Omnitech Support Repair didn't work, company refuses to refund as promised Internet

First of all, wed like to thank Ms. Ashley, for taking the time to add the kind words with respect to the professionalism and courtesy of our agents.  To be clear, however, she wasnt denied a refund; we simply asked to have more time to tackle her issue, or, at the very least , to confirm that the issue had reoccurred, or was hardware-related. Thats a pretty normal request after having performed work on her behalf. Often, when an issue is software or registry related, step-by-step solutions need to be tried.  This often results in the need to reboot the system and the customer come back in to us on chats.  In fact, when she confirmed that her computer seemed okay after we worked on it, we told her to be sure to contact us again, if the problem, came up again.

Below is her issue resolution confirmation:

8:24 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Ashley, I understand that the issue is resolved now; is that correct?
8:24 AM Ashley: Hopefully. All the restarts seemed to go very smoothly
8:25 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Okay, Ashley.
8:25 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Ashley, you came to us with the issue that the computer needs to be restarted several times to boot to the Windows.
8:25 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Now you have checked and confirmed that the issue is resolved.
8:25 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Can I take this as the confirmation that the issue is resolved?
8:26 AM Ashley: Yes. If the problem begins again in the next few days, can I follow up?
8:27 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Thanks for the confirmation.
8:27 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: As I have performed all the troubleshooting steps for the issue, the issue should not reappear again.
8:27 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Please get back to us if the issue persists within 15 days.
8:27 AM Ashley: Wonderful. Thank you!
8:27 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: You are welcome.
8:28 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: You are welcome.
8:28 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: It has been pleasure assisting you today.
8:28 AM Sony Support- Tech 16: Good Bye and Thank you for contacting Sony Online support.
8:29 AM Ashley: Have a good night
 

With a decade of experience, we have found that the vast majority of computer issues, especially with high-quality systems like Sony builds, are NOT hardware related. A virus, for example, which is a very common ailment, is certainly not the result of a hardware failure, instead it is the result of malicious software causing the hardware to run improperly.  So, the comment another individual added to the blog that remote access is only a 50:50 shot, is simply not correct.  Remote access is the intelligent way to begin to resolve an issue if the computer can boot up and connect to the Internet.  Remote access is incredibly convenient, as the computer does not have to be taken to a repair center and it is economical as well. An individual whose computer can boot up and connect to the Internet would be profoundly foolish to automatically take their computer to physical support location, without investigating whether remote access could help resolve the issue.  Otherwise, its like throwing good money away.
 

On May 04, 2012 this customer sent us an email asking for a refund again. Upon reading her email, we promptly refunded the full amount of $79.99, in spite of having done work on her behalf. The transaction details of the refund initiated are given below;

Transaction Approved:
----------------------------

Auth Code: 323386481
Ref #: 323376458

Amount: $79.99 USD

On May 07, 2012 we mailed the refund transaction details to the customer. We tried to call her to let her know about the refund, but we could not reach her. We want our customers to be 100% satisfied with our work and we will bend over backwards to make that happen.  Thats, in part, why we have earned and maintained an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

I finally decided to contact Sony with my Omnitech issue (as I got the service through a link on their site), and got a response almost immediately. They asked me to send my receipt and apologized for the issue, and about a week and a half after sending them my receipt, I've just received a notice that the full amount is being refunded. 

I understand that any company has to protect their profits and that Omnitech can't just refund any and every transaction with no proof or questioning. I do still object to the fact that they say you can be refunded if the issue is not resolved, but do not say at what point they consider that rescinded. With computers you often don't know if a repair has been successful immediately. Especially in cases like mine, where the problem comes up upon the computer crashing. 

I'm not sure if the refund was given to me from Sony or Omnitech, or how any of it worked. It would be a shame if the money came from the company that didn't get paid to begin with. However, I'm getting my money back and I'll be hopefully seeing a local technician soon. Thank you, Sony, for taking care of it. 

Honestly I know I should have been wary, especially after being told it was likely hardware. Generally speaking I always have someone reliable look at my laptop. This time I was so worried about it that when I was told (by a company endorsed by Microsoft and Sony, no less!) that it was fixable, I hopefully believed it could be true. 

This experience has guaranteed that I will use a well-reviewed, physically local technician in the future - one that is willing to stand by their refund guarantee should a problem come back within an unfeasible amount of time (because let's face it - it doesn't matter one bit if someone says "Oh, you fixed it up lovely!" If the problem shows itself to not be gone within less than 12 hours, obviously the repair was a failure). It has also guaranteed that I will learn more about the hardware side about my computer so that I can know a little better whether or not I should accept someone's solution. 

Thank you for your words of advice. 

similar issue with Omnitech support on this website. Aother similar report was about letting them fix the computer. Then the problem got worse, and they offered even more expensive service ($199 or so) to have their tech look at it...

It is not possible to FIX the root cause of a broken computer via the Internet for most cases. In other words, you would have only 50:50 chance of getting it fixed, and most cases they are just simple misused or misunderstood by the user.

I would recommend to find someone who really know about computer to look at your computer if it has a problem. Your friends may be able to help as long as their own computers and have knowledge in computer hardware/software. If my friends ask me to fix their computer, I have no problem to take a look and try to troubleshoot for them.

I am sorry to hear about their incompetent work. Hope you get it fixed soon.

PS: There are several causes when a computer does not want to boot up in your case. 1) Certain sectors which contain important info for booting in your hard drive has gone bad (hardware), 2) Your whole hard drive is dieing (hardware), 3)Your mother board is dieing (hardware), 4) Certain OS configuration files are corrupted (software), 5) Viruses (software). Normally, fixing via the Internet could solve only #4 and would not be able to find out the cause of #1~#3. Also, it may or may not be able to fix #5.

I would like to add that though I am not at all happy that the refund policy was not properly dealt with, it should be mentioned that the staff I spoke to were not rude or disrespectful, and that they did offer to have an employee look at the computer again to see if they could repair it on a second try. Because I was frustrated with the issue at hand and I feel very sure my issue is a hardware one after talking to some other people, I voluntarily turned this offer down.