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