I live in Canada. In March of 2010 I purchased an xperia x2 from a retailer here. Yes I am well aware of all of the issues with the software and this phone. I have over the last couple of months been able to use 3rd party apps to actually get this phone to work properly and was enjoying the experience greatly. Now, last week I went to do a fresh update so I could set the phone up properly with just the apps I needed in it. During the SEUS update the phone froze and would not do anything other than vibrate once when plugged in. All of the assorted "press this and this and hold it" suggestions from a number of sources were tried to no avail. Then I called SE in Canada to see what they could offer...
Call 1: Call centre dude tells me that he knows about this and that all I need to do is hold down the "volume down" and power button, and continue to hold it for approximately 1 hour! I can't beleive that I actually tried it. Surprise, it didn't work.
Call 2: (Same day) Call centre dude 2 tells me that I need to send it to Newmarket where there is a repair centre, and they will fix it. He then gives me an rma # and tells me to call back sometime next week. I mention the thing on the website that says they will replace the phone in 48 hours (travellers insurance section). He tells me that I am effectively full of ---- and that SE does not have anything like that for any of their phones...
Then I sent the phone to the repair centre with all the requisite information required. It arrived in 48 hours at the repair centre.
Call 3: (4 days since initial call) Call centre dudette sounds actually interested in fixing the issue and gets information, including me walking her through where the aforementioned section regarding replacement of the phone is, and states that she will "escalate" the issue to a supervisor and have a response for me by the end of the day...
Call 4: (Same day as Call 3, but 30 minutes before they shut down) different call centre person this time, but she tells me that the person looking after the escalation is in a meeting and passes on the message that she will be calling me back withing minutes... nothing.
Call 5: (24 hours after Call 3) Yet another call centre person, no record of any escalation, and I go through the same thing with him as in call 3 except he thinks I am making the whole thing up. Now he tells me that he is going to escalate the issue to a supervisor, and that supervisor will get back to me within the next 24 - 48 hours. I tell him that I am concerned regarding sending the phone to Newmarket Ontario repair centre, because other people have done this and all they do in Newmarket is say they can't do anything with it and it gets sent back to the owner to send to the US to fix, but if they can't fix it then the customer is screwed. CSR won't comment on that part. Or anything else for that matter, just a repeated "sorry for the inconvenience" (translation= nothing I can do about it, you should start thinking about buying another phone cause we are so not going to do anything for you)
Here is the thing, I spend over $700 for a luxury phone that has an international warranty so that all of the usual "deal with the provider" crap goes away. I specifically went to these lengths after a call to SE to verify that the warranty applies to my situation and usage of the unit, and they claimed that this was not an issue. Now all I have is issues, the people in this support centre don't seem to have any familiarity with this handset, or what to do with it. Apparently there is supposed to be a "dedicated Xperia X2 support team" to fast track these things and answer questions. Nobody that I have spoken with in the SE corporate entity has any idea what I am talking about, and yet, there it is on their global website. You can even show it to them and they have no comment whatsoever.
If my current experience is anything to judge the level of service one might expect from SE for their products then be warned. You access them at your peril.
Someone from SE care to comment?
I have even tried to have the support center send me some sort of form or survey or anything so I can give some feedback regarding the performance of the support line in addressing the issues I have experienced, but have received a lot of "absolutely" and "right away", but nothing for my email inbox... (ssshhhhh, maybe if we just ignore him he will go away...)
