ソニー時間
Jane Galt wants to spread the word about Sony VAIO customer service, which is apparently as bad in the States as it is in Japan. Actually, I don’t know that Sony customer service is considered all that bad here; it’s just that everyone knows Sony products break down quickly. Hence the expression ソニー時間 (soni jikan: “Sony time”), which is…well, the (unusually low) amount of time it takes your Sony gizmo to conk out. A friend told me the expression started with an urban legend saying that Sony actually rigged its products to break down after a certain period of time, though I don’t know that there’s any way to verify that.
Of course, reputation doesn’t tell you everything. Toshiba in Japan is known for having surly and unhelpful customer service, but when the CD-ROM drive on my laptop started having seizures, everyone I talked to was great. (And by “everyone,” I’m referring to a half-dozen people. The drive would seem to be fixed at the end of each call and then start going on the blink a few days later. The last guy I talked to finally told me I’d just have to send my machine in.) I hope Jane finally gets some satisfaction out of Sony.
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Actually, I hear the expression ソニータイマー (sonī taimā: Sony Timer) from most people… referring to the legendary built-in timer in Sony products that causes it to cease to function the second after the warranty expires.
Interesting. Your version is the one with the Wikipedia Japan page, so I’m assuming it’s the original. It’s ソニー時間 (which does have a fair number of Google entries itself, so I guess it’s an established variant by now?) my friends have always warned me about when I’ve talked about buying a new camera or what have you. Maybe they’re weird?