Why Sony Sucks - A Lack of Common Sense

Recently, I was fortunate enough to receive a Sony eReader as an early birthday present. To say that it was love at first sight is putting it mildly.

I love my Sony eReader. I take it with me everywhere I go, I am constantly loading books on it to read and tell all and sunder how great the system is, how much I love it. I tend to be very vocal about the things I love.

I am also very vocal about things that disgust me.

Earlier today, I received an email from Sony. The email came with a $10 gift card to thank all of us who had downloaded books for helping the Sony eReader Store reach 10 million downloads.

How cool is that? Well, as it turns out, not very cool at all.

I was super excited and I rushed home to pick out two books that I had in mind, the price of both falling well below $10.

Now, admittedly, I entered the purchases in my shopping cart before entering the gift code. My fault ends there.

I entered the purchases into my cart and then clicked Redeem Code. An error appeared and informed me that the system had attempted to charge my credit card and that it was unsuccessful. Could I please update my billing information.

Hold on a moment, I thought. That´s not right.

I tried a few more times and the same thing happened each and every time. So, I thought, I´ll restart my computer and clear the information in the system. No such luck. Oh well, I thought, I´ll contact Sony eReader help through their online chat function.

To say that Sandra was less than helpful is an understatement.

She told me that in order to proceed and clear the cart, I had to update the credit card info.

Hang on a moment, I typed. All I wanted to do was to clear the shopping cart so that I could enter the code and start over to get the books I wanted. She then told me that I should contact eReader support by phone.

After chatting with her for nearly half an hour.

Alright, I said to myself. I´ll do that. There was little to no hold time. That is the only good thing about my phone conversation.

I was unfortunate enough to speak to Erika. She got all of my information wrong, kept misspelling my name and had no idea what I was talking about. I spent ten minutes on the phone with her before she understood what I wanted.

She then told me that the system was trying to bill my credit card for past purchases and I would have to update the information before I could proceed.

Now wait just a cotton picking minute. I told her that this was unacceptable as my credit card had already been billed for the two books she was talking about. She said that it hadn´t and in order to prove that it had, I would have to send them in my credit card statement.

I want to jump in here with a bit of background information. It won´t take long, I promise. I have a pay as you go credit card. I only put money on it when I am going to make a purchase; usually, I purchase books.

Because I am aware of how much I put on the credit card, I am also aware of each purchase. After each purchase I make, I go and check my credit card online to verify that the purchase went through.

I informed Erika of this fact. She said that what the system does is bill for books at a later date, not always on the date of purchase. I informed her that this didn´t make sense. All companies bill right away when you purchase something with a credit card. It is how it is done (the only exception I can think of is Amazon which only bills your credit card once your item has shipped).

Erika then informed me that it didn´t matter, I had to provide them with proof that the charges had gone through.

It was at this point that I asked to speak to a supervisor.

Now, I worked the call centre gig for five years. It was hard, gruelling work. I wouldn´t wish it on anyone, but money is money and you do what you have to do. Because I´ve worked in a call centre, I am incredibly patient with the people on the other end of the line. I know what they´re going through.

This is why my husband will usually make me call the television company or the hydro company etc. He loses his head; I normally do not.

So when I have to ask to speak to a supervisor, I am pissed.

The supervisor/manager, named Louis, informed me of the same thing. I said that this was ridiculous and that my credit card had already been charged. On top of that, I had downloaded some free books from the Sony eStore the other day and didn´t have this problem.

Louis reiterated that I had to prove to them that the charges had gone through on my credit card and, if they had, they would clear the issue with my account. I told him I had no intention of sending him my credit card information. He said that they didn´t require my whole statement, just proof that it had been charged.

By this point I was so angry that I had to end the call. I informed Louis that nowhere, in any of their material and information in paper or online, indicates that they are going to charge my credit card at a later date.

I told him that I have never been so disgusted at the treatment I had received and I would never buy another book from the Sony eReader store again. I also informed him that I would tell everyone and anyone about what had transpired.

And now you know.