I’d like to have posted this sooner but it’s been a pretty busy couple of days. This is the conclusion to Tales of a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. This also is part three of the three part series.
Part 1: Tales of a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
Part 2: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1… The Plot Thickens
Part 3: Conclusion to My Sony Ericsson XPERIA Repair Woes (this post)
Early last week, I received a phone call from a senior member of Sony Ericsson’s Social Media Department named Jeff. This had been his second attempt to contact me but I had unable to receive to his call.
I’d like to begin with saying that I’ve really appreciated that Jeff gave me a call. It says a lot about a company if they are spending money working on their image as seen by consumers and trying to help those who have had bad experiences. It seems Sony Ericsson as a company hasn’t declined as badly as I had originally thought. It seems that they may have just a few service representatives that may have lacked the style and enthusiam that normally accompanies any experience with Sony Ericsson. I’ve quite happy to report that Jeff did have that enthusiasm and from the hour that we spent discussing, it would be safe to say that Sony Ericsson as a company still cares about their consumers, even through this economic decline.
Jeff told me that he had seen my previous two blog posts regarding my issues with the XPERIA X1. He was quite happy to explain the Sony Ericsson’s point of view regarding the problems I reported. To his and Sony Ericsson’s credit, he accepted that they had made several mistakes throughout my support experience and he was very apolegetic about it, though he personally hadn’t done anything to contribute to it. His call has gone a long way towards making me feel good about this Sony Ericcson experience, and now I probably would consider staying with Sony Ericcsoon XPERIA as my smartphone provider of choice.
I began the conversation asking Jeff what the original problem was with the XPERIA X1 that I sent in for repair. He was quick to inform me that while he didn’t have all the information (those records have kept at the repair center) he did no that it wasn’t user error or anything that I did. It was in fact a problem with the hardware of the device.
Additionally, I had a large problem with the issues of the support card. Jeff was happy to clear that up for me. It seems that the other reviews were mistaken. Not all, XPERIA X1s are shipped out with the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Support Card. Especially the ones in Singapore. It depends on the ammount of support offered in the region. In Singapore, only basic support is offerred and as such the XPERIA X1’s sold there are not shipped out with a support card.
What’s even more interesting is that the support card doesn’t make a difference in problems such as mine. I would still have had to pay shipping & handling as the support card is irrelevant in these cases. Of course this means that the original representative that I spoke with was not properly trained and gave me incorrect information. You also can’t be mad at a company for a mistake that 1 employee could have accidently made.
My next issue was regarding the long time that it took for them to inform me the status of my X1 and to then ship it out. Jeff explained that the repair center that I had shipped my phone to didn’t have as many X1’s as they realized they needed. They just had to wait till they could more shipped out to them.
My final problem(s) with this support experience was for the long time it took Sony Ericcson Support staff to get me a UPS tracking number. It took them a week from my first call to provide me with this information and that wait wasn’t appreciated… At all. Jeff said he understood how I felt and then he accepted all responsibility for this error on behalf of Sony Ericsson. As he explained it to me, what essentially happened was that the repair center called Sony Ericsson telling them a replace was needed. Sony Ericsson then called me telling me a replace was needed should they go ahead? Sony Ericsson then called repair center telling them to go ahead and ship it the next day. The next day, the repair center should have called back and given Sony Ericsson a tracking number. However they did not and as such I was not given the needed information.
In conclusion, I’m still unhappy with some of the problems that happened during my XPERIA X1’s repair service and I’m still somewhat disappointed with Sony Ericsson for their mistakes in handling this case. However, Jeff’s phone call and resulting discussion has lessened the blow for me and it is likely that I would at least consider, if not buy, another smartphone from Sony Ericsson.
Stay tuned for my Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Review!