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Sony Service

Fritz of Sweden
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Guest all8

Guest all8

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Sony make nearly all the sensors, you want the best, latest and highest res, then you buy a Sony. If you want hand holding, cuddles and kisses, then you buy something else.

 

So long that Sony can sell an A7rX for near to 4.000, they just don't give a shit. Todays firmware release, so poorly worded its not even funny, is just another example of the attention to detail you should expect.

 

Its Sony ADD, don't be surprised if now that they have released the G-Master lenses that they kill of the E-mount in the next 2 years.

 

I own a few Sony product, after a while you just don't care anymore ... 

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Fritz of Sweden Rookie

Fritz of Sweden

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Strong words by timde.

Haven't had any of my gear break down yet, and have to admit IF it happens I don't have a clue where to turn to. Living in a small town in 'nowhere' Sweden I assume mailing would be the only way.

Kinda hoping other kinds of stories will pick up my spirits... :)

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Guest all8

Guest all8

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Over in Leica land, most Pro's admit to owning two (or more) M bodies because the service turn around is so slow that they need the spare. Its not just a Sony thing. Really  its just a case of being realistic about your needs and expectations.

 

But take a look at Sony camera; A mount, E mount, Sony/Zeiss lens, Sony lens, G lens, G-Master lens; they just can't make their minds up. Eventually people will just give up and go somewhere else ... Sony has and advantage at the moment ... but not for much longer ... all Canon and Nikon need to do is remove the mirror and Sony is cooked.

 

 

But money talks, I've ordered a Loxia 21mm (to go with my Loxia 50mm), and I don't plan on selling them soon. If the A7 breaks, I really have no idea what to do, probably just throw it out the window and order another one    :lol:

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PierreP Enthusiast

PierreP

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As I've said before, Sony is a great innovator, and I can't thank Sony enough for all the great ideas and products they brought to us. However, when I do the list of these products and have a look at where they are now, I definitely realise there's a problem with Sony : they were the king of Walkman, then they tried the MiniDisc and the MP3, with their own encoding (I remember it was ATRAC or something else) which was great but so poorly user-friendly (the software to upload your music on your device was so horrible to manage even compared to Windows Media) that they lost the market. Same with the PSP : a superb machine, but such a lack of support from Sony that Nintendo just flat out beat it.

 

On the other hand, you have other brands that are slow to innovate, but are successful to win markets. I fear that's what we're going to see eventually : Sony as created a market for FF mirrorless, and then, Nikon and Canon will come at last and take it over.

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1950n Contributor

1950n

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Thanks !

Seems marketing rules with Sony. What a shame they don't look at Canon and Nikon with regards to aftersales service. In this way they can never win the pro market. But as Timde said: they don't give a shit.

 

 

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Austerror Community Regular

Austerror

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This sort of thing happens with almost everything in Australia.

 

Almost everything you can think of that is sold in Australia has no Australian based repair center.  Mostly it is just an address you send stuff to that will then send somewhere else to get repaired.  

 

Western Digital HDDs for example.  At a previous job I had to send stacks of dead HDDs off for warranty repair.  I had two choices, post to Sydney and they will forward to Singapore or KL. Or I can just post direct to Singapore/KL and get it done quicker. Time saved and very little extra expense, so I always posted direct.

 

There are a few exceptions, but almost everything in Australia works on a 1980s time scale. Think, before the Internet speeds of communication.

 

Australia is a tiny market, of course Sony does not care.  Most stuff never gets sold here anyway. It is difficult to explain to not Australians how many retailers operate in Australia.  Bricks and Mortar, but almost no stock all of the time.  If you want a thing you often are required to pay in full and then they order it in. You are lucky to get anything within the month, often they just forget to order it in the first place. The staff often treat customers like enemies...

 

This does not, of course, excuse Sony for not managing repairs correctly.  But they are not alone. I read in the comments of the link above that Canon also no longer provide local warranty repairs.

 

Thus taken in context, Matt should not be surprised.

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Snowfun Collaborator

Snowfun

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PierreP mentioned the PSP (later the Vita). It's a real pity that someone at Sony didn't realise that this could have been a great monitor/remote (wired or otherwise) controller for video...

But so long as Sony churn out innovative consumer products at cheap prices, people will buy (and use and love) them.

The products are innovative and cheap. They are "intended" to have a short life (just look at this forum - people worrying about upgrading from a7s to a7s2 etc etc...)

Service? Who needs it...

 

Not necessarily a sentiment I agree with but in this disposable age...

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JonathanStewart Collaborator

JonathanStewart

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Sony is competing not just with technology, but with service, yet they're loathe to acknowledge the latter.  Here in the USA, they contract to one of the cheapest, most inept third party service providers out there with Precision Camera.  Here's their yelp page: http://www.yelp.com/biz/precision-camera-enfield

 

Matt's assessment of Sony's service is well considered, and well deserved. I hope it has an impact and Sony realizes they've reached a point of diminishing returns by outsourcing their warranty repairs, at least in a major market like the USA.  And if they continue to outsource, at least switch to one of the many competent repair facilities out there.  And PROVIDE GOOD PARTS AVAILABILITY for the current models. 

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Guest Jaf-Photo

Guest Jaf-Photo

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Sony is far from dumb, they have great a great engineering tradition, which occasionally translate into truly great products.

 

I think it's a matter of corporate culture. Some corporations are just very rigid, hierachical and set in their ways. In those environments it's very hard to fix even the simplest problems.

 

One example. I have a Sony Mp3 player which is really good except one thing. The screen lights up at the slightest touch of the protruding play button even f the player is locked. This constantly drains the battery while it's just sitting in my pocket. The predecessor, which I bought five years ago had the exact same problem. So in five years they've done nothing to fix a simple problem that renders a $200 product useless unless you keep it in a hard case.

 

 

Seems that Sony is just arrogant. I don't think they are too dumb.


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1950n Contributor

1950n

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Yes, but Nikon and Canon are also japanese. So they can see in their own country how you should organize after sales service and don't outsource it to a cheap and crappy company about which many customers complain. I will check how it works here in Holland.

 

 

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Guest all8

Guest all8

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Sony is competing not just with technology, but with service, yet they're loathe to acknowledge the latter.  Here in the USA, they contract to one of the cheapest, most inept third party service providers out there with Precision Camera.  Here's their yelp page: http://www.yelp.com/biz/precision-camera-enfield

 

Matt's assessment of Sony's service is well considered, and well deserved. I hope it has an impact and Sony realizes they've reached a point of diminishing returns by outsourcing their warranty repairs, at least in a major market like the USA.  And if they continue to outsource, at least switch to one of the many competent repair facilities out there.  And PROVIDE GOOD PARTS AVAILABILITY for the current models. 

 

 

Sony is an interesting company. They do actually have a Pro service, in some countries, so its pretty clear that they want to take on Canon and Nikon. It is very targeted, and you have to own a good amount of Sony gear to qualify, but for a real pro that is not really a problem.

 

But for the rest of us, well its probably neither here nor there, you get what you pay for. If after sale is _really_ important then pick a brand or retailer who can support you.

 

Now for a different perspective, consider the new Fuji X-Pro2, it has a firmware bug which deletes all custom settings. Fuji will fix it ASAP, they got real good at that in the past years ... but would it not be nicer if the camera worked properly in the first place!?!

 

Sony tends to release cameras which work, perhaps not how we might always like, but they do work as advertised. That is not such a bad thing.

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Austerror Community Regular

Austerror

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Yes, but Nikon and Canon are also japanese. So they can see in their own country how you should organize after sales service and don't outsource it to a cheap and crappy company about which many customers complain. I will check how it works here in Holland.

 

 

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Indeed, but you can also see how rigid Canon is in their ways.  Their market strategy has not changed for years.  There is a lot of new tech that Canon chooses to not use.

 

There are a great many large corporations that don't change or adapt.  Blackberry was once king of the hill....

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shodokalpha57 Newbie

shodokalpha57

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Sony, are you listening? I really like my Sony gear, but if I run into crappy service when my A7ii needs repair/cleaning, I might cut and run to one of the other Japanese manufacturers.

Poor service can leave a bad taste in one's mouth that lasts much longer than the time between model upgrades.

My experience in the US with camera repair service was with a "certified" Hasselblad repair guy and independent camera store repair departments. These were across the counter, face to face relationships with a business. I was told what was wrong, what they were repairing, and when it was ready for pick up. 

The independent camera store is practically gone, and my Hasselblad guy has left the planet. Communicating with a "customer service" person over long-distance phone or email, then shipping off my camera to some faceless tech is not my idea of good service, especially if one lives in a major metro (photographer friendly?) area, like LA or NYC. 

If Sony wants to truly rival Canon and Nikon in the long run, they should have a good look at the weak  link in Sony's chain - Service.

Sony needs to stop outsourcing repairs in what seems to have been an irresponsible manner. They could certify their technicians, for example, if they don't want to franchise service centers. 

If Sony will develop a first-class service network (are you listening, Sony?), then NiCan owners will truly consider dropping those bricks with lenses they're carrying round their necks. 

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Snowfun Collaborator

Snowfun

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But if I was a Sony executive I'd still be smiling because you have already bought the camera....

 

If they keep offering innovative products at what are astonishingly cheap prices then people will buy them - in my case I wanted high iso video and high frame rates. So I had no realistic choice except the A7s and rx1004. If the purchaser has no real choice then after sales service isn't a big issue (same with Blackmagic - the only route at a price I could justify into high quality raw video - but still with oft questioned after-sales service).

 

Once people buy into a system - lenses particularly - they are far less likely to jump ship. Especially if a body breaks after a couple of years or so there is a lot of pressure (eg read a lot of posts in this forum) to upgrade to the latest model. Bodies are almost disposable these days. Not the Hasselblad world in which there was a focus on lasting quality.

 

Yes, I agree with you - it is a pity that the concept of local after-sales service with appropriately trained and certified technicians seems to be a thing of the past. But I can't see the situation changing.

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