Sony is fixing my 2nd Red blinking light of death for free....

Hey all...

I have a 60 gig launch unit and an 80gig for upstairs. The 60 gig had a blinking red light that simply stopped it from even turning on about 9 months ago, which I paid to have fixed and get my game back. Fast forward to last week, and the same issue came back. Blinking red light. Won't start.

So I call customer service and let them know, and they offer to have me upgrade to a 120 gig slim or fix my 60 gig unit. They tell me (standard line) that the warranty of the fix they do to any ps3 is 90 days, and after that it has to be "user error" that causes the issue. That, my friend is where I got pissed.

The launch unit gets a lot of use, both blu-ray and gaming, and is kept high off the ground in an open rack I have, with no other component near it. The basement is vacuumed weekly, and I always turn the system off via the XMB option. I have a ridiculously expensive surge protector to save all my gear, including my PS3, which I even wired to have on it's own circuit to avoid interference from the dimmers and other stuff in the basement. Long story short, it's not in a box with cat fur mucking it up, let alone in peril.

I have a good amount of Sony gear in the house and have been a loyal customer for quite some time and I simply wanted Sony to back their product, especially to a customer as good as I have been. I asked they guy, if "user error" was the issue, what they thought I could have been doing to it. What issues was he aware of that would cause a PS3 to crap itself? He wouldn't answer. We went back and forth for over 5 minutes. I told him I was amazed that Sony didn't support their hardware, and that I've never had a refurb issue not get a 12 month guarantee after being fixed. (i.e. my Integra receiver) After asking to go speak with a manager, I was told no one was available. I gave my info and they said they'd call back.

Three days later a brown box with return info is on my doorstep. No call. I wait a full week. No call. I call back to see what's up, and after the rep puts me on hold for a minute, he lets me know what I need to do in regards to the service number and that there would be no charge.

Nice. No clue what made them change their minds, but very nice indeed. It took some time, but I'm very glad Sony bellied up to the bar and is making things right. They definitely kept a customer on this one...

sorry to go a little off subject but.....

"red blinking light of death"????????

i love that everything that goes wrong with something now has an "indicator" of death

but does this count for everything?

can i have a "holy **** my gearbox fell out while driving down the motorway and no it doesnt move of death"?

jeez

I kinda' like the "XXXX of death" thing. Everyone knows what you're talking about.

And I didn't really play hard ball, I just asked pointed questions about the product, the company, and having some compassion for a long time good customer. Glad they helped me out. Again, they definitely kept me as a customer.

And sorry to be so long winded in my initial post...

they are trying to charge $150 for fixing my slim (which is four months old :() bobbleheadrogue

I worship the kind of people that can stand up to customer service, can't seem to bring myself to it every time. Here's to hoping that the rage will take me over when I finally receive that dreaded YLOD. Or not.

I tried playing hard ball with them but customer service just gave me the ol' one finger salute

True story my cousins PS3 broke and I called Sony and they tried to tell me to pay the 150 and I just told them that I'm thinking about a 360 since your hardware is so unreliable it was a refurb 60gb and they got scared and gave me a free fix lol try the xbox card if it's one thing they hate more then losing money it's Microsoft loool

I had success with my PS2 in much the same way when the DVD drive crapped out in it. The unit was like 2 or 3 years out of warranty when the DVD drive just suddenly crashed. It opened and closed but didn't run. I called Sony up and they initially wanted to charge me, but I told them that I felt I shouldn't be charged. I'd been a loyal Sony customer for a long time, had supported their console and their games, and told them I felt that a $400 unit like that should last for longer than a few years and that they should stand by their product. They put me on hold, came back and told me they'd be fixing it for free. Then again, my other issue was with a copy of Uncharted that spontaneously cracked in my PS3. It hasn't happened to any other discs, but it most definitely happened to this one... I handle discs of all kinds with extreme care and there was no way I'd done the damage myself. Sony wouldn't hear of it, though, and refused to replace the disc. Sucked.sportwarrior

The second story is kind of hard to believe, even if it did happen. Never even heard of anything like it.

I worship the kind of people that can stand up to customer service, can't seem to bring myself to it every time. Here's to hoping that the rage will take me over when I finally receive that dreaded YLOD. Or not.

Gxgear

I just got that..this morning(technically yesterday). Going to fix it myself with the good advice from other users though.

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

I worship the kind of people that can stand up to customer service, can't seem to bring myself to it every time. Here's to hoping that the rage will take me over when I finally receive that dreaded YLOD. Or not.

mccoyca112

I just got that..this morning(technically yesterday). Going to fix it myself with the good advice from other users though.

About halfway through my 3 year extended warranty so I'm still okay, is your model backwards compatible? Or 80gb fat no BC.

My 60 gig died on me. Sucked to loose all them saved games too.... :(

[QUOTE="sportwarrior"]I had success with my PS2 in much the same way when the DVD drive crapped out in it. The unit was like 2 or 3 years out of warranty when the DVD drive just suddenly crashed. It opened and closed but didn't run. I called Sony up and they initially wanted to charge me, but I told them that I felt I shouldn't be charged. I'd been a loyal Sony customer for a long time, had supported their console and their games, and told them I felt that a $400 unit like that should last for longer than a few years and that they should stand by their product. They put me on hold, came back and told me they'd be fixing it for free. Then again, my other issue was with a copy of Uncharted that spontaneously cracked in my PS3. It hasn't happened to any other discs, but it most definitely happened to this one... I handle discs of all kinds with extreme care and there was no way I'd done the damage myself. Sony wouldn't hear of it, though, and refused to replace the disc. Sucked.Gxgear

The second story is kind of hard to believe, even if it did happen. Never even heard of anything like it.

[QUOTE="mccoyca112"]

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

I worship the kind of people that can stand up to customer service, can't seem to bring myself to it every time. Here's to hoping that the rage will take me over when I finally receive that dreaded YLOD. Or not.

Gxgear

I just got that..this morning(technically yesterday). Going to fix it myself with the good advice from other users though.

About halfway through my 3 year extended warranty so I'm still okay, is your model backwards compatible? Or 80gb fat no BC.

I have a 80gb bc model. I think it was that damn update that cursed me lol.

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

[QUOTE="sportwarrior"]I had success with my PS2 in much the same way when the DVD drive crapped out in it. The unit was like 2 or 3 years out of warranty when the DVD drive just suddenly crashed. It opened and closed but didn't run. I called Sony up and they initially wanted to charge me, but I told them that I felt I shouldn't be charged. I'd been a loyal Sony customer for a long time, had supported their console and their games, and told them I felt that a $400 unit like that should last for longer than a few years and that they should stand by their product. They put me on hold, came back and told me they'd be fixing it for free. Then again, my other issue was with a copy of Uncharted that spontaneously cracked in my PS3. It hasn't happened to any other discs, but it most definitely happened to this one... I handle discs of all kinds with extreme care and there was no way I'd done the damage myself. Sony wouldn't hear of it, though, and refused to replace the disc. Sucked.sportwarrior

The second story is kind of hard to believe, even if it did happen. Never even heard of anything like it.

I had an original 60gb ps3 traded it in for 250 gb slim because Borderlands dlc and borderlands itself would not play on the 60gb console. I called Sony said it was the game called 2kgames said it was the console and finally Sony said I could send it in for 100 dollars to fix it. I told them it works with ALL other games but borderlands and they finally after 90 minutes on phone admitted that 60gb consoles chipset was different from every other ps3's and that because of that borderlands patch may not work because of the difference and that it might happen to other games in the future. I was not happy with that considering I had bought my 60 gig in January of 2007 and when I called them it was March of this year. I tried to get them to fix for free or send me another or tell me how to fix it, they wouldn't. $1000 dollars down the tubes I thought. Well needless to say I popped in CODMW2 it crashed. So I took my console to gamestop and got $180 trade in credit since it still played everything but CODMW2 and Borderlands and got my slim for half off with the trade in credit. My opinion is if you have a 60 gig that still works and $185 get a 250 gig slim it works way better and runs way cooler than the fat did.

I'm sure it does, but me likey backwards compatability even though it's pretty much never used...same with the memory card slots. I do use all USB ports though. What can I say? Although if I do get the new receiver I've been looking at, the new PS3's ability to bitstream and let the receiver do the decoding is pretty neat...

[QUOTE="bobbleheadrogue"]they are trying to charge $150 for fixing my slim (which is four months old :() jshaas