THE PS3 NATION

As noted in a previous entry, my Playstation 3 had some Bluetooth problems and was voluntarily replaced by Sony. The entire process took about two weeks and wasn’t without frustration. During those two weeks, I actually got my PS3 replaced twice. I’ll explain the details in the rest of this article, including things you may not know about the exchange process. So keep reading…

When last I posted about my personal PS3 problems, it was determined by a friendly Sony support specialist that I needed a replacement. The process would be paid for entirely by Sony. I recieved my box, complete with packing materials, instructions and a prepaid UPS shipping label within 24 hours. I waited a day then packed up the console along with cables, controller and copy of reciept, then dropped it off at a UPS shipping center. The drop-off happened on a Thursday afternoon. My replacement system arrived the following Tuesday morning. The service was certainly fast and painless (except for lugging the sixteen pound box to the shipping office).

As is the norm with my life, there were complications. The first one I discovered was a result of false information given to me by the Sony representative. I was told that the backup utility built into the XMB would drop all my data on an external drive, then restore it onto my new Playstation 3. This wasn’t the case. Apparently, you can only restore your data on the same PS3 with which you backed it up. If you truly want to save your game data, movies, music and photos, you need to right click on each piece of it and select “Copy” from the menu to copy it to external storage.

My second complication was a defective replacement PS3. When it arrived, I tried to setup wireless networking for my LAN. Unfortunately, the system wouldn’t detect my router. I had no problem with the previous console in the same location and an 80% signal strength. Yet this new one wouldn’t find it. I tried moving the router closer, swapping it for another, plugging it in with a network cable and nothing worked.

Troubleshooting with Sony tech support wasn’t much better. They tried to insist on me checking my home equipment. I explained that the equipment had no problems with a different PS3 running for several months. I submitted to their steps regardless, and it didn’t fix the problem. After lots of struggling, I somehow managed to complete a Wifi setup. Then it would drop connection every few minutes. By Tuesday afternoon, I was requesting another replacement.

This second time was a bit less painless. I asked the rep who was putting in the shipping request to just send me a label since I had a box and packing material already. He said they couldn’t do that (I later found out from someone else at Sony that it was possible). My box came via UPS in 3 days instead of one. I shipped it out the same day (A Friday afternoon) and recieved my replacement by the following Wednesday.

While calling Sony for status on the second replacement, I found out some interesting things. According to various reps I had on the phone (all of whom spoke English very well and without any noticable accent), Sony doesn’t handle the box shipping duties. They pay UPS to put the packages together and send them out. I was told that generally broken or defective consoles are replaced by refurbished models. However, there have been instances of a brand new console replacing a bad one. It’s completely at the descretion of the service center whether they fix, replace with new or replace with old model. The third option is by far most common. Both boxes and consoles are shipped via UPS Next Day Air. Empty boxes can be dropped off without a signature. The ones with PS3’s require some over 18 to sign for them. Official word is that the empty box with label will take three to four days to arrive at your home. Your replacement console should arrive in four to five. For your convenience, Sony emails the UPS tracking info to you once the package has been shipped.

Thanks to firmware 1.6 re-downloading all my stuff is much less painful. I set it and forget it. Unfortunately, it looks like Folding@home stops the process in it’ s tracks so I can’t do both at once. I’m disappointed that my PS3, like my XBox 360 before it had to be exchanged. However, I had a much easier time dealing with Sony’s American support than Microsoft’s off-shore support number. If you’ve had similar experiences, share them with us in comments or on our message board.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 4:46 am and is filed under Hardware, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.