Sony Video Cam Disaster

[johnfb]

4 days ago I purchased a SONY videocam fro Pantip as a present for my Asian gf at a cost of around 15k. On a trip to Hua Hin it got wet at the beach and I returned it to Pantip. They referred me onto SONY service centre opp RCA who advised me the circuit board inside is damaged through water and has oxide on it causing the cam to be a difficult repair. They wanted 'wait for it ' 20k to repair it !!

Can anyone give me a course of action? Put it down to bad experience and buy again?

Anyway can I get a better response from SONY. I got the impression that they saw I was farang and then they were not going to help.

Thank you.

Edited May 29, 2008 by johnfb

[Carib]

well, to state the obvious, buy again, ask for a discount because you are a regular...

[johnfb]

know that we are to blame but it would have been good for SONY from a PR point of view to offer more help.

I would have been delighted had they said as a gesture of goodwill we will repair it for free or we will exchange it and you pay half the cost....the 20k cost of repair for a video cam selling at 15k is ridiculous. SONY need to realise that we both are having a bad feeling about the response from SONY so far and will tell others just bad things about SONY Thailand.

They have been so far totally dismissive.

Edited May 29, 2008 by johnfb

[A_Traveller]

Just how wet did it get? Oxidisation in a 'few hours'? What model?

Regards

[johnfb]

Just how wet did it get? Oxidisation in a 'few hours'? What model?

Regards

It's the SONY HANDYCAM DCR-DVD610E.....we were on the seashore in Hua Hin and a freak wave caught us. It honestly had a tiny amount of sea water splash it. As soon as it got splashed we wiped off any visable water we could see and left it in sunlight to evaporate any water inside.

Edited May 29, 2008 by johnfb

[A_Traveller]

If the CCD or the master board has been damaged, then the price doesn't really surprise me. Given it's a dvd recorder that also limits options. An all solid state device could {stress could} benefit from an atmosphere of water dispersant. It depends on what, if anything, they did at the service centre, did they just open it and look, or did they apply any restorative measures. It may benefit from a longer period to thoroughly dry out, say in an air-con environment, it is after all only a couple of days.

Regards

[sniffdog]

If I am right, sea water contains salt which is disastrous even in small amounts.

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would have been delighted had they said as a gesture of goodwill we will repair it for free

or we will exchange it and you pay half the cost

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Aren't you expecting a little too much from Sony? It was you who made the error ....

[Khun Jack]

I have received for repair notebooks, camera's, mobile telephones and transceivers which got wet, and depending how much water there was splashed over but only few items were repairable. Salt water causes electrical shorts and destructs the integrated circuits in a flash. Parts and circuit board will continue to corrode anyway. Don't blame Sony, buy a new one.

[Crossy]

Yep ^^^, sad to say any electronics that has had sea water in it is junk

Next time get a 'sports' housing for it, on beach visits you can then take it in the sea safely great shots to be had snorkeling even at a couple of feet depth, plus it will float when you drop it. Even if it hadn't gotten wet blown sand is a disaster for delicate equipment like this.

Edited May 30, 2008 by Crossy

[Cuban]

I have had direct experiance with many Sony products in the past that have encountered similar problems from my own MP3 player going through a washing machine (still working after my own repair) to a portable R-DAT being dropped in a sheep-dip pit, I have been impressed with the way that Sony devices survived such events.

The saltwater will not do any favours to your device and it is long past the time that 'electronic first aid' could do any good, but for the record and future readers:

If saltwater has got inside - remove the batteries at once.

If there is a lot of seawater inside - open the thing up as much as you can and flush through with clean bottled drinking water. This can be a do or die situation as for some devices if water is left in contact with the circuit boards inside too long they will be destroyed anyway, regardless of it being fresh or salt water.

If you are looking at binning the thing due to excessive repair costs, consider the benifits of insurance cover?

[Veazer]

My friend bought a Sanyo E1 to Songkran in Chiang Mai this year, it was loads of fun to walk around with the worry of getting the camera wet. Image quality is pretty good, check out the image gallery.

They have non-waterproof models that can shoot higher definition 720p mode, so hopefully they will release a 720p waterproof model soon as well. There is an 8 MP version coming soon