Mark A wrote:

For many years Sony and most other manufacturers have had independent
authorized service centers for warranty and non-warranty repairs run by
independent electronics service companies. Check your yellow pages for
details.

In the past, these independent survive companies existed in almost every
medium size or larger city, but there is a trend (on the part of consumers)
toward not repairing mid-level consumer equipment because of large scale
integrated assemblies, the high labor cost involved, the rapid rate of
technological obsolescence, and the declining cost of new replacement
products.

And the bad experiences Sony customers have had with authorized service
centers. I took a Sony VCR to three different authorized shops when it
started creasing tapes after only two years of moderate use. None of
these authorized service centers was able to make repairs that stuck for
more than a few weeks, even after lengthy stays in the shop -- and I was
always the one who had to keep calling to find out when the VCR would be
ready.


I don't think Sony is any worse than other manufacturers, and in most
respects they are better than most.

But the reliability of mid-level Sony consumer products has declined
more rapidly than other brands in the past ten years, to the point that
it is now worse than average.