Awful Sony Warranty experience, looking for ideas?

[kencameron]

This isn't the full solution I asked for but I think it is as good as it will get....One shouldn't have to resort to all of this to get reasonable service.

Good to see that your persistence got you at least a partially satisfactory result. I do genuinely wonder what they are thinking. Their approach seems utterly misconceived to me, but it must seem right to them. How so? Is reputational damage not a quantifiable thing that would concern their bean counters, particularly in the context of social media? Cometition in the shrinking camera market is so intense these days that you would think companies would look for any way of getting an edge. Do we have any camera company insiders on the forum who could explain their point of view (perhaps anonymously)?

[bobtowery]

That's really the rub, isn't it? It all boils down to did the camera have a manufacturing problem regarding the SD slot, or did I break it? Me, being someone with 17 years of digital photography behind me. Somehow, inserting cards into cameras, readers, laptops, tens of thousands of times, I'm such a dipsh*t that I just took that piece of plastic and rammed it in there in order to render my camera unusable.

Believe me, I took no pleasure in exposing all of this, I have better things to do with my time. The thread at dpreview.com has 85 replies. People were offering to phone them for me!

[kencameron]

Their approach seems utterly misconceived to me, but it must seem right to them. How so?

Answering my own question (who better? ), one element might be the amount of discretion companies allow down the line and how they regard more junior staff. Bob had to go to the CEO to get  someone to look at the specific circumstances of his case rather than (maybe) blindly follow a guideline. In most of the supermarkets around where I live, the checkout staff do only that - check items through - but there is one where they have more discretion to eg call in extra staff when the lines get long and issue refunds. They are also paid more than checkout staff in other supermarkets and treated better. It is probably no coincidence that this particular chain has a good reputation for customer service.

[Robert Roaldi]

I have read/seen reports (cannot remember where) about how adjustors at health related insurance companies are "incentivised" to not allow claims, or to delay them or to negotiate partial payments. There are bonuses at stake. I wonder if service departments are treated as profit centres and so subject to the same kind of "market" pressures. That is, they may have some financial reason not to provide the kind of service you thought you deserved. If by stalling or balking, they can convince some percentage of claimants to go away or agree to make partial payments, the tactic may be worth it to them.

So long as you're making payments, insurance companies love you and want to maintain the "relationship". As soon as yo make a claim, you're adversaries.

Companies are only nice to you when it's worth it to them. I do not enjoy being cynical, it's not good for anyone.

[jjj]

I have read/seen reports (cannot remember where) about how adjustors at health related insurance companies are "incentivised" to not allow claims, or to delay them or to negotiate partial payments. There are bonuses at stake. I wonder if service departments are treated as profit centres and so subject to the same kind of "market" pressures. That is, they may have some financial reason not to provide the kind of service you thought you deserved. If by stalling or balking, they can convince some percentage of claimants to go away or agree to make partial payments, the tactic may be worth it to them.

That may actually be very illegal.

So long as you're making payments, insurance companies love you and want to maintain the "relationship". As soon as yo make a claim, you're adversaries.

They've yet to beat me, though they've tried some pretty shitty fobbing off nonsense.

Companies are only nice to you when it's worth it to them. I do not enjoy being cynical, it's not good for anyone.

You are not being cynical, just realistic. What many companies [well people really] are too stupid to realise, is that being nice to the customer can be good for them too.

[cottagehunter]

Last August I purchased a sony a99 at Vistek in Toronto , last fall I noticed that there were ripples in the translucent mirror notified Sony Canada received a RMD # shipped it off and it was back in 4 days. I can't complain about their service yet and hope I don't have your experience.

Pierre