On October 19, 2008 I bought a Sony Vaio VGN-FW285J ( nearly the same as the one on the video but for $1700 with bluray burner) at the J&R Store in Manhattan. The laptop worked fine for a couple of months. One evening, while playing a game, the laptop suddenly shut down. I tried to turn it on but it failed to respond. When touching the keyboard you could feel the laptop was hot. I assumed the computer had turned off as a result of an overheat protection measure. I waited five minutes and turned the laptop on without any problems. I resumed playing the game and the same thing happened. This time the computer shut down after playing for 5 minutes.

I bought a coolerpad for the laptop. The problem seemed to have disappeared. As I live in Costa Rica, and the guarantee is only for the United States, I decided to continue with the coolerpad until I had a chance to go to the States and take it to support. As time passed the problem reappeared to the point that I was not even able to use the laptop normally, the keyboard freezes and the laptop shuts down a few minutes after being turned on, no matter what I do, even with the coolerpad.

I was able to go to New York in October 2009. I took the laptop to Sony Plaza, under guarantee coverage. Support there was very professional, I told them that I thought it was an overheating problem and that I lived in Costa Rica where temperature was at least 10 celsius degrees higher than in New York. They added a note in the repair voucher,. In less than a week they called me back saying they had repaired the laptop and that all was ok. I picked up the laptop and was told they had changed the fan. I tested the laptop and it seemed to work fine. When I arrived in Costa Rica, I turned on the laptop and after 15 minutes of work it shut down as it had been doing before taking it to support.

Lucky for me I had a friend going to New York the following week. I gave him the laptop and he again took it to Sony Plaza. One week later my friend picked up the laptop. He was told the motherboard was changed. When I got back the laptop in Costa Rica. I was surprised to find that after running the laptop for 10 minutes it shut down!!!!

Sincerely, I don’t know what kind of technical support SONY has, twice I’ve taken the laptop in for repair, twice I have been told parts were replaced and twice I have found the repairs ineffective.
Now, I sent it back for a third time, and they say it has physical damage and that voids the warranty, what physical damage?? The laptop was physically perfect all the times it was sent to SONY.

SONY are a bunch of scammers.

DON’T BUY any SONY product, if it works you won’t have a problem, but if it fails under warranty forget to have it repaired, they will have you hours at the phone talking with a bunch of retarded people that won’t help you, and even if you take it to repair and explain them what happens with all kind of details they won’t repair it.

If you think you are paying for a quality product and costumer service you are being fooled.

DON’T BUY SONY!