New Tech Equipment? What To Do When You Have a Problem… Our Sony Home Theater

December 27, 2011 by ·
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I’ve been dreaming about a new home theater system for months.  I feel like we’re the only people left on the planet that don’t have a blu-ray player.  Sound is important to me – I love great sounding music, television and movies.  Our old home theater system is at least ten years old and the woofer went out months ago.  It was time! I researched and read hundreds of reviews, looked at many systems.  My hands down favorite was the Bose, put the price tag was just too high for me and our budget.  While I’m willing to invest in a premium system, the thousand dollar plus range was just too high.  I love playing music all over the house and all my music is on iTunes or digital now so streaming from my iPhone or computer is also very important to me.  I also wanted to go with a quality name brand.  We look at a sound system as an investment. After deciding what was important, considering the size of our room, and how much we could budget for a sound system, reading reviews, I chose the Sony BDV-E780W Blu-Ray Disc Player Home Entertainment System.  The features I especially liked were:

  • compatible with Sony’s new HomeShare Wi-Fi Network Speakers.  This could be expanded to achieve my goal of music throughout the house.  The
  • built-in WiFi
  • wireless rear speakers
  • Blu-ray 3D playback (with a 3D television, which we don’t have yet, but good to be ready)
  • photo, music, and video playback via front USB
  • iPhone app to use as remote
  • streams iPhone music with controls on TV screen
There are many, many more features but those were my favorites.  The price point was around $400.  There are many less expensive systems, but I couldn’t find any others with all the features of the Sony.  And it was “Sony”.  The Sony name as a brand means quality to me.  I had some Amazon.com gift codes so we ordered it from Amazon.  We like Amazon and like having large items shipped free to our house.

 

Can you tell there is bad news coming?  Well, at least, I’m holding my breath.  Hopefully it won’t be bad news in the end.  You probably noticed I don’t write bad reviews and I have enough confidence in Sony to hope that this won’t be a bad review in the end!!  Hopefully, I will be writing a follow up post about how much I am enjoying all the wonderful features and glowing reports about the Sony customer service.

 

We connected our unit – it wasn’t too bad.  Not exactly quick and easy, but anything going between TV and cable and involving disconnecting an old system and connecting a new one, isn’t going to be quick and easy no matter what.  I also wanted to be able to use all the features, so I spent quite awhile going through the instruction book.  The sound was awesome.  Wow.  What a difference.  We loved, loved, loved the sound.  I docked my iPhone and played music.  Awesome.
Then we are sitting and watching tv and all the sudden the disc tray opens.  We look around, is anyone touching the remote?  Nope.  The disc tray closes.  Huh?  The disc tray opens… and closes… and opens… and closes.  We turn it off, turn it back on.  All good, we’re watching television and… you guessed it, the disc tray opens and this time it won’t go back in when we touch the close.  Ugh!  This is too strange.  We call support and they tell us to unplug it from the power strip for a time to let it reset and then plug it into the wall instead of the strip.  We do that and keep our fingers crossed.  Nope… a while later, the disc tray opens again.  Huh?  We keep it about a week, and every day randomly, the disc tray opens.  Ugh!

 

This is where I made a mistake.  I should have sent it back to Amazon for a new unit.  But I know that, in general, retailers like you to deal with the company under the warranty.  So I call Sony and ask them what to do, a nice woman tells me to send it in.  We pack it up and send it to Sony.

 

Now it’s almost a month after we bought it, and we’re sitting here with no system.  I got a call from Sony Repair today and they say they can’t find anything wrong with it.  I explain that it was very random that the disc tray would open.  We couldn’t figure out why or when it would happen.  They are going to test it further.  The technician said, “It happened since you purchased it?”  I said yes, it’s brand new and did it from the beginning.  Now I know I should have sent it back to Amazon for a new one.

 

I’m waiting and worried.  Hopefully, a working unit will be in our home soon.  I’m waiting and worried.

 

Have you bought an expensive tech item and had it not work?  What do you do?  Are you supposed to send it back to the store rather than deal with the manufacturer?  *Sigh* I’m confused.
Filed Under: Musings ·

Comments

  1. 1
    ashleigh walls says:
    December 27, 2011 at 11:49 pm

    A lot of products that want you to deal with the manufacture will leave a note in the boxes saying so. I haven’t had a problem from buying anything from Amazon but I probably would have done the same thing as you. Good luck! I hope it all works out for you in the end.

  2. 2
    Tiffany Cruz says:
    December 28, 2011 at 11:15 am

    I haven’t had any issues yet. Knock on wood. Sorry you had such a hard time with yours.

  3. 3
    Jeannette says:
    December 28, 2011 at 11:24 am

    I’m so sorry you are having those problems! I don’t mess with out electronics – because the problems usually start as soon as I do. I have had great experiences with Sony though and hope they get it fixed for you soon!

  4. 4
    Heather - Acting Balanced Mom says:
    December 28, 2011 at 11:54 am

    Hoping you can get resolution quickly… I know how much of a pain it is to make an investment that ends up back with the manufacturer…

  5. 5
    Sarah BB @ East9thStreet says:
    December 28, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    We bought a Samsung for my step-son and I am crossing my fingers it does everything its supposed to do and there are no issues as we also ordered from Amazon. Good luck!

  6. 6
    Chelsea @ Someday I'll Learn says:
    December 28, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    Oh man, good luck with that! I always have my husband deal with the tech stuff. Lol.

  7. 7
    Robert says:
    December 28, 2011 at 9:43 pm

    I had the exact same thing happen, I got a replacement and it had the same tray issue. I sent it to the texas repair center and they called saying they could not find anything wrong with it, I told them I have read multiple complaints about this issue and they should know how to fix it. They sent it back to me last week and it has started up again, so frustrating. I haven’t been able to stomach calling about it again. I think I am going to demand they send a rep out to witness it.

  8. 8
    Lisa Weidknecht says:
    January 1, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    I still have a VHS player ROFL. Good luck!

  9. 9
    Olivia Douglass says:
    January 1, 2012 at 11:51 pm

    We just recently bought a blu-ray surround sound and *thankfully* haven’t had any issues. BUT a friend of mine has a brand new TV that they are trying to get fixed…. good luck with yours! :(

  10. 10
    Felissa (Pamper Yourself in Pink) says:
    January 2, 2012 at 12:04 am

    I don’t know what you are supposed to do. I guess maybe it would have been easier to deal with Amazon if they would have just given you a new system. It seems a bit ridiculous that a month later you are still without your system. Not sure what Amazon’s policy is but if Sony doesn’t send back your system fixed or a new system soon I would contact amazon and tell them what is going on.

  11. 11
    Yankee Texan Mom says:
    January 4, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    We’re going through the same thing with a tablet we purchased for Christmas – still struggling with try to make it work or send it back! Good luck!

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