Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Sony asks for my opinion - and gets it

Yesterday, I had to reprogram my mom's Sony RM-V302 universal remote. It seems that when you remove the batteries, the remote loses the code for the TV, and has to be reprogrammed. Even though Sony did put a sticker on the battery door to record the codes, I forgot to jot down the code. Besides, this was the first remote that forgot the codes. Since I'm in the middle of fixing mom's PC, I had to call Sony for the codes. The next day, I got an email with a request to fill out a survey about my support experience, and wrote the following in the comments:

While Telephone Customer Support provided good support, good support is not enough. Through no fault of Telephone Customer Support, I will never recommend Sony products to anyone for three reasons: 1 - Sony quality has fallen much, much lower than before; 2 - Sony's insistence on heavy-handed DRM is ridiculous, and 3 - Sony's constant pushing of new formats (Beta, Mini-Disc, Memory Stick, ATRAC, Blu-Ray) that are ALWAYS detrimental to technological progress and punish the consumer more than anyone else. I had to call support because I still have a Sony universal remote, and unlike every universal remote I have ever used, this remote forgets the TV code when the batteries are replaced. you may ask - if you are so against Sony, why do you still use their products? Because it was cheap, and my mother enjoys having four huge buttons for channel and volume. Personally, I only use Logitech's Harmony line. I used to be an ardent Sony supporter, and had the Trinitron Wegas, an XBR, PlayStations, VCRs, DVD players, VAIOs, etc. Now, I don't own a single Sony product for the 3 reasons I listed above. Two weeks ago, I tossed a Sony 16x DVD-RW drive that was in my girlfriends' PC, and that was the last Sony product in our house. I'm in the IT business, and that Sony was the first drive that I threw away because it stopped reading and writing discs. I still use 4x and 8x burners by other brands that work, but this was the first one that failed on me (and we have about 5 PCs in our house). Here's an example of how Sony frustrates me: I had an RM-v60 that was perfect in every way, and I used it for years until the silk-printing wore off. I replaced it with an RM-VL1000, and was so frustrated by the buttons, the programming, and the UI, that I threw it away, and bought a Harmony remote- and haven't had a problem since.

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