Sony
Reviews and Complaints

Product Category : Video Cameras
Model Number : DCR-HC21E

I own a SONY Handicam (Digital Camcoder ,DCR HC21E ) which was purchased one year and 2 months ago (23rd December 2005).However, I have used this camera only less than 5 hours so far for recording video. I confronted with a problem when I tried to download the content of the tape(cassette)into my system using the USB cable as per the instruction provided in the user's manual. After downloading a part of the content my computer got hung and stopped responding. When I restarted the system, I found that my system was not detecting the Handycam. My computer is powered by a Pentium 4 with Widows XP operating system. This was the first time I tried using this feature ( content transfer from Tape to the computer)of the product. I approached I the nearest Authorized Sony service centre with the camera and after inspecting the equipment, they informed me that the circuit board has to be replaced to rectify the problem which would cost me more than Rs. 5000 minimum.!and there is no warranty for the replaced component! Moreover, the exact reason for failure is not known to the technicians ! I am very much disappointed with this type of product failure that too ,in the first instance of using a key product feature. These is no warning or precaution in the manual about this kind of susceptibility of product failure to alert the user. In fact , this is one of the main features that motivated me to invest in this particular product.

Now , I really have doubts about the reliability of Sony s latest products , especially with Camcoders. Is the technology used in Sony Camcoder prone to failures like this? Why a core feature of the product ( transferring the content of the tape to a computer through USB cable) that is expected to be used very often fails like this? Have your R& D team or other customers ever confronted this problem? What should I have done to prevent this problem under normal circumstances?

Sony India customer care team and the people at the local service centre were not given me a proper and convincing answer as to why my instrument failed under normal conditions.Even after thorough examination they gave me only a few possibilities and probable causes for product failure which are ruled out beyond doubt in my case.. I still feel that company has the accountability to their customers who relied on their products ,to ensure that they have offered them a trouble free and durable product. Since my experience with both local service centre and Customer support team are not satisfactory I feel that justice has not been done to my case.

These are my conclusions based on my experience with sony product & Customer support:

1.The Sony Handicam that I purchased is prone to failure under normal conditions.
2.The service support team is not competent enough to detect the exact cause of the problem ( after thorough examination) other than giving assumptions ( which are ruled out under normal user environment.)
3.After sale service and support are not pro- customer oriented.and there is no accountability on company's part for product failure.
4.Buying Handicam products of Sony is not advisable.

I purchased a sony tv, model SZ29M80 from Jumbo Electronics in Dubai, UAE on 10/08/2006 and on 30/01/2007, it went bust. I got in touch with the Sony Service centre at the following address : Sony Service Centre, Kamdhenu Shopping Centre, Shop No A/79, Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri (West), Mumbai 400053, India. The phone numbers for the same are +[protected] / +[protected].

I was told by the engineer who visited my residence that it was a PIN AMP problem which was extremely minor and that my Tv would be returned the next day(31st January 2007). However, since then I have been given the run around by the following gentlemen namely; Mr Shashi, Mr Hari and Mr Gulab. It has been one thing or another that has apparently held up the work on my TV. First it was procurement of parts and today, a delivery truck excuse. When will this end?

I am shocked by the lack of "service" that Sony gives to its customers. Sony is a reputed and global brand which commands a high level of brand loyalty from it's valued customers such as me. So why then is the appointed service centre delaying things? Is it because my TV is under warranty and thus they will not make any money from me or is it merely a care-a-damn-attitude of the company which is reflected in it's employees?

I am told by a callous employee how mine is not the only TV for repair but if I read in-between the lines, I will hear that its because my TV is under full warranty and labor required to repair the sets will be free of charge and the service centre will not make any money out of me, so therefore they dont care how and what they speak to a customer. Today, Sony may be a big brand but remember that there will always be someone else to take their place. Sony is not indispensable!

It has been 21 days today and I am still getting the run around. Beware of Jumbo Electronics!

My Sony Grand WEGA LCD Projection TV is one of many Sony TVs with defective optical blocks. This is the main projection component costing over $1,000 to replace.

Sony issued a service bulletin acknowledging they made some defective TVs with this problem. But they are refusing to stand behind the product. Many of these defective TVs only last 1 to 3 years.
It appears there are so many bad ones, that Sony can't get replacement parts quick enough. We have been waiting 2 months and still no scheduled delivery date.
To add to the insult, Sony pays to repair some of these out-of-warranty TVs but refuses to pay for others when they all are in the same age range and have the same defective part!
Google "Sony TV Problems" as I did and you will find how widespread the problems are.

Bought a Sony digital camera and memory stick thru Sony Rewards. Received it in Aug, 2006. The memory stick did not fit the camera and the camera was junk. So returned them immediately. Sony refuses to refund the $250 I paid for them. I insured the mail and the USPS refuses to pay the claim. Seems like a multibillion dollar company would treat customers right instead of stealing from them! I recommend none buy any more Sony products as they are a dishonest rotten company.

I am using sony ericssion k300i but there is problem occurred due joystick which is movable up, down left side and right side. I bought that model on last year April 2006. From dec onwards the problem occur again and again. Do not buy Sony Ericsson K300i model, it's defective!

I ordered a Digital Camera over the net and got a call asking if I want to buy extra products and a higher priced camera. When I told him I just wanted what I ordered he got real nasty and told me the camera that I ordered was a refurbished one. I cancelled my order.

I am against at the kind of product Sony sells to gullible customers like me who purchased the color television set Model No DA29M80 , Registration No 0273627, Serial No 6200177 on 18.9.2005 by paying a hefty amount of Rs 47,500 from the Sony world Show room at Noida. The Sony world people marketed that I am purchasing a TV which is futuristic and better than other company products. He even told me that I purchasing a trouble free television. However right from the day one I noticed that the color was not proper. However when the service center person came, he stated that I have purchased a very good product and In need not worry about teh color as it is a transmission problem. However exactly after the completion of warranty period on 25th December 2006, the television started giving me yellow picture. Firstly the service center people told me that I have to carry the Tv to their place, but when i protested they agreed to come to my home to check it. After checking he tells me that some chrome Board has to be replaced which will cost me around 7 thousand. I fail to understand how can such a new television give such a problem as early as little over one year. I have not purchased a Chinese product. I have paid a fortune for an ordinary 29 inch TV as it was a HDD technology. At home I have an audio system, handycam and even a flash drive of Sony. The attitude of the service center is less said the better. They are interested only in their service charges. This cannot happen to a television like SONY. My opinion about tis company has gone. And I suggest everyone do not buy Sony products!

I now have the 2nd replacement that Sony has sent me that is not "refurbished" by their own definition. I have reported this to Sony and to the Better Business Bureau.

It appears that the PSP has had many complaints and the customer service department has treated others rudely just as they did me. Sony needs to stop making the PSP if you can not produce a product that lives up to its warranty description. Sony is offering a replacement product that is supposed to function as a new product but instead is scamming people into paying them an additional $89.00 for an already overpriced hand held is unacceptable that does not work. Sony is promising, on page 138 of the PSP Instruction Manual in the warranty that they will replace within a year with a new or refurbished PSP. Sony defines "refurbished" as has been restored to it's original specifications. Well, I am sure I was not the only unlucky consumer to be shipped 2 "refurbished" PSP's that were not restored to the original specifications. I am highly angry that Sony will not refund my $89.00 or replace this 2nd "refurbished" PSP with a new one. They requested that I pay to ship this back to them for an additional charge for me. This is crazy. It is insane that I would have to put more money into Sony's worthless product and they are accepting NO responsibility for the lack of offering a product that is not of the standards they describe in their manual and their warranty agreement.

I too have talked with a Supervisor. It took two phone calls to get one that would talk to me. The first one did not feel that I should tie up their time. The second one, simply had the same attitude Sony must promote. They did not care. Sony does not seem to mind if you are not pleased with the product they offer you. They are selling plenty of defective products and since they get the money on the front end, the consumer is just out of luck.

I have $390.00 invested in just this little hand held apparatus not including the games and IT DOES NOT WORK! I am interested in a class action lawsuit. If anyone else has been treated unjustly by Sony or feels that Sony has provided this same service to them, let me know.

I have purchased sony ericsson w700i mobile on 14/11/06. with in one week of purchase it started to give me a network problem. I have give it for repair in the authorized sony ericsson service center and after three days they returned it to me by saying it has been repaired. But the same problem continued. At last i went to serv center and give my mobile and ask them to replace my mobile with new one (because i did not purchased that mobile to leave it in different sony service centers). But still i did not got my mobile back and service center people giving the unnecessary reasons whenever i go their.

This is happened in banglore only. Please don't give ur mobile for this kind of service centers.

I have used sony’s products all my life and I have only run into 2 that caused rather expensive issues. First was a MD walkman that after a few months stopped making disks, the support told me to reinstall the drivers and that still didn't work but they wouldn't exchange it under there warranty. So I have a stack of useless disks and a nice paper weight that cost me $300. Second a client of mine with a computer network played one of their cd's with "content protection" software that prevented a backup of their data to cd's. I spent around $500 worth of my time trying to fix the problem, I got the computers working without their "content protection" from sony’s music cd by completly formating the hard drive but the clients accounting data that was burned onto the cd was corrupted by sonys illegal content protection and lost forever. Needless to say they wouldn't pay me for my time. I wrote a letter to the [protected]@info.sel.sony.com address and all I got for my $800 worth of loss was;

“Thank you for contacting Sony BMG Online.

We sincerely regret that you are not completely satisfied. We manufacture our Sony BMG Entertainment products using content protection designed to prevent unlimited copying and unauthorized redistribution of the music on the disc. Customer input and response, such as yours, is invaluable in the continued development of our products. We want you to know that we appreciate your heartfelt feedback and comments.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of assistance.”

Needless to say sony isn’t selling me or any of my clients anything. I make sure to tell everyone I meet about this. I don’t think this post will make them fix any of this but if it stops one person from buying their products it would be worth the $5.

I purchased a DSC-S40 Digital Camera on Dec. 05. By July, 06 the camera stopped working. I talked to the customer service dept. at the toll-free number, and they send the camera to the repair shop. I got the camera back by the end of August, 06. However, three weeks later, the camera stopped working again. This time it won't turn on. I went to the Sony website to chat with one of their "specialists," Andrew, who just told me to "reset it" by changing the batteries, and pressing and holding the power bottom 15 seconds. It didn't work. At the end, he just told me that I needed it to send it to the shop again.

I called their Toll-Free number. I talked to 4 different people to no avail. I talked to Kerry, who told me to "reset" as Andrew did, but couldn't do anything else so she transfer the call to Mark. He told me to "reset it", even though I told him about Andrew and Kerry. He couldn't do anything else, so I got transfer to Kathy. She was very understanding of my frustration by now; she tried her best to assist me with her patience and explaining to me that my camera needed to go to the shop (really?). I wanted to get another camera or a gift certificate to buy something else. But Kathy said that my camera needed to get broken 4 times in order for them to get me a new one (wow!). She was going to send a label via email so I didn't have to pay for shipping. I didn't understand this because the first time I just took it to the UPS Store and paid for the S&H myself ( I got a discount-nice of them), but she said they don't do that anymore, so I needed to wait for the label. Unfortunately, my phone died and got disconnected.I called back again and got Angelina, who was very rude. She was going to send the label and that was it. That conversation was on Sep. 26, 06. Today is October 10 and haven't received anything.

I called back and talked to Beverly and she told me that I needed to send the camera to the shop and go to the UPS Store because I would get a discount for the S&H. I told her about the label and the "whole enchilada," but she didn't know about labels and what not, so I waited seven days for the &%$** label, just for nothing. I hate this camera and Sony for the horrible Customer Service they have. Do not shop Sony. I thought its reputation for great quality was true, but this camera it's given me headaches, but not just that, the people I've been talking to on the phone are just lost on their own world because they cannot get their information straight. They contradict each other. I'm extremely sorry that I bought this camera from Sony.