Sony Msia
Recently Sony launched their new bluetooth “walkman” mp3 players. I’ve always love Sony MP3 players as they always provided better earphones and the sound Q is better.
Not only is the new player advertised heavily in the papers, you can also see tons of sony walkman ads even at TGV cinema at 1U!
Attempt #1 at Sony 1 Utama
So 2 weeks ago i went to the SONY retail store at 1utama (new wing) to test the latest SONY Bluetooth Walkman MP3 Players.
The lady seemed puzzled (????) and went to ask for another of her chinese colleague for help. Both of them came to me and asked me again what is the product name i’m looking for. I told them again, i wanted to try out the latest sony bluetooth walkman mp3 players. The chinese lady then replied ” SONY dont make walkmans anymore”.
What can i say? They managed to make me feel like a caveman from 1985 who wanted to buy a TAPE WALKMAN.
ATTEMPT # 2 AT Sony Curve
Few days later, i went to the huge sony store at the curve.
This time around they actually have some units on displays and demo. What a relief i thought to myself!i spoke to this young sales chap and told him i wanted to try the bluetooth headset before i buy. He then replied ” we dont have any bluetooth headset to test”.
ok….. STRIKE # 1
I asked him then can you at least show me the actual bluetooth headset thats bundled with the bluetooth walkman? the guy looked at me like im from some kampung for a few sec before replying, there ISNT a bluetooth headset bundle.This is despite all the heavy promo SONY done and its even in the catalogue in the store itself? (See Pic Below)
The Sony bluetooth walkman mp3 featured in the sony catalogue
the new sony catalogue
The Sony Bluetooth walkman + bluetooth headset package listed right next to the display unit
The Sony Bluetooth walkman + bluetooth headset package listed right next to the display unit
ok….STRIKE # 2
getting a bit annoyed, i told him to check with his colleagues. I then see him discussing with his female colleague and they were walking back and forth in the store itself. 5 min passed and i was happily wandering the store while waiting for them to come back to me. Guess what? the sales guy and his female colleague NEVER CAME BACK TO ME. This was a weekday evening timeframe and you can probably guess the whole sony store only had less than 3 customers including myself. So i was thinking, maybe SONY Msia didnt want to do my business?
STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE #3!!!!!
needless to say, i left the store empty handed…..only to proceed to the apple store at the curve and got myself an ipod touch instead. Sure, its more expensive but at least i got what i wanted that night- a music player.
Ipod Touch that i bought
Frustrated, i sent an email to sony malaysia through their website. It took them 1 week to reply to me..(see pic
Now, as a customer, the reply came too late ( 1 week) and it didnt really help me nor sony as im not out to WITCH HUNT anyone from sony retail outlet. Is this a lack of training from sony to them or whether they are just not interested to sell SONY products to me, its for them to find out.Also it didnt provide any resolution to my problem as i still wanted to get a bluetooth mp3 player 
To be fair, i believe this is just probably a sales training issue. if Sony can spend so much money on promoting the players, beefing up the training for their retailers & staffs.
Feel free to leave a comment.
Posted on July 22, 2008, in THE BAD and tagged Sony Malaysia. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
hot! Panas!
After reading the stupid reply from Sony, i can tell u that they are more interested in protecting their dealers. Sony rely on dealers for Sales and usually they don’t do anything to them one. Good customer service is very hard to find in Malaysia these days . today if im the CEO of Sony, I will hire you to manage the area they were lacking in like appointing all these Chinaman or tow kay as their dealers..they know nuts about customer Care and services.
hahahaah…
Well, some of my friends who are in sony saw this post and frankly, they also couldnt believe it too. it took them 1 week to respond and they also cant believe that none of their dealers have a proper demo set for the bluetooth headset. You should see how much they spent on a&p on this mp3 player….
Demo set is very important and this not only happen with Sony. 3 years back ago in MAC Ikano Power , the shop still around . I went in there and noticed all the laptops were not switch on and the keyboard was even cover with a plastic sheet . I asked the salesperson, how can i demo when the system is shut off. He switch it on and i play around with it and basically there is nothing inside even music or movie trailer etc.. I can’t feel the keyboard at all and i asked him why are you covering it.. he replied back to me that all the customers like to play until our keyboard rosak and dirty.. Gosh!! this is not even Steve Job’s philosophy. I wonder how many sales manager in Apple read Steve Job’s book. Probably they read but don’t understand Zen.
bluetooth headsets are great because they are wireless and your movement is not limited by wires ,`”
those generic mp3 players that are made in china are really cheap but i still prefer to use my ipod ”~