Sears tech arrives to service Sony HDTV and asks...
 

...."What's a CableCard?" I kid you not.

Having heard so much about how good Sears tech service was, I bought their
3-year warranty along with my Sony KDF-60XS955 TV. Sure enough, it was no
problem at all to arrange to have a tech come out to check out my TV. I had
been told that there was a firmware update for the TV and I also have been
having an occasional "CableCard Error 161-6" problem and a couple of other
little things.

This guy -- nice guy, very earnest, wanted to be helpful -- had to ask me
what a CableCard was. He had never heard of one. Had, apparently, never
seen my model TV before and had no knowledge of it whatsoever. I don't
think there was one thing that we discussed that he knew anything about.

But he did call back to his office, found out that, yes, there was a
firmware update. It comes on a memory stick, which they are mailing to me
and he is going to come back out next week to do the update. I asked him
why we needed to do that, since there are supposed to be on-screen
instructions, so what do we need him for, since he doesn't know any more
about it than I do? He said that, well, if I didn't mind waiting until he
got there, he'd like to watch while I did it. OK. I made him a CD copy of
some .pdf downloads I had of all the CableCard error codes.

As he left, he said, "Thanks for letting me learn on your time." Almost
funny. He gave me a receipt for the warranty visit. According to the
receipt, that visit was $144, which, I presume, gets billed by Sears to
Sony. If Sony is putting up with that, no wonder they're going broke!

mack
austin

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
As he left, he said, "Thanks for letting me learn on your time." Almost
funny. He gave me a receipt for the warranty visit. According to the
receipt, that visit was $144, which, I presume, gets billed by Sears to
Sony. If Sony is putting up with that, no wonder they're going broke!

I doubt that Sears bills Sony. You did pay for a "Sears" 3 year warranty
right? The warranty program within sears probably pays that $144.

--Dan

Problem is endemic in the whole service business. The manufactures are not
giving appropriate training on their new products and expect the techs to
gain the knowledge by assumption. The employers are just as frivolous about
training on the newer technologies expecting techs to learn at their own
expense on their own time. The question does not surprise me at all, sad to
say. Yea, technicial training manuals and materials can be downloaded for
the manufacturer's respective sites and the techs can read, print, to ignore
that source of information. Again, NOT on COMPANY TIME per many BEAN
COUNTERS!! They just want the total number of completes going up regardless
of the increase of complex nature of the new technologies being introduced
into the consumer electronics marketplace.
"dg" wrote in message
om...
"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
As he left, he said, "Thanks for letting me learn on your time." Almost
funny. He gave me a receipt for the warranty visit. According to the
receipt, that visit was $144, which, I presume, gets billed by Sears to
Sony. If Sony is putting up with that, no wonder they're going broke!

I doubt that Sears bills Sony. You did pay for a "Sears" 3 year warranty
right? The warranty program within sears probably pays that $144.

--Dan

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
..."What's a CableCard?" I kid you not.

This is the kind of scary story that has got me thinking maybe I should go
conservative and get a CRT-based HDTV until microdisplays are sorted out
better. My 5-year old 36 inch Sony direct view CRT has soldiered on like a
fridge, so I guess I'm spoiled when it comes to reliability.

I'm seeing good things on the AVS forum about the new Samsung 47 inch
tabletop HC-P4752W, which appeals to me because of its height, weight (less
than half of my Sony) and HDMI plug. It's a very new model, but based on old
technology. And at a price a third of my other choice (JVC ILA) I can afford
to throw it away after a few years.

"dg" wrote in message
om...
"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
As he left, he said, "Thanks for letting me learn on your time." Almost
funny. He gave me a receipt for the warranty visit. According to the
receipt, that visit was $144, which, I presume, gets billed by Sears to
Sony. If Sony is putting up with that, no wonder they're going broke!

I doubt that Sears bills Sony. You did pay for a "Sears" 3 year warranty
right? The warranty program within sears probably pays that $144.

You're probably right. I was also thinking this after I posted my previous
message. But Sears does provide some of the Sony warranty service in some
markets. I wonder if, where they have that arrangement, they could not bill
Sears for warranty work within the first year. Hmmm.

Also occurs to me that if I could also try the local Sony warranty service
center if I had something that I thought they might know more about. As for
this firmware update, sounds as though I could handle that one, once the
update on the memory stick arrives. Stick it in the hole and follow
onscreen directions, according to what the Sears tech was told on the phone.

mack
austin

"Dave Gower" wrote in message
...

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
..."What's a CableCard?" I kid you not.

This is the kind of scary story that has got me thinking maybe I should go
conservative and get a CRT-based HDTV until microdisplays are sorted out
better. My 5-year old 36 inch Sony direct view CRT has soldiered on like a
fridge, so I guess I'm spoiled when it comes to reliability.

Happily, (knock on wood) nothing serious has gone wrong with my Sony set so
far. The problems I had the Sears tech out about are more annoyances than
anything else. And, within the first year, I could also call Sony for a
service call and hope that their warranty tech knows more than the Sears guy
did.

mack
austin

Have no doubt you're right, Art...but how sad.
I work part-time at Home Depot and they are obsessed with training...right
down to part-timers.
So...I get 4 hours of training on pressure washers which cost $500(on
company time btw)...and too many electronics techs get none.
Like I said, sad.


"Art" wrote in message
...
Problem is endemic in the whole service business. The manufactures are not
giving appropriate training on their new products and expect the techs to
gain the knowledge by assumption. The employers are just as frivolous
about training on the newer technologies expecting techs to learn at their
own expense on their own time. The question does not surprise me at all,
sad to say. Yea, technicial training manuals and materials can be
downloaded for the manufacturer's respective sites and the techs can read,
print, to ignore that source of information. Again, NOT on COMPANY TIME
per many BEAN COUNTERS!! They just want the total number of completes
going up regardless of the increase of complex nature of the new
technologies being introduced into the consumer electronics marketplace.
"dg" wrote in message
om...
"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
As he left, he said, "Thanks for letting me learn on your time." Almost
funny. He gave me a receipt for the warranty visit. According to the
receipt, that visit was $144, which, I presume, gets billed by Sears to
Sony. If Sony is putting up with that, no wonder they're going broke!

I doubt that Sears bills Sony. You did pay for a "Sears" 3 year warranty
right? The warranty program within sears probably pays that $144.

--Dan

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
Happily, (knock on wood) nothing serious has gone wrong with my Sony set
so far. The problems I had the Sears tech out about are more annoyances
than anything else. And, within the first year, I could also call Sony
for a service call and hope that their warranty tech knows more than the
Sears guy did.

mack
austin

If anybody reading this ever has to call Sony for warranty service, be aware
you need to be persistant. When you call, get an incident number of some
kind. Call the next day for an update. Call again the next day. And the
next. You WILL get service from them, if you are persistant. They fixed my
set after a board failure, JUST after 90 days parts/labor was up. Cost me
nothing-my faith in Sony is restored!

If you don't get an incident # to reference during your next calls, you will
likely be generating a new one each call you make. So get a # the first
time you call and use it every time you call back.

--Dan

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
..."What's a CableCard?" I kid you not.

Having heard so much about how good Sears tech service was, I bought their
3-year warranty along with my Sony KDF-60XS955 TV. Sure enough, it was no
problem at all to arrange to have a tech come out to check out my TV. I
had
been told that there was a firmware update for the TV and I also have been
having an occasional "CableCard Error 161-6" problem and a couple of other
little things.

This guy -- nice guy, very earnest, wanted to be helpful -- had to ask me
what a CableCard was. He had never heard of one. Had, apparently, never
seen my model TV before and had no knowledge of it whatsoever. I don't
think there was one thing that we discussed that he knew anything about.

But he did call back to his office, found out that, yes, there was a
firmware update. It comes on a memory stick, which they are mailing to me
and he is going to come back out next week to do the update. I asked him
why we needed to do that, since there are supposed to be on-screen
instructions, so what do we need him for, since he doesn't know any more
about it than I do? He said that, well, if I didn't mind waiting until he
got there, he'd like to watch while I did it. OK. I made him a CD copy
of
some .pdf downloads I had of all the CableCard error codes.

As he left, he said, "Thanks for letting me learn on your time." Almost
funny. He gave me a receipt for the warranty visit. According to the
receipt, that visit was $144, which, I presume, gets billed by Sears to
Sony. If Sony is putting up with that, no wonder they're going broke!

I'm not one who's often caught defending Sears, much less their service
guys, but at least this guy was nice, and admitted his ignorance, which is
better than having a sloppy jerk who stops around like King Crap on Turd
Island, screwing up whatever he's supposed to fix and messing up everything
else.

I've had a few good Sears service guys who were very good, knew their stuff,
and gave great service. Then there are those who I'd never let back in the
house.

In this case, I wouldn't blame the guy, but rather Sony and Sears, who don't
train their people, nor update them on newer products. I haven't heard much
about Sony's troubles, but I can plainly see Sears is going downhill.

Pagan

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...

"Dave Gower" wrote in message
...

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...
..."What's a CableCard?" I kid you not.

This is the kind of scary story that has got me thinking maybe I should
go conservative and get a CRT-based HDTV until microdisplays are sorted
out better. My 5-year old 36 inch Sony direct view CRT has soldiered on
like a fridge, so I guess I'm spoiled when it comes to reliability.

Happily, (knock on wood) nothing serious has gone wrong with my Sony set
so far. The problems I had the Sears tech out about are more annoyances
than anything else. And, within the first year, I could also call Sony
for a service call and hope that their warranty tech knows more than the
Sears guy did.

mack
austin
Sorry Mack, Sony won't service their products if you bought it from Sears.
Sears buys from Sony and pays less because they do the service. I speak
from experience. I had one of the early lcd projectors which had bad
bulbs. Sony was about to send me a replacement bulb but didn't because I
bought it from Sears. Murray