Newsgroups: rec.video

Since my sordid adventure with my malfunctioning Sony TR-81 camcorder
seems to be drawing to a happy ending, I decided to relate the story to
you all in case it can help others that might have any similar problems.

My camcorder was purchased at the very end of 1991.  (Christmas gift
money flaming in my pocket, ya know.)  The recordings it made were fine,
except for one problem.  Upon playback of my recordings, I found that
there were periodic major glitches in both the video and sound.  In the
video, a white blotch would cover roughly 1/3 of a frame, and the sound
would simultaneously drop out completely for around 1/3 of a second.
The glitches would sometimes be fairly infrequent, but at other times
they would be extremely intrusive, happening every few seconds.

My first thought was that I had gotten a bad batch of tapes.  (By the
way, I only use MP tapes, as these are family tapes of the kids growing
up that I want to last as long as possible.)  After I got more tapes
a couple of months later and those exhibited the same problem, I started
suspecting that the camcorder was at fault.  Near the end of the 90-day
warranty period, I took it in to the Denver Sony service center.  I
provided them a VHS copy of one of my particularly badly afflicted
TR-81 recordings, and a clear description of the problem.  After checking
it over, they sent it back saying they couldn't find any problem and that
I should use ME tape.  Of course I didn't buy that because clearly Sony
nowhere makes a public statement to the effect that the TR-81 camcorder
is not compatible with MP tape.  I kind of got the feeling that the
techs at the service center weren't yet familiar with the TR-81.  I
thought that maybe my unit was an early-production unit that had some
problem that hadn't been disseminated to the service centers.  At this
point, I was pretty discouraged.  I knew from the discussions on
rec.video that others were happy with their TR-81's, and I was sure they
wouldn't be if their cameras exhibited the same problem as mine.  It
looked like I had a lemon, and I didn't know how to get Sony to fix it.

In August I got fed up with the glitches again and decided to try to
prove that it wasn't a tape problem.  I bought a professional-grade
Sony P6-120HMPX tape to try.  It had the same problems.  I decided
that this fact would make it hard for them to blame it on the tape, so
I sent the camcorder and the HMPX tape exhibiting the glitches back to
the service center.  When they got around to working on it, I talked to
the tech supervisor and he told me that they ran their standard dropout
test and didn't find any dropouts.  When I asked him if he looked at my
tape (which I had recorded from a strong broadcast station) he suggested
that the problem was my reception.  At this point, I was getting pretty
PI*SED.  I told him to just send the camera back.  I had pretty much
decided I would have to provide an airtight demonstration of the problem
with me there pointing to the glitches on the screen in order to get them
to acknowledge the problem.  What did he say next?  "There is a $25.00
diagnostic charge you need to pay before we can send your camera back."

"OK, OK, self, get that blood pressure back down and put away that
flamethrower!"  I firmly but politely told him that I needed to talk to
the next step up in the Sony management chain.  (I had mistakenly thought
that I was already talking to the manager of the service center.)
I got transfered an ended up talking to the actual overall manager of the
service center.  I went through the whole sad story, carefully dropping
in comments that would let him know that:

- I know enough about video that I know what I am talking about and know
  a real problem when I see one.

- I have been a long-term loyal Sony customer, the type that they would
  do well not to pi*s off.

- I'm not pursuing this problem for the fun of it.  My camcorder has a
  real problem that has already degraded about 6 hours of my family
  recordings.

He said he would look at my recording and let me know what he found.
The next day, he called back and said "Yes, I can see the problem.
We don't know how to fix it.  I will get you a new camcorder."

It appears that this may all be a policy that they use to weed out 
mildly dissatisfied consumers and take care of the really angry ones.
I don't think I should have had to go to the lengths I did in order
to get satisfaction.  I mainly wanted to tell this story so if anyone
else gets stonewalled by Sony service they will know to clearly
demonstrate the problem, keep trying, and keep increasing the pressure.


Bryan Carpenter
Hewlett-Packard Co.
bfc@lvld.hp.com
Xref: sparky rec.video:12271 comp.sys.amiga.applications:7843