My Experience with Sony Support after Receiving a Damaged TV

Hi everyone, I have already posted this to whirlpool but decided I would like to give my experience some more exposure and maybe prevent this happening from someone else who may be deciding to buy a Sony TV. I apologise in advance for the length of this post.

Initial Whirlpool post:

On 05 March I ordered a 75" X90J from the online Sony store. I was eagerly awaiting the delivery of the tv which arrived on 18 March. My partner was home to receive the delivery and noticed when the truck rocked up the tv was not secured and was leaning on another object. There was however no physical damage to the box.

Upon getting home from work we unboxed the TV. Upon unboxing we noticed that the screen of the tv was badly cracked at the bottom above the sony logo. The cracks also ran across the length of the tv. I was completely deflated, I put the tv straight back in the box. I thought to myself "it's okay I'm sure this happens often enough that Sony will be able to provide me with a replacement in no time" – I was very wrong.

First thing next morning I rang Sony Support and let them know what happened. The customer service rep told me I would need to take photos of both the tv and the box. I informed the consultant that I had already returned the tv to the packaging so I was required to unbox the tv a second time to take photos.

I took the photos as asked and sent them in an email to the customer rep. As it was a weekend I was told that I would receive a response on the following Monday (21 March). I received a response from the rep on the Monday stating;

"I got a feedback from the management team, the tv is declaared out of carton damage based on provided photos. This can be repair but with charges, or i can offer again a new tv for trade in discount."

Needless to say I was infuriated. I sent a response which included an inquiry into how they believe the damage to the tv was caused, that I will not accept any less than a full refund or replacement and that I would contact the ACCC. The response to this email was as follows;

"As per checking by our management team, based on the photos this is damage out of the carton box."

The customer rep completely disregarded what I had to say. I then replied with a professionally drafted email stating what had happened, my rights under ACL and my intent if I do not receive a refund or replacement (submit complaint to Office of Fair Trading Queensland). My complaint was not escalated until the Sony Facebook team replied to a message my partner sent. They replied to me this morning with this:

"Given the photos and information you have provided, the issue being reported is consistent of being a Physical damage in nature. Hence, the warranty of the tv cannot be applied should you wish to repair the unit. We can still book the unit for repair, but charges will apply. Alternatively, we can look at a trade in option instead if cost of repair would be uneconomical.

Whilst we understand that this is not the resolution you were expecting to have, we would still want to let you know that this case has been reviewed thoroughly with consideration."

Once again they have made no effort to address anything I have said. It's pretty clear that there is in fact no care for customers whatsoever. I have now submitted an Official Complaint to Office of Fair Trading Queensland.

Apologies for the essay. What are your thoughts on this matter? Any advice would be appreciated.

28 Mar 22 - I sent another email to Sony asking if the TV had been checked prior to sending and to provide evidence of such. This is the response I got:

"SONY BRAVIA TVs have gone through numerous inspections and quality checks to ensure that our products roll off the production line in pristine condition prior to packaging.

On our end if you want further information you can send or file a complain to [email protected]"

As you can see once again they do not answer my question at all I replied and pushed the point further to which they said:

"As I've mentioned Sir, after the inspection prior to packaging it will automatically dispatch, after inspection then packaging then lastly it will be dispatch."

I received a response from Office of Fair Trading QLD who said they will soon contact Sony. If they fail to get a resolution I may just contact my bank to get a chargeback.

06 Apr 22 - Still haven't heard back from fair trading.

I went to send Sony support an email notifying them that I will be requesting a chargeback from my bank.

It seems they have now blocked my email address as my emails are failing to be received. (System undeliverable identified as spam)

12 Apr 22- Yet another update. Fair trading have got back to me with another request from Sony.

They have requested me to once again take the TV out of the box to measure the distance from the cracks in the centre to all sides of the TV. So I will once again take the TV out and set it up to get the measurements.

I attempted to organise a chargeback through my bank however they denied it as it was a shipped item.

03 May 22 - Fair Trading was unable to help any further. Sony still refuse to replace or refund. Here was their response to fair trading:

"Sorry for the delay, this has been under investigation with our factory team extensively.
Our opinion is that it is highly unlikely that the TV was damaged in transit to the customer. From all details provided it appears that the TV was damaged after it was removed from its carton.

Im not sure how the customer will progress but as previously mentioned we can offer a remedy via repair quotation or a subsidised replacement TV at factory pricing.

I have provided as much of a technical summary as I can below. Essentially the details that are missing is how the customer handled the product whilst removing it from the carton. I can only speculate how the damage occurred, but we can never know what occurred exactly.

In summary

No abnormalities were observed at the factory or manufacturing site in Malaysia.
75” TV sets are handled by an automated robot during packing process, no human error or physical touching of the TV screen occurred during packing.
From CCTV footage, there were no abnormalities found during quality control inspection and no abnormality found during the packing process."

I just don’t know what to do at this point. I’m not even angry anymore just sad and disappointed.

05 May 22 (currently) - I have contacted my bank once again to see if they can do a chargeback, I gave them more information regarding the situation as well as the VISA chargeback code. I am awaiting a response from them. I have also applied for free legal advice regarding the matter. Should the chargeback request be denied I will have no option left but to go through QCAT. Below are some photos of the damage to the TV.

https://imgur.com/a/llZxjQA
https://imgur.com/a/cDYiW5I

I have been extremely disappointed by the way I have been treated from Sony, especially as a long time loyal customer. I saw a similar post to mine regarding receiving a damaged tv from them which got resolved so I was quite confident they would be able to help me. Again apologies for the length of the post, however I think it's important people are made aware of how Sony treat their customers. I would appreciate any thoughts or advice on the matter.

Related Stores

Sony Australia
Sony Australia

Comments

              • -1

                @dji1111111: No, I have a clue and have helped various people do chargebacks before. I'm basing my post on my experiences both as a mediator and someone who's bought countless products for a business (successfully).

                You cannot prove the vendor damaged the goods or that the damaged occurred in transit. You cannot also disprove the customer being at fault here.

                If the customer had paid with a card which offers insurance, a claim is the way to go here.

                • -1

                  @Kranbone: Yeah conveninently drop off your misinformation about fair trading ruling in vendor's favour. yes you have no clue

    • Another clueless armchair expert pretending like they know better lol
      Do you even know what fraud is? Lol
      Nobody ever accused Sony of committing fraud here.
      No bank is going to do chargeback against a huge company like Sony? Omg… then you go on about irrelevant drivel about how only boomers buy TV. Are you a teenager because it reads like what a teenager would write.
      My bank has definitely processed a chargeback against adidas before so your terrible, infactual claim that banks don't do chargeback against big companies is simply not true.

    • +1

      Statistics
      2 posts / 78 comments

      Thank you for your great contribution to ozbargain, your knowledge really makes this place great…..

    • Wrong.

      Bad advice. No clue.

      Show me an OLED laptop, or any portable device, that can reach over 800nits peak brightness, like the current gen LG OLED

      Show me an OLED PC monitor that can reach the same peak brightness of the TV

      If watching visual content, as close as possible to what the creative team intended it to be viewed, is important to you, then no current tablet, PC, laptop can compete with TVs.

      I have an XPS9510 OLED, and an LG C1. Both are highly regarded, considered amongst the best.

      Content literally shines on the C1 compared to my XPS. Show me a better display in a portable device, and I may never look at the TV again, but unfortunately the technology isn’t there yet.

      • -2

        LG is junk (Lucky Goldstar).

        • Sadly there aren’t any other options for bright OLEDs right now :(

  • For such proclaimed high end screens I see alot of people whinging about things like banding or terrible uniformity and bleeding.

    I know from experience Sony warranty is a pain in the ass. I hope you get your money back.

    • I remember the only Sony item I had (PSP) developed issues. Apparently, I could contact them via phone and email but I needed to provide the tax invoice for the purchase via fax? I knew then and there that this wasn't going to be easy.

      Japanese companies are quirky like that. I've heard that their banks like to charge for withdrawing money and ATMs are closed after certain hours.

  • To be honest … I spotted reading after the delivery time with order 5 Mar with 18 Mar delivery .. I would never have ordered with a 2 week delivery.

    • It was purchased during the period of the NSW floods hence the delivery time.

  • A few years ago I saw technical training slides from a manufacturer on how to identify types of damage to panels. Basically they pointed out patterns in different damage cases, whether it’s impact, manufacturing fault, panel stress etc. They believed it to be a reliable way to determine how damage occurred.

    I can’t remember the distinguishing characteristics.

    It seems Sony have analysed the fractures and decided against your claim. That sucks.

  • +1

    I stopped using Sony a long time ago for similar reasons. They are scum

  • Key information missing - who did OP use as the courier? Did they have a choice of delivery options?

    I'd guesstimate, from the location and type of damage, this is 90% chance of impact damage from a single person either:

    a. trying to rack it at Sony warehouse
    b. onto the courier truck
    c. into OP's house by OP.

    Highly complex and detailed diagram below of example shock impact stress and how this relates to site of impact.

    https://imgur.com/a/7hbCVhP

    • Delivery was organised by Sony (I had no choice of delivery partner). It was delivered by DHL.

      • Can't hurt to call DHL and find out the insurance conditions, if any, on your consignment. You'll experience issues at it was 2 months ago however.

        • I'll try contacting them however as far as I'm aware, as I didn't organise the delivery it is the responsibility of the merchant to put claims in? I feel like they will likely tell me to bugger off.

      • Most delivery drivers that JB use only have one person and often ask for help from the client, so that scenario is very likely

  • Sucks to have that experience. Been using Sony tvs for 25 years and never had a problem with them. Upsetting to know if something was to go wrong I could be take a hit.
    That said my insurance covers accidental damage. Like a tv falling when setting up…

  • I record every high item unboxing. If there are problems, I am sure to highlight them on video footage.

    Be sure to record any box damages and be sure to show that the seals were intact beforehand.

  • +1

    Sorry to hear you had that problem.

    I had a identical problem a few years ago but i had brought it from JB Hi Fi, i took it back to them and they exchanged it straight away for a new one.

    Im sure most companies have the policy of deny deny deny all claims no matter their validity to get people who dont want to fight to give up, keep going you will get there.

  • +2

    I had a similar experience as you last year, Fair Trading didn't help me at all either. I gave up in the end, usually I'd fight out of principal but I just decided it wasn't worth the stress. You might have luck with small claims? I won't touch their products again (with the exception of PlayStation, can't avoid that haha). I hope you have some luck with the charge back.

  • I'd email the CEO directly. Should be easy to work it out if you check out Linkedin or their website. I managed to get a response out of a company that ignored the Contact Us page enquiries I had sent a couple of times prior.
    If you still don't get a response, start hassling the Japanese directors. Again, should be easy to work out.

    • This plus my post about the way tvs are handled in warehouses

  • +2

    Contact them again - call and insist that you didn't cause the damage. It does sound like you're at your last tether and doing what you can though.

    I had an issue with Sony and my X9000e - In Short.

    TV was 3.5 years old, Sony isolated the random restarts to a bad main board and was advising of repair @ cost.

    I called Good Guys - needed the invoice anyway (Original place of purchase - they have the same legal requirements as the manafacturer in Australia) and they just said "it's out of warranty contact Sony" - normal and expected for a reseller not to care.

    I called Sony again I quoted ACL (at the time, i worked in a role that dealt with this daily) and they just stood by and said "no, 12 months warranty". They hung up on me if i recall.

    I called back a week later, when I'd actually found the ACL documentation online and was able to actually quote it. They then gave me the customer relations email - If you'd like PM me and I'll give it to you (if I can find it).

    I then conversed with Sony, who offered me the same deal as yourself (30% off RRP on a new TV if i hand my old one in) - bad deal, I'd suggest to never take this if they offer it since retailer sales are usually better priced.

    I quoted ACL - copying and bolding the sections where they failed to meet ACL, quoting that other "inferior" brands have better warranty and thus means that 3 years is reasonable, if not more.

    They eventually caved and "Sony Australia has offered to cover the cost of the repair as a gesture of goodwill" or similar.

    Tl;Dr - You've gotta be nice, persistent and have facts or valid opinions with supporting evidence to win with Sony.

    • +1

      Doesnt work in this case as the tv is damaged, the contention is it was damaged in transit and sony should be responsible for that damage and a replacement, repair is not an option.

      • I agree. But just posting my general experience.

  • Sounds like a nightmare

  • I also had a similar incident like this. The only difference is there are damages to the box which translates to damage during delivery. Sony happy to take the TV back and refund me. The return process is not that fun though, took 3 weeks for the TV to de returned from QLD to Sydney. even though Sony arranged for the return of the tv, they wont refund if the TV is lost during transit. Needless to say I wont shop for TV online any more. It is far easier to price match/beat with JB & have them deliver the TV to you.

  • +1

    I think it's crazy that this is even possible. I am never going to get a television delivered because of these kinds of situations. that just cause the end user so much grief anxiety and anger.

  • That's too focussed of a trauma on the TV.
    I think any analyst would have said that the damage was caused out of box.
    If you are truly being honest, which I am sceptical if I must say. You have no chance of getting the replacement due to the nature of the crack. Also you have the TV on a mat/blanket not in its original box also indicating the potential of damage on your end. If this was still sitting on the base box in the polystyrene it might be believable, however, I can completely understand Sony's stance on this.

    • You can’t see the damage while it is in the box which is why I had to take it out. The reason it is sitting on the couch was for photo purposes only. (Which I mentioned to Sony) As I’d already taken the legs off and packed it away I couldn’t be arsed installing the legs again just for the photos. You can be sceptical all you want. However we handled the tv with care at all times, installed the legs and removed from the box as instructed. Unless lifting the tv out of the styrofoam can cause that sort of impact damage then I don’t know.

      • It wouldn't be damaged just from handling, i dont know how the package from sony is, but with lg you can see the whole tv on the base stryrofoam. The same scepticism I have would also be probably why sony said it's damages from you not from them.
        Like I said the scenario aligns to injury post box removal.
        As I said if genuine it really sucks for you. Good luck hope you are still successful in replacement

  • Did you call the ACCC?

    • ACCC doesn’t deal with these matters. I went to office of fair trading but it seems the hold no real power as they can only mediate between the business and consumer. Pretty sad as I thought consumer rights would be a pretty important thing to stand up for.

      • ACCC doesn’t deal with these matters

        Are you sure about that?

      • They may not officially intervene, but they may call Sony to verify this. That in itself could make Sony think twice.
        Even if they don't, I reckon Sony would back down as soon as they got an invitation to court.

        You have paid for goods to be delivered intact. It's not enough for Sony to wave their hand and say they didn't observe damage at their end.

  • +4

    I had EXACTLY the same experience as you Haydo….
    Also ordered the TV directly from Sony, also the 75X90J, was also delivered by DHL to my property in Brisbane, QLD. It was delivered by a single person from DHL. After reading the instructions and watching all the YouTube demos, I unboxed it with the utmost care. My damage was different to yours, but the outcome (at this point) has been the same. Their support has been terrible and customer service has been useless. I will not rest until this is resolved though. Can you please keep updating the post with the details - the more of us speak up and challenge Sony the better chance we have of remediation? Do you have any reference numbers I can refer to in my communications with them?

  • With this comment in mind we videoed the complete unpacking process of our new KD-85X85J collected from Costco a few days ago, including how we transported it from the store to home (secured carefully upright, in a trailer).

    Probably wise with any expensive product nowadays as who knows how they've actually been transported throughout the supply chain…

  • Looks like the TV was placed face down on something OR pushed against the screen and pressure built up and crack the front above the Sony logo.

    All parties suspicious but OP is too new so hard to trust…

  • +1

    Out of the hundreds of TVs I unboxed over the 10 years I spent doing it (up until the start of this year), none had screen damage except the ones that fell off the tailgate of the truck.

    The thing is, the packaging is designed to distribute impact force evenly across the polystyrene and evenly across the panel. Screen damage in transit is rare, and when it is, it’s almost always the whole panel that’s cracked, not just one or two small places at the bottom.

    Cracks like these, if they happened in transit, would mean something went through the box, through the polystyrene and hit the screen.

    I’m not saying it’s definitely not, but it’s more likely from my experience that it was grabbed from the bottom and lifted out of the packaging, or lifted onto the legs, or lifted onto the wall etc.

    As fragile as they are, these screens do need a fair amount of force on a small point to crack in that way.

    Regardless, unfortunately in this case OP has no legs to stand on and is reliant on the goodwill of the supplier who in this case has said no. /thread

    Sorry OP, I know it’s a lot of money and I wish I had better news for you. But if Sont don’t want to help, they’re not really obligated to. Anything further will need to include legal action.

    • Have you ever had someone coming back to the store with a similar problem?

      Curious as I was planning on buying the next tv from eBay, but now I'm not so sure.

      • Yeah it happened quite regularly which is why JB and TGG brought in the policy of checking all TVs larger than 50” in front of the customer if they wanted to take it home themselves. They’d sign a form that says they’ve taken it with no damage so anything that happens from that point on is on the customer.

        Ultimately, if you’re receiving a TV via delivery, check the box is in good condition before you sign it. Vast majority of times if there’s going to be a crack in the screen you’ll see something - a significantly dented corner, a hole in the cardboard etc. And then it’s up to you if you want to take that risk or reject the delivery.

        Next, as many others have said, take a video of you opening it up (and checking it for damage while it’s still in the bottom polystyrene.

        The most important step of all, don’t think you’re smart enough to not have to read the instructions. They exist to make your life easier. At least a cursory glance will hopefully tell you not to apply pressure to the screen, not matter how many times you’ve done it before with no consequences.

        • Funny that my boss bought a 85 from jb screen arrived smashed took 3 months to sort out

  • +1

    Once witnessed a delivery driver drop a boxed TV on the floor as he was trying to open the door in the store.

  • Bottom and top polystyrene - keep this if you possibly see yourself moving house with said TV - it makes it MUCH easier to safely pack in a truck etc.

  • OP, any latest updates?

    • +1

      Not just yet. But I should hopefully have some good news soon.

  • +10

    UPDATE

    Well it’s been a long 3 months but I finally have the great news I have been waiting for.

    Sony called me this afternoon and have agreed to give me a full refund. To everyone in the thread that provided helpful advice - thank you.

    My advice to anyone who experiences a similar situation:

    Be persistent, stay cool (do not come out guns blazing) that may have been where I failed, request the tv is assessed by a professional. I was able to get Sony to have someone assess the tv after one last call to them. I was extremely polite and let them know how bitterly disappointed I was.

    • That's great news mate 👍

    • That's great news.
      I'm the bloke also in SEQ that also ordered this TV and had the same experience as you. They collected it yesterday and agreed to give me a refund which I'm hoping to get later this week. Fingers crossed.

  • Ahh, nothing like a happy ending.

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