Topsecret66 wrote:
Actually walmart will let you exchange without reciept. I had to do this before. Then you can get a reciept too.
I talked to Walmart and they basically said without a receipt there was nothing they could do. I didn't really argue or anything because really, it wasn't their fault at all.
I did however call Sony Tech Support back to see if someone new had any other ideas and to ask if they would accept a Visa statement saying I paid Walmart $299 on the day I bought it and they wouldn't. This new Tech Support guy was actually pretty defensive about the whole thing -
When I said that it was impossible for my PS Slim to be over a year old, he said the Warranty only applies to the original buyer of the PS3 and it isn't transferable so that's why they need the receipt. So I guess when you buy a system you somehow also enter into this legal agreement.
When I said that even if my system wasn't under warranty it was ridiculous that their update caused the problem and they won't fix it he basically said "No one forced you to do this update so it's your own fault" and then immediately started quoting me on prices to have it fixed - close to $140 once all the fees were slapped on.
Needless to say this got me pretty pissed but I asked "How come these systems don't have a button on them to reset everything to a factory default state?" and he went on about how this corrupted update is on a different partition and a format wouldn't work and could he sign me up for the $140 fix.
So, I said I was good, hung up, and immediately took out the PS3 hard drive and hooked it up to my system. I formatted it, got the latest OS and put it on my USB key and hooked it back up. It booted to a screen that said "No OS Found" but gave me an option to install one so I put in my USB key and went from there. 1 hour later and my system was back up and running (minus all my saved games though obviously).
The moral of the story I guess is - 1) Back up saved games before updates and 2) Sony's Tech Support is there to look for loop holes in providing you a warranty and then make you think you can only have the problem resolved by them and a fee.
Thanks for all the help everyone!