US Xperia Support RMA Warranty Nightmare

Question

I am planning to send this in letter form to Sony Mobile but want to share it with the readers on this forum:
Today marks 5 weeks since I opened an RMA with US Xperia support to facilitate the repair of my Xperia Z2. The device had a small crack on the back glass, despite being cared for quite well and kept in a hard case. It took over 3 days and multiple phone calls for Xperia support to send me a FedEx mailing label and the device was shipped out the next day.
It has been over a month that Sony has had the phone in their possession. My understanding is that the device was transferred from Xperia Support to the Protection Claims department when I elected not to pay for the repairs out of pocket. I had purchased a warranty with accidental damage protection and requested that the phone be replaced per the protection plan.  When I purchased the plan, I was promised if there was a situation like this, with physical damage, I would receive a replacement device in under a week.
For the past 4+ weeks, I have been calling Xperia Support and Warranty Exchange (protection claims) only to be told that neither department is in possession or is responsible for handling my device. I don’t have proof of it, but it appears the device got lost during transit between departments in the Texas facilities. Each of these departments has been telling me to call the other.  During these calls, I have been exposed to a tremendous amount of incompetence, laziness and generally poor attitude from almost all the agents I’ve talked to. Requests to speak with a supervisor have often been met with, A) None are available or B) you cannot speak to a supervisor here because you need to call department X or Y instead.
I have spent upwards of 15 hours on the phone trying to clear up this issue and have consistently been given a run around. Nobody at Sony Mobile is interested in taking care of my issue. This situation is outrageous. I paid $700 for this device and another $85 for a protection plan. How can it be acceptable for me to be without a phone for 5 weeks? What does a reasonable person do when they do not have a phone for this length of time? (I ended up borrowing a phone from a friend while I wait).
I am a very loyal customer to Sony and especially to Sony Mobile. I find this situation to be embarrassing. How can you treat customers like this? Isn’t this a market where you are trying to grow your mobile division?  I constantly have to answer questions about my Xperia devices at work. Colleagues are intrigued by the hardware and camera.  How should I now answer their questions about where my phone has been for the past month or so ?
At this point, I am at a loss as to what I should do here. How can I escalate this ? Do I need to send a letter to Japan ?  Sweden ? Do I fly to Texas where the facility is? Do I need to involve the Police ? The BBB ? Do I go on Social Media ?
I have even sought assistance from the Manager at the local Sony store. However, even his attempts at escalating this issue have been thwarted by a disorganized by an incompetent Xperia support.
I am going to go shopping for a new phone in the next few days.  I would like to wait for a reply to this message.  However, based on my recent experiences a reply may never come or it may take many weeks. Given the situations that I have dealt with here, I cannot see how I can be expect to purchase a device with the letters S, O, N, Y on it. This situation has left me bitterly disappointed and totally embarrassed.

Answer 1

Wow sorry to hear bud.. I went through a similar nightmare, I'm sure you can find it on these forums (thread title was something like "False Advertising by Sony Store").
I too spent God knows how many hours on the phone with various departments of Xperia Care, Sony head office, and local Sony stores. I finally reached a resolution of the Sony Store sending the defective device out for repairs and escalating the repair to urgent. They also shipped it first class to their repair centre (so they say).
They've had it for just over a week now, and I plan on calling to follow up with them either tomorrow or Monday. All I can say is good luck. I love Sony's phones, they make such a nice device, but their customer service is absolutely atrocious. So many conflicting answers, all Xperia Care does is transfer you to a different department, it's nothing but a complete run around.
I wish someone high up at Sony Canada would contact me and hire me as their "Common Sense Ambassador" as clearly common sense is all but gone within their mobile division. I would have a list of changes that need to take place within their mobile division before they can seriously compete for market share.