Sony customer support has never been very good on any of their consumer products. Last Sony product I bought was a VCR (also made in China). It never worked properly. After about a year of aggravation trying to get it to work as advertised (Problems included not recording programmed shows, programming would mysteriously vanish, remotes kept breaking... went through three), and dealing with their customer support, I threw it out of a third floor window. It didn't fix the problem, but it made me feel better. I know... anger management! It's the only piece of equipment that's ever caused me to totally loose it. Haven't bought anything from Sony since.

As far as I know, about 99% of all consumer electronics are now made in either China, or other far east countries, including high end electronics (audio equipment, cameras, etc). Seems that the only thing made in the US these days is hamburgers... and the meat for them is imported from South America as far as I know.

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There are three kinds of memory: Good, bad, and convenient.

Hi Bob, Sorry to hear about your Vaio, I too purchased a Vaio VAIO SZ61WN/C in January 2008 and mine only worked for 4 hours until the hard drive failed. I wasn't that concerned thinking that the warranty would cover the repair, well that was my second mistake. The first mistake was buying the Vaio in the first place and I'll explain. I didn't know they were built in China and I didn't know that the SZ series has battery drain problems, something that Sony do not advertise! Anyway despite the fact that the laptop was only 4 hours old and I had spent that time configuring my software on it I contacted Sony. Well contacting Sony was bad enough but eventually Sony sent a man from DHL to collect it (another saga that I will not bother to bore you with). After Sony having the laptop for around three weeks they contacted me to tell me that they hadn't got the harddrive in stock, amazingly innefficient and stupid but true. Well to cut a very long story short, the laptop eventually was retuned to me via DHL without the proper packaging, (although it had been sent back in additional protective packaging)in and guess what? the case was damaged! So the original saga started over again and now Sony have the laptop back which they deny was damaged in transit or their workshop in Belgium and they have invoiced me for £172 to replace the damaged case. By the way nothing wrong with their invoicing system, that works perfectly, so no problem there! So please, anyone thinking about buying a Vaio and I'm on my fourth (but last I might add, that is if I can get this one back in one piece?) is "think hard" because its obvious to me that Sony are cost cutting big time and that can only mean one thing, a degraded product and service to the customer. I am disapointed that Sony treats its customers badly and I'm disapointed that their service department have damaged a new PC which of course they deny or the fact that it was damaged on return to me by their inept and stupid handling. Whatever the cause, its left me with an expensive top of the range laptop, which was mint when I unpacked it, now damaged and in another country! "The moral of the story "buy a Toshiba!"

Wow, I'm amazed to hear all the horror stories about Sony Vaio Laptops. I started a thread a couple of months ago in this Community, about never seeing anyone complain about problems with Sony Vaio, but now I stand corrected.

It's too bad that their shoddy workmanship and lack of customer support, destroys Sony's reputation as a good company.

I wanted my next laptop to be Sony Vaio, but now, NOT SO MUCH! In fact, I think I'll stick with HP.

I am really upset and feel cheated that my favorite OfficeDepot sent me a damaged Sony Vaio laptop and when I contacted them to get it repaired they responded that it is more than 1 month old so they wont cover it for me.
I didnt even know it was damaged and thought it was normal for the left palm key to be shaky - I have seen it like that with many laptops. But when I sent it to Sony Repir Center, CA they said it's a physical damage and not covered by Sony Warranty. They would charge me $169.99 for the same. But I have received the laptop in the same condition and it means it was damaged during transit or at your end. Just because I didn't notice the damage before 1 month they don't want to own the charge.
I am too possessive about this laptop which I bought after I got my first job. I have taken good care of it assuming it was not damaged. Now, I feel cheated by you and may not buy anything from OfficeDepot again especially not a Sony