Sony Product and Service WOES

I was very disappointed with the kind of service Sony Center gave to me. And even the product is disappointing. We bought a Sony MiniDV Handycam DCR HC-96 last October 2006 and an audio recording and playback problem occurred December 2006. We brought it to the service center Dec24, 2006. a day before the holiday. And we just got the unit TODAY.. Feb 07, 2007!!! the first week was tolerable because it was the holiday season, and it's really not expected to be repaired within the first week. But come the first week of january, still no call from them. I called them Feb 8, and they told me that the product was still UNDER OBSERVATION.. 2 weeks... I was already asking for a replacement at this time. Been following it up every two days. I got pissed off and reported them to Sony Main Office, and behold, they called the next day saying that a part was to be replaced and to be ordered from Singapore. Come one week, i called, and they said that there was a problem because the part which was the main board was displaying Japanese system, ONE WEEK again.. they come the next week, and the problem was about the video system.. PAL/NTSC.. PAL is Europe and NTSC is for Asia. How can they be so STUPID... shipping a Japanese system and a PAL system to a country in Asia and PHILIPPINES?! To my dismay, and it was TODAY, when i was going to get the unit, i saw their INTERNAL EMAILs.. and the service report.. They all didn't coincide with the reports they were giving me when i was constantly following it up. And what was worse was the part "For some unknown reasons, the customer is insisting for a product replacement!" This was so frustrating, and so unprofessional! Adding up to that was their wrong english grammar! It was frustrating seeing the Unknown reasons, because my reasons were: 1. It was taking them forever to repair my unit! 2-3 weeks for an observation!? 2. The product was SELDOM USED! in 3 months it got busted! 3. We NEED the handycam BADLY already!
Oh yeah, when i got the product.. the unit was NOT CLEAN, it looked like it AGED already.. There were some scratches and the lens was not CLEAN... *sigh*

Guess Sony is not as GOOD as before. To think of it, they have many batteries recalled. Esp. Apple's Powerbook and iBook's batteries that were Sony made! Even my Powerbook Battery was part of the recall. Sony's digicam recently had a recall too. oh well, i'm not going to buy any Sony Electronic products.. I wonder.. Sony Ericsson... oh no...

Think before buying SONY!