My suggestion would be to take the unit back to the retailer you bought the device from. They can handle the situation with Sony, AFAIK that's the normal procedure, at least in my country. If it's within the warranty period, it should be fixed for free, if not then expect that repair costs need to be paid. AFAIK, that's also the most common repair protocol.

You can however try to ask politely for Sony's mercy and explain the situation, I think often this can give good results. That's what I read in a few comments on other forums thus far (just make sure you haven't covered your PS3 with dust from the vacuum cleaner bag or any other signs of neglect ).

If you want to make a topic about 360 failures and Microsoft customer service feel free to do so Mike, but that's not what the TC was asking about, and it's not what you should be discussing.

Hahaha I remember this one kid hacked his psp and it bricked.
after that he called sony and he was asked $90 to get it repaired.
all he had to do was say some sob story on how he wont be able to buy a ps3 anymore because
he has to use the money he saved to get his psp repaired. Afterwhich the Sony rep asked "did you plan on getting a ps3?" kid says "yes" then the Sony rep said " wait a moment" disappears for a minute and says "oh okay well fix it for free".

he can try a similar tactic, saying he was saving the money to buy a psp

Good suggestions.  I hadn't thought about asking the retailer to interviene, but that's a good idea.

And you're right about making sure the machine looks like it's been well cared for if Sony does accept it for repairs...  

Yeah. Sony is known for their crappy customer support espiecally in europe (don't know if you live in europe). Sometimes it's just bad. Sometimes they try and screw you out of your warranty...

That's why i avoid all Sony products not videogame systems. That and the fact that pretty much every Sony product i've ever seen someone owned has broken right after the warranty.

Seems like you've just got some bad luck though. I'd go with the calling and complaining a few times route if you really can't aford the 120. Maybe threaten to switch to a 360, threaten to tell all your friends, right a big thing about it online, report them to their manager.

It's not something i'd do. But i've often found if you act beligerant enough people will tend to take care of things for you... even when they don't have to.

Though to be fair.  It seems like europe gets the worst customer support for pretty much every company i've seen.  I wonder why.  Langauge issues perhaps?

My only customer support experience with Sony involved a walkman MP3 player (ATRAC actually to be exact). I treated my Walkman pretty badly all of its life and it lasted quite a while but it eventually died (the controls all failed pretty hard) so I rang up Sony and they agreed to send me a new one. Now they didn't have any of my model left (the bean) so they sent me a brand new version as well.
When I got it back it had new (and uncomfortable) headphones, I rang back up and asked if my old headphones were possibly still hanging around (I sent them in as well, don't know why), the guy said he would have a look and about a week later I received a package with 3 sets of headphones (which was just as well because the set I got back with my MP3 player died about 5 minutes beforehand).

So yeah, for me Sony customer support in the sole time I have used it has been exceptional, helpful and given me service above what they needed to. They could easily have claimed that they didn't need to replace my Walkman because it had so clearly been treated badly and they had no reason at all to send me the headphones.

My PS3 would not read DVD's before until i shut the system down and unplugged it, then plugged it all back up and it worked again. I have also Phoned Sony before regarding my PS3 and i got to talk to a person very fast.

The Sony number i had you needed to listen to about 3mins of crap before you got to talk to anyone, while they told you stuff you needed to press buttons while they directed you towards different parts. Maybe you pressed 4 instead of 5 after one of their questions and you got sent to the wrong area.

A few weeks ago. My 20 month old son stuck my damaged GH3 disk(dog) into my PS3 and it got stuck. I called for a coffin but got a good 15 minutes of the "Please call back later...we are busy" machine lady. I did get through and was prepared to pay the $150 repair fee for neglect. I sent it in on a Thursday and had a new one with the damaged disc in the box the following Tuesday. Less than a week turnaround time is pretty damn skippy.

I worked for a couple years as a Verizon Wireless in store tech. I used to say the word warranty once every 20 seconds. I despise the word but respect its length.

Sorry your PS3 died and is out of warranty. But quit with the self entitlement crap about you not feeling like you should have to pay. $120 is still much less than buying a new one.

I'm getting worried about all these PS3 reading issues.

Its *exactly* the same problem I had with my PS2 (dust on the lens, or something like that) - and it took Sony ****NINE MONTHS*** to fix my damned unit. Maybe it was because I had it under extended warranty - so there was no cost to me.

...

I guess we'll see if there are significant number of reports popping up in the coming 3 months. If the PS3 has the same problem as the PS2... I will not be a happy man :(

I believe the PS2 problem was related to the lens.  The PS3 problem appears to be related to a drive motor failure, i.e. - the drive will not spin a disc.