newegg lcd panel broken pixel policy quotation

We want you to be 100% satisfied with your purchase. So, Newegg will accept returns for monitor, TV’s, and display products with as few as one dead pixel within the product’s eligible return period, so you can shop displays with confidence.

That is not correct. There must be a minimum of 8 dead pixels to declare an LCD display defective and eligible for return. This information is provided to you on our web site and on the product"s page.

My issue is that what I have in my area for a computer store really sucks. What they have inside really isn�t much of a selection. Have any of you come across a Computer Mail Order Company that has a guarantee policy, that I can exchange it if the new LCD has dead pixels?

The trick comes in figuring out just what your gadget maker considers to be a defective screen. Some manufacturers, such as Dell, set specific policies laying out how many pixels have to conk out for a display to be defective.

While Dell"s policy is relatively straightforward, some, such as those belonging to Acer and IBM, set complex formulas that distinguish between "bright dots" and "dark dots," the location on the screen and other factors.

Online retailer Newegg.com is one of the few stores that applies a uniform and widely publicised dead-pixel policy. Each LCD monitor listed on the site includes a reminder that the store will only replace if it has eight or more dead pixels.

"Not everybody"s forthcoming with that kind of information," said Jommy Gayoso, director of sales and merchandising at Newegg. "We believe customers are better off if they know what they"re getting into with a purchase."

Other manufacturers boast simple zero-tolerance policies on bad pixels as a way of boosting customer loyalty. Samsung last year began promoting a "no dead pixels" policy on some LCD monitors. And Nintendo has recently garnered praise for a lenient policy regarding replacing defective screens on its new DS handheld game player.

bought from newegg for years, too. I"ve only had to return one video card (a year ago), and the RMA process was very straight forward and easy. I had no trouble returning it for a new one, and I never had any problems with ordering or receiving anything from them, either. I bought all of the components to build the computer I"m using right now from them (except the monitor and keyboard).

Before I release the order for the panels I want to be comfortable that they will meet the needs to do CGA and EGA/mid res as well as stuff like SVGA XGA and uo.

I recently purchased a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) system from Newegg.com (with a mind to setting up an always-on iTunes library for my household wi-fi network). I selected the well-regarded Netgear ReadyNAS for $999.99.

When the package was delivered by UPS, I was concerned before I even opened it: Newegg.com had merely affixed a shipping label to the merchandise box & shipped it that way. There was no additional packaging, padding, or protection whatsoever. Needless to say, the back of the unit was smashed in, though the box showed no noticeable damage.

When I contacted Newegg.com about this, their response was, "Oh, we will initiate a claim for you against UPS." I asked if, while UPS conducts its investigation, they would credit my Visa card for the purchase price. The answer was no, that I would have to wait several weeks for that.

In my opinion, the proximate cause for the damage was Newegg.com"s own gross negligence in failing to properly protect the item for shipping. Pursuing UPS for this damage seems to me to be an exercise in blame-shifting. And here am I, the witless, paying customer, having to wait for all of this uncertainty to play itself out before receiving a refund?

Just a word to the wise: If you order something from Newegg.com and it gets damaged in shipping, you will have to wait for a refund while Newegg.com attempts to pin the blame on the carrier.

I"ve never bought an Open Box item from Newegg, but a few years ago I tried buying an Open Box monitor from Tigerdirect and it arrived without the power adapter. I called and told them it was missing, and after about two hours of giving me the runaround I finally spoke to a supervisor who said it could take up to two months for it to arrive because they supposedly had to contact the manufacturer (ASUS) to have one sent. I had them cancel the order and I"ve not bought from Tigerdirect since.

I don"t think you"d have the same experience with Newegg because they"re a better company (from my experiences), but I personally will never buy an Open Box item (from anyone) again.

I love buying at Amazon. They have a great return policy and really back it up with action. I’ve never had a refused return and credit with them. The result is that I try to buy most everything of any expense from them, so having a good return policy pays dividends back.

I am not terribly surprised by this, but I am surprised that Acer will not solve this quickly for you. Most manufacturers will cover major lcd defects for at least one year, and with better manufacturers, up to 3.

I refuse to walk into another Best Buy for the rest of my life. They are rude and they don’t care at all about the customer. I went to buy a $2500 Sony LCD there and they had run out of the one I wanted. I saw that the older model was still on the shelf and asked if I could get that for the same price as the newer model… it was something like $2799. They said no, and the manager was rude. I’ve had this experience repeated many times there and I take all my business to Circuit City now. I went there from Best Buy and bought the TV for $2500.

I bought two notebooks at Best Buy. On the last one I bought the warranty and it was worth because LCD screen had to be replaced and I had a reoccurring problem where the notebook would not turn on. For that problem I had to bring it in for repairs three times and they still could not find what was causing it to malfunction. On the fourth trip Best Buy said they could not send it in for repairs without charging because my warranty expired and it had been over 30 days. I argued they never fixed the original problem. I finally paid one of my students $30 to fix it. I work at an elite university and I tell all my students DO NOT A COMPUTER FROM BUY FROM BEST BUY.

I worked retail for a few years (not a big box store we actually had customer service) and I can tell you that Acer is the one you want to deal with. They’re more worried about their reputation than Best Buy is. A broken LCD is a very difficult one to explain as a customer because it generally only happens due to physical damage. I’d start phoning Acer soon to see if there’s anything they can do, chances are you’ll have to keep hounding them to speak with higher ups that will authorize a replacement. Also make sure you end up speaking with someone higher up first otherwise they may get you to send it into a depot and just say ‘no’ based on the fault.

I’ve been shopping less and less at Best Buy over the past few years, opting for Amazon (can’t beat that Prime shipping deal), NewEgg, etc. I just get so sick of having those damn extended warranties shoved down my throat, and we’ve had all sorts of trouble getting them to back their products when something goes wrong. We all know the warranties are pretty much worthless, and we all know it’s how employees make their money. And, I’m sorry about that, but I can’t change it except by not buying there at all.

People who say that LCD don’t crack on their own are ignorant. It happened to me and to a friend of mine. I’m A+ certified and in my experience the #1 cause for crack on cheap models is overheat coming from the battery.

I recall one time when I bought a pack of batteries for about $12 at Bestbuy and when I got home and opened the pack up, I found that at least one of the batteries was leaking out of its casing. I brought the package back to Bestbuy (I think I brought it back the same day). At first they didn’t want to give me a refund despite the defective merchandise. I talked to a manager who also didn’t seem to want to give me the refund. I finally was able to get a store credit – fine with me – but I was miffed when I felt like they were treating me like a dishonest customer who was trying to return used batteries. Perhaps it’s a corporate policy to not want to issue refunds or exchanges…I don’t know.

I had a similar thing happen at Worst Buy. I bought a CD burner. When I got it home and opened it, the front face plate was broken off of the CD burner. I brought it back to Best Buy. They said that the product I was returning was a different brand than what I had bought. In other words someone had put a broken burner into a box and sealed it up for sale. They accused me of doing this!!!!! I was so mad I couldn’t sleep. I called Best Buy the next day and they said they stood by their manager and they would not accept it. Unbelievable. I have never shopped at Best Buy again and I tell everyone I know this story. I asked them if their customers should open the box before buying to make sure the product inside is the correct product and not broken. They said they would throw me out of the store if I did that. To this day, my aunt always opens up everything in store before buying.

A year-and-some ago (before Best Buy was receiving so much negative feedback on the web and in the press) I bought a video iPod for my daughter at a Best Buy in Ottawa. I brought it home and opened the box to ensure the unit was working before giving it to my daughter. I was dismayed to see that the LCD was oozing internally and seemed to actually be sliding out of place. I shook the unit, and heard rattling noises.

I had bought a digital camera from Best Buy in Lincoln, NE and also purchased the extended warranty that was to last a few years, my camera stopped working, they said they had to mail it off to have it repaired, not replace it, when I got my camera back, not only did it still not work, but the lcd screen was cracked under the glass (which was not that way when I took it in). The manager Russ, implied to the supervisor in the camera dept. that I purposely broke my camera in order to get the exact same camera (duh?- who would do that). How did I know he was going around giving my name and saying I was doing this? A friend of mine is good friends with several supervisors at this store. A store where I’ve purchased many tv’s, 3 computers, ipods, you name it. Always purchasing the extended warranty as well just in case something went wrong with my merchandise. Well Russ, thanks to you I will never shop at the Best Buy in Lincoln, Nebraska ever again!!! Or any best buy for that matter, it is obvious that all over they treat their customers like crap.

John Q paid $xxxx for it and then breaks it somehow, and he believes the retailer can afford to take the financial hit whereas John Q. believes he cannot. John Q believes it to be an issue of morality, and it is, except all those John Q’s have it morally backwards. Also, John Q. got accustomed to the “We have the best customer service policy” so prevelant in the last decades, where retailers tellold their customers they will accept returns with no hassle and instructed their employees to do so, all in the name of getting and keeping more customers.

Eventually the public kept stretching the “good will” of such policy, so now we have people who buy a big screen TV for their Super Bowl party and return it the next day, or buy a laptop to use on their business trips and then return it after it’s served its purpose…and not only consider it their right to do so but brag to their friends with absolutely no shame about having done so. The retailers eventually look at how much money they now lose with this policy instead of gain, and they change the policy.

A few years back I believe both Sears and Circuit City fought back against chronic consumer dishonesty, adopting a policy of charging a 25% premium to take back any product whose box had been opened. It didn’t last due to the flack from the consumers. Maybe Best Buy’s problem was so severe that it doesn’t care how angry you are, as evidenced by the comments from the staff which you quote. This is a case of what I read is called “firing your client.” Unfortunately the stores, or its staff, don’t care or don’t want to take the time to discern if your complaint is legitimate. Everybody lies; you’re probably lying too.

As the retailers are on guard against taking back all defective merchandise, I guess consumers need to be on guard as to how they pay for their purchases (by check or with a credit card whose company will side with the consumer) and how quickly they examine the merchandise so that by getting defective purchases back to the store ASAP they appear to be less guilty of attempting to defraud. And consumers need to check out the return policy of the retailer before they buy. You may have to pay more for your purchase, but at least you won’t be out the $xxx you paid or won’t have to waste countless hours harassing everyone in the organization until you get satisfaction. GOOD LUCK!

I would like for you to provide some links to these “other” users with defective Acer LCD screens. That would really make me feel like you were truly wronged.

“So about 2 days ago, I woke up, went to turn on my 2 month old Acer 2002LCI and bam. The LCD is cracked. I have never dropped it, stepped on it or anything. Today I called ACER support, and the jerk on the phone tells me I have to pay $900 to get it fixed. I just paid $1300 2 months ago for this notebook. I kept telling him, I haven’t dropped it or applied any pressure to the screen, but all he could say is that it wasn’t covered under the warranty and I could hook it up to a monitor. Does anyone know what I am to do? I seriously have NO money to put into this, am I completely screwed?” (link) *

Besides that, I often offer my customers warranty, accident or standard and it nerves me when they say, it’s a scam, or not worth it, they think that magically no wrong can ever happen and time and time again it’s proved that the computer youve had for 5 years is build differently than the ones of today. If you had accidental warranty bestbuy still would have done this and just sent it out due to their strict policy, However I can honestly say Circuit City(If you had the accidental warranty) would have changed it out for you

On this one it looks like you screwed yourself. I work at Geek Squad so I have a pretty good idea what happened. First off you did not do the free setup; this is done in the store to detect things just like this case. The computer is taken out of the box and tested. How are we to know that you didn’t sit on it, people try to exchange things they broke all the time. Another point there is not any margin in computers. What does that mean, on a computer sale in its self we actually lose money. The way we get it back is by services, things like warrenties “Why the hell would you not buy one one an expensive peice of equipment”. We make more money on a sale of a damn cable then we do a computer. So take a look at it in are shoes. An already angry man comes and yells at you about his broken computer. He has turned down the free setup which we use to find defective computers, and has no warranty, no anything and we lost money on the sale, or broke even “depending on the model”. what would you do as a employee. You would say “Do not pass go do not colect $200”. Try to think things through next time you buy something expensive.

Heres my tip, I’ve seen people do it at a store. Make sure it doesn’t boot at alll. Kill it somehow, without noticeable abuse. So it does not, at all, turn on. Then bring it to a DIFFERENT best buy store. Since they can’t see the screen, they WILL replace it. It’s a risk, but if you are under the 14 day return policy, I’d give it a shot.

Most unfortunate. $525.56 seems like a lot to install a new a 15.4 inch LCD. It should be a simple job, especially for someone who has done it before, and the display panel itself certainly shouldn’t be enough to cover the rest of the cost. Either those taxes are insane, or they’re ripping people off even more than you thought. I’ll be monitoring this site for updates.

If you are going to get another computer, i suggest dell or HP. Both of their laptop are very affordable and usually do not have problems with. Circuit City is a good place to get computers also. Their return policy is much better.

I work customer service at ” The center of .computer shopping” as a CSR in the service dept. and I can tell you that someone working in my position learns to become very cynical, and also that you can please most.. but you cant please them all. I can tell you first hand from servicing and helping other customers, that laptops are either broken, or come bad from the factory. No inbetween. I see my fair share of bad laptops, either with bad hdds or defective backlights. I’ve never seen a broken lcd. I understand the trouble you’re going through, but you shouldn’t have to pull teeth to get something like this resolved. I exchange and RTV a good amount of merchandise a week, including laptops. Best Buy just adds another notch under their belt of “giving it to the customer”. I’ve gotten screwed by buying a “refurbished” network switch as new stock. I’m not promoting anything, but I know the process of having bad stock sent back, or negotiating with a customer about replacement or service. We eat alot of profit, but we do so to keep the customer happy, and thats one thing Best Buy doesn’t do. Antonio, I hope you get this resolved, really I feel for you. Send me an or anyone else here an email if you need more help, as a CSR and service technician I will stand up for you.

As a former Geek Squad member (proudly former, as Best Buy does do some shady stuff, but I won’t get into that here), and as a computer technician, I can tell you that LCD monitors do not just crack like that. There is a layer of material that houses the LCD fluid, and it takes pressure to crack it. It’s like expecting a cereal bowl to suddenly crack and fall apart for no reason.

Antonio, I’ve experienced customer service from Best Buy and Futureshop along the same lines as you’ve described. I don’t believe it is your fault, and I don’t believe that Best Buy should even care if it is your fault. Their return policy clearly states that they allow returns within 15 days with no questions asked. They are not backing up their policies, and I’m pretty sure that is illegal. If you have a class-action suit against them, I’m in.

Mostly because a generous return policy tends to reassure customers to go ahead and make that purchase, for a long time merchants in the USA tended to have generous return policies. In other words, the whole point of having the policy has to do with what the merchant knows about buyer psychology.

Having been a laptop technician for numerous years, and given the exact wording in your commentary, i find the circumstances you are relating hard to believe. Of the thousands of laptops i have serviced i have never come across an LCD screen that suddenly decided to break totally of it’s own accord.

I luv Best Buy!! its my fav store .. i was able to return my emachines computer when i plugged it in and the power supply shorted out the motherboard . If u want to return a defective product. dont tell them that its broken.. just tell them that u changed ur mind and u didnt like the model. And tell them that u wanted a more expensive computer… I bought 2 defective emachine computers within 1week from bestbuy and i was able to get my refund.. I then bought me an acer aspire and its been working perfectly since.. Bestbuy also has a rewards bonus (cashback) on the amount that you buy there.. I’ve spent over 5000.00 at best buy..

I had a second-hand, 3rd generation iPod that, when originally purchased, was purchased with a 3 year Best Buy extended warranty. The second-hand purchase included the original receipt and warranty information and the original owner had signed and transfered the warranty to myself. Need a list to say, about 4 months before the warranty was up the headphone jack in the iPod broke and I had went to Best Buy/Geek Squad to use the warranty on the broken jack. About two weeks later and after the device was sent out to an Apple repair center, I received a call to pick up my iPod– which when I arrived I was slapped with a $25 fee to get my iPod back because the Apple repair place determined that the broken jack was broken due to “water damage.”

An LCD screen doesn’t spontaneously break on it’s own. And it might not have been you that broke it. But, if you opened the box and it looked good then, I might say your dog/cat/friend/you/whoever did it. It seems like Best Buy went way beyond what they should have done. It’s a piece of glass, it doesn’t break on it’s own.

LCD screens do not just up and break…I don’t work at Best Buy but I do work at a much smaller consumer electronics store as a computer specialist. People will drop or do something of the sort to their laptop and blame it on the place they bought it from because they don’t want to assume financial responsibilities for their own perosnal ignorance. I have purchased things from Best Buy and was offered the service plan…you had the same opportunity. Anyone even if they weren’t a trained computer expert will tell you that a LCD screen will not just break by being “treated like a baby” I am not sure why you are blaming everything on Best Buy when Acer wouldn’t back up THEIR product that THEY manufactured. Acer is typically a bargain computer with bargain prices. As the saying goes “you get what you pay for.” The only part Best Buy took in it was the actual transaction. They didn’t touch it as far as manufacturing. I think Best Buy treated you fairly. Stop blaming others.

As MonKee mentioned a few posts above, too many people have abused return policies for retailers to continue offering generous terms. When Costco switched to a “90 days to return; double the manufacturers warranty” policy, it was obviously a reaction to the widespread belief that Costco existed for home theater mavens to return their HDTVs every couple of years when it was time for an upgrade to their setup.

As for the cracked LCD, you have to look at it from the store’s POV: Guy walks in and says, “It broke all by itself!” Would you just shrug and hand him a new item or look at him as you would a 8-year-old – whom you’d told not to throw his football in the house – standing amongst the shards of great-grandma’s heirloom vase and denying he had anything to do with it?

In my years, I’ve seen people play dumb as to why their computers aren’t working only to admit that they were a major contributing factor when I’d deduced the root cause. A laptop battery isn’t charging because the power socket had been broken free from the motherboard leads to a confession that the laptop had tumbled from a table, its fall broken by the cord. The same guy gets a wicked nasty Trojan on another laptop, denies he did anything to infect it, then acknowledges that his kid played with the company property when asked about the presence of Red Alert 2 in the Start menu.

You’ve gotta be kidding! LCD can be defective from the factory just like any man made product! But you can’t expect the public or best buy to believe that the LCD which was fine when you took it out of the box cracked on its own, and for them to deem it defective! A LCD can crack with out impact damage (Extreme heat or cold). Best buy does not have a no questions asked return policy, ive never seen that there and Ive never seen them promote that! If you buy something, say that it worked fine, then bring it back to a store with physical damage, that looks fishy. Im not saying that it cant happen, it’s just HIGHLY unlikely!

I have worked for computer retailers (more than two) for most of the past 5 years to get myself through school. I have seen both good and bad customer service standards but for the most part they’re fair. I’ve gone out of my way for customers but I always had to stay in the boundaries of the store policy in order to keep my job. I’ve also had to be the unhappy customer that is not satisfied with the service I have received. Yeah it’s not fun but you have to be fair to the company at the same time. If they replaced everything customers brought back in good faith… you’d have no retailers.

For everyone reading this, hate the company (and some of the managment) – but use some discretion in your hatred of the employees. Many of them are young and are slowly having their minds and souls broken.

Sounds like its that particular Best Buy. I am a Geek Squad Senior at one of the stores and we are required to check most products before its returned. If a notebook computer is within 14 days, and is defective, its gets exchanged. Even as an employee, that sounds really cruddy to do. Also, it doesn’t matter if it is broken and covered under warranty, you are within the return policy so it doesn’t matter.

I work for Best Buy; on top of that I work for Geek Squad. I can’t side with you nor Best Buy. Because of people pulling scams, thousands of people, before you – that is the reason you are treated the way you are. Personally, I have never seen an LCD screen crack on its own, thats my honest opinion – does that mean that I don’t believe what you are saying, no, I absolutely believe that if you have taken this much time to blog and follow up on this particular issue obviously you feel that you are being mistreated. With that having been said, I do feel that in a way some Best Buy operates on ‘Customer Centricity’, or, take care of the customer, from the initial purchase to ALL accessories. Make sure the customer gets what they need, and that they are taken care of. I feel though, some stores lack this fundamental value. And the main reason is thousands of customers trying to ‘scam’ the system, so safegaurds have been put in place to prevent this very issue. However, you claim to have had the laptop for a couple of days before the issue at hand came about – – that is really where values and morales of a company come into play(either side with the customer, or side with the rules of the company). This is where I hate conglomerate companies because if this situation doesn’t get resolved, and you never spend another dime at Best Buy — in the end, it doesn’t hurt their profits once so ever. Best Buy only made $40 off of the ACER laptop, so they are most likely not willing to take a loss due to an issue that is always regarded as customer abuse.

Yeah i bought a ipod 3 extended warranty. I brought my ipod in for service. I needed my battery replaced and my center click button didnt have the characteristic click (mushy) anymore but still functioned. I got it back the first time with a new a problem, they head phone jack was busted so much static and distortion, and they didnt fix my center button, but the battery was replaced. I tell them to send it back with a note to fix my center button. I get it back again they fix the head phone jack but still the center button wasnt fixed. So I argue with the idiots at geekidiots and they basically tell me u can keep sending it back but I cant do anything about it. So when i get it back they replace the battery that wasnt broken and still the center button is mushy. Basically i have to break it so it doesnt function anymore before they fucking replace it. FUCK THEIR WARRANTY dont get it, it’s a waste of money. Theyll end up sending it back to you with new problems and replace things that were already fixed the first time.

I just wanted to reply to your blog posting to agree with issues with Acer Laptops. A friend of mine has a defective Acer laptop, after 4 months of use the LCD began have a massive distorted line going straight down the middle-right. Buyers beware.

To this day, I see more and more problems with Acer products. In the latest example, an Acer laptop developed a crack twice in the plastic shell (near the LCD hinge). Acer was good about picking it up, fixing the problem, and returning it quickly; but it doesn’t change the fact these quality problems existed in the first place.

As a former Best Buy Employee (ducks) I completely sympathize, Their policy’s and their plans are meant to deceive you into feeling secure and part with more of your hard earned dollars.

I work at Staples in the area and you should have just gotten one there. We have a pretty open return policy and for sure we would have taken it back within the refund period. Our extended warranty is alot cheaper and is recommended on a laptop especially for Acer, toshiba and Sony.

You should dispute your issue with your credit card company if you have gone through the necessary steps with the merchant to resolve the situation. You have been in contact with the merchant which is the main thing that is required by the CC companies. Since the merchant has been unwilling to honor its return policy but rather stick you with half of the repair costs, I think you have a valid case.

Make sure that you have documented every time they have contacted you and what they have said as well as all of the times you have contacted them whether it be by phone, email, snail mail or what not. Also make sure you have a copy of their return/exchange policy specifically on computers. Finally if you did buy an extended warranty, make sure you have a copy of that and also have a copy ready of the warranty from Acer handy should you need it.

Also, on top of that I have an acer 22″ widescreen LCD monitor (from newegg) on my desktop, once again no problems with that, so I wouldn’t says acer is a horrible company.

Talk to a lawyer about suing them in Canada’s equivalent to Small Claims Court. Once they see that one person “won” it will open the door for others to do the same and eventually rewrite their return policy.

Before you give in at store level like that, you really should have called the corporate customer service. I can almost guarantee if you would have done that, you would have had it taken care of immediately, rather than begrudgingly being given the option of leaving it there so they could “inspect” it. Most of the times, these situations are because of individuals at individual stores, not the company as a whole. The same thing happened at the Wal-Mart that I worked at, where managers would be assholes just to be assholes, even though they were breaking company policy. Bottom line is, if you have problems at store level, immediately escalate it to the corporate level, and you will usually be taken care of.

I’ve had a similar problem with those idiots. I bought a tv as a gift this xmas, plugged it in, works fine, im happy. 30 minutes later its flickering and fuzzy and just total trash. So I call up the customer service reps, well sir , theres nothing we can do. Since it was an online order well gladly send you another tv IF YOU PAY the shipping. Well screw that, its like 100 dollars. Next day I managed to make it down to the bestbuy in burlington. The place is packed, and its total chaos. I explain my situation to the floor manager who was understanding but very unhelpful, saying they’d swap it for an equavilent priced model and not feature model, which ment trading in my 32′ lcd tv for a 27′ tv. Hardly worth it. Since I paid 599 or 699 for it at the time, I said enough is enough, and just wanted to return it. They said NO. After I asked to talk with the manager they later changed their story to yes, but its not over yet. After an hour in the customer service line, I finally get there and the rep tells me that they will refund me the price of the TV but not the shipping. I Lost it, I blew up and made a big scene. In the end I got the money back for shipping.

While I can appreciate your frustration as a Computer Technician myself I’d like to point something out. In literally thousands of repairs I have yet to find an LCD screen that failed the way you described that was not attributable to pressure or impact. Three times I have sucked up the replacement cost of a laptop with a problem such as you describe. Twice I have had it proven that there was in fact an impact to the screen. In the clearest example of this…

Any chance that the packaging for the laptop was extra tight or dented/crushed around the area where the screen failed? I betcha it was cause again… LCDs do not just screw up in the manner described without impact or pressure.

Having worked retail, sales, tech, and everything in between I’ve yet to see a cracked LCD that wasn’t caused by something physical (force, temp, etc).

Cracked LCD = Damage in the eyes of ANY retailer or manufacturer. LCDs “cracking on their own” is practically unheard of. $250 is a small price to pay, since normally they’d have told you “Buy another laptop, thanks”.

I have also recently experienced miserable BB service. I purchased a Sony VAIO Laptop in 2005 with the extended service plan. At the time the laptop was top of the line. First, the hard drive crashed a needed to be replaced. After two weeks it was replaced and returned to me. Then, a month later the LCD screen brightness would not adjust. It was permanently in the dimmest setting. If you adjusted the screen angle the LCD would flicker, apparently a faulty connection between the MOBO and the LCD. I sent it in for repair. After two weeks, it was back to me. The problem was not repaired. The next day I took it in to BB to have the screen repaired for the same issue. Two weeks later the laptop was back, unrepaired. This happened a further TWO TIMES. On the fourth time, I exasperatedly told them that I wanted a new laptop if it could not be repaired this time. The Geeksquad told me that if it could not be repaired it would be replaced. Thereafter, I received a call from the Geeksquad telling me that the laptop was irreparable and that I had a $1,200 store credit (the original value of my laptop) towards a new laptop. I went into the store and I informed the idiot sales clerk of the situation. He began helping me pick out a laptop. I decided on a Macbook, and as he was preparing the paperwork for the “junk out” as they term it, he mumbled something about specs that was not really comprehensible to me. He then disappeared for the third time (each instance of disappearance lasting longer than 15 min each), and returned with a price card in hand, saying that he couldn’t find a laptop with my old laptop’s specs but this was the closest one he had, an HP that cost $748. I was at this point utterly confused. He told me that to buy the Mac (which retailed for $1200) I would need to pay the difference between the $748 and the 1200. I told him that that was not what geeksquad had told me. He informed me that they “go by the specs, not the price” (this would be repeated to me ad nauseum as if it were indisputable law codified in the magna carta despite no one being able to demonstrate where this irrefutable law was codified). I informed him several times that I was told on the phone this was not the case. Still to no avail. In fact, the store clerk was such an idiot that when I asked him “Is there a scenario whereby I can walk out of here with a new laptop and not have to pay BB a penny” he replied, “No”. At which point, I lost it. I called the store manager over. Still no luck. Same “we go by the specs not the price” crap. I bought a top of the line sony, they were giving me a bottom of the line HP (no not as bad as some no name POS they had sitting around, but still). Sure the HP did have a lot more to offer than my old sony, but that was not the issue. The issue was something had been represented to me, an expectation was created, that was then later demolished. This is the direct antithesis of customer service. I can hear the posts now: “But you got a new laptop dude, that’s better than your old POS.” That’s not the point, the point is that BB turned what should have been a positive customer experience (Hey I bought a service plan and it worked exactly as promised) into You RIPPED ME OFF! You told me to expect one thing ($1200 towards a new laptop, any laptop) and gave me something else (a $748 laptop that I could not choose). I WILL NEVER shop at BB again, EVER.

As far as Geek Squad, I’ve never worked for them but my wife is currently in their employ and I’m familiar with their policies. Did they check the computer before you left with it? This is a pretty standard practice. If they did, and did not see the problem with the LCD then you’re out of luck, but if they didn’t check it you can probably call this to their attention to gain a bit of leverage. I will say however that they are much nicer about their warranties than Gateway or the mom and pop stores I’ve worked for. If I had sold it to you, I would apologize profusely and try to get Acer to repair it on their dime but if not I would eat the cost, keep the laptop, give you a new one, and use the damaged one for myself with a standard monitor until I could afford to replace the screen and then I would sell it to someone else. Which by the way is why if you do get a new part it WILL be a refurbished part, but yes Acer will charge you full price as would any other manufacturer. This is just the way things work. It’s all about bottom line. I hope everything works out for you but I really wish people would point the finger evenly at all the people involved in the chain. The whole industry is going under because computers are becoming cheaper and the CEO’s have to cut costs somewhere to keep stock holders happy. Sorry but true.

I have to agree with Daniel. An LCD cracking on it’s own is kind of like having a car suddenly showing all the signs of a head-on collision. Someone who claimed it spontaneously happened while parked in their driveway would not be believed.

Yes, you will wind up paying a few hundred extra dollars (which admittedly seems significant when looked at a percentage of the total price), but this is what you’re paying for; the ability to say, “It’s broken, fix it with no arguments”.

Best Buy’s policy is that they don’t accept returns on “abused” items. Obviously, any returns manager should be able to tell by the condition of the machine that it is unreasonable to assume that the laptop suffered some sort of abuse; the case or the laptop or monitor should exhibit some evidence of damage. (see below for the official verbiage of the return policy).

“Having worked retail, sales, tech, and everything in between I’ve yet to see a cracked LCD that wasn’t caused by something physical (force, temp, etc).

Cracked LCD = Damage in the eyes of ANY retailer or manufacturer. LCDs “cracking on their own” is practically unheard of. $250 is a small price to pay, since normally they’d have told you “Buy another laptop, thanks”.

Daniel, if you know nothing about the underlying LCD technology, then your anecdotal claims are baseless and make no sense. LCD’s can have manufacturing defects the same as any other product, and in fact have them more then almost any other similar product. They are expensive and frequently the source of fraudulent claims, but to say that it’s not possible for an LCD to crack on it’s own is just plain ignorant.

Every day we get people in trying to scam us. Checks printed out on inkjet printers, counterfit bills, claiming a laptop is broken while one of my Geek Squad agents pours beer out of the keyboard. All I have to say is you can thank these people for the response you got from our customer service reps. Plain fact is BBY is in business to make a profit every year and line the pockets of our shareholders. Every single business owner is in business for that exact reason. As a whole we are doing just that. We have truly gone international with stores in China and Mexico, with plans all over the world. Around 100 new stores opening here in the states in the next year or two, also. Partnering with Apple and opening Apple Stores in over 200 BBY box stores. Counter that with hundreds of CompUSAs closing and Circuit posting losses, I’d say my job security looks promising.

You have a MacBook Pro and decided to wish upon your wife the wonderful world of PCs? For $800 you could have gotten a refurbished MacBook (and possibly a new MacBook after all the costs of this fiasco). I know Apple’s return policy with such a problem is a lot less of a hassle, that’s for sure.

Your article/blog is very intriguing. I agree with you that best buy and future shop does suck and their customer service is horrible and deserves criticism due to my past experiences with future shop and best buy. But I don’t think your blog/article critisizes ACER enough. Acer products are absolutely terrible. Two out of three acer products that i’ve purchased have become defective within a month or two (both LCD monitors). ACER SUCKS!

According to the terms of your return policy, that’s Best Buy’s problem. If there is no way to tell, you have to accept the return – again, as I posted above, it is the responsibility of the vendor to show abuse, not the responsibility of the purchaser to show defect.

if u’ve got ur laptop back, then take a close-up video of the LCD Screen from every angle & put it on youtube.com with a title like… “Best Buy AND Acer Sucks!”

I for one, used to work customer support for the company that handled Consumer electronics support for a major manufacterer. I can tell you for one that dealing with Best Buy was never a good thing. They would offer a free 50 stack dvd media with the purchase of a dvd burner, but guess what,…the media they gave away free was incompatible with the burner. The techs at best buy often are so lacking in accurate information that it is laughable. I once fielded a call where the customer was asking who made the best LCD panel as he was told that the LCD panel in Sony LCD screen televisions was of much higher quality than that in a Sharp television. I was more than happy to point out to the customer that Sharp owns the patents on all LCD panels and is the sole manufacturer of them. The only difference is in the electronics added, which could be better from one brand to the next, but regardless, the screen comes from Sharp. With an internal crack of an LCD it is possible that the mounting was overtightened or somehow caused undue stress on the panel itself which resulted in the problem. Unfortunately, even if there was no evidence of customer abuse before, now that Best Buy techs have had it it no doubt appears to have been abuse to the screen. Of all of the things that can go wrong with a consumer electronic, by far the worst thing to get assistance with is an LCD panel. Any problem arising with them is so hard to diagnose fault with that the companies have become “customer is always wrong” oriented. Many times they are correct, such as when I had a call in which a installer with little to no experience had attempted to install a mount on a customers $6,000 tv and then had to call in about it bieng broken because he had laid the screen down flat on its face in order to attatch the mount. Or the customers who overtighten the mount so badly that it fractures the screen. However, this does not excuse when companies simply refuse to believe that there are exceptions that happen. If you were to research the manufacture process, you would see that until recently reject screens were not all that uncommon, they were just mostly caught still in plant. I would definitely go with a complaint to your local Business Bureau or Customer advocacy group as they seem to appeal to the local attorney general or equivalent and seem to get better overall results when attempting to get something of the such repaired or replaced at no cost. Besides, when I check online, you can get the replacement screen and service manual for well under $200 and do it yourself for less than they want you to pay even with them helping. I’ve replaced them myself and its not real difficult with the right information.

well for the guys talking about the costco policy yes its 90 days no questions ask as long as it doesnt have a cracked screen . I’m a costco employee and believe me something like this falls under physical abuse , like someone say before nobody will believe this happend out of nowhere . Costco will give you a two year warranty but they all fall under the manufactor’s warranty . Something like this you will have to pay .

Holy crap I had to scroll forever just to leave a reply. Congrats on the popular article. I actually work for Acer in their Tech Support department, and I can tell you, they would have given you the same answer that Best Buy did. Cracked LCDs are in no way covered, and even if it is straight out of the box broken, chances are they will give you the benefit of the doubt. However, you must understand, you cannot imagine the number of people who’s screens “just went crazy, I swear!”, when in fact, they clearly dropped or abused it. It’s much easier for them to deny the 1 out of millions who actually get the defective screen than open the door to the thousands that would try to take advantage of them if they were more lenient.

Now, of course, none of this is fair to you, the innocent consumer who got shafted by a faulty LCD (if it was o.O Scam artist?!), and that sucks. But you must understand that Acer would get shafted worse by all the dumbases who break their screen in a week and try to say it came that way. In my mind (and I’m not biased, I swear), Best Buy holds the [most] blame on this one. The difference between taking a return, and honoring a warrenty, are quite different. If I buy something and it’s broke, or unsatisfactory in any way, I expect that store to take it back, at least for a replacement. That’s what a return is, after all. Although I suspect that a large portion of the reason BB wouldn’t take it back is because Acer wouldn’t take it back from them.

It’s not like you could take a picture of it being broken – that doesn’t settle the question of whether the breakage resulted from abuse or not. I guess you could get some kind of signed, notarized document from a witness pledging that the item wasn’t abused, but it’s not like those witnesses are under oath – they could make that up. There are certain issues that almost always point to abuse, like water damage in electronics which can easily be seen by a trained eye, but what about all the other stuff that can’t be easily deduced, or leaves no trace of what caused it? How do you prove, when you don’t know what happened, what happened or what didn’t happen? If some guy in a blue shirt says, “I think you abused this item, and unless you can prove to me that you didn’t, we aren’t going to take this back,” how are you going to get around that?

Don’t pay the money. This is ridiculous and should not be tolerated. I don’t care if customers have tried to “scam” Best Buy before; if they have a 14-day return policy they should honor it. If they want to block the scammers, they should not have a 14-day return policy. They are not playing by their own rules and are trying to back out of their obligations in order to increase their earnings. It’s called lying.

Best Buy’s employment practices — their choice of Acer as a product to sell — all unfortunate. But this is beside the point. They have a set return policy, and they did not honor said return policy. In legal terms, this is breaking their contract as well as false advertising.

Whether or not you choose to pay to replace the screen or not (after all, who said it’s your responsibility to hold a multi-million dollar retailer responsible for one laptop?) it is clear the fault is theirs and the money should not be given to them. I think most big boxes are equally bad; my husband is a sysadmin and we bought our last laptop (an Acer, incidentally) at CompUSA. The screen went out on it within 24 hours (coincidental, isn’t it?). We simply took it back, said it was broken and asked for a replacement. I did not elaborate on the problem; they gave us some trouble but eventually gave us a new one. After that experience I would have hesitated to purchase anything at a big box again; after reading this, we will go straight to the manufacturer to buy our next machine. I don’t appreciate liars and I don’t plan to support the practices of these big retailers by buying their products.

I actually had an extended warranty through BB and brought it in assuming I’d get a replacement. I actually SHOWED the unit in the broken state – the tech said it was a problem. They took it in and sent it off to god knows where saying they’d look at it. They sent it back with a PRINTED PICTURE OF A WORKING SCREEN! Thanks guys. I argued with them and to top it off, they wanted to charge me! What the fuck is the point of the expensive ass warranty???!! I told them to fuck off and left. My wife (GF at the time) was more pissed then me.

For starters, I agree with the original verdict you were given at Best Buy. They did exactly what I would have in their position. You stated in your post that you have worked for many years in the computing industry and so have I, so we should, therefore, agree on the fact that LCDs don’t overheat and cause themselves to bleed as you have stated. I find it very curious that you were able to load all of the software you loaded and surfed the net like you did with such a small representation of the problem that was to occur. Frankly, I think it might have been poor judgment on your part to not have returned the notebook when you noticed the difference in the backlighting of the panel. It would have been wise to have returned it then as they most certainly would have given you a replacement had the panel not been cracked.

Finally, as a personal note, I do believe that the damage was, in fact, caused by you. Again, LCDs just don’t crack on their own and an external source is almost always the cause. Extreme change in temperature is a common reason for LCDs to crack as is, of course, physical damage. Was the unit ever pressed up against in any way while in transit? Again, personally, I suspect something to this effect indeed occurred and I feel that both Acer and Best Buy exercised good judgment.

Good post. Glad all is well. I bought an Acer Aspire two years ago. The LCD plastic housing (not the screen itself) cracked near the hinges within three months. I sent it to Acer (under warranty). They replaced it and returned it within one week. The Acer plastics at that time were flimsy, but the price was right. I have been more careful from that point forward. My point: I have been very satisfied with Acer and their product support. In fact, I just bought one for my daughter for college. Today, they still offer the most bang for the buck. Just handle with care. And keep it away from textbooks in the book bag! Go to Acer’s website and buy the Total Protection Bundle for $199.00. That is three years of peace. And they do stand behind it. Thanks again for a very detailed and informational post.

Similar has happened to me at Best Buy, too. Trying to handle it quietly simply did not work. Initially, it seemed not to matter that they actually remembered me buying it only one hour beforehand. However, a ranting and raving customer standing at the entrance with a *same day* dated receipt and a clearly broken product (i.e., a digital camera–not working straight out of the box) seemed to do the trick.

3rd problem: By comparison to the problems I have listed above this one seems mild but the compilation of problems I have been having with Best Buys customer service, (or lack thereof) is the real issue here. In late May, I purchase a Wii Play game that included a Wii controller. I have a pretty busy schedule so our game system isn’t played very often. 3 months later the batteries died on the controller. No matter what I did, I could not get the controller to power up. No matter what batteries I put in it, I couldn’t get power to the controller. Without power, a controller cannot be synchronized so I know that is not the cause of the problem. So I boxed it and the Wii Play game and tried to take it back for an exchange since it’s obviously a defective remote. They refused to exchange the remote stating that their return policy is 30 days and the controllers only have a 90 day warranty on it anyway, so it is out of warranty too. They then suggested I contact Nintendo to have it repaired. I have only used this controller maybe six times due to my busy schedule but no matter what I said they would not exchange the controller. This happened today so I have not been able to reach Nintendo to see what they can do for me.

These companies will shrink wrap returns or broken display models and try to pass them off as new product. Then they won’t refund/exchange it when you return it.

Dell offers a Premium Panel Exchange that ensures zero "bright pixel" defects on Dell Consumer, Professional, UltraSharp, and Gaming including Alienware monitors.

Defective pixels do not necessarily impair the performance of the monitor. However, they can be distracting, especially if the pixels are in positions where viewing quality is reduced.

Unyielding commitment to quality and customer satisfaction has driven Dell to offer a Premium Panel Exchange as part of the standard limited hardware warranty. Even if one bright pixel is found, a free monitor exchange is supported during the limited hardware warranty period.

Premium Panel Exchange is available for Dell Consumer, Professional, UltraSharp, and Gaming (including Alienware) monitors that are sold with computers or as stand-alone units, with a standard 1-year or 3-year limited hardware warranty. Customers who purchase an extended warranty can also take advantage of this coverage during the limited hardware warranty period.

I"ve had my laptop for almost a year now (Bought it from Newegg) and it"s been a great laptop but as of recently I ran into a pretty annoying and game breaking problem.