Paying for Service in the UK
 

I'm in the UK and bought my EX1 in the US so I have no warranty cover.

I'd like to upgrade my firmware and also get issues like the battery drain problem fixed.

Has anyone else had these things done in the UK on a pay-as-you-go basis?

I'm primarily interested in how much it cost and who are the best people to do it.

John,
Easy fix for the battery drain is to take the battery off when not using the camera.

Firmware, is easy enough to upgrade yourself, takes about 20 mins, i know, i've done mine.

If there's nothing else wrong with your camera i wouldn't chance letting someone take it apart, there's some horror stories about how cameras have been returned, screws missing, card slots connected wrong etc.

Paul.

Thanks Paul.

Are there instructions or a forum discussion anywhere that you know of?

Yes this website.
Look around and you'll find where to get the firmware .
Installing it to the camera is easy, sort of press 1 or 2 buttons then put feet up.
And then use the cheap memory cards. £25 for 16gb.

Paul.

Well, you might not have the 2 year "prime support", since you've bought your camcorder in US, but you should still have the 1 year international warranty. If that one has not expired yet you might want to try that, or at least take note of it in case something more important happens to your equipement.

Well I had a look on the Sony USA site and on their Warranty Information page they have a link to the Product Warranty Card. This seems to indicate that the warranty is for the US only; it doesn't even cover US territories.

A look on Sony Europe's site seems to indicate a similar situation with products bought in the European area.

If anyone knows any different, or has anything further to add, I'd be interested to hear of your experiences.

Why not contact Sony professional UK it basingstoke to clarify matters?

Yes, I just did that actually and they confirmed that the area of coverage is limited to the continent of purchase.

An interesting topic, I purchased my EX3 in the UK but have subsequently found out that the dealer is not a Sony Professional dealer. Nothing indicated that I must buy from a Sony approved dealer, nor was anything said by the dealer. So I am I covered here in the UK?

The one saving grace is that the dealer does supply their own 2 year warranty. Since I purchased the camera in December, it has gone up in price by just over £1000.

Well my EX1 is on waranty still and suffers from a slight vingette problem[Which does bug me], but I'm a little reluctant to even send mine in after some of the horror stories I've heard.