My PS3 is fucked. Yay!

[Vympel]

Was playing Fight Night Round 3 with a friend - I had just knocked him out when the system hung. A hard crash.

We reset the system - had to switch if off from the back.

It refuses to even acknowledge the presence of Fight Night 3 in the drive. All the other games, it might acknowledge their presence - might even start to load up - but then it'll just go blank, and reset. The blue light often doesn't come on.

I have no idea what's wrong it. How do I deal with this? Take it back to where I bought it, hand over my receipt and tell the fuckers I want a replacement? Or ring the Playstation Customer Helpline as the Guarantee thingy says?

Of all the PS3s to get, I have the one that doesn't fucking work.

[Zac Naloen]

The store will more than likely just tell you to phone the Sony helpline.

probably not worth taking it in to the shop unless you're up for a fight.

Store warranties usually come second place to Manufacturer warranties.

[Wedge]

The store will more than likely just tell you to phone the Sony helpline.

probably not worth taking it in to the shop unless you're up for a fight.

Store warranties usually come second place to Manufacturer warranties.

My experience is quite the opposite. I find it always easier to go to the store and have it changed there for a new one. Of course my experience is limited only to Germany and Spain.
Vympel, if your warranty of the store is still valid it's definitely worth a try. Aren't they always closer and more accessible then the manufacturer?

[Zac Naloen]

The store will more than likely just tell you to phone the Sony helpline.

probably not worth taking it in to the shop unless you're up for a fight.

Store warranties usually come second place to Manufacturer warranties.

My experience is quite the opposite. I find it always easier to go to the store and have it changed there for a new one. Of course my experience is limited only to Germany and Spain.
Vympel, if your warranty of the store is still valid it's definitely worth a try. Aren't they always closer and more accessible then the manufacturer?

My experience is in the UK.

You generally have a 28 days grace period and after that it's the manufacturers warranty.

[Vympel]

Well I got this thing on 19 January, so it's been over a month. I don't know what EB's policy is, I'll ring em tommorow and find out. I'd rather just do a straight swap as opposed to taking it to Sony and waiting weeks on end.

[Vendetta]

Try getting a store replacement. It's always worth a throw.

[Xisiqomelir]

Try in-store first.

Also, my condolences. My launch Wii wouldn't read discs after a month, so I had to send it in.

[Joviwan]

I purchased my 360 from the Target I used worked at (10% discount, yay!). Just about all products from Target have a 90 day store warranty, so when I got the Omega-RoD the second time I turned it on, i found it to be much easier to just take the thing back and replace it. Good luck with your PS3.

[Vympel]

I rang up the store first thing this morning, they told me to ring Sony. So I did. The tech support guy told me to do a system restore to default settings first, and then if that didnt work, a hard reset (after backing up my data).

I've got to wonder just why this would have any effect on the PS3 not acknowledging the presence of a disk in a damn drive.

Unfortunately, I'm at work so I can't do either until I get home, so I guess this shit waits till tomorrow.

When (not if, IMO) that doesn't work, I'm going to get a replacement, which is some other guy's defective PS3 which has been remanufactured and fitted with a new external casing.

[Vympel]

Update - they sent me an email with a barcode on it to take to Australia Post, saying I didn't need to do or pay anything and that said barcode would give AP instructions to send it to them for repair/replacement.

I did this on Monday. As of today, Friday, they still have not received my PS3. And you know what the support guys say over the phone? "Did you register it".

What the fuck? If they give me a fucking barcode to be scanned at the post office and they tell me that takes care of everything to send the fucking package, why the hell would I shell out money to register it?

It's only from fucking Sans Souci to Blacktown, i.e. from Sydney burbs to the slightly outer West. It should've got there by now. I'm really fucking pissed off, but I think if it doesn't show up soon, I will hold Australia Post responsible - the address it's being sent to is a PO Box in Blacktown - in other words, it should've never left Australia Post's custody care and control for any reason whatsoever until it was taken out of the PO Box by Sony on the receiving end.

[Vympel]

Another update - March 13. Still no confirmation of it's arrival at Sony.

I'm also inclined to place some of the blame on this for Sony - it's still primarily Australia Post's fuckup, but the incompetence of Sony's support staff has exacerbated the situation and pretty much insured that if my PS3 is well and truly lost, it will be very hard for me to get my fucking $699.00 back.

Everytime I've rung up Sony support, I've gotten a different guy - not unreasonable. However, those different guys have each given me a different fucking story.

- The first two different guys I spoke to asked, as I noted above, whether I had registered the parcel. No, because I didn't think it was necessary- I assumed Sony's barcode etc arrangement with AP was good enough. This question led me to imply that there was no way to track the fucking thing.

- The next guy I spoke to said Australia Post is incompetent and it may take up to two weeks for the package to go a short distance, so please be patient.

- The guy I spoke to after that, at the beginning of this week, informed me that I actually could track the package, through the barcode that had been given to me.

- I took the barcode to the post office, where I was informed tracking couldn't be done from there, it had to be done over the phone, and he gave me the number.

- I ring the number, I give them the number beneath the barcode, I'm told it's way too long to be a tracking number. Yay. They said ring back Sony, they should have the tracking number.

- I ring back Sony, I get a different guy again. He tells me the tracking number is on the fucking receipt I got when I had the barcode scanned. Wonderful. Except:-

I've LOST THE FUCKING RECEIPT. I've been carrying it around for a fucking week hoping it'd be of some use, and when I finally need it, it's fucking GONE.

If they had told me I could use the receipt to track it the first time I fucking called, a week ago, I would've had the damn receipt, found out what happened to my PS3, and if it had been lost, I'd at *least* have proof of postage.

So I'm twice fucked if it is actually lost.

[weemadando]

Sony should have a copy of all correspondence sent to you. They should be able to recite your tracking number back to you. If they don't, then they've got some kind of fucked up book-keeping system.

[Vympel]

Well, the way it works is they give you a .pdf file with a barcode which you take to Australia Post and then scan. Apparently the tracking number is on the receipt Australia Post gives you after that. It's fucked, and I'm fucked if there's no other way to track it without the receipt. I'm going to call them (Sony) tomorrow and put the responsibility on them to track down my PS3, I've been chasing it myself for a week and I'm sick of it.

[Vympel]

The day I send a complaint in to Australia Post - 2 weeks to the day the PS3 was posted, I get confirmation from Sony that it finally arrived. Typical.

[Laird]

Moral of the story, all game companies have shitty customer service.