You may remember I got my 27″ Sony WEGA flat screen TV for free over a month ago. Unfortunately it only worked for about 24 hours, and then it wouldn’t power up anymore, whatsoever. We didn’t have any power outages, and the TV has been treated with care when setting it up. Therefore it was DOA.

I had to call Sony’s Customer Support, and tell them that I got a dead TV acting as a paperweight in my living room, and could they please send me a new one and I’ll return them the dead one. They said no way, they gave me some numbers to call to have people come out and repair the TV since it was on warranty. I was flabbergasted, but I said fine, it’s not like these people will be able to fix a dead TV. I called the numbers, but none of the shops would come out and repair my TV.

Keep in mind that Hurricane Jeanne came around, and caused a delay in me getting this situation cleared up. It didn’t help at all that Sony wasn’t cooperating very well. After the hurricane passed and life settled down a bit more, I called Sony up again and said that they are wasting my time, which is valuable, and to please get me a new TV because I don’t like having a large paperweight in my living room. They said they will hire a new repair man nearby to come out. The guy came over 2 days later, and I asked him, “Would you want a repaired brand new TV?” He was understanding. He fiddled with the TV, but he couldn’t get it to work. He said he’d call Sony and tell them to send me a new TV.

A week later, I haven’t heard anything from the repairman nor Sony. I called up Sony, and they said they haven’t heard anything from the repairman, and they would call both him and me the next day. They called me, and said they wanted proof that I own the TV. I faxed them the invoice. It has been two weeks since I faxed them the invoice, and still nothing. No word from Sony, no new TV sitting in my living room, nada. Keep in mind that everytime I call Sony, I’m put on hold at least 15 minutes, and at one point, 2 hours. This is a lot of wasted time, which makes me wonder if it was worth spending a mere $2.50 for this TV, because I’m paying out the ass in time with Sony giving me the run-around.

Now here is where it gets confusing. Yesterday my roommate’s brother grabs a remote control to turn on the old TV, but grabbed the wrong remote. It was the remote for the Sony TV that wouldn’t work. He pressed the Power button, and the Sony TV turned on. I tried to see if it would work a week ago on a whim, and it wouldn’t. So suddenly the Sony TV wants to work, which leaves me with the conclusion that it is a female TV — only works when it wants to. What makes a TV not work for a month, then suddenly decide to work? I’m still waiting for the new TV from Sony, I don’t want a flaky TV that decides to not work for months at a time, and then work for a few days again. In any case, I don’t plan on buying a Sony TV in my future, ever. Not with this kind of support they’ve been giving me.