Do I love her or Do I hate her?

Before you draw any conclusion, let me clarify that this post is not related to any female (or even to any male for that matter). Well, don’t get disappointed. The story is quite interesting. The story started in Jan 09 when I decided to purchase Sony Walkman in lieu of an Apple iPod. Let me not get into the details of my decision to choose Sony over Apple. The price tag of the Walky was Rs. 3500 and it had a 1 year warranty. Hardly had a week passed by since I purchased the Walky, when on one fine day, even after my continuous persuasion, my PC refused to detect it. The Walky wouldn’t boot up either. I went to the showroom and deposited the faulty equipment there. Four days after depositing, when I called up the showroom, the salesperson furnished me with the information that the defect is beyond repair and the piece will be replaced. The price of that model had climbed up to Rs 3990 by then. Well, a lot of follow-up phone calls and I finally got a brand new piece after 8-9 days. Fifteen days from that day, the left earphone decided to go on a “maun-vrat”. This time the showroom salesperson told me that earphones weren’t covered in the warranty. After lot pleadings, I finally managed to get the earphones replaced with a warning that next time I should not complain about earphones. But the destiny had different plans and after a few days, the right earphone decided to go on a “maun-vrat”. Later I came to know that all MP3 players come with very poor quality earphones to reduce the price tag and one is assumed to buy a pair of good quality earphones separately. In spite of the warning given by the showroom person last time, I did give an unsuccessful try to get them replaced. I purchased a pair of high quality Creative in-ear phones. The Sony-Creative combo was giving an awesome sound quality and great noise isolation. Everything was working fine, when on one fateful day in Nov 09, the Walky again refused to boot up. As if treating it as an untouchable, my PC also refused to detect it. The first thing I did was search for the warranty card. Good gracious, the warranty was valid till Jan 2010. I went to the showroom again and this time the showroom person asked me to contact the Sony service center directly. I think he might have been pissed off by my numerous phone calls and visits for single equipment. So, I went to the service center, which happened to be 12 kms from my place. I had almost started hating Sony when a miraculous thing happened. Four days after depositing the Walky, when I called up the service center, I was informed that the equipment was beyond repair and I’d be getting a replacement again. Wait, the story didn’t end there. The model that I owned (2 gb) had been deprecated and I got an upgraded model (4 gb with additional features, price tag Rs. 3990). Needless to say, I got the ear phones (the ones which I had almost trashed) replaced as well. Now, should I hate Sony for the poor quality of software in the older model or should I love Sony for getting me a high-end model for free. Well, I’m in a dilemma.

P.S.: I’m keeping my fingers crossed as the warranty ends in Jan 2010.