UK: Phones 4u and Carphone Warehouse suspend sales of Sony Ericsson Satio
Posted by: Phat^Trance in Operator News, Press releases, Sony Ericsson
Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4u have suspended sales of Sony Ericsson’s flagship smartphone Satio due to a high number of customer returns. The suspension came into effect late last week and is understood to be related to software problems. The move is a huge blow to Sony Ericsson’s push to regain market share and its attempts to move away from its reputation for poor performing handsets.
Sony Ericsson pushed the Satio via as many distribution channels as possible. The manufacturer launched the 12-megapixel, touch-screen, camera phone in mid-October along with the Aino. The handset was first available on Vodafone and has since been added to Orange and 3’s network.
Carphone Warehouse confirmed the suspension. In a statement, the firm said: ‘From time to time we experience issues with new handsets, and their software, which may result in a customer experience that is below our usually high standards.
‘We want customers to have complete confidence and satisfaction in the handsets they buy from us, which is why we have temporarilly withdrawn the Sony Ericsson Satio from sale. We are working closely with Sony Ericsson to restock the Satio phone as soon as possible and will offer any customer who returns a faulty Satio an exchange of phone.’
A Phones 4u spokesman said: “Due to software issues experienced by a number of our customers, we’ve decided to temporarily withdraw the Sony Ericsson Satio from Phones 4u. However, we’re working very closely with Sony Ericsson to resolve these issues. In the meantime, customers who report a fault with their Satio handset will be offered a non like-for-like exchange.”
Vodafone, Orange and 3 said they have no plans to withdraw the Satio but are monitoring returns. A Vodafone spokeswoman said: ‘We have a Vodafone varient which has been through a lot of stringent testing and we have not experienced high levels of returns but we will continue to review the situation.’
Sony Ericsson UK MD Nathen Vautier introduced tougher handset quality control measures this year after mass recalls on flagship devices, the K850i, W910i and C902 in 2008 prompted operators to seek compensation from Sony Ericsson. At the time software freezing and speaker faults on the C905 camera device were responsible for returns as high as 30%.
In a statement, Sony Ericsson said: ‘Sony Ericsson confirms that it has been made aware that a small number of consumers have experienced software issues with its Satio handset when using certain applications. Carphone Warehouse has temporarily removed the handset from sale to ensure that future customers do not have an adverse experience. Sony Ericsson is giving this matter its utmost priority and is working toward solving it as soon as possible.’
Sony Ericsson is understood to be developing software update to tackle the problem ‘within the next few days’.
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My wife bought a Satio from an auction site…it keeps freezing alot…how will I return it?…is she stuck with it? and what will Sony Ercisson do for people like her? Can we return it directly to them? I have contacted SE customer services via email and have had no reply! I’m very angry! GRRRRR! paid over £300 for it and I have two at home both bought off an auction site.
Hi Taz, I would recommend contacting SE theirselves. The only problem is I don’t think you will be able to return the phones. They were not purchased directly through SE and they will not want anything to do with giving you money. I would say you should contact them about the faults. I would skip emails and go directly to giving them a call… I don’t know where you live but here is the number we would ring from the UK.
01295 662114 – Repairs/parts
Notice it’s the free number to, none of this 0870 stuff
(This will make sense to you if you live in the UK, haha)
@Carl
Thanks for the number..unfortunatey I rand after 4.30pm when they closed!
Anyway, I rang the 087 number and managed to get through to someone pretty quick. I mentioned that the phone was freezing and also mentioned I bought it off an auction site. He said I the only thing I could do was send it in to them to have a look but then I told him about Carphone Warehouse and Phones4u suspending sales….he said he has been assured by his “tech guys” that the new firmware should be available TODAY through thier Update Service. Anyway when I get home i’ll give it a go and see what happens….
UPDATE: Just checked and new firmawre isn’t out…will be ringing SE again tomorrow!
Hopefully the update fixes the issues your having, in future you might want to avoid buying SE handsets via auction sites, as thats just asking for trouble.
I’ve been expecting something like this ever since the Satio launched, SE have a poor track record with even basic handsets, the Satio was always going to have problems.
I suggest you.. 1. back everything up .. and 2. re-flash the firmware
.. the software updater tells you how to do this fairly straight forward. Its a similar operation to reflashing an iPod/iPhone
.. the Satio IS a good device .. it will be a great device with the right firmware.
Good Luck!
@Seki
He already said he’s waiting for updated firmware, so I’m not sure what your actually trying to say. If your suggesting he reflash the firmware with the same version he has, then frankly that is pointless.
This will be the last Sony Ericsson mobile I ever buy.
I am on a 18 month contract with 17 months left, and am counting the seconds till I can destroy the thing.
I have had SE mobiles since 2002 and a few of them with decent cameras for the time had problems of the camera shutter opening in your pocket auto unlocking the phone and taking photos/videos and sending them to random people in your contacts list…. and guess what… the satio does the same.
Problems include:
1. MMS creation capability is awful, adding a pictures or sounds often crashes it with out of memory errors.
2. File browsing is rubbish, especially when you have lots of photos, images, songs and ringtones, all stacked up in 1 huge list.
3. Music player puts ringtones in with your music files.
4. Option to make normal call or video call is often hidden under your thumb (right handed people) leaving you wondering what’s going on, and then when you find it it’s so small you need a pin to press the options.
5. Standby themes can leave the phone unresponsive in a loop between icons and time date displays.
(fix for this was to re-flash the firmware) but happens every so often still.
6. Lock, often stops working alltogether.
7. You get locked into applications unable to get out of them.
8. Exiting applications using the applications running browser often locks up the phone
9. There is no MMS preview ability?
10. Design inconsistencies throughout the whole operating system and applications running on it.
11. Design of buttons, menus and slider bars poorly positioned to other buttons leaving you hitting other buttons.
12. Texting inconsistencies, here there and everywhere you can and can’t use predictive text, same ui, same options just not able to do that anymore.
this is just a few of the problems.
I’ve had two of these phones Satio silver and Satio black, same rubbish on both of them
The best feature this phone has is pulling the battery out to reset it, it works perfectly lol
If I were to build web applications to this level of functionality and design I would be fired. This will be my last SE phone.
I have written a review of my phone at:
http://www.allforthecode.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=97&t=401