newest on the sony flat rate...at least as far as i know
long story short, or ill try...
i entered info on my m1's about 2 months ago on the sony site (model/serial#'s) and was told they were eligible for a flat rate repair of $161...checked the others (d100, d8, d7) and all of those said EXCHANGE program only ($400 and +)
so i figured $161 was a steal for a flat rate repair from sony, and filled out the forms for both of my ill decks.
submitted, had to wait a while , and was eventually told the quote was wrong, and that the rate was really $150 an HOUR just to diagnose the fuckers...AND even though i was sending in TWO decks, they had to charge me 2 hrs worth of labor, regardless if the 1st deck only took 10 min to diagnose. bunch o crap...they went on to tell me that they havent doen the flat rate repair in SO long and they were NOT aware that the site was still offering it, so it looks like i lucked out because...
i fought em on it, printed out what the site said initially ,wrote a looong letter, mailed it to them along with both decks and they honored the flat fix price. after a month+ of me waiting with no correspondance from them...I bitched a lil bit after the fact and wound up getting one of the repairs free after all was FINALLY said and done!
god bless america.
edit:
after looking, it appears the other decks are now being serviced again with flat rate quotes, but the m1 isnt...