I wasn't sure where to post this, so I guess here will work. I'm posting this out of sheer frustration, but I will keep it calm as possible.
I have an Acer 27" 3D monitor HN274H, which set me back $600 when I bought it, even with price matching, so I expected some quality. It was great at first.. but began to show problems during its warranty.
It started with th back lighting on the lower right side periodically flickering or going out. Soon after, the whole monitor would just shut off, with the only method of powering it back on was to unplug it from the power supply, and allow it to discharge completely. Warranty support said they'd cover it, and gave me shipping info... info. Not a label or shipping slip. I had to pay. This was the first sign of many to come. To give some comparision, I buy a lot of Cosair products, not only because they are quality, but their support is 2nd to none. My pc started showing issues, and when checking, the 12v pins on the psu were melting the wires at the board. After one email with some pics, Corsair sent me a shipping lable, and five days later, told me they were not only sending me a brand new power supply, but also a check for $250 to cover my mother board! Thats support!
So near the end of May, I get the email that my monitor has been repaired and on its way back. About 2 months or so later, same issue creeps up. Lower right side back lighting is out again. I power it on and off and it seems to go away for a bit, but then suddenly the monitor shuts off again. Here's were support really shows it's quality. The monitor is now a few days past warranty, but hey, repair comes with a 3 month coverage on its repair.. so I'm covered.. no problem, right? Whole bunch of nope right there. There's no actual way to reach warranty support without an snid for a product under original warranty. So I get transferred to 3rd party (read, outsourced cheaply to Inda). After a 20 minute conversation trying to explain to this person, who can barely understand what I'm saying, I finally get transferred to Level 2 support. This person cannot understand me at all. He simply asks all the same questions the previous rep did, and I sortta doubt he was Level 2 (as I've been on hold for level 2 for over an hour while typing this up) May I have your name, your snid, what seems to be the problem? Another 20 minutes later, and I'm told I'm out of warranty. He simply didn't understand that I was covered by repair warranty. So he transferrs me to his supervisor. "Thank you for calling Acer..." great.. transferred to the 866 number I started with.
Fastforward a few days, and I finally get someone that can both understand me and the situation. Finally they say, we're going to transfer you to warranty support, as you are still covered with your repair warranty. 5 minutes later I finally get someone in the US, and it takes me all of 5 more minutes to get him to cover a shipping label for me. I ask if there's any way to actually skip all that nonsense in India to get US support just incase, and he says no direct way, but if you explain you still have warranty, they can. Ok, whatever.. doesn't matter. They'll fix it this time. Right?
September rolls around, and I get the email "Repair Complete" (hah). Open her up and plug in, thinking.. I finally get to use my monitor. Nope, nope and some more nope. Not only is the back lighting still out on the lower right side, but now half the screen is flickering lines. Powering on and off helps, but then they come back.. all the time the lower right back lighting still isn't working. I go to call support, and the thing powers off yet again. Unplug, discharge, power on. Back lighting still out, but no flickering.. nope.. its back.. just on and off now. I go look at the slip, wondering what kind of repair they did and how they could've missed something so obvious and bam.
"Monitor powers on/off no problem. Monitor powers has a good, stable display. Monitor ran in excess of 26 hours with no issues, no shutdowns. Cold start and run monitor test from UFO.COM. Test standards set at: 64 pixels per frame, 60FPS 3840 pixels per sec. Monitor ren in excess of 15 hours with no issues, no shut downs."
Yep, perfectly fine. Back to the amazing support offered by outsourcing to India! After going through 3 different agents in India, I finally get one that says she'll transfer me to warranty support. "I will contact the agent and explain the problem, I will place you on hold for about one minute" (Dr. Evil voice: Riiiiiiiiigggghht)
After waiting on hold for over an hour and a half, I finally get someone in the US. I have to explain everything yet again, because the notes only mention a light issue (language barrier anyone?), and at the end, I'm told I'll get a shipping label.. finally. I ask if there's any way to send pictures or videos of the issue, just to make sure they know what to look for (as if you could miss the issue in the above pic if you bothered even looking at the screen) and was told no, but she would make sure it would go to VIP support, whatever that is.
Fed Ex picks up tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll hear back in two weeks. I can't help but wonder. Will it actually be fixed this time, or will it get sent back unfixed again. Will they simply say too bad, you're out of your repair warranty time? I really wish there was a way to simply get a person in the US in the first place, and skip all this terrible hassle. I guess we'll see.
