What's the latest on A77 and flash overexposure?

Hi, everyone.

When the A77 first came out, I read a lot about how external flash units didn't work very well in TTL mode: they overexposed, but erratically.  I don't use my flash often, so it hadn't been a problem for me.  But today, I did some practice shooting for a bat mitzvah that I'll be shooting for a friend this weekend, and it was a HUGE problem.  I'm wondering what's the latest on this.  Is there any kind of fix or workaround that people are using?

I havent' been around much in a while, so I may have missed a lot.  I tried doing a search, but I can't seem to get the forum search to work.

What I noticed tonight was that, at f/2.8 there was always a problem, but by f/5.6 things got decently consistent.  (Strangely enough, it seemed to be affecting my focus: I was having a hard time getting good focus at f/2.8.  I know that is harder by nature, but I had set my micro-focus adjust ... and the focusing issue was erratic.)

Anyway, I plan to shoot between f/5.6 and f/8.  I kept getting decent shots in that range.  But it's driving me crazy, because TTL really should lead to a perfect shot each time!

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!