RX100 UK cashback farce

[Donald M Mackinnon]

I purchased an RX100 from Harrison Cameras in July this year and there was a promotion at that time for a £50 cashback from Sony on all new RX100's. Harrison's website had the promotion showing on the RX100 purchase page.

I duly submitted a claim form to Sony UK including all my receipts and the camera guarantee. A number of weeks passed and I heard nothing so decided to contact Sony for an update on my cashback application, only to be told that it had not been received.

Having been advised by Sony I submitted another claim with copies of all the receipts, but without the guarantee, sending it by Royal Mail Signed For. After a week I checked with Sony who confirmed the second claim had been received and the cashback would follow shortly.

I did get correspondence from Sony not long after this, which was the camera guarantee from the first claim being returned with thanks !! but nothing else, and no cashback

Weeks have now passed, and today I telephoned Sony to be told that my claim is invalid.

Sony it seems released a number of cameras into the UK distribution network which were meant for sale in the US and because my camera has a serial number corresponding to one of the US cameras they will not be redeeming the cashback on my camera. !!

This has to be the worst case of unbelievable customer service I have ever experienced and I intend taking this to BBC Watchdog to expose the shambles of Sony UK.

 

[Verulanium]

Hi,

You are right about it being a farce. I did get my £20 cashback for my HXV400 eventually after resending copies of the receipts etc. The postage cost me about £5 in total and they still have not returned the receipt or European guarantee. Phone calls to the quoted number ( which turned out to be in France ) got no useful response.

Strange as all the earlier cash back promotions have gone without a hitch but I will be reluctant to participate in another.

Tim

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

The call did not sound as if it had been picked up in the UK and France would certainly align with the accent of the telephone operative,who interestingly advised me to think of taking legal action against Sony, maybe not for £50 :-(

Staggering response though from a camera manufacturer !!, what's to stop them using this line whenever it pleases?

 

[Widhill]

Me too!

Having a right battle to get my £200 for the RX1R. I have phoned Fony 3 times and they have told be its going to be November before they even process most claims. Total rubbish and I certainly won't let them get away with it!

Best of luck to everyone in this position.

 

[Fred K]

If Harrison Cameras passed off a US camera as a UK version, perhaps you should complain to them, and not to Sony.

 

[Corkcampbell]

If you bought a grey market unit, Sony UK is correct not to honor the offer. As another poster stated, it's the retailer who may have sold you something not meant for sale in the UK. They probably won't honor the warranty as well, and I don't blame them. I doubt seriously that Sony "released" US models for sale in the UK...that makes no sense and it sounds like something a defensive (and perhaps dishonest) retailer might claim.

I'm not defending Sony's rebate operation here; from the other posters, it seems abysmal, but you can't expect Sony UK to issue a rebate on something they didn't sell.

 

[Viramati]

I purchased an RX100 from Harrison Cameras in July this year and there was a promotion at that time for a £50 cashback from Sony on all new RX100's. Harrison's website had the promotion showing on the RX100 purchase page.

I duly submitted a claim form to Sony UK including all my receipts and the camera guarantee. A number of weeks passed and I heard nothing so decided to contact Sony for an update on my cashback application, only to be told that it had not been received.

Having been advised by Sony I submitted another claim with copies of all the receipts, but without the guarantee, sending it by Royal Mail Signed For. After a week I checked with Sony who confirmed the second claim had been received and the cashback would follow shortly.

I did get correspondence from Sony not long after this, which was the camera guarantee from the first claim being returned with thanks !! but nothing else, and no cashback

Weeks have now passed, and today I telephoned Sony to be told that my claim is invalid.

Sony it seems released a number of cameras into the UK distribution network which were meant for sale in the US and because my camera has a serial number corresponding to one of the US cameras they will not be redeeming the cashback on my camera. !!

This has to be the worst case of unbelievable customer service I have ever experienced and I intend taking this to BBC Watchdog to expose the shambles of Sony UK.

As another poster said you should get onto Harrisons who shouldn't be selling US stock as UK stock. If this was sold to you as a UK item with guarantee etc then they have misrepresented the item. They of course may have been supplied the camera from sony without knowing this but even so they are in the end responsible

 

[Verulanium]

From my experience phoning achieved nothing. No action was taken till I sent a repeat application with signed for delivery, then I got an apologetic letter and eventually the rebate. This added to the expense and devalued the value of the rebate.

Tim

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

This confirmation from Sony today.

Dear Mr. Mackinnon,

after entering your claim details yesterday into your file, I received

again the remark "the serial number provided is not valid". Thus the

claim cannot be processed.

As mentioned yesterday during our phone conversation, you will receive

an email shortly explaining the reasons why Sony is not accepting

certain serial numbers.

Best regards

Your SONY Team

MH

--

Sony Customer Service

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

My understanding is that Harrisons who are Sony dealers were unaware that the cameras supplied to them by Sony UK were in any way non genuine items.

 

[Bill Borne]

My understanding is that Harrisons who are Sony dealers were unaware that the cameras supplied to them by Sony UK were in any way non genuine items.

get your money back...guarantee is not valid on grey market items

 

[Viramati]

Really Harrisons should be dealing with this for you

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

I telephoned Harrison Cameras this afternoon and didn't get very far with my explanation for calling before I was interrupted by the sales assistant asking if "this was about the cashback"

He went on to confirm that they have been contacted by buyers of a batch of RX100's supplied to them as Sony dealers by Sony UK with no indication by Sony UK that the batch was any different from other RX100's previously or subsequently supplied by Sony UK.

Harrison's are horrified at the attitude taken by Sony UK and asked me to submit my complaint in writing for adding to the list of disgruntled buyers to be forwarded to Sony UK.

I did so and included a link to this thread.

I hope Sony read this, and are deeply ashamed at punishing customers and dealers for an issue which Sony UK have admitted they created.

There was no prior knowledge by dealers which would have made intervention possible to stop the invalid cameras being distributed to unsuspecting buyers, a pure Sony generated problem and a disgrace to withhold cashback from buyers as a consequence.

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

I received this from Harrison's today. If resolved as promised in five days then I suggest this is an excellent example of why we should use genuine dealers. I personally use the Camera Price Buster website which list genuine reliable dealers.

First of all please accept my apologies for all the messing around that you have had and of course the fact that you haven't received the cashback.

I'm really cross and annoyed at Sony about this because without any doubt absolutely all of my stock is supplied and purchased through Sony UK and as a Sony Centre of excellence I have agreed to their terms and conditions and this incident is just not acceptable.

I have been in touch with Jason Clark and Tarnjit Dhesi who are the Field sales manager and Area sales managers. They both send their apologies and Jason has assured me that your claim will be dealt with immediately.

Their excuse is that the some of the cashback claims have been dealt with by France and this has now ceased and all dealings are been done in the UK.

Please let me know if you don't receive the bacs transaction within 5 days and I'm really sorry that you've had to come back to us regarding what should have been an easy and worthwhile purchase and cashback. I hope that this doesn't tarnish your enjoyment of the camera as I know from using it myself that the camera is superb and the results that you get will be great.

I've pasted below part of their response , I can 't copy the whole email as it also has some dealer information on it but I thought it would be useful for you to see that your claim has been dealt with.

In regards the cashback issue, this has now been resolved and a BACS payment will be made to the customer

This was due to an error at the handling house and will not be repeated.

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

 

[Bill Borne]

I received this from Harrison's today. If resolved as promised in five days then I suggest this is an excellent example of why we should use genuine dealers. I personally use the Camera Price Buster website which list genuine reliable dealers.

First of all please accept my apologies for all the messing around that you have had and of course the fact that you haven't received the cashback.

I'm really cross and annoyed at Sony about this because without any doubt absolutely all of my stock is supplied and purchased through Sony UK and as a Sony Centre of excellence I have agreed to their terms and conditions and this incident is just not acceptable.

I have been in touch with Jason Clark and Tarnjit Dhesi who are the Field sales manager and Area sales managers. They both send their apologies and Jason has assured me that your claim will be dealt with immediately.

Their excuse is that the some of the cashback claims have been dealt with by France and this has now ceased and all dealings are been done in the UK.

Please let me know if you don't receive the bacs transaction within 5 days and I'm really sorry that you've had to come back to us regarding what should have been an easy and worthwhile purchase and cashback. I hope that this doesn't tarnish your enjoyment of the camera as I know from using it myself that the camera is superb and the results that you get will be great.

I've pasted below part of their response , I can 't copy the whole email as it also has some dealer information on it but I thought it would be useful for you to see that your claim has been dealt with.

In regards the cashback issue, this has now been resolved and a BACS payment will be made to the customer

This was due to an error at the handling house and will not be repeated.

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

 

[Viramati]

Great news

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

I received this astonishing response today from Sony who had assured me that a bacs payment was being arranged to make the £50 cash-back

Sony and customer service are yet to meet I see :-(

Dear Sir, Dear Madam,

Thank you for participating in the Cashback promotion for SONY Cybershot and Handycam.

However, your claim is not yet compliant for the following reasons:

A readable copy of the Proof of Purchase (receipt or invoice) of your product is missing.

Therefore, please send either the missing details required or the missing claim assets* along with a printed copy of this email

within 10 days to the following address:

Custom Solutions,

2014 Cashback with Sony,

Program 41795,

PO Box 1099 - Attention: Customer Care,

Bedford

MK42 7XR,

ENGLAND

Kind regards,

Your Sony team

*If you have already sent the missing assets separately from your first submission, please disregard this email. Upon receipt we will process them and contact you to confirm your claim status.

"Any questions? Contact our customer support at

UK: 01204 203802 (program code 41795)

ROI: 02123 56914 (program code 41795)"

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

With no intimation or correspondence from Sony whatsoever, a payment of £50 was made by bacs transfer to my account today. A long and totally bizarre struggle indeed !!

 

[Digital Nigel]

With no intimation or correspondence from Sony whatsoever, a payment of £50 was made by bacs transfer to my account today. A long and totally bizarre struggle indeed !!

On a Saturday?

 

[Donald M Mackinnon]

On a Saturday. I have to say that the most recent correspondence form Sony intimating that there was missing paperwork pretty much blew me out of the water.

To then receive the cashback payment the next day, a Saturday,only adds to the bizarre nature of this whole episode.

I am only thankful it is over.