Updated: It’s amazing what an article on a website can achieve for you when it receives tens of thousands of hits and a ton of link-ins from around the country/world. It’s also amazing to know exactly how full of crap the customer service representatives at Sony truly are. They went from not being able to do it without the console unit or my “private” information, to being able to randomly do it out of no where and sending me an email to let me know.
The power of word is obviously strong. It’s ridiculous that I had to go to this length to get it done, but whatever. It’s done.
Dear DAVE,
Recently you requested assistance with your PlayStation® Network account and the Video Download Service. Per your request, we have deactivated your original console from your account.
To activate your new console, please click the link below and follow the instructions in the article.
http://playstation.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/playstation.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=796
If you have questions or require further assistance, please call SCEA Consumer Services directly at (866) 286-5123.
We are available Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Pacific Time.
Your Service Request Number is 1-237200801. Please reference this number when calling us.
Sincerely,
The PlayStation® Consumer Services Team
Original: This generation of consoles has brought forth something that the gaming industry has never seen the likes of and that is the console wars. Sure, Nintendo and Sega had a rift back in the 90s, but it was never quite at the level it is today. It seems you’re either a member of the Microsoft camp or you’re taking refuge at Sony’s headquarters. Regardless of which side you choose to represent, without including the neutrals, the reasoning behind these console wars always falls back onto one factor – brand loyalty.
I remember a time when brand loyalty meant something. Supporting a product used to mean that that company would appreciate your business and would enjoy keeping it. A company would do what it could to satisfy its consumers in order to keep that consumer base from dwindling, but growing through consumer loyalty and treating the consumer right. However, ever since the launch of this generation of consoles, consumer loyalty has been thrown out the window in exchange for greed and profitability. Of course, you can make your argument for which of the two empires you feel carries the most evil, but when it’s truly broken down to it, Microsoft is willing to go further to keep you as a customer than Sony is.
The Red Ring of Death fiasco isn’t exactly a secret, but it’s an epidemic that helps provide a realistic look into the blatancy of disrespect these companies have for the consumer. While Microsoft may have chosen to release a shoddy product to the market in order to gain market share, they were willing to save face and take a loss by offering a billion dollar warranty program expanding their coverage to three years for the console’s biggest weakness. Sure – it can be debated that this also helped prevent civil lawsuits from cropping up, but when push comes to shove, this maneuver resulted in Microsoft’s consumers continually returning to the brand despite the break downs and many replacement boxes they’ve ended up going through.
When we flip the table and watch how Sony has handled their entire console this generation, all you ultimately see from the consumer loyalty perspective is utter failure and death. One of the key components to the lack of consumer loyalty is the way that Sony conducts their warranty process in general. Not only is the consumer expected to keep their receipt for the entire year, but if they happen to misplace it, they’ll be hit with a $160 repair fee just to get their console fixed. I realize this is a precaution and a verification process to make sure the consoles being sent in are legitimately under warranty, however, this same practice and requirement was required when the console had only been launched for six months. That’s correct, if your console broke in March 2007, Sony would still require a receipt to prove you bought the console within the last year. Ridiculous? I agree.
Furthering this atrocity is the console activation process that Sony utilizes for both its PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 platforms. As many of you know, Sony pushed the ability to GameShare at its 2006 E3 Press Conference. They lauded the ability to share games with your friends on up to five different consoles. This was a huge pull for consumers and it definitely got a lot of people coming on board to purchase their console. However, fast-forward three years and people have been banned from the network for gamesharing and Sony’s customer service pulls the “how do we know you’re not gamesharing card,” if you happen to request a deactivation on a console.
You see, that’s the funny part. Sony allows five consoles and handhelds to access a single account at any given time. This means, if your console breaks or you have to sell it in order to make a bill payment and you forget to deactivate it, you’ve permanently lost that one console activation forever. So what happens to the people who prefer to upgrade their products like the PSP? Let’s say someone purchases a PSP 1000, trades it in to purchase a PSP 2000. That PSP 2000 is sold to pay some bills and then another PSP 2000 is bought. That PSP 2000 is traded in to purchase a PSP 3000 and you end up game sharing with a buddy. Now, what happens if you’re not away of the activation/deactivation process or how limited the limited number of handhelds you can activate on one account is? You just used all 5 slots – So when you go to continue to support Sony and you purchase a PSPgo by trading in your PSP 3000, you’re f***ed. That’s right. Now that you’ve purchased their overpriced $250 PSPgo in show of brand loyalty and support, Sony is repaying your continued efforts by letting you know your old PSP content that you owned is completely and utterly useless – pretty much like their customer service.
I decided to put this entire “consumer loyalty” to the test recently because I was put into a similar situation as described above. The only difference is, instead of game sharing with a friend, someone had actually stolen two PSPs from me in the past. This rendered those two activations permanently lost and my support of purchasing a 1000 (third time), 2000, 3000 and then PSPgo did not matter one bit when consumer loyalty comes into play. This is where it gets interesting. I decided to call up Sony’s costumer service to find out what they could do for me, since I had just purchased $150 worth of PSPgo content from the PlayStation Store and when I went to transfer it to my PSPgo, it told me I had too many PSPs activated.
So – I call up Sony and the first representative tries to tell me that they cannot do it because I have to manually deactivate each system despite them not being in my possession any longer. Of course, like any normal consumer who isn’t getting the answer he’s looking for, I asked to speak to their supervisor. I was put on hold for 10 minutes until this guy was placed on the phone, who, by the way, was one of the biggest ***** I’d ever had to deal with from a CSR standpoint. Not only did he shoot me down at every turn, but he tried to read off the Terms of Service to me where it never specifically states how many consoles or handhelds I can activate nor does it state that you’ll lose complete access to any and all of your content if you happen to reach the 6th product in the line of their hardware.
By the time I was done talking to this guy, I was 47 minutes in and requested to speak to his supervisor. This next representative was the one who left me facepalmed on my couch in disbelief. Not only did this lady have absolutely no clue what I was talking about (this is sad from a company perspective let alone a consumer perspective), but she was trying to give me solutions that didn’t even exist – like logging into my account on their website and deactivating my products from there (impossible). So – I asked the lady to take a look at my account and check that I’ve spent well over $1,500 on their downloadable content since launch and that all I was looking for was a little consumer loyalty in having my account release ALL PSP activations entirely. This is where things turned completely illogical.
This supervisor tried to tell me that they don’t have the ability or the power to deactivate consoles from their end of the process because they don’t have our login details or sensitive information. Then she proceeded to tell me that the only way they can deactivate consoles or handhelds is if we send them in for repair. This is where she started to lose me, because even if I sent my PSP in for repair, I would not be including my memory card, which would have the saved user data to begin with that would enable them to access my account to deactivate, the same goes for my PlayStation 3 and my HDD. So – How would they be able to deactivate my product that way? The icing on the cake in this situation is that I had sent in TWO PS3s in the span of three months between March and May of 2009. When I called back then to have those two PlayStation 3’s deactivated from my account, the representatives and supervisors told me at that time that they can’t deactivate the PS3s without me mailing them a copy of my receipt to prove I owned them (despite just paying $160 for them to repair the piece of faulty hardware to begin with).
Let me recap. Basically, everything I’ve been told thus far has been contradictory to everything I was previously told a couple of months ago as well as completely false in the capabilities as to what they could do. When the phone call finally started to boil over and I was reaching my limit of garbage from the customer service department, I had to ask…
“So, can you guys remove the access to that content from my account or provide me with download vouchers so that I can create a new account to use the content I just bought or am I stuck with unusable content? Is it possible to just have the transaction voiced in order to re-purchase the items under a new account?”
I knew the answer before she even opened her mouth. Guess what her solution was to my problem?
“Sir, the only solution I can offer you is to create a new account and then re-purchase the $150 worth of content in order to play it on your PSPgo.”
Once I got off the phone, I decided to google around a bit to see if any other users had ever had Sony deactivate consoles or handhelds for them in the past. I found numerous reports where people indicated Sony had helped them out in deactivating their consoles with a little “persuasion.” Are these reports accurate? I have no clue. However, if they are, that makes my situation that much worse. But, it didn’t matter anymore, the situation was over.
That was it. That’s the limit to their customer service. After $1,500 in DLC, 6 PlayStation Portables, 4 PlayStation 3s, 3 PlayStation 2s, 1 PlayStation and two years of reviews and promoting their products for their consumer base as a journalist — that was the consumer loyalty I was afforded by Sony Computer Entertainment America. I wasn’t even offered lubricant first.
This entire experience and ordeal has lead to what I believe as a true, undeniable indicator that Sony has entirely killed any semblance of consumer loyalty in favor of profit margins, crude business tactics, unprofessional customer service and pure greed.
All I have left to ask is, where is the love Sony?
Man seriously. I know how frustrating all that could be but they give you 5 chances to deactivate a product. This seems like a complete rant and somethings not right with this article. It sounds like its from a Xbox fanboy man. If Sony were to allow more than 5 systems activated per account it would be bad buisness.
It would allow more people to game share which in return would equal lower game sales. Lower game sales would = the developers of the said games thinking twice about PS3 excusivity development.
Like man, if you go to purchase something off the PS store the first thing your greeted with is the terms of service and the 3rd line in those terms of service is the 5 activated PS3 terms. If you can’t take 1 minutes to read the terms and 5 minutes to look up what those terms means then its your own fault in a way.
Thats what the terms are there for. Its not like they havn’t tryed telling people about this and then screwing them.
As for when you rang them up. Theres legal issues about deactivating and there security issues aswel. The people should have explained this
@Geddesmond2
My problem isn’t that they only allow only 5 consoles, it’s that they don’t allow you the opportunity to deactivate your consoles remotely or openly provide you with the option for them to do it.
Your idea that there are “legal issues about deactivating and there are security issues as well” is completely false because people have confirmed that Sony HAS done this for certain consumers. If they can do it for them, they should be doing it for their entire consumer base depending on if the proper identification is shown. This can be done through several ways, including emailing the original account email for verification.
The fact they don’t openly or willingly do this for you is completely ludicrous.
@The Dean
I read your article, the entire, all but one paragraph, full of complaints about Sony. While you “happily” mention that Microsoft extended their warranty to “save face” you neglect to even acknowledge the fact that they KNOWINGLY released a faulty product in the hopes that it wouldn’t be that bad and they’d still make money. I hardly believe people rushed back to buy another 360 because of their excellent services, but rather people had spent a year building a game collection and didn’t wanna waste that money, so stuck with a system for the current games.
Switching to the accountability issue, it is an accountability issue. Ever heard of theft? Sony ensures they are spending money and resources on people who made a valid purchase. Otherwise the guy who steals some PS3′s can do what he needs to in order to make out to his benefit in the end, it happens.
Not deactivating your accounts, AS YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO DO, is entirely your fault. Do you make it a habit to not follow instructions when using other equipment or programs, if you do why should those companies bend over backwards when you fail to complete a simple task.
Now, that being said it sucks if you have customer service issues, but every company has them. I’ve had them and I’m sure I’ll have more with various companies, but each and every poster here probably has a horror story about either company. Its terrible when it happens, but you don’t even begin to scratch the surface about the problems Microsoft has given people over the years, whilst all your PS3 issues seem to be from your failure to follow simple instructions.
I’ve replaced 1 PS3, due to a Blu-ray disc read error. I had 0 issues with customer service and had a new ps3 back at my house and hooked up within 6 days, that includes sending my bad one out. Sony offers me a free online game service, HOME is free, and the product was put out WITH QUALITY.
“It’s not about which one is going to be reliable or which one is going to die the most often”
Dean my man, I’m afraid YOU are missing the point. Who cares for 3 years of free boxes when you have a reliable console? Honestly, defending the customer service of a couple of scams that knowingly sold you a faulty device, by complimentingthem on replacing it for another faulty device for 3 years if necessary…is just plain stupid.
You sir got f***ed by MS, and you don’t even know it. I myself paid 599 for my PS3 and if things where the other way round I would be ****ing Sony instead of praising them, where’s your dignity man?
The thing launched end ’05 which is T minus 3+ years for more & more poor souls, the brandloyal #1 fans who pay & fear the most. Don’t you think it’s time to step up the plate and march 2 Redmond for them? Or for yourself, instead of writing this nonsense that only makes us with a PS3 feel be…no, laugh our pants of?
My PS3′s blu ray drive broke, they charged me $160 for it. His point was the customer service between the two companies, nothing to do with the hardware itself. I have to disagree though, I’ve had a second Xbox’s disk drive break but the console didn’t red ring so I was still charged $100 dollars to fix it.
Naughty God, you’re talking about marching on a companies headquarters…..stop drinking Sony’s Kool aid and perhaps realize it’s just a hunk of plastic and copper underneath your TV. Sheesh.
All I can say, is that you’re gonna get far less problems by sticking with Sony than investing in Microsoft’s gaming products! It doesn’t bother me that they might be less consumer friendly than their competitors.
Microsoft might seem more supportive of their consumers, but the bottom line is, they’ve done far more worse things to their consumers and charge for things that should be free. Simple as that.
@ExPresident
How do you deactivate a console that has a PSU problem and won’t turn on? Where does Sony instruct you to deactivate? Not in their replacement boxes they send out, that’s for sure (I’ve had 2 of those in the span of 3 months).
Once again — The receipt issue is a hassle. The majority of people don’t keep their receipts, that’s why Sony requires it. You don’t think that they KNOW most people lose their receipts? Of course they do. They know if they require the receipt, chances are, the majority of people aren’t going to be able to find theirs — leaving them up the creek without a paddle. That’s why I do praise Microsoft for how they handle their warranty practice. Is the console terribly built? Yes, entirely. But they do not make their consumer jump through hoops in order to have it replaced. They ask you to register it online, submit the manufacturing date and you’re set. No receipt, no phone call full of 500 questions like you stole something, nothing. It’s that simple and that easy to do.
That’s my problem with that part of this process. I’m not sure how you can’t see that.
@Naughty God
I’m on my 3rd PlayStation 3 in a 7 month span. Not everyone has had the opportunity for their PlayStation 3 to last forever. There are some of us who have had to experience bad luck (I consider it bad luck because Sony’s PS3 IS reliable) and have had 2-3 boxes shipped to us. Does that change my stance that the PS3 is STILL my console of choice? No. I still plan on playing my PS3 and I’ll still purchase content because I enjoy the console.
However, I truly felt abused by their customer service and the way they handled this issue and other people’s issues.
@ The Dean
What’s Microsoft’s policy on retaining purchased downloadable games and additional content? I’ve heard it was quite a compicated process.
Nice article. You may want to consider that your are comparing the service OTHERS have received and reported to the experience YOU had with a CSR regarding an issue that is not the same. (Repair vs Deactivation/Authorizing consoles)
Others have had differing experiences with the 2 companies:
http://vjarmy.com/archives/2009/06/ps3_repair_odyssey.php
TheDean: I believe in your hurry to ship off your PS3 for repair, you neglected to read the packing information sent in the box, because it does clearly state that deactivating the console is one of the steps you are to perform *IF ABLE*
@Creidim77
I specifically state in the article that their are a lot of people who have had different experiences with both companies, but the majority of the information I’ve found online is that most people have had difficult experiences more-so than good ones when trying to get justified support for their problems.
@Raptor
Your downloaded content can be reclaimed on any 360 and played entirely unlocked so long as the 360 is online. Each downloadable content piece is licensed to the original console it was purchased on though and can only be played fully OFFLINE on that one console.
It’s not a bad setup, but it’s nothing compared to Sony’s awesome GameShare setup (which is amazing to begin with).
The reason I don’t have a problem with Microsoft’s setup is that they’ve used the same set up that has been used for forever in terms of downloading content. It’s not a “new” way to do it, you get what you always have.
Sony has offered a new experience (which they always do), but the way to utilize it is sometimes a kick in the face, like what happened to me.
@Creidim
Do you have a copy of what comes in the box? I’ll try to find mine, but I’m pretty sure that part wasn’t included. I may have skipped over it because both of my PS3s that failed has PSU issues (the console would turn on, but it didn’t have enough power to show up on the TV, lol, so I couldn’t even do anything on the XMB).
If it really does say that though, I’ll bite the bullet and admit I was wrong on that part (but that’s not included in the article, because my experience didn’t involve it since it was a PSU problem)
@Dean
Xbox is not officially in my country,they import them from elsewhere and when a Xbox broke the big “3 year” warrant thing may not be present.Your Xbox breaks,they send it to another country after you call the place you bought it from(online marketplace or big store) and pray to God crossing you foot thumbs to repair your console or at least give you another one…after month or more you either get it…fixed and then pray to not happen again.So if you live in USA cool-hello 3 years warranty,UK-same but not here….
So better Sony-at least they have official service here.
I think you need to look at why MS has a better warranty then Sony. Do you know what a class action lawsuit is?
I don’t agree with your article at all. I know what point you are trying to get across but you missed the mark by a mile. Compairing customer service without taking into consideration the percentages of people who actually have to use it is halfas*ed.
Look bottom line here is Sony gives people more than enough opportunities to deactivate there systems. When a PS3 YLOD’s and you can’t turn the machine back on they deactivate the system themself’s when they repair it. Because of how easy it is to game share and the ammount of money Sony and developers set to loose because of it. Sony put in measures to assure they don’t get screwed even more.
Like come on dog. They make the terms very clear about the 5 PS3 rule and its very surprising that someone who has owned all those PSP’s never deactivated 1 or even knew about it.
To make an article thats practically dissing the PS3 and gracing the xbox 360 over an issue thats more because of there Negligence than Sonys customer service is wrong Dean. Site most people here joined the site cas its Playstation university. Your pretty much dissing the PS3 on its home grounds
@UD
Sony faced class action lawsuits over the PS2 because of their DRE failure rates. Did they increase the warranty? No. They paid the lawsuit and moved on. This is the difference I am trying to convey.
@Geddesmond2
No, they do not. I have 2 PS3s go in with PSU problems (wouldn’t power up) and thus couldn’t deactivate them. When I called Sony to have them deactivated, do you know what they told me? “No — We’re not able to do that.”
So I have no clue what you’re talking about. I’m not dissing the PS3 on its “home grounds,” I’m being a consumer writing about an issue that a lot of consumers have had to deal with. Just because the site is geared towards the PS3, does not make the console or the company who developed it, perfect. Believe it or not, negative things happen with the PlayStation brand as well — this is one of them.
The PS3 of friend of mine had Blu-ray defect.Didn’t read anything.After 2 weeks they gave him brand new unit.
I am a manager at a gamestop and call customer service for customers all the time. microsoft has, by far, the best customer service. I have called them over 30 times and have always had excellent service. plus a good 30 percent of the time they are americans whom i can understand. i have had to call sony less, not because more 360′s break, but because i can solve a ps3 problem quicker.
is it out of warranty?
yes
that’ll be $160
that simple and the customer walks out. i will admit i have had people come in with their 360 broken looking to buy a new one and a majority of the time i call MS and save the customer a few hundred dollars.
there is something else, the 3 year warranty was only for consoles manufactored before a certain date. the present concoles dont come with that. MS, however, offers an extendable warranty. i tell every customer buying a 360, while your console is still under warranty you can actually call MS and add another year for $30 and get up to three years. plus if your console breaks, when they send you a new one it comes with another 1 year warranty, unlike the 90 days with sony. by the way my friend had his ps3 fixed for $150 in may, it just broke.
Not sure where exactly you’re from, but let me give you my experience with Sonys customer service here in the UK. My PS3 stopped reading discs so I rang them up.
Sony rep: Hi there how can I help?
ME: My PS3 has stopped reading discs
SR: Ok, have you tried…(goes through a list of things that Ive already tried)
Me: Ive tried all those.
SR: Ok, let me take your details
Me: Gives him name adress etc…
SR: Ok sir, will you be home tomorrow?
Me: Yes
SR: Great, we’ll have a replacement console sent out in the morning by courier
I was gobsmacked. No need to produce a receipt, no waiting 3 weeks like my 360 friends when their consoles broke, 15 hours later I had a refurbished console that hasnt put a foot wrong since.
My experience was extremely positive and while I sympathise with your deactivated console problem, I think 5 consoles is more than enough for anyone and if you’d raised the deactivation issue at the time the incidents occurred you’d have more luck getting them deactivated.