written by on 04/04/2011
The reviews on here are exactly what i have experienced witht eh SONY VAIO VGN-AR41M
The screen failed just outside the warranty (literally by weeks). I contacted Sony and BT Budiness whom I bought it from and neither were interested. they wanted £300 just to arrange collection and to look at it, and quoted up to £700 to repair/raplace!!!
I managed to find a local computer repairs company who replaced the screen with a new one for £200. Several months on an just like the other person who reveiwed this below, the left hand side hinged snapped and the wires are exposed. I have gone back to the computer repairers and they said they can't get the hinges any more. I have tried to glue it but it simply won't take because the hinge movement understandably pulls it away.
Oh yes I nearly forgot the battery is also faulty, shortly after the screen went the battery also failed. you have to have the laptop premanently plugged in
Surely these laptops are clearly faulty and poorly made from the start. I cant beleive at £1300 we couldnt get them repaired foc or at the very worst a portion of the money we paid reimbursed.
NEVER EVER by a SONY laptop, wish I had now gone with the reliable TOSHIBA I had previously had and my friend is still using with no problems!
At £1300 I have got to persist with the screen hanging on by one hinge which will inevitably go at some point, and especially as I also invested another £200 on a new screen!
You are paying for the name and not the quality, customer service is poor to say the least. they need to sit up and accept these were a very poorly made and overpriced laptop
Guest's Comment
Written on: 23/06/2011
I had a similar problem to this with my screen starting to create vertical lines of failed pixels shortly afte the warranty expired. Sony quoted between £600 and £800 to replace but local computer shop did for £240. Various emmails to Sony fell on deaf ears and I too will never buy Sony again!
Guest's Comment
Written on: 06/07/2011
sorry for your troubles, but such probably wouldn't have happened with a mac (which runs Windows, btw). I had my previous Mac laptop for 4 1/2 years before it started dying… which took another 6 months…and in that time it was properly off for perhaps four weeks. Think about it; you threw good money after bad and its hard to repair a product that's cheap plastic. All Macs are industry grade construction and carved from a single block of aluminium--it's hard to imagine something more robust. And if you do the numbers, macs are cheaper. Get an HP with all the bells and whistles for £750 every 2-3 years or a Mac every 5 years for £1300-1500
Guest's Comment
Written on: 05/07/2011
DO what I did, take the supplier to court under the sale of good act durability eg. you paid for a top quality brand product and therefore given the cost it should have a premium life over a cheap throw away laptop.
When the court paper arrived the tune changed. I agree, Sony quality has gone down the crapper. I have a 11 year laptop sony, still going strong on the orginial hard disk and battery all be it lsat 4 minutes on battery. My last two in the last two years have had battery problems, hard disk failures. I had to reformat them to windows 7 and sony would not assist with drivers for memory stick reader or keyboard controls. After sales ends when funds clear!