Last night, after installing an official firmware update to my Playstation 3, my system's Blu-Ray drive stopped working (it won't read any media: Blu-Ray, PS3 game, or DVD).  A quick Google search on the issue pulled up this blog post from the official US Playstation Blog:   http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/09/ps3-firmware-update-v3-01-now-available/   On this post there are over 700 comments, many of which talk about users' Blu-Ray drives ceasing to work (with only one reply in the thread, mentioning how it fixes issues with a specific game).  Since I added my comment on the thread last night (#759), 8 of the ten comments made overnight were in regards to issues with the Blu-Ray player.   I called the customer support line today and had three conversations:   1) Eva (first level support, did not think to get her ID#)

• Because my system is out of warranty, it would cost $150 to be serviced
• Warranty is only 1 year from purchase date; even if you are one year in, w/o a receipt they would charge you $150
• According to Eva, my phone call regarding 3.01 breaking the Blu-Ray drive is the first they have ever recieved
• According to Eva, the official blog is just a place to post thoughts and comments; the fact that there was a post with hundreds of comments regarding this issue did not matter at all

2) Jason, #474009 (Eva's supervisor)

• To have the system tested by them to discover if the firmware caused the issue, I would have to pay the $150 service fee
• I asked Jason if I could quote him on this, and he agreed: "Even if the firmware caused the issue, you would have to pay the $150 service fee"
• Jason told me that even if the firmware update caused the issue, they would still charge me $150 to have the system repaired; there would be no refund of the service fee
• When agreeing to a firmware update, you agree that if the firmware causes any damage to your system, Sony is not responsible

3) Vance, #47083 (Jason's supervisor)   At this point I explained to Vance that I wanted to be sure I had all of my facts straight for when I shared my story.

• According to Vance, Sony is unaware of any issues with 3.01 causing issues with the Blu-Ray drive
• Sony did extensive testing before the release of 3.01 - he is unaware of any testing regarding the Blu-Ray drive issue since its release
• If the Blu-Ray drive failure did become a documented issue, he does not know if they would refund any service fees
• There is no way for him to service the system for free, regardless of whether it was caused by the firmware or not, because I have owned the system for two years
• There is nothing more that I can do to let Sony know that 3.01 firmware caused the Blu-Ray drive to stop working  

It is appearant to me that Sony's firmware update has caused this exact issue in a number of Playstation 3 systems, and that they are ignoring the issue.  I find it hard to believe that mine was the first phone call they have recieved on this issue, as was told to me.  I also find it hard to believe that they expect me to pay $150 to repair something that they broke, and that they have no interest in testing my system to find out if the firmware caused the issue. Does anyone have suggestions on what I can do to better let Sony know that the 3.01 firmware caused my system's Blu-Ray drive to stop working?