Do-it-yourself first before relying on the SE service center — Sony Ericsson P800, P900 and P910

JanSan 15 Oct 2005, 12:25

"A firmware update instead of a motherboard replacement"

I am so angry right now, i have to share my encounters about the Sony Ericsson Service Center in Singapore.

I restored my p900 some days ago, and by accident tipped it from the cradle. So i did another master reset and a new restore. After this the phone was working again.

Next day as i left the house my p900 gave me a "corrupted message" error when reading my sms messages. I rebooted the phone and that was it. a boot screen, but nothing else. the phone didn't want to start any further.

I decided to drop it at the Sony Ericsson service center since it looked like they needed to reset it for me. (I did not know that the p900 had no reset button)

The service people had to take it in, and i would get it back in 4 days. Fine, 4 days became one week, several phone calls until they could provide met with a quote. A Quote ?! for a simple reset. Yes the service guy told me i had a faulty motherboard, and if i wanted it to be replaced it would cost me 880 sgd (420 euro), almost the same as a new phone. He also told me they already tried to update the firmware to no avail.And then to think i had only a software malfunction.

Totally not convinced and not willing to shell out that money that easily i decided to get it back and take my losses, but first try al my own revival tricks on the poor mobile.

I took my dead phone back home, downloaded the latest firmware update software from the SE site, and BAM, after 45 mins updating my phone worked again like before. No Motherboard replacement, no 880 sgd, just a firmware update. And the service center "said" they did this also. I don't believe it.

I will file a complaint and i will even get my evaluation fee back. I feel cheated. Luckily i had some options, but imagine the others just following the recommendations of the service center.

It is either incompetence or a disorganized service dept. But i also read stories about service centers charging for non-existent repairs and malfunctions for higher payouts. Let's hope it's not that.

regards,
jansan

sony ericsson p900 not resetting not starting not booting, charging me 880 sgd for a motherboard replacement, just a simple firmware update did the trick,

rjk 15 Oct 2005, 20:50

Bummer. Why don't you try something new. Like an imate sp5 / qtek 8310. Bought one her for � 49,-

Puddytat purr 15 Oct 2005, 22:10

My P900 decided to stop recognising the charger, I took it to a repair centre and they told me that they would have to send it off.

They sent a note with it saying that I needed the phone back ASAP as I kept a medical diary for my son on it and could it be returned directly back to my home address as the centre was a two hour journey from my home.

I was assured that it would be looked at immediately and that I would have the unit back within ten days.

Three weeks later (on 23rd December) I got a phonecall to tell me that my phone was at the service centre! So I had to travel for 3 hours to collect the damn thing.

I got it home, plugged it in and..........NOTHING!

I phoned Sony in an absolute rage, told them that the invoice said 'repaired' but it obviously wasn't. They told me that it was a foreign phone and I would have to send it back to it's country of origin to get it repaired.

I contacted the company I bought it from and they were furious, they ended up replacing the unit and - thankfully - dealing with the problem instead!

Sony Ericssons after sales service sucks big time!

Niels 21 Oct 2005, 00:46

Wirelessly posted (Sony Ericsson P910i: SonyEricssonP910i/R5B SEMC-Browser/Symbian/3.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0)

Goodness gracious. My previous phone went awol while at a service center. I did upgrade my P910 privately, not wanting another *three months* ordeal.
Service centers it would appear, like any other have got to make money. 😞
We've had a SC scandal of sorts with judicial concequences, maybe that's what awaiting those ppl in SG.