I promised an update on Sony's handling of the 'clock issue', so here it is--
For those who don't want to scroll endlessly for the story: my unit developed the clock issue after a few months. I waited until six months post purchase to call it in, after reading the thread here. I called around at Sony, and finally reached Sony Pro Audio support (scroll back for address and phone number). They initially told me they would charge me $90 under the 'parts exchange warranty', which I found ....ummm....unattractive. I explained the fact that numerous others had reported the problem, and sent them thread exerpts as evidence.
Steve Gill, the Pro Audio Service Mgr. in LA has stepped up and handled this for us in a way I think is pretty impressive. Given his position and duties, I am sure he has more pressing problems than teething issues on a $200 prosumer unit. However he went to the Sustaining Engineer, and the Product manager, and produced a solution, and they exchanged my unit.
I sent it back at my expense, and they shipped the replacement back at their expense. They sent a new set of batteries with it.
I now have in my hands a replacement unit. I don't know if it is new or refurb (sent bare in bubble wrap, without the imprinted screen cover) or new. If it is refurb, it is very clean, and I don't think it is likely to have suffered any mechanical damage. They even called me before shipping to see if it was ok to send a black unit instead of a red unit. Fine with me -- I'll take what I can get.
I set it up, put the flash card back in, and am using it. We shall see if the clock issue reoccurs. Since shipping and insurance to Sony was about $17 bucks I will probably just learn to live with it if it occurs again.
Relevant to the rest of you, here is Steve's explanation of current policy:
"Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this. There was an internal glitch that has now been resolved. The original support philosophy for this model was supposed to be product exchange within the warranty period. This conflicted with the one year parts/90-day labor warranty that was assigned to the product. The product manager has now recognized the conflict and has changed the warranty to 1 year/1 year so we can proceed with an exchange. Before we do that, however, let me get one in my hands and I will notify you to send yours in for the exchange. If you know others who are having the same problem, they should be sending them in for exchange as well. If you still have the form I sent you, we will need that sent in with your unit and a hard copy of your proof of purchase.
Thank you for your patience,
Steve"
So the moral of the story seems to be, if you have a problem, Steve/Sony is interested in doing the right thing. Contact <LAservice@am.sony.com>, be courteous, objective, request the service request form (they will email you) and be patient in corresponding about the issue. They still have no idea what the problem is, since this "is a new unit" and mine is apparently the first actually sent to them with the problem. I asked the last person (not a tech) I spoke to if they would interrogate the EPROM to look for the problem, and he didn't know. If it's cheaper just to exchange the units, I don't know if they will look for the electronic problem unless and untill they get a bunch of them back.
I hope this helps some other folks. I told SONY there were a bunch of us looking for a solution. I hope some other in-warranty users will also obtain service. If there are enough units with the problem, maybe even post warranty users ('who didn't bother sending my unit in because I figured the parts exchange cost would be too great) might receive some consideration/adjustment.
My thanks to the other posters with this problem, who provided the additional evidence that may have helped Sony arrive at their current helpful policy decision.
TG
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Topic: Sony PCM-M10 (Part 4) (Read 129341 times)