Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[jjchico]

I was hoping to get some insight as to how to handle a repair issue with my sony cybershot. Backgroung; when I purchased the camera in 08, I was happy with it, but about three months ago the camera started taking blurry pics. At first it was just some of the pictures, so I thought it could be operator error. Now it is 90+% of the pics, you can see it on the small screen on the camera. I have the service plan with BB and took the camera in to the geek squad. The guy at the counter was nice agreed that it was blurry, took the camera and they called in a week or so saying it was fixed. The tag said the camera got some new programing, but when I got the camera home nothing was different, same blurr. I took the camera back and they said it was operating normally. The very same guy who helped me the first time was now a jerk, told me there was really nothing he could do, and gave me a number for bestbuy corporate. I called the bb number, and the guy on the other line said I could take it up with sony, take it in to a repair shop to have it fixed and then try to get my money back from bb, or take it in as an escallation where the guy who was a jerk to me will review it and write his opinion. One of the bb salesmen told me I should just break the camera and bring it back saying I dropped it to get a new one, but I am not a dishonnest person. I am not a camera specialist, but I do no when something is not working like it did in the past. All the options bb has given me seem either a joke or make me question why I would buy a policy in the first place. All of this plus I have not had a camera during the birth and first few months of my sons life. I am truely disheartened, so if anyone knows who to talk to to get this resolved I would love to hear it.

[Elizabeth-BBY Community Supervisor]

Dear jjchico, 

Thanks for posting your concern on our Best Buy® Forum.  Your issue has been assigned to one of our Community Connectors for further review and response, and you should be hearing something within the next few business days.  Thanks for your continued patience as we work to assist all of the customers who have reached out to us on this forum.

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hi jjchico,

I can imagine how upsetting it would be to not have your camera working right during the birth of your son, and it sounds like you have been more than patient in this matter. I have to start by saying that no representative should ever advise a customer to damage their product in order to receive service from their extended service plan, and in fact most extended service plans we sell do not cover damage. It sounds like you purchased a Performance Service Plan (PSP) with Accidental Damage from Handling (ADH) to cover any repairs on your camera. The PSP should cover the repair of your camera if an authorized service technician determines there is a problem with your camera, and it needs to be repaired. If the technician that looked at your camera has determined that the camera is working correctly we would need a new diagnosis from a technician in order to repair the camera again. The store should be able to send the camera back out for service, but keep in mind that if the technician diagnoses that the camera is functioning properly you could be charged for the labor involved.

Before sending the camera back out for service I would make sure that the camera is setup properly. This is because blurry images are almost always caused by how the camera is setup or used. The most common cause of image blur is a combination of two factors. The first factor is the cameras shutter speed is set too slow, and simply put the shutter speed controls the amount of time the sensor records the image. A slow shutter speed in combination with what is called camera shake will definitely blur your images. Camera shake is the inevitable movement of the photographer’s body during exposure, and can all by itself cause their images to blur no matter how fast your shutter speed is. We’re talking about exposure times that are fractions of a second, and the best way to guard against this is to make sure the camera is setting fast shutter speeds and to hold the camera as close to your body as possible.I would also suggest initializing your camera back the manufacturer’s default settings, and directions on how to do this are on page 22 of your camera manual. It is of course possible that there is something physically wrong with your camera, but that would definitely have to be diagnosed by a technician.

If none of this helps I would suggest having a digital imaging expert in a Best Buy® store look at the camera to make sure it is set up correctly, and to determine if they think there is something physically wrong with the camera. If the digital imaging expert at our store believes that the camera needs to be repaired the store should have no problem sending the camera back out for service. If you need anything from me just send me a message by logging into the forum, clicking on my icon, and then clicking on send this user a message link.

Thanks for posting,
Allan
Community Connector
Best Buy® Corporate