Let me clarify. The unit looks great, and works great…when it works. The problem is their Sony Service Center if something goes wrong. And since their is only one service center in the US, you are stuck with it.

Over a month ago, my hardrive failed on my Tivo. Ok, not the biggest of deals. I called Sony, paid and shipped the unit to them.

Here is what I experienced.

1. When I called to verify they received it, the lady asked me for my tracking number. When I gave it to her she said they received it. I asked, “Did you just look on the UPS website, or did you “verify” that. She said she just went to UPS.com. She has no internal way to tell if they have it.
2. I get a notice in the mail after 25 days saying “Please call us to pay.”. But since I already paid, I ignored it. Turns out when I finally called a week later to figure out where my Tivo was, they never showed I paid! Well techincally they did, but the lady had never “approved” my payment. What the HELL does that mean? I used a fricken American Express card! Keep in mind it took almost one hour to figure this out.
3. I called again just now to verify they shipped it. When I asked for the tracking number so I could track it, the lady said, “Do you have the tracking number you shipped already?” This confused the hell out of me. Why did she ask me that? What does the tracking number I had when I shipped it to them have ANYTHING do to with this? When I clarified this 3 TIMES, she had no way (surprise, surprise) of giving me the tracking of the shipment, but still wanted to know if I wanted the original tracking number from when I sent it to them. At this point I was freaking out as I could not for the life of me understand what this had to do with ANYTHING other than the fact they were both tracking numbers. And I swear, this person did not understand. When I told her that that is of no use and is like asking me “what did I have for breakfast” – that it means absolutely nothing, she started to get mad.

I must say, that I called three seperate times, and got three different complete morons that put me on hold for 3 – 15 minutes at a time each. Either Sony’s internal systems are so completely messed up, or they are hiring from skid row — or both I don’t know, but stay away from that place. It is the worst service I have every come across.

Here is their information:

SONY SERVICE CENTER
1501 Grundy Lane
Bristol, PA 19007
800-282-2848
sonysvcbristol@am.sony.com

I have a Lifetime subscription with my Tivo and I think I am going to sell it on eBay shortly. The brand Sony hasn’t meant the same it used to mean ten years ago for awhile now with me, and I am not willing to sit around now and also let them treat me like crap.