Hey all.
I'd purchased a PD150p and was experiencing some sound problems. (ch 2 dead. Constant crackle) Purchase was on Jan 2 in the year of our Lord JC 2004.
Now the store from which I purchased the camera quickly acknowledged the problem and shipped the camera to Sony Pro/Broadcasting, advising it'd be no more than 2 weeks..
Ding-Dong. It is now March 2. That is exactly 2 months by our calendar - leap year or no.
Unbelievable.
A number of hair pulling, bullet sweating emails have come and gone between myself, a Sales Exec and the State Service Manager. Finally On Thursday 26th Feb, I was told by Sony that the camera would arrive at the place of purchase, next day ( Friday ). Also received a call from the store itself. They confirmed, advising they would have the camera ready for pickup on Friday.
I went in on Saturday and was (I suppose at this stage 'predictably') told : ".. uh.. no we don't have your camera here.."
Oh I should have known. Anyway, this latest little tryst was just the cherry on top of the icing, covering the multi-layered cake of crap-of-a-joke this whole event has been.

Oh, the pain. Week after week. Lost job-ops. Filming ops with no camera.
Working on short film? HA! no chance.
Ahh.. so much for my plans for an intense filming start to the year. We're now into month 3 and I don't have my flipp'n camera.

I have insisted that I will not accept the same 'refurbished' unit after paying (through the nose) for a new, pro camera. Sony are making arrangements for a PD170p.

I surely hope people don't give and inch when having manufacturing faults repaired/replaced. Sony can afford to go the extra mile in compensating you for;
1. The inconvenience and
2. Not supplying what they're selling.

If I hear someone say they paid for shipping, I'll barf..
..oops.. already did.
ewwy.

Regards.

When you do get it back, make sure it's working right before you take it out of the shop. I'm surprised at the long wait.

When a friend of mine here in Vancouver bought his first VX2000, the shop had to order one in. But in the mean time, the shop gave him one to use, for free, and for a whole 3 weeks. That's how long he had to wait.

Checked the cam out as much as possible in store. No way to do a reasonable sound test - there were renovations underway. Honestly, I didn't believe there could be further trouble with yet another brand-new camera anyhow.
A few quick tests at home revealed a kind of 'motorised grinding' when I used the lens-barrel zoom-wheel. Ouch!
It comes through nicely during recording and playback.
I really can't believe this. I feel gutted.
Taking camera back to store tomorrow.
what to do.. demand money back? Just let them fix it?.. suggest a gesture of goodwill in recompense.

very, very sad and disappointed.

Ask Sony to replace the camera. The one you have is a Lemon.

For all those having audio problems with CH2 on PD150s...
Press the reset button! We had 2+ rental cameras with a $1000+ service quote (that we denied) and when we got the camera back...lo and behold the reset worked!
Worth mentioning anyways.
FWIW

Brian