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Korean buyers say Sony's PSP
console flawed
SEOUL -
Thousands of people who purchased Sony Corp's hot
new PlayStation Portable gaming consoles over the
pre-registered sales period in South Korea are
complaining of defective displays and shoddy
customer service, according to the PSP's sales web
site on Wednesday.
Sony, which began
selling the much-awaited PSP gaming machines from
Monday, said it sold 20,000 PSPs in South Korea
during an earlier pre-registered online sales
period under an alliance with KT Corp, the
nation's top broadband Internet operator.
However, some users began experiencing
glitches with "dead" (black) pixels flashing up on
the machines' liquid crystal displays. Others said
they were unable to access wireless Internet
connectivity as the Japanese electronics giant
promises.
As of
Wednesday, more than 4,200 PSP customers posted
their complaints on the website
, with some demanding
Sony replace or fix the flawed machines. Most
described the customer service response as poor.
Lee Jin-woo, who bought a PSP during the
pre-registered sales period, said he was
frustrated by the defective LCD screens after
spending 328,000 won (US$328) on the device.
"Does Sony consider South Korean customers
as test cases?" Lee wrote on the website. He said
his calls to Sony's customer service center
requesting a replacement model went unanswered.
Kevin Kang, spokesman at Sony Computer
Entertainment Korea, denied there was a major
problem. He claimed that South Korean customers
were too sensitive to dead pixels and their
counterparts abroad had not made it a high-profile
issue.
"The dead pixels (on the PSP
screen) did not matter significantly in the United
States and Japan," Kang said by telephone.
Related to this, executives from Sony's
headquarters in Japan visited South Korea on
Tuesday, but no countermeasure was forthcoming,
Kang said.
He added that the number of
glitches related to the wireless Internet is
probably too small in scale to point to production
errors. Kang said some users were able to access
the wireless Internet while others were not.
Sony is selling the world's first PSPs
equipped with wireless Internet connectivity by
teaming up with South Korean telecommunications
titan KT.
Some analysts here warn that the
outcry from customers may harm Sony's PSP foray
into South Korea if it continues unchecked.
Sony, which recently appointed its first
foreign chief executive, Howard Stringer, is
counting on the PSP game machines to keep the
company profitable as its electronics and movie
operations lose their competitive edge.
In
South Korea, Sony has already drawn detractors
over the lower selling price of the PSP in the US
market, where it goes for $249 including
accessories, roughly three-quarters the retail
price in Seoul.
Meanwhile, Sony's Kang
said the company aims to sell 500,000 PSPs in
South Korea by the end of next March.
(Asia Pulse/Yonhap) |
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