Sony KFWS60S1 Grandv Wega WS Series LCD Rear

Bad – 4th February 2008 Chief Executive Officer Sony Australia Limited 33-39 Talavera Rd North Ryde NSW 2113 Dear Sir or Madam Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you and your company on winning the 2008 Outstanding Achievement Award for “how to really sodomise a customer and not give a shi*”. You must be… Read more

exceedingly proud of your board of management, and all your support staff, for being able to finally dislodge this prestigious award away from LG, which has doggedly held on to the award for three (3) consecutive years. I now bow to you and your company and recognise that compared to Sony, LG are mere amateurs in the field of sodomising a customer. Today is Monday the 4th of February 2008. This morning I arose from my slumber and decided to turn on your “state of the Art” Grand Wega Sony KFWS60S1 151cm projection television that you proudly claim on your website will “always surprise, and never disappoint”. Having purchased this product in late August 2005 (that is 2.4 years ago to save you the maths) for the trivial sum of $7000.00, I foolishly expected it to work. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when it did not. Upon inspection, I noticed that the lamp “indicator light” was flashing. On checking the handbook, I was informed on page 6 that the lamp required replacing. On checking my warranty, I discovered that the extended warranty I purchased for over $300 meant squat because the lamp was not covered under the warranty. I considered a lifespan of 2.4 years for a lamp a little short so I got onto your website to research the life expectancy of the lamp for the KFWS60S1. Your website below claims that the lamp in my KFWS60S1 should last between 5-7 years. (http://www.sony.com.au/homecinema/homecinema/catalog/product.jsp?id=XL2300&section=prod&term=KFWS60S1) Let us review at this point. As stated previously the lamp in my KFWS60S1 lasted 2.4 years, very different from the 5-7 years promised by your company. Perhaps at this point you could advise me whether any actual testing of the lamp took place to substantiate the claim of a 5-7 year life of the lamp or whether someone in your company simply plucked a number out of his arse and put it on your website. I suspect the latter to be the case and I will tell you why. I contacted a number of Sony service centres as well as the retailer from whom I purchased the KFWS60S1. When I advised them of your claim of a life span of 5-7 years I was promptly and universally told that it was “bullshit” and that I was lucky if I got 3 years out of it. At this point, I must acknowledge some responsibility for the lamps failure as I did turn the television set on. This was clearly a case of incorrect operation of your product, as obviously your lamp was not intended to be placed under such undue stress by having electricity running through it. However, I believe I should not be held responsible for the lamp blowing as I have been informed by both the retailer and your service centre that you actually have to turn the television set on for it to function, thus it is unavoidable that electricity will pulse through the lamp. Furthermore, I was repeatedly informed that Sony only guarantees the lamp itself for three (3) months. Please explain to me why, if the life expectancy of the lamp is 5-7 years, your company only has confidence that the lamp will work for three (3) months. Please do not insult my intelligence by replying with some incoherent rhetoric about it being the industry standard. Having consulted with my retailer and your own service centres I made the fateful mistake of attempting to contact your company. Now this is where you really surpassed LG in winning the Outstanding Achievement Award. On checking the white pages I obtained your telephone number of 1300 137 669 and dialled it. You must only have one line in it as I continually received a disconnected signal. I must admit that this is an ingenious way to prevent those pesky customers from annoying you and your staff. No doubt, this was a personal initiative on your part, one that so impressed the board of management that you were catapulted to the dizzying position you now hold. However, I think it only fair to warn you that someone has improved on your initiative and it will only be a matter of time before you are replaced. I contacted my retailer who gave me another telephone number to ring. After actually getting through, I listened to the computer voice for the appropriate button to push so I would be connected to one of your service staff. Now this is where you need to be vigilant and watch your back because upon pressing the corresponding number on my telephone I was disconnected. Anyway I dialled the number again and behold, on pressing the number I was again cut off. Some genius, evidently inspired by your great achievements in mediocrity, had programmed your computerised answering machine to hang up on the caller. Another clever scheme by Sony to avoid those pesky customers. Anyway, although I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but not yet of Pavlov’s Dog’s standard, I decided the next time I rang I would randomly select a number, not having the slightest relevance to my problem, and press it. To my surprise, a “human” answered. I advised him of the problems with your telephone system and my complaint and he informed me that I was in the wrong area. This employee could not lead a pack of starving wolves to fresh meat. He does however; appear to have the necessary skills for a senior management position in your company. After using many small words, and speaking very slowly, I did however manage to have him transfer me to your parts section, which I understand is an empty shed somewhere at the back of one of your buildings where staff sit around all day scratching their balls and doing very little. In your parts section I explained to one of your staff members that the “lamp indicator” light on my television was flashing. He immediately advised me that I needed to replace the lamp. I was, frankly, astonished, based on my experiences up to this time that he had an IQ sufficiently high, as to be able to state the obvious. This staff member is a serious threat to any chance of your company retaining the aforementioned Outstanding Achievement Award and should be dismissed immediately. He knows too much and is in real danger of becoming competent. I was however, not to be disappointed. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted a replacement. While I was tempted to say no and that I had just telephoned a person at random for a chat, I eventually advised him I did indeed want a replacement. He then told me I could not have one, as there were none in stock. Now by this time, I was really pissed off. Not only had I not been able to contact your inept company on your listed number, then hung up on several times on an alternative number, followed by being told the blatantly obvious, I was finally offered a non existent replacement for a product that should be still working according to your own product specifications. This person then advised me that there were no lamps available and I would have to wait until the 13th March when new stock would come in from overseas. That would leave my state of the art $7000.00 Grand Wega Sony KFWS60S1 151cm projection television as a useless piece of junk for 35 days. This brings me to a question on how you obtain your replacement parts from Asia. Do you wait for a change of season and then have Taiwanese peasant women strap the parts to migrating geese or do you actually have some plan implemented that allows you to recognise you are running low on stock and order more before you run out? This employee, who is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot, would not even contact any Sony service centres to see if they may have a spare lamp in stock. You have obviously briefed your minions well on how to retain your Outstanding Achievement Award over the coming years. The “best” he could offer was to “perhaps” come to some arrangement in reimbursing me for the inconvenience caused due to the absence of replacement parts. Anyway, after receiving absolutely no help from your company I contacted the retailer from which I purchased the television set. Not surprisingly, they informed me that they no longer sell projection televisions, presumably because Sony and LG make them. The retailer did take the time to find me a replacement lamp in less than half an hour at a parts supplier in Melbourne, despite the fact they no longer sell your product and despite the fact that your company didn’t give a rat’s arse about providing any type of customer service. I suppose I should be thankful that your company is a manufacturer and not a retailer otherwise you and the rest of your pathetic tribe of cretins would be standing in line at Centrelink about to leech benefits from those of us who actually do work and provide a service. In the meantime, I envisage myself sitting in my lounge room looking at a blank television screen, rearranging my testicles and contemplating all of the world’s problems for the next 35 days. This I believe would be sufficient time for me to solve the crisis in the Middle East, convince Iran to cease its nuclear program and perhaps even find a clean energy source thus solving the Global Warming issue. If you could possibly delay the delivery date for my replacement lamp I am fairly confident, though I give no guarantee, that I could perhaps turn Sony into a more efficient company. Anyway, the incompetence of you and your company is going to result in my expending over $700 to replace the lamp that according to your company should not need replacing for another 3–5 years. I therefore seek some form of recompense (that word means “compensation” to save you searching through your drawers for a dictionary) for the inconvenience you have caused me by enticing me to buy a product that “doesn’t surprise me” and “does disappoint me”. Perhaps this compensation could be in the form of refunding me the costs of replacing your long living lamp, or maybe by offering me another dodgy Sony product equivalent to the amount I have spent fixing your television set. I await with anticipation your response in the hope that it will reach me before the migratory geese land with my new lamp in the shed at the back of your building. Please feel free to contact me on any of my telephone numbers (which won’t hang up on you) that are listed in to top right-hand corner of this letter. Your latest victim David It's a big TV set

Blue dots again – I'm on my 3 lamp in 7yrs and again the dots have appeared..... 10yrs of supporting sony products they have now lost a customer fro life. The support number i called was excellent at passing me on details on where i could buy another lamp....Briallaint!!!! How about fixing or replacing my $7k tv or offering something for selling a dud product on… Read more

the market.... Biggest & the apparantly latest technology of its time. blue dots & lamp failure after 3yrs.

Terrible – I have had the TV now for 2 years with no extended warranty (It's a Sony, why pay for warranty?) and had the lamp go after 13months. I was lucky that Sony came to the party and replaced it free. I now have Optic Now I have symptons as Blue Haze, burn in, squiggly lines and blue (dead) pixels coming up. I didn't pay $$$ for a TV that doesn't last.… Read more

Anyone had any success with getting Sony to repair/replace with no or little cost? I am happy to start a petition! Please send me your details to: stinginrain@hotmail.com if you are experiencing the same problems and want to aim for Sony to replace these manufacturing faults. Large screen, movie like quality, awesome picture when working. Current repair issues will prove to be a nightmare. Will not consider another Sony product if they cannot guarantee product reliability.

Good – First of all this has been a great TV from the start. The TV was originally purchased in June 2006 and has had very high usage since day one. Shortly after the 3 year mark (few months ago) I started noticing a blue haze in the middle of screen. This did cause some concern after researching on the net and reading about all the "blue cancer"… Read more

problems regarding Sony's rear projection TVs. I had some relief when my wife told me, we had the extended 5 year warranty. This was unusual as I never bother about extended warranties with ANY purchase I make. I am of the belief that the extended warranties are just a rip-off con, and besides, "It's a Sony" right? Anyway so rang the extended warranty people and they organised for the TV to be picked up and get fixed. At the same time I had found a lamp on special (Aud$249.00) and changed it myself (it's quite easy). The TV was back to us, in a little over a week with a new (free)optical block engine, plus the new lamp and the TV now looks brand new again (Awesome). I hate to think of what the bill would have been if it had not been covered by warranty. From now-on, I plan to consider extended warranties for all expensive purchases. If I am able to continue getting this great TV picture for the next 3 years, then I will be very happy with this Sony TV purchase. I do feel sorry for all the people out there who did not have extended warranties, and I can only advise that you take Sony to small claims court and fight to get it fixed. These TV's were very expensive when purchased and should rightly last well over 3-5 years trouble free in my opinion. I still like Sony and would consider buying a TV from them in the future This is an update review from my previous post Please read below for further information..

Terrible – Would never have spent 6 grand on a tv only to last 3 years, SONY DO NOT WANT TO KNOW YOU , YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE THEM TO A SMALL CLAIMS COURT NEVER BUY SONY AGAIN !!!!! Great Picture, good colour makes you want to watch a good movie on it Had my set just on 3 years , then the blue death syndrome started in lower right hand corner & is getting… Read more

worse, sony dumped rear projection in 2007 no wonder ! just Google sony rear projection blue problem . In America the even had a claim form it " Sony 2003 Grand Wega optical block program claim form "

Terrible – Here is my email address and phone number again! elemenopy @ hotmail dot com 0407 273 385 James Have had my TV since March 06 - just over 2 years... Hi there! Another owner of a Sony rear-projection TV with a blue-haze overtaking my once beautiful screen. I am making a plea to all other owners of these televisions to send details to my… Read more

email address so that we can link up together and fight for our rights as consumers!!! I am based in Australia, Victoria and would especially like to hear from any other Victorians. I have already found another person with exactly the same issue and we are both taking steps currently to pursue Sony to repair or replace these sets. ANY OTHER OWNERS PLEASE EMAIL ME!!! Ideally im looking for Victorians, but ask that ALL Australian people with this issue to contact me ASAP as i wish to take this matter to the small claims court. Any further proof will be most beneficial. CONTACT ME: elemenopy@hotmail.com PHONE: 0407 273 385. Any photos or links to relevent Australian websites will be muchly appreciated!! Thanks in advance. Good luck to all those currently in this situation! Please individually contact the ACCC and report the matter as they keep records of the complaints and could be used as further proof.