I got the XZ2 from Best Buy on the very day it was released (I am based in the US). For the first 2 months, I was very pleased with it. Then, out of the blue, the speaker started making weird buzzing noises while I was on speakerphone. It happened suddenly, while I was listening to music. It mostly happened with low/bass range sounds. A quick Google search revealed that this is a known issue:
So I sent the phone off for a warranty repair. Sony just provided a return label--two, in fact, with different tracking numbers. I called customer support and asked which I should use. They told me, and I used the one they specified.
The shipping instructions basically said that I was responsible for packing it and sending it to them safely, and that if it arrived damaged, it would be sent back to me without being repaired. That was irksome because most manufacturers will provide with you with a way to have it sent to them where the liability isn't on the consumer for shipping damage. But I had no choice, so I wrapped it in enough bubble wrap to suffocate an elephant and sent it off. That was on June 29. Per FedEx tracking, Sony received it on July 3.
There is no online system to track repair status. So after a week went by without hearing anything, I called the Xperia support line on July 10 and asked for a status update. In a call straight out of the Twilight Zone, the incredibly unhelpful customer service agent told me first that I had not used the shipping label they provided me and so they couldn't look up my repair. I was understandably upset by this. I forwarded the agent the email showing that I had, in fact, used their label. The next answer I got was that my package was at a "warehouse" in Illinois and had not yet been sent to the repair center. I asked why they had me send the phone to a warehouse instead of straight to the repair center. They replied by saying that was just their process. I asked when it would be sent to the repair center. They said they didn't know exactly, and that I just had to wait.
I'm not. Even. Kidding.
I called back the next day hoping for a better status update, hoping that the previous encounter had just been a matter of talking to an incompetent agent. This time I got a different story from a different unhelpful agent. They told me that the phone had been received by the repair center. When I asked "when did it arrive at the repair center," the agent replied: "Five or six." Somewhat confused, I asked if she meant *July* 5th or July 6th. She said yes, that is what she meant. In retrospect, I obviously should have asked how it was that she couldn't give me the exact date, but I was so relieved to know it had apparently gotten to where it was supposed to that I didn't argue.
Another week-plus went by, though, and I still hadn't heard anything. So I called back customer service yesterday, July 19. I got the same customer service agent from my first call. This time, she told me that she couldn't tell if had been received yet by the repair center. Stunned, I told her what the agent had said on the previous call about the phone having arrived at the repair center on July 5 or 6. She said that she wasn't able to confirm that but would get back to me within two business days with an answer.
I got an email today--but not with any useful information. Instead, they said they needed to know the tracking number I used to send them my phone--information that I had already provided to them twice before. So I forwarded them the email where they sent me the shipping label, along with the email I received from FedEx after it was delivered to Sony. But I have zero confidence I'll get a useful response.
I have now been without my phone for 3 full weeks, and still have no idea when I'll be getting it back. That is absurd for an $800 phone with a 1-year warranty, almost a month of which has now been squandered due to horrible customer service.
Has anyone else had problems with Xperia support/repairs like this? Does anyone have suggestions of what I can do to find out what on earth is going on with my phone?
