message and any attachments are solely for the use of intended
recipients. They may contain privileged and/or confidential information.
If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you
received this email in error, and that any review, dissemination,
distribution or copying of this email and any attachment is strictly
prohibited. If you receive this email in error please contact the sender and
delete the message and any attachments associated therewith from your
computer. Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated.

[offline]

Quick hide ! Sony are comming

[mrtristan]

Couldn't you just stick it on and see if it works?

[lordsmurf]

That's what you get for buying a Sony. :P

[offline]

That's what you get for buying a Sony. :P

Have to agree with Bluey here. Sony have one of the *worst* customer
service departments world wide. They stink. NEC go one better by
not even having one - > just a series of telestaff attached to
customer relations computers. And if I hear another Indian
telco or insurance salesrep on the phone I'm going to do murder.

Employ more people and train them, you bastards

[Cobra]

Aside from anything else, everything that I have bought that Sony have made breaks down. I won't buy from them again.

No offence, Conquest. Just my personal experience.

[HRMaddie]

I am not a camera expert, but Sony cameras are extremely proprietary and doubt the 420EX flash will work. The flash won't work with some of the Canon digital camera, or the functionality is limited.

[Conquest10]

I've had the camera for a while and I just bought a 420ex for my 10d. The Sony has a hot shoe and it got me thinking. There's not too much on the web about it so I decided to ask them cuz I seen somewhere about frying either the cam or the flash. Sent them the email and got crap. Sent another and got that response. I finally sent them another and I got this:

Thank you for taking a moment to contact Sony Online Support.

We sincerely apologize for the confusion caused. The recommended flash
in use with the Sony DSC-F717 Camera is HVL-F1000.

We can only recommend that you use the Sony branded accessories and/or
software that have been designed for this product. We can neither
recommend or endorse any third-party products. To use any other products may
cause unforeseen complications or damage and could negatively affect
the product's performance. Damage caused by the use of any third-party
products is not covered under your warranty.

NOTE: Should you choose to purchase third-party hardware or software
for use with your Sony product, please be advised that we
are
unable to assist with any support of non-Sony hardware or
software.
The manufacturer of third-party hardware or software
should be
contacted for any and all assistance.

NOTE: Sony does not and cannot make any warranty or representation
with respect to the performance, suitability or
compatibility of any
product manufactured by third parties. Sony hereby
disclaims any
representation or warranty that products manufactured by
other
manufacturers are compatible with any combination of Sony
and/or
non-Sony products. Third-party manufacturers and their
resellers
are NOT authorized by Sony to vary or waive this
disclaimer.

If you have confirmed the compatibility of the Cannon flash with the
Sony DSC-F717 Camera, please refer page 63 of the camera's instruction
manual for information on using a commercially available flash.

You may view, save and/or print any of our published product manuals or
other supplied documents from our support website at URL:




Bla bla bla

In the end, I just took the risk and tried it out. It doesn't fit. The flash is too big to fit in the hot shoe of the f717. So there you have it.

[pacmania_2001]

Just thought I'd chime in to give some credit to HP/Compaq. There customer service is excellent.

[thecoalman]

I am not a camera expert, but Sony cameras are extremely proprietary and doubt the 420EX flash will work.

Such as the funky AC jack.

[northcat_8]

Just thought I'd chime in to give some credit to HP/Compaq. There customer service is excellent.

I think you are being sarcastic but I disagree.

I had an HP Pavilion notebook and the modem wouldn't dialup...it wouldn't initialize the modem. Callup HP I speak to Abraham, who has a major Indian accent he puts me on hold...actually hangs up, I call back and the process repeats 2 more times. I finally get to stay on the line, someone else in the same heavy indian accent is having me uninstall the modem...and reinstall the drivers (like I hadn't already tried that), so I played Freecell while pretending to follow his advice. It didn't work....then he wanted me to physically remove the modem I reminded him that it was a notebook, he said he knew and asked me to remove it. I asked to speak to someone who spoke english. He transfered me to their engineering department, where I got to speak to Abraham again Abraham did not understand what I meant by the modem wasn't initializing, I tried to explain it to him, he still didn't understand so I went into my desktop and had it dial while I was on the phone, that was very loud but Abraham finally understood. He put me on hold...which in Abraham phone skills meant I had to call back...which I did. This time I asked to speak to an American, they transfered me to a lady, who was confused when I presented her with my problem because she works in accounts receivable But was kind enough to transfer me, and who the **** do you think I got transfered to????

That's right Abra-*******-ham

[pacmania_2001]

I'm not being sarcastic, in my experiences with them I've had no troubles.

I bought a Compaq Evo N610c second hand off eBay. First week I get it the hard drive crashes so I call them up and speak to an Indian call centre worker. I told him the problem and he didn't bother to go through all the normal "check the power is plugged in" type steps. He just tells me that it sounds like the hard drive has died and that the unit is under warranty and he'll send someone out to pick it up for repairs.

2 days later its getting picked up by courier and 3 days after that they've replaced the hard drive, no questions asked. Delivered it right back to my door.

Second time I had to deal with them the keyboard was acting up, sometimes not registering key presses. Spent about 5 minutes on the phone mainly with another Indian call centre worker taking down my change of address details. This time I'm outside their service area so they use a licenced agent to fix the problem. The place rings me up that afternoon to organise pick up (Thursday), picks it up Friday and has it back to me by Monday with a whole new keypad installed.

[shoozleboy]

Just thought I'd chime in to give some credit to HP/Compaq. There customer service is excellent.

Too bad they aren't making any money as a company... so that CS will soon fade to black....

[zzyzzx]

Aside from anything else, everything that I have bought that Sony have made breaks down. I won't buy from them again.

No offence, Conquest. Just my personal experience.

Sony has a brilliant marketing strategy. Build up a quality brand name over a preiod of years, then once peopge get it in their head, start producing cheap crap, and overprice it for the Sony brand name. It will take years (maybe decades) for everyone to figure it out.

[zzyzzx]

Callup HP I speak to Abraham, who has a major Indian accent he puts me on hold...actually hangs up, I call back and the process repeats 2 more times. I finally get to stay on the line, someone else in the same heavy indian accent is having me uninstall the modem...and reinstall the drivers (like I hadn't already tried that), so I played Freecell while pretending to follow his advice. It didn't work....then he wanted me to physically remove the modem I reminded him that it was a notebook, he said he knew and asked me to remove it. I asked to speak to someone who spoke english.

Have you considered talking back to them in a Indian accent?

[aanaravs]

Aside from anything else, everything that I have bought that Sony have made breaks down. I won't buy from them again.

I have had the same experience.

[northcat_8]

Callup HP I speak to Abraham, who has a major Indian accent he puts me on hold...actually hangs up, I call back and the process repeats 2 more times. I finally get to stay on the line, someone else in the same heavy indian accent is having me uninstall the modem...and reinstall the drivers (like I hadn't already tried that), so I played Freecell while pretending to follow his advice. It didn't work....then he wanted me to physically remove the modem I reminded him that it was a notebook, he said he knew and asked me to remove it. I asked to speak to someone who spoke english.

Have you considered talking back to them in a Indian accent?

I like to turn the phone volume down and act like I'm hard of hearing.

[yoda313]

Hello,

I had 3 tech calls with DLINK for my wireless G router (couldn't figure out the right settings).

Each time the caller was helpful - and no accent I also got a email with the procedures taken during the phone call.

First rate organization DLINK is

Kevin

[VCDHunter]

Don't get me started on customer service asda, overclockers, richer sounds, pcworld, bt . . . . . the ******* list just keeps growning.

[Roundabout]

Sony has a brilliant marketing strategy. Build up a quality brand name over a preiod of years, then once peopge get it in their head, start producing cheap crap, and overprice it for the Sony brand name. It will take years (maybe decades) for everyone to figure it out.

Well, since I worked for them for over 15 years in their service dept, I'm probably more qualified than most on what went on there. First off, they decided back around 1995 or so to move the entire cust support dept. (phone support) to Ft. Myers, FLA and employ a couple hundred people to answer phones. So their support isn't in India or Phillipines, but here in the USA. That doesn't mean they speak English properly, though

I saw a dramatic decline in quality over those years, so much so that I was disgusted with the cheapness of what was made toward the end of my time there. Everything is plastic wherever possible, and very little metal used in chassis or anywhere else.

What zzyzzx says is absolutely true, they built up a good rep over many years, and now they have squandered it by making products in Taiwan or China (long time ago, most everything was made in Japan). So many parts were weak or not designed properly, and we'd have reams of product repair updates issued regarding failures. After a while we just gave up trying to file them with the service manuals, since they were coming faster than we could get around to putting them in with the service manuals. Most just got thrown away.

I've been beating the drum for a long time, before I even left there, that you are paying a premium for the Sony name, far beyond what the product's real value is - you are paying for the perception of quality, in most cases, you aren't getting your money's worth. A few things were pretty well made, TV's, for example, but most of the rest was lightweight plastic junk. Even the expensive camcorders broke by the hundreds, and they began to just throw them away and replace them. Quality control issues like defective SMD capacitors would leak and corrode the PCB's and make repair impossible, therefore replacement was necessary.

Finally, they closed all the factory service centers that were open to the public, and left only Rancho Bernardo, CA and one facility on the East Coast to do factory repairs of products, the rest are repaired by ASC's (Authorized Service Centers, such as Circuit City, etc). Most of the techs are repairing PS2's at Rancho these days, as much of the product is replaced or shipped to Mexico for refurbishment and sale in Factory Outlets such as the one in Lake Elsinore, CA.

They've pretty much destroyed the Sony Service Company as it existed, trying to save money. Unfortunately, customer service suffers as a result. I am sure they aren't the only company doing this, but IMO people expect more from Sony, and these days, sadly, they won't be getting it.

People are starting to figure out that it isn't worth the brand premium any more, something I knew years ago, but there weren't forums like this one where I could sound off back when I was there.

[lordsmurf]

That's right Abra-*******-ham

May as well have been Abe Lincoln himself, huh?

[funkguy4]

hey, don't rip on the indian guy, he's just trying to do his low wage job as well as he can. HP gets you what HP pays for.

[zzyzzx]

Have you considered talking back to them in a Indian accent?

I like to turn the phone volume down and act like I'm hard of hearing.

Next time just keep repeating and then over and over as if in the drive through in the movie Dude, Where's My Car?