Sony: Too much dust voids PS3 warranty
Kiss the warranty on your PS3 goodbye if you live in the desert. According to a post at The Consumerist, Sony officials told a PS3 owner who sent in his PS3 to be replaced that there was excessive dust inside his PS3, which Sony took pictures of, and if he wants a replacement he needs to pay $150.
The next day I got a call from the same guy, Saying he couldn’t get pictures, and there was no way they could replace the console unless I paid 150$ out-of-warranty replacement fee. I dais I needed to speak to his supervisor and it took him a while but he eventually transferred me to yet another person who just told me from the pictures they saw of the outside of the PS3, the memory ports and the USB ports, that there was dust inside of these ports, and that there was no way they would replace such a dusty console.
The PS3 owner later goes on to say the highest customer service rep. he could talk to told him he would have to subpoena the pictures to get them, and he could either pay the $150 or wait 10 days for his PS3 to be sent back.
I don’t get it! Sony is including Folding@home with their consoles, The auto-start feature makes it so its running almost all the time, OF COURSE ITS GOING TO BE FILLED WITH DUST! A few reps said that the reason they couldn’t replace it was because it looked as if it had about 2 years worth of dust in it rather than 8 months….. The console hasn’t even been out a year so obviously that is less than a years worth of dust.
I love the PS3, I’m a Sony fanboy, I have a copy of Heavenly Sword Un-Played because I’m waiting for the replacement to come back, For them to say they wont replace it because it is such a damn dust magnet is absolutely ridiculous. IM NOT paying 150$ for someone to use an air compressor to dust off my PS3 re-test it and send it back. MAYBE Sony should let their customers know that excessive dust voids the warranty, so that people can start selling air filter set’s for it, and air-sealed boxes for the PS3 to sit in.
Stories like this tend to spread like wildfire over the Internet, and things that spread like wildfire over the Internet tend to be PR nightmares for companies like Sony. Will Sony back off on this one and give they guy a new PS3, or is Sony going to stick with their original claim that excessive dust is an act of god? Only time and the interwebs will tell.
Update: A customer service rep. at Sony told the Consumerist reader Ive dust shouldn’t void the PS3 warranty.
The only way that it, um, voided is if it was neglected, um, abused, dropped or anything like, modificated like if you opened it up, modification, if you didn’t have your receipt, um, any power failures like mother nature or anything like that then that actually does void the warranty. Other than that any defective PS3s or anything like that is still, um, still under the warranty.
Sony is saying the dust in the unit in question constituted neglect.
I’ll keep you updated on how this develops.
