Hi Garyallen

Can you give us details of how you achieved this?

I am about to 'go to guns' with Sony on my TV as they are taking the pee, given they obviously have a problem with these products

To all who post on or read this thread,

If you have a TV that is out of warranty and has developed a fault it seems reasonable to me that you should pay for the first call of a Sony-approved engineer.  After all you have probably saved money by not having an extended warranty.

The (Sony-approved) engineer can then give you a written repair estimate.  You, and the Sony CIC, then can at least agree on the fault you are dealing with.

After all Sony need to protect themselves against people who might make erroneous or even fraudulent claims.  I am certainly not suggesting that anyone posting here falls into that category.  Just that, to get a goodwill repair, it is not unreasonable to have to prove that the fault is actually the screen - and to take the hit for establishing that in the first place.

describbler,

Spot on (almost),

It seems reasonable that they protect themselves from the unscrupulous, but surely if the fault turns out to be theirs then they should foot the call out charge? That's proper customer service - they've sold something that could be argued is not fit for purpose and the customer has had the hassle of contacting them, and losing use of their set for several weeks.

You've guessed it - I'm another disgruntled owner. Finding this thread has been a great help. My 40W4500 is 2 years and 3 months old and is developing all the signs of a frazzled screen on startup - clouds moving across the screen, blurring, a horizontal line - and on a couple of occasions the picture looking as if a beige filter had been placed over the screen after about 15 minutes use. The set sorts itself out eventually but I fear the worst.

I contacted the CIC, and had the usual runaround to start with. When I mentioned this thread, and the fact that the problem was well-documented  I made some progress, although only after I asked the representative to speak to a supervisor. I also mentioned that there were probable Sale of Goods Act issues and that I'd pursue via the retailer if need be. Sony have agreed to review the situation after they receive the engineers report. 'Review' mind you, no promises - which I find galling. If the fault is as I described to them, and repairs in the region of £500-£600 why on earth should I foot the bill?

I found myself between a rock and a hard place - no report, no chance of a repair by Sony. I decided I could live with the cost of the engineers report if Sony covered the repair.

As an aside - they gave me two numbers for local Sony approved companies - one wanted £140 (+ VAT) to come and take the TV away and return - this included £100 towards any repair. The problem is that it may well not be economical to repair. Luckily the second firm wanted only £55 to visit, or would provide a report for free if I brought the TV into the shop and left it a few days. Bit of a no-brainer really - the TV will be in there on Monday.

Come on Sony! If you view these threads I suggest you bite the bullet and restore genuine customers faith in your products. I paid £1000 for the set and 2 years is ridiculous. Call me 'old fashioned' but I'd expect 10 years out of a good quality TV. I appreciate the technology moves fast but I'd certainly be unhappy with it breaking in less than 5 years. As it stands if I have to go for a replacement it will be John Lewis (5 year guarantee) and a Panasonic or Samsung.

All in all, less than happy with Sony at the moment......

Hi

It is always disappointing to read of any product failure, and with so many of you sharing similar experiences this is clearly something we need to address.  However, while I fully understand your concerns at both the failure of your products and the consequent repair costs, I am not convinced by some of the comments and advice offered.

In an effort to clear up any confusion and in order to help each of you get your specific issues addressed, here are my observations:

Firstly, and this should really go without saying, do not try to repair any product yourself under any circumstances! 

I appreciate the good intention of the post above and I also understand that there is plenty of similar threads on other forums regarding this “repair” However while it is true that some panel failures are due to the type of bad connection that carrspaints describes, and in theory putting some kind of extra padding or ‘cushion’ behind the affected connection may make the set work. It simply cannot be considered an effective, permanent, safe repair or indeed a 'catch all' and/or appropriate solution

In the words of a Sony BRAVIA specialist Engineer "when this connection is properly made, on a good LCD panel, the wires are bonded to the glass, so while you can push them back against the glass with this “padding” and it may work for a period of time, it is likely to fail due to oxidisation or repeated thermal cycling.    Put simply, the only long-term solution is to replace the LCD panel".

This comes with a repair cost, which brings me on to my second point; what to do next.

If the product is still under guarantee, your first port of call should be your supplying retailer.  After the Sony European guarantee period, and assuming you do not have an extended guarantee, I would always recommend contacting our Customer Information Centre (0844 8466 555).

Though I appreciate that some of you have done this already, but were not overly impressed with the reply, it remains the single most effective point of contact within Sony. Having said this, there are inevitable limitations, for example it is simply not realistic to expect my colleagues there to be able to effectively diagnose complex faults over the phone or to instantly recall every product and issue we have ever had.  However, they have access to all of our service support departments as well as a very effective escalation process (should it be needed).

If you want to ensure your issue is dealt with a little quicker, I would recommend that you get a written estimate from a Sony authorised repair agent.  This is usually the first thing we will ask for when looking to provide any level of assistance outside of the guarantee.  Along with a copy of the receipt, an estimate allows us to make an informed decision.

It would be remiss of me to offer any guarantees on how my colleagues will address each of your issues.  While they all appear very similar, on closer inspection they could differ greatly.  I can however assure you that each case will be judged on its own merits.

In addition, I will speak to the Customer Service Manager and ask that his team keep an eye out for any escalations relating to these model numbers.

Any specific questions please feel free to PM me and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as I can.

Best regards
Lee

Hi everyone

This is a big problem,  I am trying to get everyone experiencing this in the same place.  
Can you please post on the following link:

https://www.sony-europe.com/discussions/message/643410#643410

Also  to keep this at the top of the forum can you please try to post as  often as possible on threads,   we all need to work together on this and  make sure that Sony cannot simply sweep this under the carpet or fob us  off!

I WILL BE TAKING THIS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE UNTIL WE GET A FAIR RESPONSE

Thanks

Leon

Yep, here it is:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-televisions/1061134-marks-inside-my-lcd-tv-screen.html

This is from another forum.  As you can see from the pictures it is an identical fault to the one that happens with these Bravia models and Toshiba have taken a completley different stance.

We too have a SonyKd146w4500 which is just over two years old and it has started to go funny. You now have to put it on two hours in advance for it to warm up before you can watch it.

My husband is so disappointed in this Sony product, We have had an engineer out and he said its the screen - and would cost alot to repair - infact probably not worth it.

It is very upsetting when you have paid over £1000 for a TV - come on Sony replace the TV like toshiba as its obviously a recurring problem. Otherwise Toshiba will gain next time!