h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Many of my HooToo pals will have already have given me assistance on this:
To those on the fringe,m as it were, this is the tale.

Purchased Sony VAIO for missus to give me more on-line time Crimbo 2009.....

Faults appeard in May, complaint made to shop.

"Nothing to do with us" was reply, "Here is SONY number..."

Communicated with SONY, quick fix tried; no go.

Laptop has been back to SONY three times. Still Beggared.

Went to Trading Standards today; Advised to write to shop to get something in writing.......

Letter writing is my forte!!

Will enjoy the contest!!



GT

NO contest

GT

my sister enjoys the same thingas in those sort of letters

Oh yes....

Veiled threatening!!!!!

'I can do that!!!'



GT

she's a school/college tutor of 40 odd yearand boy! can she write those letters

So can I......

When sober(ish!)



GT

write a draft out firstthen you can finalise

Using as many multisyballic words as I can!!!



GT

short and sweet

Can we read it and fell the full force of the scathing remarks?

fell = feel...

I had a vaio. Smooth, sleek, fast, unusable - only half assembled, the customer can do the rest. Ended up with Windows giving up and telling me to start again with a new Windows system. Took myself back to Apple, having wasted £1k which I can't afford. Wish I'd seen this first

Jabs

Letter to the shop manager will be worked on over the weekend, before being sent recorded delivery to the manager!!!



GT

Snotty and threatning letter sent to shop manager by recorded delivery, so he cannot plead ignorance. Will now wait until 19th of month for reply.
If one is not forthcoming, then it is me back to trading standards to take next step!!


GT

way t'go


have at you varlet (err! shop manager)

Latest report on the VAIO saga.

Recived reply from Sony Shop last Thursday. They want me to send the machine back to Sony again.!

Phoned Consumer Direct again this morning. They advised the sending of a final letter to the shop manager.

Letter now written (It is a stonker!)

Basically, they have now got 14 days to give me my money back, or legal advise will be persued via Trading standards.

Anyone want a copy?

Let me know, and I will E-Mail it to you!


GT

received and replied

Well, well, well.....

At 10.30 PM BST on 31 Augast, Trish's VAIO went totally s up again!!

No phone calls this time, after last communication on advise from 'Consumer Direct', and reply from Mr. Darren Daley of the 'SONY' shop in 'The Mall', Preston, just followed written instructions received from SONY on 5 July to perform a 'Full Recovery'.

Did so. It took four attempts, folowing the instructions as sent to me by SONY, before the correct recovery screen came up.

Finally started recovery program at 23.20.

CPU tests. 1 - 10 passed OK.
Memory Test.OK - No errors.

HDD Test start 00.30

Hard Disc.
Drive 0

Linear Seek Test. OK
Random Seek Test. OK
Funnel Seek Test. Failed. Error at E-HDD-003. Timed at 0055

Then went on to Hard Disc Verify and Repair.

It took four attempts to get past 'C Drive could not be locked' before full test would start....

Test Start 01.35

Minimum two hours. Test can not be terminated......

Time now 0245....54% finished...

Time now 0320....59% finished...

God! Why am I doing this????

Cos if SONY do not give me satisfaction, I need evidence that proves that I did my best to rectify the situation myself.

The HDD on the SONY will have recorded the test I have carried out tonight, and this posting will have recorded my comments about it too!!!!

Fifty-nine per cent finished at zero three forty Hrs BST. I am sure that it has not moved from that for ten minutes or so...


we shall see......

Time now is 04.15....is it me, or is it still stuck??

***(Aside)***

Keep getting distracted by missus who is having problems with BT Vision box/remote control.After fiddling with both TV remote/BT vision remote, neither would work properly, the blame was put on me, and she left to go to the loo, with me ordered to 'Sort it out' before she had finished...


Sorted out by double 'Power-down'! (Always works!!!

Time now 0445. Check VAIO progress...


Still showing 49% complete...

Now got a funny feeling that the VAIO is now totally goosed, and I was right in the first place to think that the machine that I bought for Trish as a Christmas Prezzie was a wrong 'un to begin with!!!

This posting will comprise a large part of my evidence against the SONY shop,manager in Preston, when action is taken against him in association with Trading Standards.


0500 Hrs. Still showing 59% complete......

It ain't gonna move, is it???


More to follow.....



GT

















Posting suspended....

I shall continue....

Got up at 11AM after about 6 hours disturbed sleep.

Made a roll-up, had a coffee, had another roll-up and took Tyson for a trot....

Got back to s up VAIO. Seemed to have sorted itself out, so attempted to download Malware Bytes and AVG Free. Computer froze up during download.

Ctrl/Alt/Delete did not close down and restart, so had to completely power down to get it to restart.

Error message came up, and Automatic File Checking System self-run.

No errors were found, so self restart started at 1135. Finally restarted at 1150. Froze up again at 1155. Again, Ctrl/Alt/Delete did soddall

Powered down completely, and left to go cold.

Roll-up, coffee, roll-up, roll-up, coffee, roll-up.

Went back to VAIO at 1305.

Cold restart at 1305 failed. Full recovery attempted 1310. Failed.

Restarted at 1330. Recovery attempted.

Restore 'C' drive started 1335.
Formatted 'C' drive at 1335.
Restore 'C' drive started 1335.
100% at 1340. Self Restarted.
Self restart finished at 1340.

Windows started set-up 1345
Set-up completed at 1350.

Software installation started at 1350.
Stuck at 63% at 1405.
Carried on at 1410 installing custom programmes.

Office Home and Student installed at 1420.
Microsoft Works installed at 1425.
Norton back-up at 1425.
Open MG set-up at 1430.
VAIO Media plus at 1435.
Win DVD for VAIO at 1440.
Windows live essentials at 1445.
100% complete at 1450.
Finish and restart at 1450.

Restart process failed at 1520.

Restart attempted at 1525.

Went back to Windows set-up at 1530.

Licence terms accepted at 1535.
Username/picture/password at 1540.

Restart at 1545. Windows checking performance at 1545.
Password entered, Preparing Desktop complete at 1550.

Windows recovered from unexpected shutdown at 1555.

Google desktop agreement OKd at 1600
Enhanced search selected/Sidebar deselected at 1605.
Floating window deselected at 1610.
BT Total broadband load started at 1615.
Log off, shutddown and restart at 1630.
Restart at 1635.
Configuring updates started 1635.
Finished, shutdown and restart at 1640.

HP games disc load-up started 1640.
HP games loading completed 1650.
Wildgames download started 1650.
Wildgames installation complete 1650.

Restart completed 1700.

PC back with wife at 1710.

Working OK up to now at 2045.

Reply received from SONY this morning. Letter just read. They are unwilling to do anything but offer another repair.

They will not replace.
They will not refund.

They will fight any action taken by Trading Standards all the way.

I spent 12 soddinghours trying to fix the dammed thing. I want my money back!!!!!

I will be contacting Trading Standards ASAP. Tomorow is shopping in town day.

Friday am getting appointment with doc as I am getting an acheing pain in my right kidney

So it may be Monday before I can take this further.



GT

Aside. Sent E-Mail letter to Daily Telegraph as in an article I read they referred to RAF Neatishead as a WWII airfield.

As I served there from 1980 to 1982, I know that it was NEVER an airfield. It was always a RADAR station, equipped with long range (300 miles) search RADAR.

End of aside.


GT