First, let me just tell you that just recently my mom called me and told me that she read in a consumer magazine that a person totally trashed Sony products the same way that i do. I bought my Sony around the end of jan. last year and within the first 4 months of having it, i had problems with my box. luckily it was still under Best Buy's warrenty [i was dumb and didnt purchase the extended warrenty] so i exchanged the box.
Then i had problems with my wireless keyboard, it wouldnt work? i changed the batteries, i cleaned the eye, i did everything it said to do to check it out and it still didnt work. when i was cleaning it, i popped off the keys and my puppy got ahold of three of them and chewed them BUT no so bad that i couldnt put them back on to use the keyboard. anyways, i sent back my keyboard to Sony and they said that it would cost me almost the same cost that the keyboard is worth to repair it and that it was my fault that the keyboard didnt work. i called Sony and their [rude] customer service people said ''sorry, we have to stand behind what the repair people say and that it needed repairs that we will not cover'' i said ''well, 3 keys were a little damaged and i didnt expect them to fix that but that would not cause my entire keyboard not to work?'' and so they wouldnt help me. oh, and i told them that i wanted my broken keyboard sent back because they would repair it and then resell it. they claimed they dont do that, which they probably thought that i was stupid or something... i said ''so you just throw the entire keyboard away and dont use any of the parts?'' she said yes and i said bullshit [but not in that word context ]. so she said that they would send it back but i would have to pay for the postage. again, i said bullshit [again,not in those words] on that because they didnt fix it, so after argueing with a manager [and let me just note that i was completely calm about the situation because i'm in customer service and i hate when people yell at me and then ask for a manager and get what they want] [i even explained to them that i will not be one of those customers because i feel that they would want to help me more if i would stay calm and they would be fair] now the manager did agree with me that chewed keys would not affect the keyboard from not workng but unfortunately they needed to stand behind the repair persons decision. and she also agreed to send back my keyboard back free of charge.
so, so far i had my Sony webtv for less than 8 months and went thru 2 units and 2 wireless keyboards.
i was chatting with this woman online that sells Webtv's and she said that if it's a Sony Webtv you mine as well kiss your keyboard goodbye because Sony wont help any of their customers. AND that was from a salesperson.....
my father bought me another keyboard last christmas with a 3 year warrenty. my last problem with my Sony unit was... i wanted to buy a printer. so i did some research and i had the type of unit that you could hook a printer up to BUT Sony stopped making the adapter 4 months before i decided to try and upgrade my unit.
MAN, I WAS LIVID AT THIS POINT...... I WANTED NOTHING TO DO WITH SONY.... that was the first thing that i owned was a Sony product... i ALWAYS BUY MAGNAVOX items but i couldnt afford the Magnavox unit so i went with the cheaper Sony product.
So, i wrote Sony a huge letter saying how disappointed i was with their product and their response was ''they would give me a DISCOUNT ON A SONY WEBTV PLUS or I COULD PURCHASE AN ADAPTER [they claimed they found one for me]'' I had it at that point, you dont treat unsatisfied customers like that ... and i was tired of dealing with their shitty customer service attitude. I went online and was surfing thru auctions and i put a bid in for a Phillips Magnavox Webtv Plus and i got it.
I havent had any problems since then, i'm extremely happy with my Magnavox!!! I will say one thing, it's hard to find a reasonalably priced printer that is capatable with the Webtv Plus Units. Either, stores dont sell that model anymore or the printers are way too expensive.
i have a Cannon Bubble Jet 250 and it was only $120 but it prints extremely slow but it works.
So, i learned that Sony doesnt care about their customers and they are constantly ripping them off as often as possible and that's what the consumer reporter said too.
Sorry so lengthy but thats what happened and i have a feeling that you might go thru the same problems i did.... i hope not but at least now you know what type of attitude you will encounter.