EU users treated badly by Sony?

[mgillespie]

Sony have announced at CES, that the A1000 and A3000 units will be launched in the US, when they feel the software is ready.

Why did they launch the units in Europe, when by their own admitance, that the software is not ready for prime time? Do Sony care about their European customers? I don't think so. My support call on my NW-A3000, regarding the slew of problems with Connect, has fallen by the wayside, even though I have fully documented the problems I am having, and done all the requested diagnostics that Sony have requested.

Perhaps they have no solutions? Would be nice if they told me this, rather than hoping I give up contacting them.

If anyone from Sony is reading this, I would like to know how much they will be paying me, for beta testing their Connect software, ready for it's US launch???? This is how it feels like I have been treated.

[Guest Stuge]

So at last It`s now clear that`s why they were not releasing the new players in US ..But I`m not surprised by that at all .I Think the they have dented their Image in Europe by releasing the player with a premature software. This will really affect their future .

If anyone from Sony is reading this, I would like to know how much they will be paying me, for beta testing their Connect software, ready for it's US launch???? This is how it feels like I have been treated.

$30000

[Dinko]

It's another Sony public relations fiasco if it ever catches fire in the mass media:

"SONY USES EU, ASIA, CANADA FOR PRE-US MARKET TESTING"

From a marketing perspective it is an interesting strategy. They are willing to frustrate a certain portion of customers in the whole world, so they can test a product prior to launching in the largest and possibly most crucial market.

They are already aware of the CONNECT problems, and working to fix them. Obviously it is not just their internal people having trouble.

I complained to a person in marketing at Sony of Canada, and I am sure there are others around the world who complained directly to Sony, instead of posting on the message boards.

The problem being, that this risks affecting people's relationship with the company even further. Like you, mgillespie, I don't like being taken for a guinea pig without my consent. There are newspaper ads for human guinea pigs in laboratory testing. All of them offer to pay the testers. With Sony's new Walkmans, we are paying to have that privilge.

Even without releasing the product in the US, they are already affecting US opinion amongst those people who are interested in DAP gadgetry and who access the Internet. It's not the most widespread group perhaps, but it does represent a certain portion of the DAP-buying public. The instability of the CONNECT software (works for some, not for others) just gives people the image that Sony still can't get it right, so why bother when you can go to the competition?

[sh33p]

lol tbh i'm glad i got my nwa3000 when i did. my nzh10 is positively dying and i couldn't bear waiting for a replacement. i almost cried when i went to sonystyle and heard they were only taking preorders and that the units wouldn't be available for another few days.

it is unfortunate i've voluntarily returned my a3000 to have the cracks checked out though. the nzh10 has to be revived for one last, glorious stand.

[cybersony]

I think that the major reason for this behavior of Sony is the minor consumer protection in Europe.

In USA can 10 people complain Sony for a lot of $ ! This is in Europe not possibly.

European customer

[Spacecase]

If Connect was a vehicle then it would have been recalled by now to be repaired !!!

I always thought that it was against trading standards to sell something that is not fit for the purpose for which it is intended, in which case will Sony be offering refunds to it's customers ?

Regarding the release in the US and the issue of software not being ready, we could always hope that Sony are releasing a new version in the States and it's undergoing final testing............. or is that just wishful thinking?

[sh33p]

mm... no one's being harmed by connect, unless they're victims of an irate connect user, unlike cars which have the potential to kill if something is not right.

If they want the NWA's to make it in the US, they'd damn better well be undergoing some rigourous testing.

[willykyu]

Hum, do you remember the player's out in Japan too? It came out on Nov 19th. And we have exactely the same problems. So why US have all the attention??? I thought SONY wanted to have Japan back in their pocket...

[steve.ch]

hello together,

yes indeed i could also not work with the connect software, it was slow down also the other applications on my pc.

anyway, it has to be said the player works fine with the sonic.stage updated to version 3.3.

this is no excuse for sony, i know, but on the other side, lets accept the fact that their products such as th AW-3000 and also the nw-Hd5 are, in my opinion, very very good excellent product. they beat the so well known i-pods for good. wich leads me to another mistake sony made, i am living in switzerland, where A LOT of people uses portable music players. leading on the market are by far the different i-pods, even though the product is not as good as the sonys are. but apple had made a brillant marketing campaign to push their players, it was a very intense campain and they used a lot of cross-selling by working together with other products such as banks, fashion and others. on the other side here i did not see a singel advertisement for the new aw-3000. only for the relase of the nw-hd5 last year there was a short spanned very little advertisment to see. this is sad for sony because like i said their products are lot better than the i-pods.

anyway, this is of course no excuse for the software problems with the connect software, which also costed me a very long night of trying to make it work, which concluded in the using of the sonicstage 3.3, which for me is a good enough software.

this are my thoughts on this,

greetings steven

[sh33p]

yeah i've seen zero ads for the NWAs where i live too. that is curious. and there wasn't a specific ad for the nwh5 either. it was just sort of briefly included in this terrible sony ad that tried to advertise pretty much all of their products in one go; telephones, pda's, cameras, camcorders, the psp, etc.

weird.

[JustAnUnCoolCat]

Someone mentioned, in reply, in a topic relating to the Connect software (which seems to be the only real 'arrrgggh' factor to the new NW series decks), about 'fit for purpose'.

Sadly, here in the UK and also in many parts of the world, it's an absolute pain in the a** to go try to fight a claim over 'unfit for purpose' reasoning on ancillary software such as Connect.

Whilst i would ordinarily plead to the sane that honesty is the best policy, and not to go faking 'hardware fault' simply to offload the whole package back on the source/retailer, i can sympathise with the people who do invent an obscure hard-to-pin-down 'baffle the peeps at customer services' fault to help speed up the refund issue or exchange for something else.

I say that, because i have had to fight over 'dodgy software' issues before with manufacturers (when i worked in tech support for a retailer), and it came down to either a long-drawn out back-n-forth argument or simply handle each case on a personal judgement call.

I used to treat it as :

1) If the software supplied was essential to the proper loading/functioning of the player, then yes.. perfectly sane grounds to demand a refund/exchange as the essential software should be 100% stable for a non-techy end user's purposes, and if there had been no intermediate fix release, they got a guaranteed refund advisory sent to the boss from myself to resolve the prob.

2) If the software itself was not essential to proper non-techy end user operation, i'd suggest a functional alternative (of equal non-techy end user suitability) that was freely available (and also give full how-to instructions on how to use with the player in question) and see where it went from there (if they had made the claim early enough, since we were distance sellers, they had enough time to see if the alt method worked, and still be able to resolve one way or the other).

3) On the basis of 2), and the only other third-party product around that could do the job was gonna be at cost to the customer, i'd try to work out a deal where we could subsidise their purchase (so not a refund, but not a refusal either).

Needless to say, options 1 and 3 were never overly popular with the bosses and opt 2 was highly popular as a long as i didn't spend too long researching and producing the alt software how-to's. So in a way, i ended favouring doing what was right, and ferk the boss..

At the end of the day, sadly, unless the dodgy state of the software renders the product totally unusable and hence the hardware product is no more than a dumb pile of components (for average day to day use) without a stable example of the supplied software, it gets real complicated trying to argue 'not fit for purpose' in a legal sense.

Sometimes, ignorance can be blissful and sometimes, a small white lie is the only way to go, when you want out of the bad situation.

Thank god, some might say, that SS still allows the Connect Player supplied decks to be usable, else this would be a really dire situation. Ok, i can see (despite not being a CP user) that SS is not a 100% replacement but for those using ATRAC as their preferred portable audio format, it is a working solution that you aint having to go play silly buggers with dodgy ripped-off software to achieve.

True, some might say (with good reason) that SS is a bit dodgy in places itself, but hey.. if you use Windows, you are familar with the concept of 'not 100% stable' anyway and odd quirks ...

Definately not a fan of companies who covertly use end-users (paying end-users, ferk the bloody journos and other blaggers who make claims and make hell on the basis of non-purchased products they received on a good-will basis for eval) as unpaid beta testers, particularly when the fact they purchased the product makes them paying beta testers (in the sense of, they are paying for the priv of beta testing the bloody software).

Would i work for a manufacturer of such goods again, or even work in the retail support side...??

Like ferk would i, would rather be doing mine clearance or bomb disposal

[Guest Stuge]

on the other side here i did not see a singel advertisement for the new aw-3000. only for the relase of the nw-hd5 last year there was a short spanned very little advertisment to see. this is sad for sony because like i said their products are lot better than the i-pods.

Whether you agree with me or Not their advertisment campaign all depends on how thier Bundled software (Connect )goes ..When they released the player in Europe their was a shlight hint that they will do lot of Advertisments (I think they conducted some show in U.K concerning new A-series at the start) but as soon as thier player was released, everybody who bought the player was having problem with the software ...So I think this set them back in their advertisement campaign in other parts of the europe also because if they further do AD campaign more people will know about their walkman (which doesn`t have a good bundled software ) & more people will be attracted & more people will buy ..This will lead to further denting(Harm) their reputatation...I think if they could make their Software work better by Patching the Connect further than we can except more Ads from Sony regarding these new Walkmans..

And because of the Software they haven`t released the player in US & other parts of the world till now..

I`m Not talking about JAPAN AD campaign HERE.

Also see your Pm(Personal message box )( regarding your query) .

[harryg]

To be honest, I have not had a problem with my NW-A3000 and neither has my daughter with her NW-A1000. The software works ok...it downloads music to the players and in a timely manner. The player plays the music, if I had any complaints; well not a complaint as such is 20 MB seems a lot until you start to download albums. There again would 30MB be enough, doubt it!!!!!

I feel kind of out of it with everything working ok as it says on the tin. Oh well suppose human nature dictates that we must have a moan now and again, and the same human nature dictates that you can't keep everybody happy all the time. Suppose life is a compromise....enjoy while you can.

[nino]

i fully agree were being used to test the water before the launch in the US. As for Sony's technical support.......... if your installed XP by yourself you havnt got a mission!!!!

Im just wondering why they decided to create the CP software. Surely they could have adapted the player to use sonic stage data giving support totime machine shuffe, rating etc Or use the Sonic Stage as a bases for the CP adding a new interface/functions if they needed.

Nino

[matt_com911]

i think thats only the tip of the iceberg. to blame sony to be releasing to arguably the competitor for biggest world market - asia, is an indication of what the delay in the US is really for, and why they actually started to use the connect software in place of sonicstage. the connect software integrates into the connect store, a service only available currently in the US. The point is, if the integration with this store is not yet complete - the software will be delayed in the US. i have a feeling Sony wouldnt risk "using" Japan to see if the software works.

Edited January 8, 2006 by matt_com911

[doerthe]

To be honest, I have not had a problem with my NW-A3000 and neither has my daughter with her NW-A1000. The software works ok...it downloads music to the players and in a timely manner. The player plays the music, if I had any complaints; well not a complaint as such is 20 MB seems a lot until you start to download albums. There again would 30MB be enough, doubt it!!!!!

I feel kind of out of it with everything working ok as it says on the tin. Oh well suppose human nature dictates that we must have a moan now and again, and the same human nature dictates that you can't keep everybody happy all the time. Suppose life is a compromise....enjoy while you can.

I sure won't say that you are not telling the truth, but ist' hard to believe that you don't have any problems.

Copy a self made "Best of" CD to your NW and then report again what happenned!!!

Or copy a CD that has problems with the database and then say you have no problems.

I think that you have only been lucky until now...........

Hum, do you remember the player's out in Japan too? It came out on Nov 19th. And we have exactely the same problems. So why US have all the attention??? I thought SONY wanted to have Japan back in their pocket...

I believe that the Japanese will not be that angry because Sony is a Japanese company....................

[Castar]

I believe that the Japanese will not be that angry because Sony is a Japanese company....................

Actually, everyone I have spoken to here in Japan about Sony had a relatively negative opinion. The main idea is "Sony used to be great. Now, they're not so reliable and the products actually tend to break down after the warranty". So, even in Japan the market is now more sceptical.