Thank You Sony Customer Support

[Parker]

We always hear about the negative stories when it comes to customer support so I figured I'd post my positive experience. 

 

For whatever reason my PS4 was not activated on my account so I couldn't play my downloaded games offline. I went to Sony's website to try and deactivate whatever PS4 I had activated on my account (which could only be my PS4 since I only have one, but oh well) and it said I had already done that recently so I couldn't do it again. As a precaution I changed my account's password (even though I have never noticed any unauthorized activity) and decided to give Sony a ring. 

 

I had to wait for about 5 minutes to talk to someone but after that it was smooth sailing. I explained the situation and within just a few minutes the employee had deactivated the console connected to my account and waited while I logged on to my PS4 and activated my PS4. It activated just fine and I can now play my digital games offline. 

 

So, thank you Sony support for being respectful, listening to me and most importantly resolving my issue in a very timely manner. 

 

 

Parker

[damon8r351]

After reading the title, I was preparing myself to read a snide and long-winded story about how Sony failed to correct a situation the poster more than likely created themselves. Then I noticed who posted it and said, "Oh it's Parker. Parker won't let me down." Thanks for not contributing to the continued erosion of my faith in humanity.

[Asuka Langley]

inb4 "Would've been better suited as a status rather than a topic"

 

It's nice to see you're having a good experience, though Fox just got refunded for $0.00 trying to get his amplitude license to work so... there's always the cloud for your silver linings

[Dreakon13]

I've found most customer support centers that actually allow you to call them, wind up being pretty helpful in the end.  Even if there's a bit of a wait.  As long as you're not coming to them with some bizarre problem that's most likely something wrong on your end anyways like "<insert game title> works PERFECTLY in my 7 monitor setup... but one of the screens is slightly dis-proportioned compared to the others on my 4 monitor setup when playing!  They're all different brands!  And when I unplug one of them my internet stops working!  Good going, <insert game developer>!"

 

But of course, we also have services like Steam where your only option is an email with literally months between responses from a rep, with wildly fluctuating degrees of quality in said responses.

 

Glad to hear you had a good experience.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Dreakon13

[Kishnabe]

Was expecting the opposite, remember a similar thread title with snarky opening post.

[JapanimeGamer]

Karma for all your good work and kind generosity.

[Zenpai]

Once, Sony Portugal actually did something I'm still astonished about. Remember the PSOne monitors? I got one back in the day (about 12 years ago) because I had no TV in my room and just wanted to play my PS1 games in peace in my room. After a while, the screen started going on the fritz, so I called Sony tech support to ask if they could repair it, but they said they didn't repair that specific equipment. I was kinda bummed out about it, but about 6 months later, they just called me out of nowhere to ask me if I wanted a brand new monitor completely free of charge. I obviously said yes, so they traveled 700 km from their warehouse in Madrid to Lisbon just to give it to me. The next day, they arrived, took my old fritzy monitor and just gave me the brand new one. I still have it and as far as I know, it still works (haven't used it in quite a while). They were probably going to throw all of their stock away and remembered that it would be kind of a waste since I wanted my old one repaired, but still, I dare you to find such selfless customer service anywhere.

[Glowbugg]

I got 2 free PS2s back in the day from Sony  after burning through mine a couple times. 

[Guest]

Wow. That sounds really smmoth. And also very easy for someone else to just take control of the deactivation/ activation process. Hopefully they asked some obscure questions only you would know before they go ahead and deactivate and activate another ps4.

[Nihiris-]

Yup, over the years I rang Sony about 3-4 times and always had a very easy time getting my problems resolved. I even sat and had good conversations with the support on two different occasions about games after the problem was resolved just because of the stuff we were talking about while troubleshooting. 

 

Rule #1 when ringing customer support: Don't be an asshole from the get-go, because they are probably not going to do their best in helping you.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Death_Ninja

[DaivRules]

When I worked retail, I used to deal with people who thought starting out with attitude helped show they were superior. A few years after I started, someone I worked with told me the phrase "Nice people get what they need, Mean people get what they want." I did as much as I could to reverse that phrase, I went far an above what I was supposed to do for nice people and really made mean people work for what they wanted. My favorite was playing dumb, cause I was just a stupid lackey manager, right? My team members loved it. Entertainment in an otherwise shitty job.

 

I'm glad this was a tale of support being nice and helping when someone calls up with a reasonable disposition and probably common scenario.

 

I still advocate calling the manufacturer support line for any and all issues and being calm and nice to them. Also, take the time to think through your scenario and what you want to say before you call. If you're frustrated because you can't explain it, the other person is even more frustrated because they aren't mind readers and want to help, but don't know how until you can explain sufficiently.

 

Thanks for sharing, Parker!

[CasaDeBen]

I forget what I needed a refund for once but they totally hooked me up and it wasnt a hassle at all. My sony support remains good

[Masamune]

I've never really had much of a problem with Sony Support, the last time I had to contact them was about my PS+ trial auto renewing (I thought I set it not to renew... ) & taking the last of my cash from my wallet. But they canceled the subscription fairly quick & refunded my money. Although, I have a feeling that was a one-shot deal.

 

But it did take 2 tries, the first person I contacted (via chat) was pretty much a ghost, I think I was talking to myself (after a few minutes, they disconnected me). The second person was actually alive though.

[RHGSniperFox]

inb4 "Would've been better suited as a status rather than a topic"

 

It's nice to see you're having a good experience, though Fox just got refunded for $0.00 trying to get his amplitude license to work so... there's always the cloud for your silver linings

To be fair, while it didn't solve what was wrong, it *did* go smoothly at least, and it happened in a timely manner - so there's that. It's also likely I went through the wrong channel or something, so I went a different route when I re-opened the case. And both guys were very polite and professional.

 

So, yeah, it didn't fix anything, yet, but it wasn't a nightmare experience either

[Cleggworth]

I've had 3 experiences with Sony customer service. All good. 1st time they replaced my PS3 free of charge outside the warranty period. 2nd time they replaced my PS4 for free outside the warranty period, also fixing account deactivation on the broken PS4 with no issue when the problem arose. 3rd time they replaced a broken DS4 (within warranty) which they got to me next day.

Literally could not be a more different experience to the horror stories about account bans you hear

[AARCT1C]

It's always good to see something positive or someone having a good experience with Sony

[LittleLamb121]

Phew, I was a little worried something else had happened with Sony. Glad everything worked out for you!

[awf9495]

Great story!  I have one as well.

 

My very first PS3 was not connected to the Internet and I had to run an update from the Final Fantasy XIII disc before I could play it.  At about the halfway point, the update locked up and it bricked my PS3 (red screened).  This was about a month or two past warranty expiration so I sent Sony an e-mail explaining what had happened and that I was a loyal customer, and they repaired my PS3 free of charge.  Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the hard drive and since I wasn't connected to the internet, I lost about a years worth of trophies (hence why games like inFamous, Arkham Asylum, Prototype, Red Faction: Guerilla, etc. are not on my profile or have hardly any trophies attached at all).  Still, I've been more than happy with both Sony and Nintendo's customer support whenever I've dealt with them (and have never dealt with Microsoft - beat the odds and still have an arcade 360 that works perfectly fine).

[VitalFury]

I've dealt with them in the past and they have always been fine. I've worked for customer service on the phones before so I'm always nice to them when I've called and never had issue.

 

On the whole (bar the odd exception) the ones that rave about bad service are the ones who phone up angry and pissed off already. They have a agenda and think they know whats right by them. Most people on the phones will do what they can to solve it but I can tell you, sometimes...nothing you say will help.

 

I imagine a element of that is true with PS support.

Edited May 4, 2016 by VitalFury

[skateak]

I had a similar situation back when when I had a PlayStation 3 that broke. That was before you could remotely deactivate them from the internet and I had to call them to deactivate the console. This was when they dropped the active account number down to 3. I had a console in the living room, one in the bedroom and one that broke so when the one in the bedroom also broke, couldn't activate my new Slim. It was a short 10 minute conversion to verify I was the account owner and the best part is that the representative spoke very fluent English. It was probably one of the best customer service experiences I've ever had personally.

[Matto_lsi]

I'm glad Sony Support was able to assist you so well.  My few experiences with them have not been the same result.  Granted, I almost never contact support as I spend a great deal of time trying to figure things out myself, so the vast majority of 'simple' or even 'moderate' issues I resolve on my own.  The last time I contacted Sony Support was due to something completely off-book, and it was funny stretching the support guy (outsourced) beyond his limited playbook of canned responses and then trying to read the garbled response he typed versus copy/pasting.  I ended up thanking him and parting ways as quickly as possible as I knew it was a fruitless endeavor at that point.  When dealing with support people I know whatever the issue it's not their fault, they're hired to do a thankless job that usually involves a regular string of abuse by customers.  I try to be calm and polite throughout the conversation, which can be challenging sometimes.  But in the end they can't help it if they don't have the answer.  Chances are they'd help if they could, but whatever the solution, it probably was just never communicated to them by those who would know.  In any case, it's nice to hear positive experiences with customer support, especially at Sony.  I know some people who worked at Sony here in the Bay Area, including one who travelled to other countries to 'train' outsource support, and it really feels like Sony doesn't care at all about this aspect of their business.  Hopefully that changes along with all the other massive changes Sony is and will be making in the near future.

[Alx7Rocha]

We always hear about the negative stories when it comes to customer support so I figured I'd post my positive experience. 

 

For whatever reason my PS4 was not activated on my account so I couldn't play my downloaded games offline. I went to Sony's website to try and deactivate whatever PS4 I had activated on my account (which could only be my PS4 since I only have one, but oh well) and it said I had already done that recently so I couldn't do it again. As a precaution I changed my account's password (even though I have never noticed any unauthorized activity) and decided to give Sony a ring. 

 

I had to wait for about 5 minutes to talk to someone but after that it was smooth sailing. I explained the situation and within just a few minutes the employee had deactivated the console connected to my account and waited while I logged on to my PS4 and activated my PS4. It activated just fine and I can now play my digital games offline. 

 

So, thank you Sony support for being respectful, listening to me and most importantly resolving my issue in a very timely manner. 

 

 

Parker

Hello im new in this forum and im recently in the situation you described and i wonder if you could tell me what you had to say for make you account deactivate. please uwu

[Night_wing89]

Hello im new in this forum and im recently in the situation you described and i wonder if you could tell me what you had to say for make you account deactivate. please uwu

is the problem still ongoing?

I first presented the problem I had with a different ps4 being my primary when I had never touched another ps4 in my life. and it just so happened that the new activation of a ps4 was the exact same day I renewed plus, might just be a coincidence but whatever. I continue to press on and explain what I needed from them and asked if they could complete the task, first rep said he couldn't. So, i said thank's for his time and goodbye. 

the second rep I called gave me the same answers as the first one stating I would have to wait til after 6 months for all devices to clear, so i said asked if there's any other way, and i had also mentioned discrepancies between the two rep's. One rep said one thing about having to find the ps4 device and deactivate it there and the second rep said I could have to wait 6 months since the activation date to be able to adjust it from the online website. after a long convo with this rep I thanked him for his time and effort.

the 3rd rep, after having explained my situation and my prior encounters with the other 2, just gave me a link for a submission form for me for account device deactivation's, to send to a sony employee higher up the ladder. I filled it with all the information i could find pertaining to who i was to my account.

Within hours the problem had been solved as I received an email stating my problem was solved. 

Low and behold as i checked my account devices they were all clear and everything was finally solved. 

My suggestion is just be nice and understanding to them, if the first rep can't help you politely thank him and try again later with a different rep.

If anything just be persistent in the matter and your problem will go away.

[bpmotard]

We always hear about the negative stories when it comes to customer support so I figured I'd post my positive experience. 

 

For whatever reason my PS4 was not activated on my account so I couldn't play my downloaded games offline. I went to Sony's website to try and deactivate whatever PS4 I had activated on my account (which could only be my PS4 since I only have one, but oh well) and it said I had already done that recently so I couldn't do it again. As a precaution I changed my account's password (even though I have never noticed any unauthorized activity) and decided to give Sony a ring. 

 

I had to wait for about 5 minutes to talk to someone but after that it was smooth sailing. I explained the situation and within just a few minutes the employee had deactivated the console connected to my account and waited while I logged on to my PS4 and activated my PS4. It activated just fine and I can now play my digital games offline. 

 

So, thank you Sony support for being respectful, listening to me and most importantly resolving my issue in a very timely manner. 

 

 

Parker

 

They actually solved all of my problems before, I can't really complain much but the last problem I had with Helldivers DLC and it was a nightmare, I actually had to give up my money despite paying for the DLC and not being able to download. I spent 2 months trying to explain the problem with images a everything but they would always starting asking the same questions... So I gave up on my 10€ and moved on. It was the only time PS support failed me.