Sony's sorry after sales service

On Nov. 20, 2004 I bought a SONY VAIO VGN-S28GP laptop computer from a registered dealer in Singapore. The purchase price included an amount for an "international warranty", which it turns out is not valid in Indonesia anyway (rip-off).

On Jan. 28, 2005 the computer displayed a fatal error message and crashed. I contacted three different SONY Centers in Jakarta which all informed me that they had nothing to do with the VAIO product line. I also contacted PT SONY Indonesia and left information with a person at ext. 605 -- Suffice to say, there has been no response?

Following that I contacted the VAIO Helpdesk in Singapore ("Services, CSS" -- Services@ap.sony.com) and explained my problem. Their reply came three days later advising me to travel to Singapore and bring them the broken computer (they also advised me to back-up my data -- big deal. How do you do that on an unresponsive laptop?). They also obviously have no idea about the costs associated with such a trip (airline tickets,departure and airport taxes, loss of income, etc.).

In retrospect, I am very sorry that I bought this (rather expensive) product. The after sales service from SONY has been nil and most unacceptable.

PIETER JOHANNES, Jakarta