Sony is crap.
There was a time a lot of my electronics came from Sony. At one point (the mid 80s to early 90s) they delivered high quality and good features at a very good price.
That hasn't been true for a long time now. I suppose I got lucky with both my PSX and PS2, as the PSX is still functional today and the PS2 which was a launch + 1 month unit worked fine for about 8 years.
However after having a few poor experiences with Sony products and customer service, and then having Sony essentially enter my home and commit theft with respect to my 60GB PS3's functionality, I'm through. The PS3 is the very likely the last bit of Sony gear I will own, and given the influence I have over the purchases of those in my extended family (they always ask for advice on major electronic purchases), Sony have already lost a significant amount of business as a result.
They are not entitled to my money, I am not a resource to be abused and squeezed for cash at their whim, and I resent being treated as such.
Couldn't have said it better! Sony used to be good -- not anymore. In my opinion, their consumer electronics went to crap in the mid-1990s, while their pro equipment was (is?) always seemed quite a bit more reliable. Their parts support absolutely sucks.
I needed a reel table for an older 8mm camcorder. I called their parts line several times. Each time, the response was the same: S: "Is this part of the lens?" me: "No, it's an internal part of the tape deck mechanism." S: "Is this an internal part?" me: "yeeeessss...." S: "Well, that camcorder's pretty old. I don't think we have parts for it anymore." me: "Think? Does your system show the part or not?" S: "It's discontinued" me: "Can you give me a part number?" S: "It doesn't show one"
Contrast this with Canon: I needed the DC input jack for an older camcorder (at least a decade old). I called Canon and I had the option to buy just the jack, without even having to purchase the entire flex-PCB it's mounted on! Ten bucks later and I had a new jack on order. I also needed some tiny, metric screws for this camera. No problem, they were available and not even very expensive.
I won't buy Sony, unless I can get something second-hand for very little money. Then, I'll take the gamble.
Sony's optical disc mechanisms seem to have a near-100% failure rate after only a couple of years. I have a 20-year-old Panasonic CD player that works fine. A Technics, too.