Sony laptop screen problem - fixed

Dear Sony,

Thank you for fixing my laptop screen.   And thank you for giving me the opportunity to expand the knowledge of your customer service person.

Sony: What is the issue you are having today?

Me: My laptop screen went crazy.  It is showing only bands of color that are constantly changing.

Sony: Did you drop it?

Me: No.  [This is absolutely true.]

Sony: What is your model number?

Me: VGN-FZ260E

Sony: What colors is it showing?

Me: Hmmm.... [thinking to myself - why would this matter?]  Red, blue, yellow, black.  I basically can't see anything on the screen.

Sony: Well, since you are out of the warranty period, if you would like to continue to troubleshoot this problem with me, we will have to charge you.

Me:  No.  This is a known defect of the Nvidia video card in these models of laptops.  You are supposed to fix it for me for free.  It says this on your website.

Sony: What website are you on?

Me: sony.com

Sony: Let me put you on hold for a moment while I check into this.

It was clever of you, Sony, to withhold some basic information from your first line of customer service people.  You know there is a defect with the video card in certain models of your laptops.  You put this information on your own website.  So it should have been a very simple conversation.  A caller tells you XX model of laptop is having display problems.  Those two phrases get entered into your product knowledge database and your customer service person immediately sees that it is a known defect and offers to fix it.  Simple, right?  Computers are amazing tools.  Wouldn't you agree?

But you would have happily charged me for the out-of-warranty tech support to troubleshoot and then told me that it was a hardware issue that you would fix if I wanted to pay you.  Nice try, Sony.

However, I will compliment you on your quick resolution once we established who would be paying for it.  Your contracted tech guy showed up at my work two days later in his nifty, red Mini Cooper and had it all fixed in about 10 minutes.

Thank you, Sony.

***************************

Here is the link to the page on Sony's website in case someone with a similar problem stumbles upon this blog: 

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=VGNFZ260E&news_id=349

I've also got a screen shot of the page in case Sony ever takes it down.  And I have links to the claim form to fill out if you did pay to fix this problem yourself.  Email me if you need them.

Take that, Sony.

I've got no blogging mojo

Here's Lily's fitness regimen. She's fanatical about it.




And here's a moment of Monk:

The doggies are fine. Old Lady Lily is healed and has regained her unstoppable enthusiasm for every moment of life. I've got more things to blog, but just can't seem to finish any of them. Maybe the long days of summer will energize me.

Well...this can't be good

My laptop screen.

So how am I posting this, you ask?

Superpowers.