Sony Corporation of America Sony Electronics Sony Damages Flagship SCD-1, $5,000.00 SACD Player and has NO insurance to cover damage New York New York

June 10th, 2014

As of this date, I have emailed, called, sent certified letters, called some more, emailed some more, and what have I received from Sony Corporation of America, absolutely NOTHING!   No call, no emai, no nothing.  I was told my final offer was for me to replace my own SCD-1 player by buying my replacement from Sony Corporation and then sending was is left of my $5,000.00 SCD-1 back to Sony before I could even purchase my own replacement.  I asked Robert at Sony National Customer Relations, why do you want my player back, as you have already told me it's worth absolutely nothing to you, as you said it has no residual value at all.  It is obvious they would do nothing with the player but throw it away, however, it's the price I must pay to be able to purchase my replacement at a reduced cost.  Their offer for me to purchase my own replacement was only good for two weeks, they made that crystal clear.  

I have done everything a Sony customer could possible do to try and get their attention, but I'm dealing with a company that literally does not care what damage they do to a customer's equipment, and it must be mentioned, this was after I sent a letter with my repair that stated I had experienced damage with Sony repair in the past to PLEASE be careful with this $5,000.00 SACD player. 

When I viewed the following sites, I realized what kind of shape Sony Corporation is in, however, there is no reason to treat a customer as Sony as treated me, and my claim goes unresolved (7) months after my damage occured.  All efforts to reach Ms. Nicole Seligman, Mr. Kazuo Hirai or Mr. Michael Fasulo have gone totally and completely unanswered.

www.wired.com/2014/05/the-greatest-sony-televisions/

www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/technology/sony-tosell-pc-unit-amid-dwindling-sale.html

kotaku.com/5960411/how-sony-is-turning-into-a-ghost-in-japan-and-around-the-world

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/21/playstation-sony_n_4828617.html

As of this writing, May 22nd, 2014, my claim with Sony Corporation of America goes unresolved.  I send out emails to many people asking politely for someone to please help me resolve this dispute with no reply from anyone, not SonyListens.com, and approximately 30 other email addresses I have sent polite requests for assistance to.  

I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt but really, after sending at least 4 letters directly to the President of Sony Corporation of America (Ms. Nicole Seligman) at her home address on Park Avenue, with the last letter being Certified Mail and signed for on May 13th, 2014, I am beginning to loose hope in mankind, or womankind!   I want to qualify my mailing to Ms. Seligman's home address was a desperate measure and only done after not one or two but dozens and dozens of calls, emails and letters to Ms. Seligman at her formal office address in New York City, went totally unanswered by her.  I filed a comprehensive complaint with the New York BBB and they simply sent a letter to Sony "my complaint letter", Sony replys, says they offered me a deal, and tht is the end of that.  I filled another comprehensive complaint with Mr. Eric T. Schneiderman, the Attorney General in New York, and received the same treatment, again, my actual complaint letter, they sent a copy of the offer for me to buy my own replacement and that was the extent of the Attorney General's assistance.  I have forwarded dozens and dozens of emails asking for Mr. Michael Fasulo to please get involved in my dispute, with no answer to any email whatsoever. 

I have been told to take any legal action against Sony Corporation will be met with a brick wall of legal manuevering, and really, who can afford to bring legal action against an empire like Sony?   I welcome ANY suggestions from anyone that has anything they can tell me that might help me finally get Sony's attention.  I have been beyond nice, beyond polite, and get absolutely nothing in return, other than, send us your SCD-1 and we will let you BUY your own replacement SCD XA-5400ES!

My last communication with Sony in regard to my SCD-1 being replaced was they would give me a gift certificate to use on their Sony web site, where everything is list price!  OR  they would let me purchase an SCD XA-5400 ES at cost from them, and send my SCD-1 back to them.  My question to Robert and Jacquline Varner in their Immediate Response Center was, how is this taking care of me???  Why do I have to buy anything, as Sony was responsible for damaging my $5,000.00 SCD-1, why do I have to pay for a replacement at all?   They said my player is over 7 years old, it's worth nothing to them, and my response, BUT YOU DAMAGED IT!  Because my player is over 7 years old and Sony has chosen not to support it with service or parts anymore, certainly does not give Sony the right to drop heavy objects on the top of the player, and damage it on the sides in shipping, not packing the cord, batteries, or heavy CD spindle weight, where it damaged everything, place stickers on the paint that would not come off, and destroy my remote control!  Who is going to be responsible for that?? No answer other than it's over 7 years old and has no value to us, NO RESIDUAL VALUE at all.  

How much is a vintage MCIntosh MC 240 worth today, how about some Infinity IRS Reference Loudspeakers, or a great vintage Linn Sondek LP12 turntable or better yet a VPI HW-19, even an old 1970's Marantz 2245 reciever!

Obviously Sony realizes, just because something is over 7 years old, has NO meaning in regard to it's value, they simply do not want their poor handling of my very expensive SACD player to cost them any money, so their best offier is for me to pay for my own replacement, and I was told by Ms. Varner the ONE AND ONLY REASON that offer was given to me is because I dared to send a letter to Ms. Niclose Seligman's home address in New York City asking for her consideration, obviously a letter that went unanswered. Ms. Varner said that offer would never be made to anyone else, and that was the one and only reason the offer was made to me, which was no offer at all, I give them my SCD-1 and they SELL me a player at their cost??? Come ON!  So, my claim goes on unresolved, and so the letter to Japan will now start, hopefully someone might help me!

Wow, it's March 10th and I have spoken to the President's office, both of her associates, about my damaged SCD-1 player.  I have really never seen anything like this. The question remains, how can a company mishandle a piece of equipment like an SCD-1, originally a $5,000.00 SACD player and NOT be responsible for it's damage. 

Executives of Sony Corporation are very obscure, but I was able to obtain the extension of Nicole Seligman's office and have left many messages, faxed many faxes, emailed continually to her two ladies in her office.  Both of these ladies told me they were sending messages to Ms. Jacqueline Varner in the Immediate Response Center, also called National Customer Relations in Fort Myers, Florida.  I have called and left messages for Ms. Varner, sent emails, faxed letters, faxed more letters, faxed letters to the New York offices and I have received no response from Ms. Varner at all, however, I was told by Robert, who works in Ms. Varner's office, that she does not speak to Sony customers. 

Through all of this, I search for new and improved ways to just get to anyone who will assist me, and as of this writing, I have recieved nothing, but I'm not giving up!   I did read a very informative artical on the decline of the Sony Corportion and offer this link for anyone interested in the article.  When I was told Sony does not support their products past a (7) year window, it was an eye opening bit of information, as I have always purchased very high end products, usually ES products for Sony, obvioulsy with the uncertain future of Sony America, this is a risky prospect.  Here is this great artical, I hope you enjoy it.

kotaku.com/5960411/how-sony-is-turning-into-a-ghost-in-japan-and-around-the-world

Sounds like there's a reason Sony is in some financial difficulty.  The most common problems in laser based players are the spindle motors and/or the lasers.  I'm not sure why they thought an adjustment would fix it.  It's sometimes possible to extend the useful life of the laser by adjustments, but is not a recommended fix if a new assembly is available. I bought my two Sony BDP-CX7000ES players on a strong recommendation from Stereo Review.  They provide exceptional sound and video.  While familiarizing myself with them I couldn't select discs by number with the remote.  The number buttons had NO function for this.  My wife said I must be doing something wrong. I called Sony support and they told me it's not possible to select by disc number from the remote. They suggested I go to the unit and use the +100 button to get to the nearest number possible and then step through the numbers to the desired disc.  No software or firmware updates were planned.

With 400 discs, this is unacceptable. The main unit doesn't even have a keypad for selection, just a rotary control to turn until your selection is displayed.  If it weren't for the very good audio/video performance I would find it too annoying to use.

I hope you can find a way to salvage your player, but honestly don't know how.  Best luck to you.

Hi Ken:

You asked what was wrong with my player.  It would not load standard red book CDs and begin playing 60% of the time, and according to the Sony repair people here in Nashville, they suspected it was a simple adjustment or calibration, they did not think it was the laser assembly, but they did not want to work on the player, said it was very complicated, that it should go to Laredo Texas, and honestly I had no idea the facility had such a terrible track record, or I can assure you, I would have sent it to some professional that mods these players.  Once it arrived in Laredo, because it was over 7 years old, they would not work on it at all, but they must have played with it some, as a heavy object or objects were dropped on the top of it causing those deep dents, NOT SCRATCHES, DENTS, and I suspect it might have been the spindle weight.  Once the player arrived back home damaged so badly, I did open the drawer and sucked all the white debris out of it, had I used a blower, it would have pushed that stuff down deeper in the machine.  I really have no idea if I even got it all out, as all I could get to was what was all in the drawer, I'm sure some got down in the machine, had to, there was so much of it.  

You know, I thought my damage must have been a rare thing, but I was so wrong.  There are many reports of poor handling at the Laredo Texas repair facility.  I read one report that was a mirror image of mine, I absolutley could not believe what I was reading, and this customer's  damage happened back in 2008, while his SCD-1 was still under warranty.  I even sent this to Sony to review.  I will put the address here in this note, simply copy and paste this address into your browser and you will see, his complaint is not close to the same it's EXACTLY what happened to me, 100%.  Here is the address:

 Forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/received-my-scd1-yesterday-from-sony-service-center-damaged.138710/#post-3201861

If you know what part(s) are needed, try the internet for a new old stock part with a distributor or a good used part(s) on e-bay.  I wish you luck in getting it working again, if that's still your goal.  The white debris is basically pieces of styrofoam and is pretty harmless. Canned air can clean it out for you.  I too, take exceptional care of my equipment and would have NOT been happy with that kind of treatment.  I have two of Sony's 400 CD/DVR/Blu-Ray players @ $1800 each and hope I can fix them myself if necessary. I'm a retired, senior high end audio technician.  If somebody abused my many pieces of McIntosh equipment that way, I would likely be looking for retribution.  Glad it hasn't happened.  Come back on here and post any change in the status.

February 24th, 2014

When something so unbelievable happens, one would think, surely there is someone in the Sony Corporation who would look at this situation objectively and impartially, and do the right thing by me the customer.  Sony took a prize possession of mine, a $5,000.00 SACD player, mishandled it, damaged it, left white debris all in the drawer and electronics, dented the top, and packed it in a box just slightly larger than the player and sent it back to me with expandable foam packed around it, where it really got damaged by parts flying in all directions.  

So, here is where my story really gains traction!  If you have not delt with Sony Corporation of America, you probably do not know to reach about standard customer service is a challenge.  Well, I made it all the way to National Customer Relations, offices in Florida, however, as I previously said, they were not helpful at all, Sony has no insurance to pay for anything they damage, or at least they did not offer to pay for anything.

If you type in Sony Leadership team, their global executives are shown.  As National Customer Relations has not helped resolve my badly damaged SCD-1, I called Sony headquarters in New York City, I found the extension to the President of Sony Corporation of America and called her office personally.  I spoke to her office associate Robin and I asked for Robin's email address where I could forward all the many damage pictures and the many letters I have written to customer service, the Laredo Repair facility, National Customer Relations in Florida.  I sent three emails to Robin, and spoken to the President's office twice, something very few customers ever do. It has now been three days and I have called twice to verify all information was received and what response have I gotten when contacting the President of Sony Corporation's office, NOTHING, NO CALL, NO EMAIL, NOTHING!

I certainly want to give the President of Sony Corporation the benefit of the doubt, but after three days, it would seem appropiate for her assistant Robin to either call me or email me and say, yes, we have your emails and your fax sent to us a few days ago and the President will be looking at your information, but as I said, NO RESPONSE AT ALL FROM ANYONE IN THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF SONY CORPORATION OF AMERICA.  

I want to emphasize, if we were talking about a $300.00 DVD player or Play Station, I would not even waste my time, but this is an SCD-1, $5,000.00 SACD player we are talking about here, Sony has never made a higher end product, a product they STOPPED supporting after 7 years.  What does it say about a company, when a customer that spent $5,000.00 for an SACD player goes to the trouble to reach out to the President of Sony Corporation of America, by emailing her and personally calling her private office concerning damage her company did, and she is not considerate enough to speak to me or even send me an email.  This situation truly speaks for itself.