of course there is something. It's a great deck, thank God and the dealer that I had it replaced.
The JA555ES is a first-rate MD deck. It is the best MD deck Sony has ever made.
Have you heard about the new MDS-JA75ES deck? I think the 333ES goes for $1100 list, the 555ES was for $1300, but this new one is $1995. The 20ES, 333ES, and 555ES came with Type R (4.5) ATRAC. The new JA75ES supposedly has something they call Type R Plus (or 5.0 ATRAC).
Just joshin'!
) because, simply stated, I have decided against spending money on a "quality" player.
Hopefully they actually fixed the thing.
Let's put it this way:
So, I went to the office today to pick up the 'JA555ES. The first thing that struck me odd is that the box Sony used to ship the deck in is three times the size of the
Sony box the deck originally came in (which I have). The box Sony chose looked like it was for a computer monitor. I was immediately leery of the shipment of a minidisc deck in such a large box. What's more, there was a hole in the side of the box that I could fit three fingers through. When I stuck my fingers through the hole, I could feel the back panel of the 'JA555ES. So, it was readily apparent that Sony had not packed up the deck very well.
Allow me to back-up for a second. I live about an hour from the Bristol, PA, repair center, so I drove up there last week to drop off the 'JA555ES. I packed it up in the original box for the ride over. It was packed up exactly like the day I got it brand new. When I got to the repair center, the lady processing workorders made me take the deck out of the box so she could see the serial number. After she had taken down all relevant information, I started to pack up the deck since I knew they were not going to repair it right away. I figured it would be best to have it sit around in the original box. The lady told me that I would have to take the box back because they don't have room for boxes. Then, she told me that they would automatically ship the deck back to me when it was repaired. I said that I could easily pick it up, but she said they don't have storage space for repaired items, so they can only have people pick up certain TVs. Naturally, I asked her how they would pack up the deck if I were to take the original box, to which the lady said, "Don't worry. We'll pack it up better than that box." Hmmm...
I did everything I could to minimize the risk here. I wanted to pack the deck back up in the original box until it would be repaired, but they wouldn't allow it. I wanted to pick up the deck when it was repaired, but they wouldn't allow it. I wanted them to hold onto the original box for the deck for shipment, but they wouldn't allow it.
Anyway, I got the box home and unpacked it this afternoon. They wrapped the deck in a plastic bag and surrounded it with those silver foam pillows that a lot of shippers are using these days. There was room for the deck to slide around in the box. After removing some of the foam pillows, the first thing I noticed is that my minidisc was nowhere to be found. I figured they must have left it in the deck or they didn't ship it back to me. So, I plugged in the 'JA555ES and immediately tried to open the drawer. Instead of opening half-way and closing like before, the drawer opened about 90% and then closed automatically. So, they didn't completely fix the deck. I did notice that my minidisc was inside the player, and now that the drawer almost opened completely, I was able to remove the minidisc before the drawer closed. Still, the deck wasn't fixed properly.
It gets even better. After removing the minidisc, I noticed a dent on the left edge of the deck. That definitely wasn't there when I brought the deck in, I assure you. I was shocked. The dent is about a half-inch long on the edge, and it actually looks like a piece of aluminum from the front panel broke off because the entire length of the dent shows the color of aluminum. In other words, the black paint is missing.
Although the deck was packed very poorly, I do not think it was dented during shipment. I did not find a broken piece of the front panel in the box. It just looks like someone at Bristol banged the side of the deck into something hard.
Naturally, I called Sony customer service at this point and read them the riot act up and down for a good half-hour. Oh, I was mightily pi$$ed, and the customer service rep. noticed. She was very apologetic and said that the procedures at Bristol (not allowing me to re-pack the deck in the original box before leaving it, not allowing me to pick up the deck, and not keeping the original box for return shipping) were inexcusable. She said she would call Bristol and have someone from there call me. As this was at the end of the Bristol workday, I did not get a call today. I then spoke to someone else at Sony customer service, and I was told that the manager at Bristol would take all the information by phone and then send someone from UPS out to inspect the deck and the packing materials. Someone at Bristol will then have to look at the deck to determine the next course of action. Bristol will have to determine whether the deck can be repaired as new or whether they will have to cut me a check so I can get a new deck. The 'JA555ES is getting tough to find, so I don't think Sony is going to be able to get me a new one. I may have to "settle" for a 'JA333ES if my deck cannot be repaired as new.
You can bet I will be calling Sony by the end of next week if I don't get a call first. Had I been able to pick up the deck after it had been "repaired", I would have plugged it in right there to see what they had done with it. Had I seen the dent there and found that the drawer still did not work properly, I would have raised bloody murder right there. Thus far, Sony has totally f&3ked up. However, they still have a chance to rectify it. We'll see what happens.
