Sometimes, all it takes is one bad customer experience to do irreparable damage to a company’s reputation. A major electronics manufacturer has just learned that lesson the hard way: Sony has agreed to pay $60 million to this man who woke up 30 minutes before his Sony alarm clock went off.
Yikes. Whoever’s in charge of quality control at Sony is definitely getting fired.
In an out-of-court settlement, Oklahoma resident Robert Woods received $60 million in damages from the Japanese conglomerate as redress for an incident that occurred one morning last February, when his alarm clock went off at 7:45 a.m. on the dot—30 whole minutes after he’d already woken up. According to Woods’ testimony, he shot awake for no apparent reason around 7:15 a.m. even though he’d specifically set his alarm for 7:45, and was subsequently unable to fall back asleep, forced to watch each agonizing minute tick by on his faulty alarm clock until it sounded off half an hour later. Woods’ attorneys painted a damning picture of the emotional distress and mental anguish Woods endured as he sat in bed wide awake with absolutely nothing to do but mull over random thoughts and stare at the ceiling, wishing desperately that he were still asleep and perhaps even having an interesting dream—a wish that would have been his reality if his alarm clock had actually woken him up at the time it was intended to.
Ultimately, the evidence in Woods’ favor was so strong that Sony settled behind closed doors for $60 million rather than risking a trial over the $100 million in damages he’d initially sought. “If you’re already awake by the time your alarm clock goes off, well, that doesn’t sound like an alarm clock to me—that sounds like you’ve been scammed, which my client was, by Sony,” wrote Woods’ lawyer in a statement to the press about the massive settlement. “My client is satisfied with the outcome of this suit, and we appreciate that Sony has chosen to do the right thing, but this was never about the money. It’s about making sure no one else falls victim to an alarm clock that goes off after they’ve already woken up.”
To say the least, it’s a very, very bad day to be Sony. Oof!
Our thoughts go out to Robert Woods. Sure, you might think $60 million sounds nice, but odds are, it will never truly make up for what he lost when his Sony alarm clock failed him. All we know for sure is now that justice has been done, Mr. Woods may sleep a little better tonight. Rest well, Mr. Woods!
