Monthly Archive for May, 2006

Cliff’s Notes:
For those not wanting to read the full story, here are the highlights. W800i started off as a strong phone but started to have problems. I have sent the phone back 5 times now and have been VERY disappointed with the customer support and service Sony Ericsson has given. Enough so that I probably won’t buy another phone from them.

From checking my logs, I can see that a lot of you guys come to this site searching for information and reviews on the Sony Ericsson W800i. This latest update is a big change from the early reviews of the phone when everything was going well with the phone. I started to have problems with the phone that were only outdone by the problems with Sony’s terrible support.

After having the phone for about a month and a half, I started getting “Failure to Playback” errors when I’d go to the walkman function. It was annoying but not mission critical. Once in a while when trying to play music, I’d get that error, the phone would lock up and I’d have to restart it. Seemed like a software issue, and after calling Sony Ericsson’s support I was told to flash the phone using their online tool and a data cable. For the next week or two everything seemed to be fine.

At this point I start to get a really strange error. The phone would get stuck in “emergency call only” mode. This would happen seemingly randomly in places where I always get a good network connection. In fact, the phone will still show full or strong signal strength while the error was on the screen. It would happen where I live, at work, in the car, all over the major metro area of Dallas Fort Worth seemingly randomly. Sometimes it would fix itself after 4-5 minutes, and other times I would have to restart the phone to make it functional again. When in this mode, I cannot send or receive calls or text messages. The phone becomes a paperweight. When I started having this problem, I also started to have software problems (seemingly) where the phone would lock up (screen turns white and locks) when I would try to go to the camera or MP3 player.
I ruled out network problems because when I go to my back up phone (with the same service and SIM card) I have zero problems or loss of network connections. Also, the very same phone worked fine for the first month or so I had it in the same locations, and network issues wouldn’t explain the phone freezing and re-booting.

So this is a problem. A phone that won’t let you make calls goes beyond the annoyance of having a new phone with lots of features that has a software bug, and becomes a real issue. So I called Sony Ericsson support, told them the story (and noted the phone had been flashed once already). They had me send the phone into their repair center (I paid shipping) for repair. About a week and a half later I get the phone back with a note stating that the phone had a software problem, software was updated (flashed) and the problem was resolved. I powered the phone back up and with in an hour of having it back on I’m having all of the same problems (exactly) that I noted above.

So once again I call Sony’s support center and tell them what’s going on. They say no problem, send the phone back, they will pay for shipping and they will get me all fixed up. I made sure to note that the phone has now been flashed 2 times with no success. At this point I am assuming that they are going to send me an RMA’ed phone or replace some hardware on this phone. There is no way they would just flash it and send it back right? A week and a half later I get the phone back with the exact same note: software problem, software updated, problem solved. Guess what. I turn the phone on and use it for a few days…. Exact same problems locking up and going into emergency call only mode.

Now I’m starting to get frustrated. This is a premium phone ( $500) and I’m getting terrible service. I understand new products have bugs and anyone can get a lemon, but so far it seems like the only thing they will do is flash the phone and send it back. So I call them once again and tell them what is going on. I asked if they could assure me that they would send me another phone since this would be the 3rd time I’ve sent the phone in. They told me that the repair center ( a contracted company) could only make that call and not Sony Ericsson. Is it just me or is this one of the most stupid things in the world? A huge company like Sony Ericsson not having control over that part of their service? After explaining this to me the call center supervisor tells me that since this will be the 3rd time the phone has gone in that they will probably replace it and that he will send a note in to the service center “requesting” a new phone be sent back to me. Fair enough. I feel like I’m almost getting to resolution here. I send the phone back again. 2 weeks goes by and guess what I get in the mail. The exact same phone…with the exact same message: software problem, software updated, problem solved. Think it fixed the problem? Hell no! I just about lost it. This was the 4th time the phone has been flashed and the 3rd time the “service” center flashed the same freaking phone! These guys must be total idiots.

Once again I make the call to Sony Ericsson. I’m doing everything I an to keep my cool and achieve resolution. They first try to tell me that they will send me a new battery to try out, and that might solve the problem… WHAT? A new battery? I asked them to explain and they couldn’t. They said that if the phone turns off and powers down it might be a battery problem… my phone doesn’t do that…so how would that help? Morons..morons…morons…. This time the supervisor tells me that they can in fact tell the service center to send a new phone, and that the decision about that is not up to the service center alone. About time right!?!?! I have to send the phone in 4 times, be without the $500 premium phone for over a month before they fix the problem. I was frustrated that I had to send it in again, but happy that they finally promised me that the same phone would not be sent back. So… do I really need to write the next line explaining what I get back in the mail 2 weeks later? You guessed it. The SAME DAMN PHONE, with the SAME DAMN note that the phone had a software problem, the software was updated, and the problem solved. I’m pretty sure the call center and the service center is run but a bunch of monkeys that can read off a script, flash phones, and that’s about all.

Seething pissed I call them back. They won’t send me a new phone first…they want me to send this one back for a fifth freaking time. But this time I’m sending it back directly to the Sony Ericsson home office and they are just going to send me a new phone. They are not going to test this one, simply send me a new phone. So I send the phone back a 5th time. FIVE TIMES I’ve had to send this thing back. I called them on Friday to get an update since the phone had been gone for a week, and the new phone had not arrived. First they tried to tell me that the home office probably just got the phone (they couldn’t understand the concept of Overnight mail or tracking numbers proving them wrong). Then they told me that they might need the phone for up to two weeks. WHY? They told me they were just going to send me a new phone…why do they need it for two weeks? Well they have to do testing to make sure there isn’t any “rust or corrosion”. What? What are these guys talking about??? Are they admitting that their service center is so incompetent that I could send a phone with rust or corrosion on it into them 4 times and they not notice it? What are these monkeys talking about? They wouldn’t give me a phone number, contact e-mail or any other way to contact the people at corporate to find out what’s going on with my phone. So far…. EVERYONE I’ve talked to at Sonny Ericsson’s support group have been total morons, and their service center doesn’t seem capable of anything other than flashing a phone and sending it back.

I’ll post an update on here when I get my phone back. I might go postal if they send me the damn phone back with another note that the phone was flashed. I have been amazed at how bad the service and personnel that I’ve had to deal with are. They have spent more on shipping (9 times so far via FedEx overnight) than their cost to produce the phone I’m sure. I’ve owned 5 Sony Ericsson phones and have always preferred them over Nokia, but this is the first time I’ve ever had to deal with Sony’s service. I would strongly recommend against buying any Sony Ericsson phones so that you don’t risk going though this service nightmare if you get a lemon.