Good Morning Geoff,
Thank you for posting in the WGA Forum today :-). Did you give the repair facility the Recovery Media Disks that should have came with your Sony @ the time of purchase? Also where is the repair facility located and do you have a website for them? Right now it appears Windows XP was loaded with a now blocked Volume Licensing Key "VLK". You can change the product key but this may not work. Let me explain. The problem you are experiencing happens frequently. Customers take their systems in for repair and get them back with a blocked VLK. Usually the versions installed are Windows XP Professional Volume edition. Next the product key which is located on the computer will be for a different version such as XP Home. This key will not work for say XP Professional. You do have options. First have you revisited the service center and explained what has happened? Also you can run the MGA Diagnostic Tool and print off the results for them to review. Ask them to install the Genuine software or request a refund. Next have you contacted Sony and identified the business and what you experienced with the now blocked VLK? Next I recommend you to please file a piracy report with Microsoft by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/priacy. Also you may contact Sony and request them to send you the original recovery media disks should you have misplaced them. Then you can reinstall XP yourself with assistance from Sony Tech Support over the phone.
Hopefully this has helped you some.
Thank you,
Stephen
Attention All Forum Users: Please Do Not post your issue in someone else's Thread...Create your own which will help minimize confusion. If any post fixes your issue, please click the "Post was Helpful" button for that post. This will help us showcase the threads that best help our customers. Thank you, Stephen Holm