Sony Baloney

I'm so unhappy with Sony this morning. I have to say at the outset that part of this is my fault. I seem to be going through a particularly disorganized period in my life, and for that I'm paying the price.

Last January, after struggling for a number of years with a bottom-of-the-line home computer, I bought a brand new Sony Vaio, with all the bells and whistles. It was super-fast, had a huge bazillion-gig hard drive, loads of memory. It was my dream machine. Finally, I could do all the artsy-fartsy stuff I've always wanted to do, with no worries about capacity and processing speed. I was a happy camper. There was one little hitch.

Apparently, it is exceedingly expensive and/or bothersome for Sony to package their computers with system disks. The buyer is instructed to use their own disk and make their own system backup by copying the necessary files from a specified area of the hard drive. Sounds simple enough, right? Well...no. I tried it twice. The first time, I was told that I had inserted the wrong type of disk. Months later when I finally remembered to buy the other type, I tried again. I got an error message and gave up in disgust. Big mistake.

I won't bore you with the details of my disaster, but to put it simply, it has become apparent I must reinstall my system. Unfortunately, due to my lack of dedication to the disk-creation chore...I have no system disk. So, I went to Sony's website. They asked me to enter my model and serial number. No problem. I've got that info. The only thing is...the model choices on their drop-down menu do not include MY particular model number. Hmmmmm.... There's another option. I can fill out their "contact us" form. Unfortunately, the form also requires me to fill in my model number from a drop-down list...the same list their main website uses, which does not include MY model. So, I just chose one at random from the list and blasted them in the comments section for this frustrating oversight. Then, I got around to asking about how I can acquire a system disk.

This morning, I got a canned message stating how it was my responsibility to make my own system disk and if I lost mine, or never made one in the first place, I can BUY one from their parts and accessories website. No big surprise. What DID surprise me, however, is that no matter what choice I clicked on their parts and accessories website...not a single page would load! We are talking about SONY here. They have a totally nonfunctional parts website. I expected better. Silly me.

I did fire off another hot email to Sony, asking if a human being could possibly contact me about this, but I certainly don't expect a real response So, tomorrow, I'm going to swipe a Windows XP system disk from work and give that a shot. Whether or not I am able to get a clean install, I certainly will never buy another Sony.

I'm sure Sony stockholders are exceedingly concerned.