But who will you find to be any better? The others who churn out the 'disposable laptops' all have poor service too, they can afford nothing else considering the price these things are being sold at.
I'd prefer they charged a fair price, and gave a decent service.... but it seems the mega-store idea has caught on.
As I said though, spares for the Sony range are quite expensive, and this is a little excessive imho too.
Maybe one day, when people realise the wastage that there is on this whole 'laptop' phenomenon, and that these are not fit to lace the boots of a decent desktop (which will last longer, out perform it, and makes no pretences about being able to be used on your knee), we'll see decent machines being sold again (though we will pay for the privilege probably).