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Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 7:08 am
by bakubo
One of our members has been bit by a QC problem with his brand new A77:

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... =32&t=5768

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 11:47 pm
by artington
Poor Sony. Gets beaten up by it's own "supporters". As thie piece linked below shows there will always be outliers (unless they're made by Leica, I suspect) and it's not just Sony who makes them

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/10 ... -variation

Personally, I think the Sony management deserves praise for taking on Nikon and Canon. This sort of competition spurs on innovation. And if there are teething troubles, don't get too exercised about it. They are not alone. And it's not just cameras. My children's laptops, made by HP, suffered from overheated motherboards after 13 months (funny, that) and it was cheaper to replace the computers than the boards! I've owned Mercedes, BMW, Audis amongst other top car brandsand they've all had issues, some more than others. So focussing on one manufacturer's so-called QC problems seems unfair to me.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 12:18 am
by Atgets_Apprentice
I wouldn't call myself a "supporter". I just happen to own a camera made by a company which apparently doesn't give a damn about quality control, customer service, or even meeting a demand for a product. Not everyone wants an SLT, but Sony would have us believe otherwise.

Anybody want to buy an a580 & Tamron 18-250mm?

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:58 am
by bakubo
artington wrote:Poor Sony. Gets beaten up by it's own "supporters".
One has a reasonable set of expectations of a fully working camera when one buys it. Giving Sony or any company a pass and making excuses for them hurts them and us, IMO. It is me who is the big supporter who wants the best for Sony (since it would then be better for us customers).

Oh my. The soft bigotry of low expectations. :lol: Sometimes, I get the impression that people think that although Sony is a huge, multi-national corporation we must provide them an affirmative action program because they just can't hack it without our thumb on the scales.
artington wrote:Personally, I think the Sony management deserves praise for taking on Nikon and Canon.
Praise? I figure all the dollars I have given them, most of those dollars for defective products, is enough praise. I don't send birthday cards, etc. to Sony either. :lol: I don't expect Sony to come visit me if I am in the hospital. Sony isn't my buddy. Sony is a huge, multi-national corporation in which I have a transactional relationship. That is all.
artington wrote:This sort of competition spurs on innovation. And if there are teething troubles, don't get too exercised about it.
Want to buy my A700 from me? Do so and I will try to not get "too exercised" about defective Sony products.
artington wrote:So focussing on one manufacturer's so-called QC problems seems unfair to me.
Unfair? We are talking about a huge, multi-national corporation, right? Not a buddy. Not unfair at all. I consider selling some defective products, not acknowledging it, and not fixing it even when sent in to be fixed to be unfair. This thread is not just about one problem though, but the general problem of poor Sony QC. With the A77 QC debacle it is amazing to me that anyone would be concerned about whether holding Sony to a high standard is unfair.

Creating a problem free product is the Number 1 priority. It doesn't matter about anything else if it is defective. It doesn't mean every single unit is problem free. No reasonable person expects that. But, the A700 has had a long running problem with the control wheels that has never been acknowledged or fixed. There have been other problems too with various cameras and lenses (CZ 16-80mm ring any bells?). Now the A77 is released with bad firmware (if that is what it is) that causes the camera to be essentially an unusable brick. It is not unreasonable to expect much better from Sony. Making excuses for Sony over and over and over does not help Sony.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:46 am
by [SiC]
Just a small side note, no big quality concerns with my A700 yet but I have only taken about 9k images so far, but I have noticed that my LCD seems to be "leaking" so I can spot some dust that has entered in the lower right corner. No biggie at the moment but I have only had the camera for three months so I can see this becoming a problem over time.

Is this sort of thing covered under warranty?

Thanks in advance!

BR,
/Zeb!

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:36 pm
by Lonnie Utah
Regardless of what everyone here thinks of the 5n and the clicking problem in video, it's still Sony's top selling camera right now on Amazon.com (#11 as of this posting...)

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 6:20 pm
by bakubo
Lonnie Utah wrote:Regardless of what everyone here thinks of the 5n and the clicking problem in video, it's still Sony's top selling camera right now on Amazon.com (#11 as of this posting...)
Yeah, as long as Sony sells a lot then everyone should be happy. :shock: :lol: I guess if one is a big stockholder then that should make one happy since getting the customer's money may be the only goal, not providing good quality for that money. For a customer though you have amazingly low expectations, I would say. :)

When a customer buys some cheap trinket from a fly-by-night operation then he is not so surprised when it turns out to have problems. When a customer buys an expensive device from a large, well established company though the expectations are very, very different. For customers though it baffles me why anyone would excuse, celebrate, and be happy about quality problems.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 6:58 pm
by bakubo
I have been wondering and thinking about all of this for some time. For the last few years I have been befuddled about how so many people on internet forums are so accepting of poor quality and even make excuses for huge, multi-national corporations. I just don't understand the psychology of it. It is a race to the bottom. The more customers accept it the more they will get.

I worked in software development for a long time and I have always cared deeply about producing quality products and worked very hard to achieve it. Most of the people I have worked with over the years cared a lot too. At least in our case we didn't have customers who would buy poor quality products or would excuse problems and congratulate us for producing poor quality. Our competitors didn't have those sorts of customers either. Our customers expected, demanded good quality and they spoke very loudly with their wallets.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:21 pm
by Atgets_Apprentice
Lonnie Utah wrote:Regardless of what everyone here thinks of the 5n and the clicking problem in video, it's still Sony's top selling camera right now on Amazon.com (#11 as of this posting...)
I wonder how many of the people buying them from Amazon are aware of the issues? I am sure not all of them read this forum, or any of the other sites reporting problems with the latest releases.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:42 pm
by Lonnie Utah
There is a note of the clicking in the online reviews on amazon (it's the first item addressed). It doesn't seem to be inhibiting folks.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:15 am
by [SiC]
[SiC] wrote:Is this sort of thing covered under warranty?
Does anyone know?
Thanks in advance!

BR,
Zeb!

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:31 am
by Atgets_Apprentice
bakubo wrote:I have been wondering and thinking about all of this for some time. For the last few years I have been befuddled about how so many people on internet forums are so accepting of poor quality and even make excuses for huge, multi-national corporations. I just don't understand the psychology of it. It is a race to the bottom. The more customers accept it the more they will get.

I worked in software development for a long time and I have always cared deeply about producing quality products and worked very hard to achieve it. Most of the people I have worked with over the years cared a lot too. At least in our case we didn't have customers who would buy poor quality products or would excuse problems and congratulate us for producing poor quality. Our competitors didn't have those sorts of customers either. Our customers expected, demanded good quality and they spoke very loudly with their wallets.
Similarly, I worked for many years in the hotel and restaurant business, before switching to work in healthcare. Would any of the apologists have used my restaurant again if they'd had a teeny, tiny case of food poisoning? Would you be saying you'd come back, because the food tasted great, even though you'd spent the night sh!tting and vomitting? Would you be quite happy to praise me for looking after a disabled relative, even though he was left wearing food stained clothed, or was unwashed for a few days?

I don't think you would.

I had standards I adhered to in both these areas, and would never have allowed them to slip, or for staff & colleagues to do so. I have an expectation of quality and standards from myself, those around me, and organisations I deal with, and will bring them to task if I believe they are not being met, so if you are happy for Sony to send out shoddy goods and services in return for your money, then more fool you. Don't expect everyone to be an apologist or accepting of second best.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:37 pm
by Greg Beetham
I'm sortof feeling a bit lenient towards Sony myself for the time being, due to the shambles and ongoing effects of the Earthquake/Tsunami, I know they have a track record of being disorganized and this time is probably more of the same. What irks me about Sony is that it takes seemingly a lot of pressure to get them to address issues; they'd just as soon sweep it under the carpet I think if they thought they could get away with it.
Greg

ps. Zeb if the camera (A700?) is only 3 months old get in touch with the place you bought it from and ask for directions/advice on the problem, keep us posted.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 6:21 pm
by bakubo
Greg Beetham wrote:I'm sortof feeling a bit lenient towards Sony myself for the time being, due to the shambles and ongoing effects of the Earthquake/Tsunami, I know they have a track record of being disorganized and this time is probably more of the same. What irks me about Sony is that it takes seemingly a lot of pressure to get them to address issues; they'd just as soon sweep it under the carpet I think if they thought they could get away with it.
The tsunami doesn't explain total silence and no fixes for the longstanding A700 control wheel problem, the CZ 16-80mm problems, etc.

In one of the other threads here someone made an equivalence between the A77 lockup problem and the Canon 5DII "black dots" problem in the early weeks of its release. IMO, an incorrect equivalence, but I did find a very good equivalence. Here was my reply:

My recollection about the Canon 5DII "black dots" problem was that it was discovered by some users right after it came out (I don't recall any of the early reviews finding it, but I might be wrong) that very bright, small lights against a black background would sometimes have a black dot in the center. It is also my recollection that before long Canon acknowledged the problem and released a firmware update that fixed the problem. I didn't follow it closely, but I haven't heard of it again after the first few weeks when it was brought up a lot on the forums so I guess the fix worked. A very similar problem, coincidentally in much the same situation, is the A55/A33/(A35 too?) "ghosting" problem. I think it has been a year or more though and, I think, Sony has never acknowledged it and hasn't done anything to fix it for A55/A33/(A35 too?) owners. If I am wrong about any of this [5DII and/or A55/A33/(A35 too?)] then I hope someone will step in and correct me. My memory may not be perfect and my knowledge of all things about product updates/fixes is not perfect either.

Re: Sony quality control problems

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 6:31 pm
by pakodominguez
[SiC] wrote:
[SiC] wrote:Is this sort of thing covered under warranty?
Does anyone know?
Thanks in advance!

BR,
Zeb!
I don't think the spirit of this thread is to solve issues, but just to "report" them.

The screen you have is not the "real" screen but a protector that can be easily replace -that is its function.

I don't know how the warranty works in Sweden. Here in the USA you can send the camera under warranty for Cleaning and Lubrication, most of the times (regarding to what center you camera is directed) they will fix/replace those issue at no cost. I think the best you can do is calling Sony Customer Service in your area and ask them for a solution.

Regards