Sony DVP-CX985V 400 Disc Progressive DVD / SACD Player
User Interface Sucks -- Now returned for repair!
Originally posted January 21,2005<br />I've had the product for about 10 months. Sound and picture quality are fine but using the damn thing distroys much of its value. The ease-of-use issues have been well documented by other disappointed users so I will only say the issues they raised are right on. Hard to use is an understatement. My review is to share my experience with a failure mode and Sony repair. I have a lot of CDs and DVDs but am not a heavy user. Maybe watch a move once a week and play a few CDs now and then. Noticed some of the DVDs were making noise and not playing properly. Discovered fairly deep circular gouges that made several disks unplayable. At first, though they were damaged at purchase but then realized perfect DVDs were being distroyed. Appeared to be only disks around 350 that were damaged and probably when I used the auto LOAD function to read disk titles. May not be the cause but it is always after this operation that damaged disks have been discovered. Would like to know if anyone else has had this problem. Now for Sony service. After making it through the voice recognition phone menu system and providing name address phone model etc I was finaly placed in Q for a live agent -- 45 minutes later I was connected to a very nice woman who arranged for an exchange, not new, but a refurbished product. That's OK with me, a refurbished product is probably just as good as new. The rub is that it cost me over $40 to return ship the product to Sony. They provide a work order that you take to a \\"UPS Store\\" but you pay for shipping and handling. And then wait for Sony to send the replacement. I just returned mine last week so don't know how long the process will take. I do know that good customer care will ship you a new or refurbished product and have you use that packaging to return the original product. The best companies even pay for shipping, all shipping. If I get the refurbished unit back within two weeks and if it looks and works like new, I probably will be satisfied but Sony could, and should, have done better both in the design of the product and in its customer care.<br />---------------------------<br />I'm Back! It took about four weeks for repair. So far so good. Seems to work like new, but too soon to know if the disks are now safe. If the problem returns, I'll let you know!