Life Through My Eyes

They Sure Don't Make Things The Way They Used To - Sony

In December of 2008, 2 1/2 years ago, I bought Veronica a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H50 Digital camera.
I purchased this camera based on brand name along with the numerous features that were built into the camera. I did a lot of research before making this purchase through an online retailer called Abes Of Maine.
Veronica and I have made many purchases of Sony products over the last couple of decades, including but not limited to televisions, dvd players, cd players, blue ray player, receivers and speakers, 5.1 channel home theater in a box and a camera.
For us Sony has always been synonymous with high quality products. At least they were until the purchase of this camera.
I gave this camera to Veronica as a Christmas gift.
The camera worked fine until about 6-7 months ago. It was at this time that Veronica and I noticed these horizontal lines going across a portion of the photos that were taken.
After doing some research, we sent the camera to an authorized Sony camera repair business.... Precision Camera This repair business has been doing camera repairs since 1948.
I did as they instructed to get the camera repaired, which included a check for $120.95 A couple of weeks later we received the camera back and it was working great.
Approximately 3 months ago, while Veronica and I were out in Las Vegas, we started having a different problem with the camera.
This time the camera seemed to be totally out of sync. I could turn the camera on and the lens would expand out like it should. But when I turned the camera off, the lens would not return back into the camera body.
I had to keep turning the camera on and off until the camera would sync with the lens and the lens would return to its camera off position.
This happened numerous times and basically made the camera unusable until I could get it to get in sync with itself.
We also had another problem with this camera, we would press the button to turn the camera on and instead of the camera turning on and extending the lens like it normally does, the initial camera splash screen would quickly show up in the LCD screen and then disappear. Basically, We could not gets this camera to turn on at times thus making it useless.
Since we had already spent $120.95 to have the camera repaired several months earlier, for a totally different problem, we did not feel that we should spend additional money on getting it repaired for the 2nd time.
We would have been spending a total of $250.00 on camera repairs, for a camera that cost us less than $400.00.
The cost of the camera does not include the extra 5 batteries and additional chargers that was purchased for the use of this camera nor does it include the cost of numerous extra SD cards, a nice Sony camera bag or various lens ring adapters along with various lenses, such as a UV lens, a macro lens to name just a couple.
Veronica sent out a letter to Sony explaining what was going on with the camera and wrote basically everything that I have written for this blog entry.
While we were gone for the last 3 days, a Sony representative has called the house, left their name, return telephone number along with a reference number.
Veronica spent a majority of today returning these calls and trying to get someone to actually act like they cared about what was going on with our camera.
All of her attempts were futile.
Veronica spoke to 3 separate customer service individuals and sadly none of them acted like they cared, told her that there was nothing that they could do for her and when asked by Veronica, each refused to pass her call up to a manager or someone at a higher level than they were.
One of the Customer Service Reps took down Veronica's home number so that a Senior Customer Service Rep could call her back and discuss the issue with her. After Veronica waited 8 hours for this Senior Customer Service Rep to call her and not getting a return telephone call, Veronica called Customer Service back again. Veronica was told that they did not have her home telephone number on file and that was why she did not get a call.
And during each of these conversations with Customer Service personnel, Veronica made sure that each Sony Customer Service Representative that she spoke to understood that she was not asking for a refund, that she was not asking for a new camera but all that she was asking for was for Sony to stand behind the product that they sold us and make the proper repairs so that we could once again enjoy the use of this camera.
Unfortunately, none of the Sony Customer Service Representatives seemed to care much about the camera nor Veronica as a consumer.
Needless to say, this has left us with a rather negative consumer opinion towards Sony, their products and especially their customer service personnel.
What ever happened to the Sony Company of days gone by. A company that made great products and stood behind those products...a company that cared and valued their customers.
Where is the old Sony company that I used to know and trust. It surely would be a shame if it was gone for good.

On The Road Again

Tuesday morning Veronica and I headed to the Chesapeake VA area for a 3 day training session, that Veronica had to attend.
We will be driving home this afternoon but not before making a Super Walmart stop in order to get some groceries.
Then we will be homeward bound.
The only bad thing about returning home is having to go through everything and put it all back where it belongs. It seems to take forever to get it all done.
Tonight we will also have groceries to put away and wash to be done.
It's going to be a late night.

A Long 24 Hours But Well Worth It

Veronica and I are back at home from our participation in the ACS 2011 Relay For Life Outer Banks NC event.
I was somewhat disappointed the turnout for this event. There were quite a number of participants for the event but not as many non-participants visiting the event as I would have hoped for.
Those who did participate gave it their all and were quite a spirited group of very caring individuals.
Our booth had so many cupcakes that were able to donate many dozens of cupcakes to a local food bank or charity.
This same event next year will bring some fresh new ideas as far as what item(s)to raffle off and especially what type of food or item to sell.
I could not begin to tell you how many laps I walked during the course of this event. After many hours of staying awake during this event, the laps around the track all seemed to blend together into one smoky blur.
And speaking of smoky blurs, there was a fire many miles from this event but depending on which way the wind was blowing, you could see the fog like smoke drifting over the event and it was not a healthy environment for those whose stayed and walked in it. There were a few that had to leave the event because of the health hazard the smoke had created.
After we got home, we put everything away quickly and then Veronica and I went to bed for a while.
I wish that we could have raised a lot more money for the cause but we did the best that we could and next year we will get and be better at raising funds and items for donations and for the raffles.
The ideas have already started to flow within Team Maxxinista for next years event.
Below are some photos from the event:

This is what it all looked like at the very beginning of people arriving and setting up

Team Maxxinista tent is beginning to take shape

Big difference from what it will look like in a couple of hours

As the morning progressed more and more groups arrived and tents went up

Opening ceremonies are getting ready to begin

Hershel accompanied me to this event. He played a little guitar, did a pole dance and generally added some fun as only Hershel can do. Hershel; also enjoyed listening to the music that was played by various bands. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Hershel tapping his hand and moving his head to the beat of the music. I think he really enjoyed himself. Because he has spent the last 7-8 months under our bed, with little or no human contact, I had to sit down and have a talk with him about being polite and watching his behavior while we were at this event. Hershel can sometimes be a little inappropriate in his behavior. Hershel was a total gentleman at this event and I was proud of him and the restraint he showed.

Here are a couple of young ladies getting ready to decorate their own cupcake, which the theme of our tent in order to generate some donations

Opening lap

Hershel is spreading the joy and laughter

Everyone that was planning on spending the night and trying to get some sleep brought a tent. Here is just one of the many nice looking big tents that were put up.

Unfortunately this mini tent was what one of our teammates accidentally brought to the event for us to use....she grabbed the wrong tent box when she left her home. Out tent took a lot of ribbing as "runt" tents usually do. Those big fancy tents were unmerciless. And our small runt tent was last seen sobbing his way back to its owners vehicle...poor thing. Hard to believe that in this day and age, that bullying still exists in tentdom.