Sony's marketing policies are the most deceptive I've encountered, and I've been using Sony products since 1965.
The worst example occurred a few years ago when I mailordered a Sony GS420 19-inch monitor. The sales literature and the Sony site all indicated that the monitor had built-in speakers as did several then current NEC models. It did not.
I contacted Sony, working my way slowly and frustratingly through a morass of underlings until I spoke to a senior marketing executive. They were very attentive and I received a few highly placed mea culpas. I was told I could return the monitor to Sony for a full refund--at my expense.
I didn't really care about the damned speakers--they would have been total junk anyway--but the principle of the thing began to grate on me. I continued prodding them until, weeks later, they agreed to pay the shipping costs. At that point I dropped the matter since I liked the display very much.
But the part that best demonstrated Sony's consumer concerns, not to mention their corporate integrity, is that the promotional information included in all the major catalogs, Sony's web site, and their product brochures all continued to reflect the built-in speakers for months afterward.
Some of the best designed and executed equipment I've encountered has borne the Sony logo. Some, such as a CDP-101 (Sony's first CDP) and a D-5 (their first PCDP) have been bullet-proof. Other items, including top-of-the-line ES models have required repairs--usually shoddily done--within days.
I believe it's a QC problem. A longterm buddy and I bought D-35 PCDPs several years ago. More recently we both bought the same Sony DVD players. In both cases his proved to be junk and mine have performed flawlessly.
With Sony, more than any company I know, you pays your money and you takes your chances.