*URGENT: BATTERY ISSUE/REPLACEMENT- SONY REPAIR RIPPING ME OFF..ADVICE NEEDED ASAP!!

[sgupta123]

Hi guys, I'm a student in UK and this is my first post and coming out of EXTREME urgency. I have a vaio FE21M (white) bought may 2006 which is now under 2 year extended warranty(expensive affair). Right now my vaio is at sony's UK repair centre due to a major battery issue and i need your advice asap as i feel im being penalised for no fault of mine. I'll write the story in steps:-

1) 3 months back i had sent my vaio for repair as i felt that my battery was getting overheated and the battery charging(lighting bolt) icon in the taskbar used to never go off even when my battery reached 100% level(unlike my lenovo laptop in which it did go off at 100% and said 'charged'). i assumed from the start that it is normal. IS IT on other sony's too??At that stage my battery still gave 2 hours back-up(reduced) and sony sent it back saying that it's ok after extensively testing it.

2) A month back one fine day my laptop just stopped recognizing my battery's presence. Even though plugged into the laptop the taskbar showed 'battery not present/on a.c. power only' like it does when you remove the battery. No amount of re-inserting/re-booting for next 3-4 days got it to be recognized by the system and obv the power adaptor worked fine to run the laptop. The battery gave perfectly good back-up till the night before and just DIED suddenly! I needed the laptop for exams so used it for a month on ac power keeping my battery separate.
Then after 25 odd days when i plugged in the battery a few times(it still din't appear) at home it suddenly got recognized at one boot-up with the battery in,i.e.,the icon showed the battery ID with the charging 'lightning bolt' icon on it and battery details. This amazed me but the battery din't charge up at all even if left charging for more than a day.THE LEVEL STAYED AT 0% with 'charging' being shown!! I obviously called sony to take it away knowing something is weirdly wrong but regretting my laptop recognizing my battery for i knew they would say its dead by 'normal' use!!
*WHAT COULD CAUSE THE BATTERY TO NOT GET RECOGNIZED AND THEN RANDOMLY RE-APPEAR ONE DAY AND NOT CHARGE UP???

3) Sony calls me back and obviously says that the battery is dead and told me to shell out £200+ for replacement and labour since the battery is not covered under warranty. This was totally unacceptable to me after having shelled out £180 a month back on extended warranty and having seen my battery DIE all of a sudden. I told sony what all had happened and asked them for an explanation which they havnt provided as yet. My point is that the battery death IS A CONSEQUENCE OF SOMETHING BEING WRONG WITH MY LAPTOP'S CHARGING MECHANISM OR THE NON CUT-OFF OF CHARGING being the cause. In my other lenovo laptops this lightning icon goes away when 100% charged but not on my sony since day 1.
Sony keeps calling and saying we have passed the info. to the repair centre and they have tested it and said that the battery is dead so it will cost for replacement and i keep telling them to tell me if the 'death' is natural or a result of some other fault??!

**I think they are passing the buck onto me and not seeing it as their fault esp. when i had sent it for repairs 3 months back on suspicion of something being wrong and battery over-heating and back-up times reducing**
So,PLEASE ADVICE ME ASAP AS TIME IS RUNNING OUT AS TO WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS WRONG WITH IT AND WHAT SHOULD I DO??SHOULD I GIVE UP AND PAY FOR A NEW BATTERY OR FIGHT AS IM JUST A STUDENT AND CAN'T KEEP DISHING OUT SO MUCH MAKING ME REGRET EVER HAVING BOUGHT A SONY. THANKS.

[jonbird77]

Sorry i don't have any posotive feedback for you but good on ya for going the distance with Sony.
Your well within you consumers rights to dispute a defect battery from what seems a new product.
As Sony for a report of manufacture giving them you p/n's and serial numbers of the battery, they should have a batch number they can trace all manufacture too and be able to check if there have been problems with the same batteries produced at the same time.

I also, suggest as many people as possible back this guy up, we pay a lot of money for overpriced proucts these days and a bit of support from the manufactures would go along way to 'good customer relations'.

Good luck and keep us all posted!

[Blencogo]

Hi sgupta123 and welcome.

1. The charging symbol showing 100% of the time when connected to AC power is normal - all Sony models are like this. The battery charging mechanism prevents overcharging by reducing the current to very close to nil when the battery is charged. You can actually see this by downloading something like MobileMeter which will show your charging rate.

2. You say that faulty charging has caused your battery to fail - you must accept that it could be the other way around. It does seem more likely to me that a faulty battery would exhibit all the symptoms you describe including intermittent recognition.

From experience, Sony have accepted some liability for duff batteries up to 90 days from purchase - never longer. Nobody I can think of will offer a warranty over 12 months on a battery. Sony consider a battery as a consumable and battery life depends on the user's treatment of it.

I am not here to defend Sony or its policies but I am just putting the unemotional and realistic situation. I am not trying to stop your "discussions" with Sony.

Let us know how you get on - you may also like to look at this link: -

http://www.duracelldirect.co.uk/laptop-notebook/sony/vaio-vgn-fe21m-battery-adapter-charger.html

A bit cheaper AND a 12 month warranty!!

[sgupta123]

Hi sgupta123 and welcome.

1. The charging symbol showing 100% of the time when connected to AC power is normal - all Sony models are like this.  The battery charging mechanism prevents overcharging by reducing the current to very close to nil when the battery is charged.  You can actually see this by downloading something like MobileMeter which will show your charging rate.

2. You say that faulty charging has caused your battery to fail - you must accept that it could be the other way around.  It does seem more likely to me that a faulty battery would exhibit all the symptoms you describe including intermittent recognition.

From experience, Sony have accepted some liability for duff batteries up to 90 days from purchase - never longer.  Nobody I can think of will offer a warranty over 12 months on a battery. Sony consider a battery as a consumable and battery life depends on the user's treatment of it.

I am not here to defend Sony or its policies but I am just putting the unemotional and realistic situation.  I am not trying to stop your "discussions" with Sony.

Let us know how you get on - you may also like to look at this link: -

http://www.duracelldirect.co.uk/laptop-notebook/sony/vaio-vgn-fe21m-battery-adapter-charger.html

A bit cheaper AND a 12 month warranty!!

 

Hey, thanks for the great advice,this is what these forums are all about,helping each other out of quicksand!! Now I did some research and came across 2 important things:-

1) Regarding buying non-sony batteries like from the link u've posted I came across this point of concern in notebookreview.com forums. The concern is about the laptop not recognizing non-oem batteries and hibernating for which people suggest disabling the 'ISBMgr' utility from startup. When people do this they get the battery to get accepted and in some cases it works perfectly then on but some people say that THE NON-OEM BATTERY NEVER GETS RECHARGED AND THEY HAD TO RETURN IT. can u tell me if tbhis is the case with FE21M??
The non-oem discussion link

2) Much more importantly as far as my battery issue with sony is concerned i came across these guys in US who had the same 'battery not present' issue after the initial 6-7 months period(so rendering the battery out of warranty). In their case they called sony and were sent replacements in 36 hours or so!! 2-3 guys had it done without even sending their machines to sony...so how is my case any different and not eligible for the same treatment, are UK and US services different and UK treated as 2nd grade or what???here they have taken a good 2-3 weeks and still dragging it on.
here's the link for battery not found:

PLEASE ADVICE FURTHER ACTION GUYS...THANKS IN ADVANCE.

[kee-lo_]

If it was a non-Sony battery I'm afraid you won't have a leg to stand on - as Sony say they do not support them and if anything goes wrong then the user is liable. You could always consult with the CAB, but I think the same reply will emerge.

[sgupta123]

No, It was the genuine original sony battery which is the issue here. What i said is that i may go in for a generic/non-oem battery if i have to pay for one eventually but have doubts if they work well in sony's as people mentioned they have recognition issues.

STILL looking for answers to my previous questions guys..plz help asap.

[Blencogo]

All you can do is to quote the links you have found to Sony to show how other customers have been treated.

On the battery, I would buy one from a source that guarantees compatibility.

[kee-lo_]

I would go for an official Sony battery then if it happens you know they'll have no way of saying it's your fault.