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Forums - Sony Discussion - Surge protector voids PS3 warranty?!

Is this real?

PS3 warranty voided by surge protector - 'great' pay up $150 say Sony

A member of the Playstation forums called up Sony regarding his four month old PS3 which had turned into a brick, with the trouble starting back a while ago when the system would just shut off. However, the Playstation rep wasn't interested in all that, as soon as he heard the gamer had used a high quality power surge protector, the rep remarked 'okay great, Sony can fix it right up for you for $150' as the year-long warranty was voided by the surge protector.

quote:

So I woke up yesterday morning and saw that my PS3 was not on. You know that little light letting you know it's getting power? That morning, no light. This happened once before, but I was able to unplug it and plug it back in to get power, and then it worked. I tried that yesterday morning, but nada. Nothing would work... it was completely dead and not getting power.

So I call Sony and let them know that my less-than 4 month old PS3 was now a brick. I tried to tell the guy that the trouble started when I first tried to play Call of Duty 3 a while back - it would just completely shut off the system and the only way to get it back on was to unplug it and replug it back in. (an issue that's been well-documented now in threads such as these.)

The service representative didn't care about any of that. Instead, he starts asking me a bunch of questions to try and void my warranty. Things like, "I want you to check the sticker above the hard drive and tell me if it looks damaged." I'm like, "no, no, no" to everything he's asking. Then he asks me if I had a power surge recently. Again, I tell him no, that I have all my electronics protected with a high quality power surge protector. He then says "okay, great, Sony can fix it right up for you for $150." I asked how long the warranty was, and he said a year... but then he tells me that I voided my warranty by plugging it in to a surge protector. I asked him if he was kidding me, and he says nope, the PS3 is only allowed to be plugged into the wall directly.


News Source: Playstation


 



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Sony has always had terrible customer service. For years they have survived on the perception that they make better quality products then their competitors. Problem is their competitors now have better quality, customer service and perceived value.



madskillz said:

Is this real?

PS3 warranty voided by surge protector - 'great' pay up $150 say Sony

A member of the Playstation forums called up Sony regarding his four month old PS3 which had turned into a brick, with the trouble starting back a while ago when the system would just shut off. However, the Playstation rep wasn't interested in all that, as soon as he heard the gamer had used a high quality power surge protector, the rep remarked 'okay great, Sony can fix it right up for you for $150' as the year-long warranty was voided by the surge protector.

quote:

So I woke up yesterday morning and saw that my PS3 was not on. You know that little light letting you know it's getting power? That morning, no light. This happened once before, but I was able to unplug it and plug it back in to get power, and then it worked. I tried that yesterday morning, but nada. Nothing would work... it was completely dead and not getting power.

So I call Sony and let them know that my less-than 4 month old PS3 was now a brick. I tried to tell the guy that the trouble started when I first tried to play Call of Duty 3 a while back - it would just completely shut off the system and the only way to get it back on was to unplug it and replug it back in. (an issue that's been well-documented now in threads such as these.)

The service representative didn't care about any of that. Instead, he starts asking me a bunch of questions to try and void my warranty. Things like, "I want you to check the sticker above the hard drive and tell me if it looks damaged." I'm like, "no, no, no" to everything he's asking. Then he asks me if I had a power surge recently. Again, I tell him no, that I have all my electronics protected with a high quality power surge protector. He then says "okay, great, Sony can fix it right up for you for $150." I asked how long the warranty was, and he said a year... but then he tells me that I voided my warranty by plugging it in to a surge protector. I asked him if he was kidding me, and he says nope, the PS3 is only allowed to be plugged into the wall directly.


News Source: Playstation


 


It's probably real.  There was an issue with the Xbox 360 and one of the intercooler devices that Microsoft wouldn't honor the warranty if you used that specific intercooler.  Their reason (which was a fair one, I think) was that the intercooler would draw its power through the 360 rather than through the power supply and this caused a significant increase in 360 failures.



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Systems I currently own (in order of preference): PS2, SNES, Gamecube, Xbox 360, Genesis, Nintendo DS, PSX, XBOX, Wii, PS3,  Atari 5200, Turbo-Grafx 16, NES, Gameboy, Game Gear, 32X.

I can understand a company's policy when it comes to things like a cooling device for a 360...it's drawing power from the system...a failure could surely be caused by a device drawing power from a system.

But a surge protector? So lame. Moral of the story, don't mention any peripherals and tell them it's plugged into the wall...



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Cool so now surge protectors destroy PS3, whereas Intercoolers destroy 360's. But I have an Intercooler EX version, the brand new one and it works fluid. I have mod it, where it uses its own power source....horray so no more RRoD's!!!!



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way to be a tool sony--you think they would have voided it for tthe other way no protection



 

Huh.....that is officially the first report of a PS3 failing I have ever heard, actually. I read on Wikipedia that the failure rate was less than 1 percent, maybe this is the one percent. I've had mine plugged into a power strip that my Wii, tv, vcr, dvr, and PS2 are all also plugged into. Been that way for a year, no problems at all.



                                   

Wait... PS3s can actually fail?

Sorry Sony, but you are just lame.



No guys, 3 other people in that thread checked with Sony and it is not the case. The surge protector did not invalidate the warranty. This may have been one tech misunderstanding or possibly even intentionally misleading the customer.

 

I think the more disconcerting thing is that when it gets fixed, the hard drive will be wiped and since there is no power, the guy can't make a backup of the hard drive. 



this is why you read the warrenty information before calling.

THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY IF THIS PRODUCT (A) IS USED WITH PRODUCTS THAT ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THIS PRODUCT; (B) IS USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES (INCLUDING RENTAL); (C) IS MODIFIED, OR TAMPERED WITH; (D) IS DAMAGED BY ACTS OF GOD, MISUSE, ABUSE, NEGLIGENCE, ACCIDENT, WEAR AND TEAR, UNREASONABLE USE, OR BY OTHER CAUSES UNRELATED TO DEFECTIVE MATERIALS OR WORKMANSHIP; (E) HAS HAD THE SERIAL NUMBER ALTERED, DEFACED OR REMOVED; OR (F) HAS HAD THE WARRANTY SEAL ON THE PS3TM SYSTEM ALTERED, DEFACED, OR REMOVED. THIS WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER CONSUMABLES (SUCH AS BATTERIES) OR PRODUCTS SOLD "AS IS" OR WITH ALL FAULTS. THIS WARRANTY SHALL ALSO BE VOIDABLE BY SCEA IF (1) SCEA REASONABLY BELIEVES THAT THE PS3TM SYSTEM HAS BEEN USED IN A MANNER THAT WOULD VIOLATE THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF A SEPARATE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR SYSTEM SOFTWARE; OR (2) THE PRODUCT IS USED WITH PRODUCTS NOT SOLD OR LICENSED BY SCEA (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NON-LICENSED GAME ENHANCEMENT DEVICES, CONTROLLERS, ADAPTORS AND POWER SUPPLY DEVICES). YOU ASSUME ALL RISKS AND LIABILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH USE OF THIRD PARTY PRODUCTS. A VALID PROOF OF PURCHASE IN THE FORM OF A BILL OF SALE OR RECEIPT FROM AN AUTHORIZED RETAILER WITH THE DATE OF THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE MUST BE PRESENTED TO OBTAIN WARRANTY SERVICE.

 So there you have it. You can not use surge protectors if Sony considers them a "Power Supply Device", however i personally would interpret this as a UPS or other power conditioner.

 If the person had read the warrenty, they could have said no i just plugged it in the wall and we had no power surges.




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