Tales Of A Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

24 Replies

Part 1: Tales of a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 (this post)

Part 2:  Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1… The Plot Thickens

Part 3: Conclusion to My Sony Ericsson XPERIA Repair Woes

As some of you may (or may not) know, I recently purchased a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, their top-of-the-line phone running Windows Mobile version 6.1 Professional. This phone is sold with two versions the X1a for sale within North America and the X1i for sale within the rest of the world. As it is much cheaper to purchase an X1i within the United States if bought through a third party on eBay (for example), there is nearly a $500 price difference. I decided to buy the X1i for that reason as I wan’t ready to spend $1000 on a cellphone (I spent less on my laptop) and therefore bought the X1i from eBay for $600 (about) United States Dollars. This purchase was completed nearly two months ago.

For unimportant reasons, the X1 spent most of those two months in it’s box unopened. I only got around to opening the box of the X1 three weeks ago. In the beginning it seemed like a flawless handset but within the first 24 hours problems began to appear. First the volume down button stopped working. Then multiple buttons on the slide-out keyboard began to malfunction until finally at least 8 of them stopped responding at all. After a call with a Sony Ericsson XPERIA Support Technician, I was told that I should hard-reset the phone. An action that totally wipes all data from the device and see if that would bring the keys functionality back. However it didn’t. All it did was manage to irritate me more because now I had no data on the device (I had backups that were recent but would have to be restored) and the keys still didn’t work. The Sony Ericsson representative was shocked that this hadn’t fixed my problem.

The standard protocol for the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 (being Sony Ericsson’s Top of The Line Business Phone) is that any problems with the device, a new one will be shipped out and should be received within 48 hours. As the Sony Ericsson representative was quick to inform me, that only applies if you have a support card. And the sad part is, the seller on eBay informs me that he wasn’t sent any support cards from Sony Ericsson. After refusing to send me out a temporary replacement, another hour is spent on the phone while the representative sets up an RMA. To add insult to this injury, he then informs me that the repair/replace process can take anywhere from 7-14 days after the device is received. Additionally, he tells me that I will need to pay to ship the item to their repair center.

All this because I don’t have a support card?

Doesn’t sound very fair, does it? Had I had a support card, the representative was quick to inform me, they would have immediately sent out a new phone and covered shipping both ways. I don’t see why I should be treated any differently than a customer with a support card. I paid the same ammount of money as anyone who bought the phone with a support card. I have a full warranty as well! Why should I be treated any differently because I don’t have a slip of paper that states SUPPORT CARD on it?

So I paid my shipping charges, and sent my XPERIA X1 on it’s way to Sony Ericsson’s Product Repair Center. About 5 days after I shipped it to them, I got a phone call from another one of their representatives who wished to give me a status update. First, he tells me that my XPERIA X1 is not repairable. He then offers me a choice to accept a brand new XPERIA X1a or get my broken XPERIA X1i back. After comparing the two, I decided I would accept the XPERIA X1a. The representative then informed me that I should receive my new XPERIA X1a by next Wednesday (today). He also informed me that he would be

unable to give [me] a support card, as we [Sony Ericsson Support] don’t carry them in stock.

Effectively, that means that if there are any more problems with the new device, I will have to pay shipping and then wait a long time again. For someone who has spent almost $600 buying one of these new, that doesn’t seem fair at all. It’s also not something I expect from Sony Ericsson, a company whose support department has been exceptional in all my dealings with them before. Seems that they too, are no longer able to provide the exceptional support that they have provided in the past.

Yesterday, I decided to check with Sony Ericsson, to see if they could provide me with a tracking number so that I could verify when my new X1a would be arriving. The representative I spoke with said that,

There is no change in the account status. As far as I can tell, your X1a hasn’t even been shipped yet.

Obviously this sounds a little fishy, as I had been told it would be shipped last friday, four business days ago. The representative then told me, it would be best if I waited till tomorrow (today) and then called back for a status update. As it’s allready 5:30 PM on Wednesday (past UPS delivary time), I think I will go ahead and call them now and see what they have to say.

Overall, I am quite disappointed with the XPERIA X1 so far and even more disappointed with the level of support I have received from Sony Ericsson. They used to be one of the best companies in the industry, however at this point, I’m not sure if I will be buying another device from them. I’m that badly shaken up and dissapointed.

I’ll try to update this with more information as soon as I have it.

You can view part two of this post here

24 thoughts on “Tales Of A Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1”

  1. Michaela Conley

    I’m so disappointed to hear of your experience with Sony Ericsson. I too depend on fairly high-end smart phones to help me do business. I had considered the XPERIA X1, but hadn’t yet taken he leap. Guess I’ll continue my search because this kind of run around is much too costly.

    Reply ↓
  2. Rohan Kapoor Post author

    Hi Michaela,

    Thanks for your kind comments. As I mentioned earlier, I am quite disappointed with Sony Ericsson’s support these days. A few years ago, they were THE company to buy a smartphone from. Now? I think I would rather buy a blackberry or perhaps an iPhone. Either of those is starting to look like a better buy than anything that Sony Ericsson has to offer. They may make nice looking, expensive phones, but when the phone breaks and the performance is less than stellar… you expect the support to help you. When the support no longer operates with the quality you expect, the company is one that people no longer do business with.

    At this point, Sony Ericsson will have to do a lot to make up for this injustice towards me as an XPERIA Owner, or I may end up taking my business somewhere else!

    Reply ↓

  3. Pingback: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1… The Plot Thickens | Rohan Kapoor

  4. Pingback: Tales Of A Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 | Rohan Kapoor

  5. van

    i have problem with my x1 too. all the buttons that below the screen are not working, except the one and only “X panel” button.
    Now, here is my question. how do you get them to exchange a new phone? as far as i know if the phone doesn’t come with US warranty. They won’t exchage it for you. Can you tell me how you do it?

    Reply ↓
  6. Rohan Kapoor Post author

    My phone had a full warranty. You can request them by calling their XPERIA Support Phone Number and they will take a look at some numbers from your phone and battery. They decide based on those numbers lookup in their database.

    Good Luck!

    Reply ↓
  7. van

    i have already called them. they asked me to send in the phone for repair. do i have warranty on the phone or not, i really don’t know as they didn’t tell me about it. if they can’t repair it i hope they can replace a new one for me.

    have you receive your replacement yet? i really like this phone, hope they can replace or repair it for me.

    Reply ↓
  8. Ghaith

    Now I’m thinking The XPERIA made my life harder
    a crap full of shit phone
    and I feel so bad about the deicion that I took
    with an 800$ deal I could buy that time an iphone and save some money
    **** My Life & **** Microsoft & **** SonyEricsson

    Post edited to remove langauge.

    Reply ↓
  9. Rohan Kapoor Post author

    @Van: If they asked you to send the phone in for repair, I would guess that you do still have a warranty. If they’ve given you an RMA number you can call them and check (giving them the RMA number) what the cost to do the repair will be. If the cost is $0, then you are under warranty. If you are under warranty, and they can’t repair the phone, they will most likely replace it with an X1a after calling you and checking if that is what you want. At least, that’s what happened with me. Good luck!

    Reply ↓
  10. Rohan Kapoor Post author

    @Ghaith: Please note that your excessive language wasn’t needed nor was it appreciated. Please refrain from using it on this site in the future. Thanks.

    I wouldn’t say that the XPERIA X1 made my life harder. In fact when it works it is a very nice device, however many of us seem to have been shipped out defective ones. Maybe a problem in a certain batch of X1’s made. Who knows? I can understand why you are second-guessing your decision to buy a $800 phone over the $200 iPhone. I also was having the same thoughts. Good Luck with your X1!

    Reply ↓
  12. van

    rohan, did you get your x1 from ebay? i got mine from ebay. i guess it’s still under warranty as i bought it on dec 2008. the customer representative did not ask me to send in the receipt of the phone. so i hope my phone will still have warranty. sometimes they don’t repair or replace it when the phone bought from oversea.

    Reply ↓
    1. Rohan Kapoor Post author

      Hey Van! I did get my X1 from eBay. If they didn’t ask for the receipt of your phone, I would assume that it is still under warranty. Sometimes yes they don’t repair or replace phones from out of the country. However, I believe because this is the X1, you will most likely be able to get it fixed or replaced from them for free. At least I hope so!

      Good luck!

      Reply ↓
  13. peter

    I think that i deleted something in file explorer that had to do with my panels. Now every time i press the panel button my screen just shows up as a black screen. Does someone know how i can get my panels to show up again?

    Reply ↓
    1. Rohan Kapoor Post author

      Hi Peter,

      While this is irrelevant to the topic of this posts, I’ll be happy to answer that question. Did you delete the panels or the panel manager?. If panels, see http://www.xperiax1.net/forum/xperia-x1/2338-sony-ericsson-panel-cab-files.html

      If panel manager, you are gonna need to do a hard reset:

      1. turn off the phone
      2. Hold both right and left buttons (the ones right under the screen, dont know the name)
      3. press power button, while still holding the others

      Note: This deletes everything on your phone and returns to factory settings. Moral of story: Be careful next time!

      Reply ↓

  15. Pingback: Conclusion to My Sony Ericsson XPERIA Repair Woes | Rohan Kapoor

  17. Xperia X1

    I never thought this could happen to you. Honestly I love Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and I don't have any problem as far as I bought it. I feel sorry and some disappoint about what happened, I thought they were just strict but I think something is not right. Anyway, the damage has been done I just hope Sony Ericsson will do the appropriate way of managing their loyal customer.

    Reply ↓
    1. Rohan Kapoor

      Thanks for your concern! Sony Ericsson did eventually solve the problem (see the other two parts of the story) but the problem has once again appeared! And this time, they refuse to do anything about it.

      Reply ↓
  19. madeboost

    It's nice to see good write up like this at least once in a while ??

    I am so glad you took out some time away and spent time with your son, which is so important. We did the same, though were also busy working behind the scenes, doing up the ABC forum and the blog too, and would be starting off with a bang from tomorrow now.

    I wish I had time to watch movies! But as my kids do, and we often wonder how safe they really are – the sites – we don’t allow them to download from a lot of them. I guess the ones you mentioned are all safe, so I would pass it on to them for sure.

    Thanks for sharing it with us. Have a nice weekend ??. Appreciated at Waptrick
    Check this out >>> FZ Movies
    You Might Like Free Movies

    https://www.makeoverarena.com/zamob-games-music-v… https://tecreals.com/my-eh-trip/

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *