Sony Service Fail vs Apple Service Win!

I have two colleagues at work (Nick and Brad), both doing development pretty much all the time on their respective laptops and consequently, very dependant on them. Both work on the train for longish commutes and need their batteries to last the trip.

Sad Sony Story

So a few months ago the battery in Brad's Vaio started to die and he contacted Sony about a replacement. Since that time Sony has provided a customer service experience worthy of a paranoid conspiracy theorist's diary. They have been evasive, contradictory, but mostly just unresponsive. Three months later, and with his failing battery giving shorter and shorter operating times, Brad was told that his battery had arrived at head office. He just needed to provide his credit card number and they would send it out. Brad did so and two weeks later has heard nothing, that's right nothing from Sony. Despite multiple emails, Sony has simply ignored him.

Update : Brad did finally get his battery, several weeks after the assurance that it would arrive tomorrow.

Happy Apple Story

A couple of days ago the battery in Nick's laptop started dropping in power alarmingly and so Nick took it into the George St (Sydney) Apple Store. The guys at the Genius Bar plugged an iPhone into the USB port, ran a funky diagnostic app and declared the battery was fried. They promised a replacement within a couple of days. Two days later Nick gets a call and goes down to pick up his brand new battery.

I am usually not prone to writing cranky get off my lawn style letters, but the contrast between these two cases just cried out for some angry walking stick flailing. Not sure what Brad will do next in his quest to get a new laptop battery, but evidently it shouldn't be this hard.

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