Sony Premiere Support say broken mic holder = no firmware upgrade!

[Aaron Lucas]

Originally Posted by Bob Hart

Sounds like embargo-on time if they keep this up. I would hope it is more of a translation problem somewhere along the internal communications path between Sony Japan and the local dealerships.

If JVC goes next generation with the GY-HD--- family and match the EX1 and EX3 performance, there may well be a jumping off the ship.

local dealers in any country would be highly unlikely to ever hear from Sony Corporation in Japan about any issue. The local sales companies in each country are responsible for their dealers, so perhaps you need to pursue this within Sony UK and find out who both the dealer manager and service manager are.

I don't know anything about the extended warranty offered in the UK by Sony, but I have to say I am VERY surprised that a broken mic holder is being used as a reason not to apply the firmware upgrade to your EX1. Can I ask though, is there a different number or contact process you would use to request a repair? I know this is going to sound a little silly, but i wonder if you'd have more luck getting the mic holder repaired, and asking for the firmware to be done while they are at it, instead of the other way around.

[Steve Wilson]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

I've downloaded the EX1 version 1.1 firmware, step by step instructions are included, don't know if i feel confident enough to try it though.

Paul.

If you did decide to install it yourself, wouldnt that invalidate your warranty ?

Also, where did you download it from ? - Found the site....think the link is down now though.

[Dean Harrington]

Originally Posted by Tom Hardwick

Your posts make such depressing reading Ian. If you or I ran our businesses in this way we'd deserve the crunch.

And talking of poor Sony design, the door hinges on my DSR-11 have been designed by some spotty teenager who's never heard of sectional changes inducing stress raisers. I bet I'm not the only person to have a door that's fallen off. And no amount of epoxy would ment that one.

tom.

The door handles broke on mine years ago but the unit still works! I keep the door around and place it gently over the opening when not using! I surprised I haven't lost it yet!!!

[Chris Hurd]

...the link is down now though.

Just a quick forum policy note here: the firmware is Sony's own intellectual property and as such they are the only entity that can rightfully distribute it. I know that some of you have offered to share the firmware with others via email, bypassing the rightful IP holder in the process.

That's illegal, but if you want you to do that, it's happily none of my business. However... you will not use my site to advertise your willingness to violate copyright law. Therefore I will withdraw from public view any post that offers to redistribute this material outside of Sony. I've just withdrawn one such post. Please don't force me to start closing accounts... if you want to redistribute a major corporation's intellectual property and risk the associated legal repercussions, by all means use your *own* web site for that purpose. I'll have absolutely no part of it whatsoever.

Thread stays open for now... take care,

[Ian Smith]

Originally Posted by Aaron Lucas

local dealers in any country would be highly unlikely to ever hear from Sony Corporation in Japan about any issue. The local sales companies in each country are responsible for their dealers, so perhaps you need to pursue this within Sony UK and find out who both the dealer manager and service manager are.

I don't know anything about the extended warranty offered in the UK by Sony, but I have to say I am VERY surprised that a broken mic holder is being used as a reason not to apply the firmware upgrade to your EX1. Can I ask though, is there a different number or contact process you would use to request a repair? I know this is going to sound a little silly, but i wonder if you'd have more luck getting the mic holder repaired, and asking for the firmware to be done while they are at it, instead of the other way around.

The issue is that they (Sony Premium Support) don't regard repairing the mic holder as their job. In fact I rang them about this a month or two back and realised I was wasting my time. My big mistake was in mentioning it again when I contacted them about the best way to get the firmware upgrade. Clearly my card is marked as being the owner of a "physically damaged" camera.

Hopefully when the dealer rep is available next week it may be that he can get the firmware upgrade sorted locally, and maybe I can get the mic support sorted out too. It's a pain for me because like most dealers he's open Monday to Friday only so it means taking time off work, which is going to prove difficult.

Sony Premium Support seems to be a single office serving the whole of Europe. The rep I spoke to (and who then called me back when I tried to return the camera by subterfuge) certainly didn't have English as his native language.

[Ian Smith]

Originally Posted by Dean Sensui

Sometimes when faced with a situation like this I ask the person, "If this were you, what would YOU want done?" I use a tone that's reasonable and not threatening.

It sometimes makes stop and think, realizing that while they might be following company policy, what they're really doing is depriving a legitimate customer of what they deserve.

I don't think I was threatening, and for me I was very calm (considering I was absolutely incredulous at what the rep was saying). I did say I thought it was scandalous that an issue which many owners were reporting as a design flaw would be the excuse for not applying an upgrade that was needed to use accessories that had been marketed before the camera itself had been launched and then asked "So what am I supposed to do?" That's when I got the "With respect that's not my problem".

To be honest "respect" was the last thing the rep seemed to have, but as English wasn't his native language I guess it's possible something got lost in translation.

[Bob Hart]

QUOTE: "I use a tone that's reasonable and not threatening."


Second that. The people I have encountered have not gone out of their way to cause me any hassle at all.

The people who invent and build these increasingly complex and many-featured contrivances don't go out of their way to cause hassles either.

Having been a backyard inventor/builder of one or two things over the years I know the cold dead hand on the back of the neck when something you think is fine turns dog on somebody after you have turned it loose.

I would not like to have on my conscience, somebody in Sony's R&D department doing a little one-step off the 30th floor balcony because of something I said or joined in on after a product has entered the world and stumbled.

[Ian Smith]

Returned home to find another message from Sony Support, telling me that if I took the camera to an official Sony Repair Centre and had the mic holder repaired then they would be happy to take the camera and upgrade the firmware.

Maybe someone there has been reading this thread?!

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Ian Smith

Returned home to find another message from Sony Support, telling me that if I took the camera to an official Sony Repair Centre and had the mic holder repaired then they would be happy to take the camera and upgrade the firmware.

Maybe someone there has been reading this thread?!

This is so silly... Would they "be happy to take the camera and upgrade the firmware" if you just took it off completely?

[Ola Christoffersson]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

This is so silly... Would they "be happy to take the camera and upgrade the firmware" if you just took it off completely?

My camera just returned from a week on vacation in France with new back plates, firmware and the battery fix. I sent it in without the eyepiece which I have removed since I never use it. THe story with the mic holder got me scared that they would refuse to touch my camera as well but alas - no problems. I can also confirm that France upgrades to 1.11.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Ian Smith

Maybe someone there has been reading this thread?!

Most definitely yes. I can confirm that all of the major camcorder manufacturers have people who follow DV Info Net on a regular basis. The Americas, Europe, Australia, Japan, etc. -- worldwide.

[Ian Smith]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

This is so silly... Would they "be happy to take the camera and upgrade the firmware" if you just took it off completely?

No. In fact I'd already removed the holder. Lack of holder = "physically damaged" in their book.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Well... When I send my camera in, I'll certainly remove it so that it's not damaged in transport! I wonder what they say :)

[Dean Sensui]

I checked with Sony Hawaii and the cameras from here are sent to a service center on the Mainland.

[Craig Seeman]

So I guess the downtime can be significant for the firmware update. There's another post claiming that the New Jersey Sony Service Center will do it in the north east USA. I hope so. As a former facility video engineer they were the ones I dealt with for DigiBeta and BetaSX work.

Dean, you'd think Sony would have ONE Professional service center in the state of Hawaii.

Originally Posted by Dean Sensui

I checked with Sony Hawaii and the cameras from here are sent to a service center on the Mainland.