I bought a great RX100 III recently - lovely camera. Sadly I accidentally dropped it when it was only a month old and damaged the body slightly. Completely my fault.
I took the camera into the Regional Repair Centre in Birmingham two weeks ago. I have to say that the office did not inspire confidence; the reception area was grubby, down-at-heel and full of cardboard boxes. The booking in process for the camera took ages, and the person behind the desk did not seem to have a total grasp of the procedure.
Anyway, I paid my fee, was assured that I'd get a repair estimate in "2-5 days", and departed.
Having heard nothing after almost 2 weeks, I phoned up yesterday. The woman I spoke to assured me that I'd get an estimate before the end of the day.
Today, I called again and spoke to the same woman, who assured me that I'l get my estimate by the end of today. No explanation, nothing else. I asked to escalate and speak to a manager. There are apparently no managers in yet today (11 a.m.! what are their working hours?), but she gave me what is obviously a brush-off email address for complaints, and gave me the old "Sorreee, there's nothing else I can do".
I have had a couple of repairs done in the past 30 years, to Nikon and Fujifilm cameras, and they went smoothly and quickly, with helpful and courteous staff. What a contrast with this.
Since it's a new camera I'm probably stuck with using Sony's "approved" repair centre for warranty coverage, but I am not happy about giving my money (or, for that matter, my camera) to these people. Sony have earned themselves a dissatisfied customer, not because of their products (which are excellent) but because of crappy customer service values.
