Kainaw's Journal: Sony PS3 unSupport

Ever needed to use Sony's PS3 Support? I sure hope not. A month ago, I showed my wife "Little Big Planet." It seemed like a good game to play for a while. We brought it home. We played it right away and it was fun. The next day, it wouldn't play. I put the disk in, but nothing happened. I put in another game. Nothing. I put in a DVD. Nothing. I put in a CD. Nothing. Obviously, there was something wrong with the CD/DVD reader. So, I rushed to my file cabinet of receipts.

I found my receipt. We were one week away from the one year limit for PS3 support. So, I called them right away. A recording told me repeatedly to go online. I didn't want to go online. I wanted to talk to a human. After going through the maze of recorded voices, pressing 1, then 3, then 5, then 2, then hanging up and trying another pattern, I finally just pressed 0. Wow! I was told that I would have to wait a long time, but a human should answer... eventually...

I spoke to a human and he had an American accent! Amazing! I explained what was wrong. He said it was common. He told me that I'd get a box in the mail. Just put the PS3 in the box and I'll get it back in about 2 weeks. I explained that I had a problem - I was moving. Could it be shipped to my new address. No. It can only be shipped to the address that the whole thing originates from. So, he wanted me to wait until I move before I start the process. But, that would put me out of the warranty period. I just had to hope I would get it back before I moved.

About three weeks later, I got my PS3 back. I had two weeks before I had to move, so everything worked out great. Well, that was until I plugged it in and tried it. The disk wouldn't go in. I tried another disk. It wouldn't go in. I turned it off and on. It made a terrible noise. The disk still wouldn't go in. I immediately called support back. It took me a while to remember to ignore the recorded voice and press zero.

I spoke to another support person. He said that since I got it back with the same problem, they would send me a new PS3 instead of repairing my old one. I explained that it was not the same problem. It was worse. It wouldn't read disks before. Now, it won't load them. Regardless, I was getting a new PS3. I explained again that I was moving very soon. He said that everything had to be shipped to the address that I started out with, but that I could call UPS when delivery was attempted and have the PS3 shipped to my new address.

I waited and waited and waited. Finally, I got an email with a tracking number. The first delivery attempt was the day I was leaving town and moving halfway across the country. I immediately called UPS to see if I could pick it up from them first thing in the morning. No. They don't allow you to pick it up until a delivery attempt is made. Since it is residential delivery, they don't try to deliver until after 6:00pm - I would be a good 500 miles away by then. Could I just change the delivery address? No, not until the first deliver attempt is made.

Now, I'm in a hotel room and I called UPS to see if an attempt was made. Yes. So, all I had to do was change the delivery address. No. Sony added a restriction to the shipment. The delivery address could not be changed. Only Sony could change it.

So, I called Sony - remembering to press 0 right away. I waited and waited. I was connected and listened to a man and woman chat about where they were going to eat and the terrible people they had in their last few calls and who was coming in later... No matter how loud I yelled into my phone, neither the man or woman heard me. I called back and waited and waited. The guy answered and said hello. I explained the whole problem to him. He said it wasn't a problem. He'd just put me on hold and take care of it. After being on hold for a while, he came back and said that I'd have to wait until UPS made 3 attempts and waited 5 business days. Then, they would ship it back to UPS, which would take 5-7 days. Then, I would have to call support again and change the shipping address. Then, they will try to find the returned package and ship it to my new address.

Of course, after being bounced, dropped, and kicked by UPS on multiple trips across the country, there won't be any problems with the PS3 when I finally get it back - in about 2 months, right?

UPDATE: Two months after starting this, I received my PS3 and, amazingly, it works! Now, I wonder where I put my Little Big Planet disk...