Sony pursues very discriminatory warranty rights in regards to her products. This story is about my headphones that broke down but I couldn't get warranty rights to be applied to them.
In the third quarter of 2018, I bought a new Sony Wh-1000xm3 from Marktplaats. I went to the southern part of the Netherlands to pick it up. It was an entirely new, sealed package. The PostNL box was even still around it. The couple that sold it got it due to an extension of their phone subscription but do not want the headphones. It can be concluded that I would be the first owner of this product, thus the warranty rights are also with me.
About a year later, a very annoying and distracting noise happened on the left side earcup. I went online to find solutions, but quickly it became clear that it had to go to repair shops. It's important to me that the headphones work as intended because I require them to reduce overstimulation from outside.
I reached out to Sony, explaining the situation, and I want to make use of my warranty. However, this is not possible without an invoice. I did not have an invoice because Sony does not give invoices for products that are part of an action. So I told them that and found that Sony should provide a solution. However, they did not want to do that, insisting on referring back to their terms and conditions, which study did not address my situation at all.
Eventually, I got very upset and presented Sony with an ultimatum. They are going to give me the warranty rights or I'm going to sue them to enforce my consumer rights on a decent product free of any kind of defects. And then they stopped responding. Personal health issues, as well as a lack of financial means, prevented me from pursuing legal action
Because it's such a complicated situation, I've created a real-time diagram where you can follow all the steps that I've taken to get things solved. In reality, nothing is solved. I am truly stuck. I'm not being heard, I'm not being taken seriously, and this unjust situation has already haunted me for 2 years.
To me the desired solution is:
Sony
Please respect my warranty rights and offer to repair the headphones.
Pay me 300 euros for the time I had to dedicate to exercising my rights.
Revamp the internal process to include an invoice when a product is shipped out, regardless of whether it was purchased, part of a promotion or won as a prize.
Marktplaats
They will conduct an internal investigation if their archives still hold my conversation with the person I purchased the headphones from initially.
Revamps their customer service policies on the chat, preventing one-sided closure of the chat when things get tough.
Angel (the customer service agent) is sent home for 14 days on unpaid leave for her rude behavior as well as her utter unwillingness to help solve the problem discussed in the chat.
In the meantime...
It's unlikely any of these parties will budge, and since I do not have the means to fight a legal dispute to gain access to my rights of warranty, I am forced into making a crowdfunding campaign to recuperate my costs.
Their products are good but their customer service utterly sucks and is totally not there for serving customers. If anybody can hack them and wire some of the funds to my account to recoup my losses as a justice serving, I am interested to hear from you as well.