Idiots at Sony

[patgund]

What kind of trained monkeys is Sony using for tech support???

Last week, I got two DDS-3 DAT drives to run backups. (SDT-D9000) One works fine. The other doesn't want to handle DDS-3 tapes, only wanting DDS-1 and DDS-2 tapes.

Check their FAQ. SCSI connection, check. Jumper settings, set. Firmware, out of date.

So, I download their tape utility programme to check and update the firmware. Oops, needs the firmware update file. Oh, gee, none of the links provided in the disk utility documentation work. Contact their tech support people via email, asking where I can download the firmware.

First response back: "We don't support Macintosh"

Hmm....this is a strange reply, since a) the older drives were also SDT-9000 drives and worked well on the Macs, b) their site offers a Mac OS X Disk Utility Tool, and c) the documentation provides step-by-step instructions on using their product with a Macintosh.

So I write back to them, providing the links to their Mac OS X tool and documentation, showing that yes, they do support the Mac, and please, where I can find their firmware.

Second response back: "Why do you need the firmware? That's only if we escalate it with our engineers."

This is also a strange reply - since their own FAQ suggests updating the firmware, and their disk utility tool provides (broken) links to download the firmware. For that matter, their Windows tool has the firmware update included in the package. (Anyone using Mac OS X, Linux, or Solaris need to download the firmware seperately. Or at least try to.)

So I quote their FAQ back at them, providing the links to the FAQ, and asking once again if I could please have the firmware update.

Third response back: "The SDT-D7000 only supports DDS-1 and DDS-2 DAT tapes, nbt the DDS-3. You can only use DDS-1 and DDS-2 tapes with that model."

That's nice, except, as I have pointed out in each email, that the DAT drive I'm trying to make work is a SDT-D9000, and that does support DDS-3, both in their documentation, and the fact that I have an identical model sitting right next to the non-functioning one, and it's handling DDS-3 with NO BLOODY PROBLEMS!!!!!

So I point this out to them, again providing links and citing my past emails where I show I'm talking about a SDT-D9000, not a 7000. At this point, I think I know their site better than they do.

No response back from them yet. And I'm not expecting one.

Comments

[ctyger.livejournal.com]

lol... ya know, sometimes you gotta wonder what training the help people are provided. goodness knows during my stint of working as a computer lab technician on campus the only training I recieved on technical issues was training I did of myself! So it might be the same way... *shrug* Either that or someone really doesn't like mac users in their tech department....