QUOTE(ronint @ Oct 15 2013, 12:15 PM)
Had a very bad experience with Sony yesterday. Abit of background. Bought Z1 about a week ago and been happy with it with some minor gripes which is normal for whatever phone u buy no phone is perfect. Found out that my NFC is not working. I was pretty sure that it is a hardware issue as I am not very technical but I not a newbie as well. Did alot of testing and basically found out the phone does detect the NFC chip but for some reason it is not able to connect or detect any NFC enabled devices/cards and etc. Called the call center and they advise me to format and i did twice. No joy and then they advised me to take it to the service center at Plaza Berjaya. Went there pertty calm cos its not my first time to deal with issues on a purchase that needed warranty service. Waited my turn and when finally came to my turn. They had to test for themselves first b4 confirming my suspicion which is totally understandable. They tech confirmed h/w issue.
Then they dropped the bomb on me. "Sorry sir no parts so you have to wait latest end of October or next month"I was like what!? ok so how now? "Well sir you can continue to use the phone since NFC is not critical for daily usage" For some reason i saw RED after that. You are telling me a phone that I bought just a bout a week ago has a h/w defect and u can't do anything to fix it or help me by the end of the month?! I demanded a 1 to 1 exchange at that point. "Sorry sir we don't do 1 to 1 exchange as we are only a service center you have to call Sony Xperia support"
I demanded them to call the support line for me and demanded o speak to a manager. Turns out the manager was the first person i spoke to when i called so i doubt that he is a manager cos what kind of a call center where their manager pickups a frontline call? TOld them that this can be considered as a DOA unit and I expect either a refund or a 1 to 1 exchange. To cut it short after some sort of arguing on the phone for 30 mins( i did not swear even once which is quite a surprise for me lolx) they needed to get approval from upper management for 1 to 1 exchange. I finally got the approval to get a 1 to 1 exchange however need to wait till next week. Oh well at least they let me use the current phone first.
Hopefully no issues on the replacement 1. Just thought i share my exp with support. Although it was messy but i have to admit they delivered what they promise by following up and getting the approval on the day itself.

The service center do not carry any sealed phone box stocks, so it is understandable they are unable to do a 1 to 1 exchange on the spot.
Probably the correct method is to get the service report, and then bring your phone to the shop where you purchase it and show them the service report to demand for the 1 to 1 exchange.
I've been to the Plaza Berjaya Xperia service center to fix my brand new Tipo with touch screen problems.
Originally the Tipo touchscreen has calibration issues which I fixed myself using the unreleased official Sony Erricsson patch, but after 3 months the touchscreen is unfixable due to hardware issue.
The reception girl says this is common problem for Tipo model & can be fixed with a software update if I wait for 5 minutes to do the update, but I said I have the calibration patch & it no longer works as I suspect it is hardware issue.
She is surprised that I have the patch which is unreleased & claimed the calibration software I downloaded from the web is not the same as theirs, but I insisted to leave the phone for fixing which they did in 5 days by replacing the whole touchscreen.