To Sony Corporation...what is WRONG with you people?

This isn't a question as much as a flat statement.

I no longer have any doubt as to why Apple & their i-pod in all it's various forms is eating Sony's LUNCH in the field of MP4 players. My son owns (as a Christmas present from this past year) a model # NWZ-S615F MP-4 Walkman. He enjoyed it very much in the intervening months. Unfortunately, he managed to misplace the "pigtail" USB-connector (a vital component you must admit for what is ultimately a USB-dependent device for both power AND content).

So, I set about finding a replacement for this vital component. What I found has irritated me to the point where the Sony corporation may rest assured that my experiences concerning this issue will be spread far and as wide as the Internet will let me reach.

So I throw myself on the mercy of the great and powerful Sony web site to find a solution. Ultimately, since the list of parts available contain NO description of what they ARE, I call a poor, undeserving operator after all the frustration I had just getting the MANUAL to download in *.PDF format. It contained NO parts list at ALL that might guide me towards using ANY money-saving web-interface to facilitate acquiring this vital part.

In every consumer electronics store imaginable, you can find almost ANY kind of customized attachment, gizmo or other type of add-on for an i-pod that you, me, Tom Swift or Mr. Spock could possibly imagine. SOME even have the Sony imprint on 'em...infuriating me even more.

Anything for a Walkman? Nope. An aisle and a half of i-pod, zune, & sanza stuff, & not a THING for what USED to be the #1 one brand name & model synonymous with portable music. Akio Morita would be either spinning in his grave, cremation urn, or howling in the wind (if his ashes had been ceremoniously scattered) over this.

Now you know where the title of this e-mail came from.

NEVER AGAIN.

While we're AT it, I was also the less-than-proud owner of a 300-pound Grand Wega 50-inch CRT-tube Sony television set that croaked a scant YEAR after the warranty ran out. So much for Sony's track-record for quality as well. Thank GOD for extended warranties, though.

That's because I REPLACED it with a 57" Samsung DLP model after the Sony-trained, Circuit City tech spent several attempts trying to FIX the Grand Wega, and ultimately came up Snake-Eyes.

I did NOT take any of the silly "customer surveys" since they insult my intelligence with their trite little ratings questions that produce a nice, sterile set of numbers for parties unknown to crunch & digest, devoid of ANY real displeasure over yet another example of how someone getting paid more than ME, the consumer, has created yet another dissatisfactory experience on their journey toward a corner office that they didn't deserve in the first place.

I have TWO items manufactured by Sony left in my possession. A digital camera & a Digital-8 camcorder. After these two experiences, I eye them nervously any more, wondering when THEY will give up the ghost and how much it'll cost and what kind of nonsense I'll go through to solve the problem.

A shame, really, considering how impressed I was when I first read of Mr. Morita in the pages of a Seventies Playboy interview, and the effort he put in to building Sony's reputation.

A reputation that seems to be in danger of being squandered.