That sucks.
I stopped buying sony products couple of years ago for the same reason. Just had bad luck with Sony.
If this story is true, and I don't know why it isn't, I might wait a bit before purchasing PS3.
Any others here having problems?

$140 for an half hour job seems quite a bit though. Wonder how much the replacement part cost.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-SONY-PlayStation3-PS3-KES-400AAA-Blu-Ray-Laser_W0QQitemZ320217461496QQihZ011QQcategoryZ147177QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

here's the part which you can buy from ebay. The $140 is fine so long as I get my PS3 running as soon as possible as it is indeed a wonderful piece of equipment. If I waited for Sony, it might take weeks. Even if they send the coffin, It would still take weeks since the item isn't there in the US. I still have to ship it there to a friend who will take care of sending it to Sony once they agree to fix it.

So all in all $140 is a fair price.

How much would it have cost if you sent it to sony?
Or did they no tell you?

The replacement part costs $80.
The technician is getting rich with all those PS3s