Jump to content

Sony RULES, MWave SUCKS. Beware, loooong post.


Recommended Posts

Please take the time to read this if you ever plan on dealing with MWave or Sony.

As some of you may know, I recently wanted a new monitor and spent many days agonizing over which one to get. I definitely wanted a flatscreen monitor, and I definitely wanted at least 19". So I read and read and read online user reviews of Samsung, Iiyama, Sony, and Viewsonic monitors and ended up going with the Sony G400. The other monitors certainly had great reviews as well, but I like and trust the Sony name (and the rave reviews didn't hurt either smile.gif ) It's basically just a personal preference for the Sony brand, so please don't give me sh!t over it or say "U should have gotten an NEC...same quality at a cheaper price"...

Anyway, I was very excited when I called MWave to place my order. I was afraid of shipping it UPS Ground, since I have heard horror stories about what "fun" they have with various packages that come through. So I paid $92 to ship the monitor by FedEx Overnight. And to cover all my bases, I asked the person on the line if I could return the monitor for an exchange if it arrived damaged or DOA. She said, "Sure, just give us a call and we'll take care of it!" OK, everything sounded cool. Well, I ordered on a Thursday night so the monitor didn't ship until Friday. Well, of course that meant the soonest it would come was Monday. Somehow paying for overnight shipping but still having to wait 4 days kinda disturbed me, but it was the soonest I could get the monitor so I dealt with it. Well, it did come Monday.

I had read on an online site that you should check your monitor thoroughly after it arrives, to make sure it wasn't damaged during shipping. It said to check for cracked plastic, a loose bezel, geometry problems that could not be corrected, and discoloration in any of the corners. Unfortunately, I did detect a very small discoloration in the lower left corner of the screen. It was kind of a bluish tint, almost undetectable. Actually, it IS virtually undetectable on anything but a pure white background. But, I am basically a perfectionist and I couldn't live with the fact knowing that I had shelled out major cash for a new monitor and it had anything at all wrong with it, however small of an issue it may be. So I called MWave to arrange for an exchange.

I described what had happened and the girl told me that the monitor could not be sent to MWave for exchange. She told me that Sony had a policy where any defective product purchased had to be sent back to SONY, not MWave. Well, I slightly protested but accepted it and hung up. I then called Sony and they had me do the typical run through the convergence/moire/degauss diagnostic procedures. Well, it still didn't get rid of the discoloration so I asked what could be done. Sony told me that I could send the monitor in for repair and they would take a look at it, fix it, and send it back. But, I would have to pay shipping to send it in the first time. I obviously didn't want to do this because I had JUST shelled out for it, so I didn't feel that I should have to bite the shipping charges. Sony also told me that they did not have a policy that says any defective products have to be sent to them. Hmm, interesting. They suggested that I call MWave back and try to take further action. So I did.

This time I asked to speak with a supervisor. I told her that I had called once before and had also called Sony and they denied having the policy that MWave claimed they did. She said that MWave absolutely could NOT accept this monitor as a return, and that ALL Sony items that were defective had to be sent to Sony. I told her that I had read about MWave at the message board I frequent and that they came highly recommended, and that's why I decided to purchase from them. I told her that customer service was very important and that I thought she should make an exception in this circumstance. I told her she could call Sony and ask them about that policy, and they would confirm that it wasn't true. She said "Well, it may not be a Sony policy, but we have vendors that we get our merchandise from and it is their policy." Sony said I should tell her that MWave should stand by their products, since buying from them was like buying from Wal-Mart. When you buy an electric razor from Wal-Mart or Target and it doesn't work, do you call Remington and have it replaced? NO, you take it back to Wal-Mart or Target. Sony said the place of purchase is supposed to stand behind their products for the 30 or 90 days that they should allow. The girl at MWave basically told me that their hands were washed of the matter and that I needed to call Sony. I was getting pissed at this point.

So I called Sony again and told them what happened with MWave. They found it outrageous that MWave was giving me the runaround, and were very sympathetic to my situation. They suggested that I call MWave back and give them everything I've got. They said to threaten them with the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General, and the Postmaster of CA for mail fraud. The guy said he had done that in the past and it had worked wonders. Companies tend to take action when they risk losing their right to ship stuff. ; ) Well, I told him that I was a very good-natured guy and was bad at threatening people, so I wanted that to be a last resort. So he suggested calling my credit card company and telling them that I was unsatisfied with the product and that I wanted to return it. I remember reading on a couple of my credit cards that there is something like this available...supposedly there is a customer protection clause that allows you to be defended up to a certain dollar amount per year against any unsatisfactory merchants. I told him that I had used my debit check card and he said that ANY card with a Mastercard or Visa logo should be able to take action and credit my account or take further action against the merchant. He said that I should then call MWave and tell them that I had called my credit card company and wanted packing materials immediately in order for me to ship the product back to them. He said to tell MWave that I did NOT want the product because I was unsatisfied, and to tell them what all I had been through.

So I called my bank and told them what had happened, and she said since it was a debit card, no action could really be taken on their part. She said a debit card was basically like using cash, and unless MWave was willing to do something for me, I would be out of luck. She said that it would be entirely up to MWave whether or not to credit my account or send me a new monitor. Needless to say, she said to call them and deal with it at the source.

Well, this I did, and MWave still would not budge. No matter who I talked to, they all claimed that they could not, under any circumstances, accept any Sony monitors for exchange. I should have threatened them with all that BBB stuff but I am a bit of a poos when it comes to that stuff so I just hung up, with the intent of never dealing with MWave again. Not because of that specific "policy," but rather their unwillingness to help me despite what I had been through, and their general disregard for how much I was satisfied.

So I called Sony one last time and explained what all I had been through. I asked them if they could call MWave for me and tell the customer service manager that such a policy did not exist, and tell them what I had been through, and tell them that they needed to accept my monitor for exchange. I was put on hold while he asked, and he came back saying that I would have to deal with MWave myself. Fair enough, I can't expect them to do my bullying for me. But it would have been nice. It's just that I feel like a very tiny person up against a huge nasty online vendor (MWave) and a gargantuan business (Sony), and I considered Sony as my big brother who would help me out. Well, the guys I spoke with at Sony were very nice and tried to help all they could. They finally said that if I could not get anything out of MWave or my credit card company, he would connect me to the shipping guys and write a memo explaining what I had been through and suggesting that they give me free shipping if I wanted to send the monitor in for service. When shipping finally took my call, they told me that unfortunately they could not pay for me to ship the monitor to them. I reminded him of what all I had gone through to get help but he said that they could not change company policy

for one person, or they would have to do it for all. I asked him not to CHANGE company policy, but to make one exception in an extreme circumstance. Still no go. I was disheartened but not pissed. I was, and am, pissed at MWave. At least Sony was very courteous and TRIED to help. That's a lot more than I can say for MWave and their practice of d!cking me over.

End of story: I think I am keeping the monitor. It would only be about $20 to ship it to Sony, but the more I am at my computer the less I notice the discoloration. I am trying to look for it right now, on a perfect white Word background, and I fail to se it. Maybe, hopefully, it will go away in time, or at best I will get used to it. I am going to accept it for now...it could be a lot worse. Most people can't notice it at all; my wife had to look very hard on a white background to finally admit she barely saw it. I know a lot of you may think I'm an idiot for making such a big deal out of it if I am not going to even send it in to Sony. The thing is, I can barely notice it, and sometimes don't. But like I said, when I shell out over half a grand for a product I want it to be perfect. If it is not, I expect the merchant to do something for me, which MWave clearly didn't. Perhaps the thing that MOST irritates me is that the girl that took my order at MWave told me that I COULD exchange the monitor, that something would be done if something was wrong. Then when I tried to do just that, any and all help was denied to me.

I do not want pity. I don't want you to say "Poor Zero, we're so sorry." I just want people to be aware of how great Sony products and especially support are. And to never buy anything Sony brand from MWave (I personally will not be dealing with MWave at all in the future, but I know that won't change most of your opinions). To all the guys who say you've spend thousands of dollars at MWave, well, either you never bought Sony stuff or you never had to return it to MWave. Or maybe I'm the only one who has gotten screwed in the @ss by MWave in the entirety of their online presence. Heh, that's my luck, but doubtful.

And as a note on the side, I have a very hard time seeing these so-called "annoying" aperture grille wires. I thought they would be very annoying and prominent on a white background, but as I said I am currently typing in Word and I can barely barely barely detect them. I guess different people have different tolerances. But anyone who says these things are very noticable and distracting must be in the pickiest crowd on the face of this planet. Or maybe they are just less noticable on Sony monitors. Come to think of it, I DID notice them a lot more on the KDS Trinitron that I viewed. They seemed to stand out even on darker backgrounds.

Thanks to all the guys at Sony for being EXTREMELY courteous and helpful. And MWave, **** you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just want to clear something up before I get any posts telling me I should have bought the monitor locally:

I DID check around. Where I live there is no CompUSA, no OfficeMax, no Office Depot, no Staples, no Best Buy, and no Circuit City. There are a few local computer shops in town but they do not carry Sony monitors.

I made THREE attempts at going out of town to find a monitor. First trip was to Christiansburg, VA. No luck. They only had an OfficeMax which only carried ProView monitors. Second trip was to Roanoke, VA. They had a Circuit City, which carried the E400, not the G400. They couldn't even order me the G400. So then I looked in Best Buy and they had Viewsonic and Samsung and KDS but no Sony. Then it was after 9:00pm so everything closed and I headed back home. Third attempt was to a Sam's Club but they only carried CTX and KDS.

So, as you can see, I tried to get the monitor myself, but nobody carried it. I gave this a lot of forethought and knew it would be better to get it locally, if possible. Unfortunately when you live in the hills, you have to order all your stuff online because it just isn't available anywhere within driving distance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah.... ya know there are alot of decaffienated brands on the market that taste just as good as the original.

J

------------------

JOIN THE "AMY FOR PRESIDENT" CAMPAIGN. OUR PLATFORM:

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

PIII @ 1.08GHZ

SuperMicro PIIISCD I820 Mobo

192MB Crucial PC100

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata66

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata100

Generic DVD 4X

Creative 8x4x32x Burner

GeForce256 32mb DDR (orig)

3Com 905B-TX Lan

Netgear RT314 Gateway/Router

Philips Acoustic Edge

425w Power Supply

Triple Boot Me/2K/Whistler Build 2416

Klipsch Pro-Media 4.1's

umm... a floppy.

thats it, for now

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Iam.. SAME EXACT FREAKING THING WITH ME.. Not kidding.. Distorted and discolored..

I am taking mine to a service center in Novi, MI over summer to get it fixed

The reason why MWave is giving you hell over this is because they are not an authorized dealer of Sony.. so they can't deal with bad parts

I was getting very frustrated over the phone, being sent back and forth.. having each place say the other should fix/replace. I just decided to get it fixed and stop worrying about it . Chances are that Sony will either give us a new monitor or replave the tube which will be like a new monitor so I am not worried.

Anyhoo.. I do appreciate the help Sony Tech and I understand policy is policy.. At least they will fix it for free..

Good luck.. and drop me a line when you get it fixed.. I still have a few months to wait till I drop mine off.

Last time I mentioned I needed to get my Sony fixed.. the thread went into the opinion war over Viewsonic.. Hope this won't happen again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paragon, thanks for the reply. Did you buy yours at MWave as well?

I'll let you know if/when I get it fixed. Even if this thing doesn't go away after I break-in the monitor, it doesn't change the fact that MWave did not go even an inch towards satisfying me. And that's a bad thing for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well trust me Zero, i know how you feel.! but mine i think is even worse morally. I was diagnosed with epilepsy this summer (i am 16) and my doctor wanted me to take really good notes on my condition cuase i had been hospitalized from an over dose of valium... not my fault, my old doctors! i decided that a digital notbook thing would be the best thing cause i could email her updates and not worry aabout losing papers. i decided on the cybioko cause it was cheap, did the job, and would be inconspicuous to my peers. http://www.cybiko.com/ well i registered it got my email and started using it everyday. it really helped me out and i wanted to let everyone know. lucky me... sarcasm... that cybiko would have an essay contest on how you use your cybiko, the winner would get a new cybiko and an mp3 player...well, you would get enough cybucks for that. well i got grand prize smile.gif very ahppy! a few days later i noticed taht they credit had not moved to my account, not any of it. i got 300 for buying one, 100 for registereing and 1500 for the contest. i called them and they quickly fixed that, come on, i was their poster child! well i ordered my new cybiko, neoprene carrying case, and mp3 player a few days later and waited teh 6 weeks to recieve it.... 2 months go by and still no cybiko. i start emailing them and asking where my cybiko is... then start calling... they said that my cybiko the cybiko that i registered and bought was not really mine, see this guy from montana named peter had it. see somehow this guy has gotton my serial number and stole my identity! i even proved that that cybiko was mine with my username password and even scanned the back of the cybiko with the serial number. they said that iw as sol and hung up, i called 5 more time and gave up.

well that is what heppened to me... i pour out my health troubles to the ppl and they screw me!

i know how yall feel

-justin

------------------

-justin

http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I live just a few miles from MultiWave in Southern CA and have ordered from them online and picked up via their "will-call" desk....not a pleasant experience ("ummm....what was your order number???....duh....I can't find it....hang on a sec while I find somebody that knows how to count on their fingers..."). The next time I order, I will simply have them ship it to my work address (even if I do live just a few miles away). Anyways, I could gather a bunch of goons together and drive over and ruffle up some feathers over there on your behalf... biggrin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

nothin personal zero, just bustin you're chops dude.

J

------------------

JOIN THE "AMY FOR PRESIDENT" CAMPAIGN. OUR PLATFORM:

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

PIII @ 1.08GHZ

SuperMicro PIIISCD I820 Mobo

192MB Crucial PC100

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata66

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata100

Generic DVD 4X

Creative 8x4x32x Burner

GeForce256 32mb DDR (orig)

3Com 905B-TX Lan

Netgear RT314 Gateway/Router

Philips Acoustic Edge

425w Power Supply

Triple Boot Me/2K/Whistler Build 2416

Klipsch Pro-Media 4.1's

umm... a floppy.

thats it, for now

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

Originally posted by justin_tx_16:

Well trust me Zero, i know how you feel.! but mine i think is even worse morally. I was diagnosed with epilepsy this summer (i am 16) ...


Damn.. Sorry to hear that. Makes me stop and think. Hope all goes well for you.

~Paragon~

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Monitor problem:

I have seen fax machines cause the discoloration problems mentioned above. For some reason, the proximity of the fax machine is bad for the display. At work, a fax machine four feet away from a monitor caused such a discoloration on the lower left corner of a computer monitor.

Maybe you guys have some kind of machine nearby that's causing this kind of interference. Good luck.

------------------

May the bridges we burn light our way....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

Originally posted by justin_tx_16:

Well trust me Zero, i know how you feel.! but mine i think is even worse morally. I was diagnosed with epilepsy this summer (i am 16)...

Yeah, I'm really sorry to hear that. It shows how we take things for granted all the time.

*zen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good news, i used you advice to threaten with the post amster general and the BBB about my Cybiko and guess what... it is just short of in the mail! now if only i could get Proview on the line.... http://fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/id52.htm

they are worst than MWAVE cause you can not even get in touch with Porview. they suck majorly, if anyone and i mean anyone could help me, besiades giving me their 1800number, on that for 6 hours once, please email me at justin_tx_16@yahoo.com i am seriously mad at them! thanks, you ppl have solved more problems than anychat room. andi have been to A LOT of chat rooms looking for help!

------------------

-justin

http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...