PS3: No Blu-ray Playback, No Customer Support

During Christmas I got some Blu-ray discs just to find out that this PS3 refuses to play them, just shoots me with an error code of 800299AE. This might indicate a faulty unit.

The PS3 support in Finland has been outsourced to a third party and contacting them is practically impossible.

I have called the number Sony gave me for three days in a row, but no one is answering the phone. Just for completeness, the calling times :)

• Wed 30th Dec. 2009 at 12:22
• Thu 31st Dec. 2009 at 14:47
• Mon 4th. Jan. 2010 at 17:41
• Mon 4th. Jan. 2010 at 18:28 (an answering machine, see below)

The funny part is that Sony gave different office hours (12:00 - 18:00) than those that are printed on a game manual (18:00 - 24:00). However, if you call them after 6 p.m., there is an answering machine telling you that the office hours are 12:00-18:00 :I

I also sent them mail, but there was no response (1 full working day this far; written on Tue 5th Jan, 18:30).

Edit: I finally went to the retailer on Tue 5th January and they sent the unit for service. This would take 1-2 weeks. I really hope they don't mess up with the games and the game saves as you really can't contact their support.

Edit2: the PS3 support finally contacted me on Thu 7th January. It seems that all my data will be lost. According to them, I should have:

• backed up all the data
  
• de-activated the console (i.e., disconnect PS3 from PlayStation Network)
• removed all the users (!) from PS3

before sending the unit to them.

Now, I do not consider myself computer-illiterate, but this is getting a bit ridiculous. This is a games console, not a f*cking server.

If Blu-ray drive is faulty, why are they destroying the data on the hard drive? Maybe I'm too PC-oriented here, but I still don't see the point. This is a classical case of buyer beware.