Screen/Monitor QC - Why can't anyone get it right!!?

[Jono8]

Screen/Monitor QC - Why can't anyone get it right!!? ACER!

So I finally took the leap (due to a tasty misprice) and ordered a 144hz IPS WQHD 27 inch monitor to upgrade my aging old 1080p TN 60hz screen.

The model is an ACER XF270HU. Now of course when buying anything with a screen I have come to the understanding that odds are it will not be perfect and something will be wrong with it.

I set it all up and straight away tested for all the usual things - backlight bleed, dead pixels, odd tints in parts of the screen etc.

To my surprise....it was perfect! It has the most uniform backlight I have ever seen, no dead pixels and great colour uniformity. I was extremely happy.....or at least I was for a few hours.

I then realised to my horror that it has the most ridiculous image persistence/retention problem I have ever seen! If anything is displayed on the screen for more than a few minutes it will then ghost on to the screen and wont go away for 10 minutes or so. So for example if i have the afterburner OSD up for about 5 minutes and then look at the OCUK forums, the OSD outline (well a sort of negative of it) is displayed over the web page. Edit - ie just writing this post meant that now the smileys displayed on the post editor are now ghosted on to everything...

I now have to decide whether to just send it back or go through ACER warranty support (groan..) as the place I bought it from has none left in stock. I really don't want to send it back as it was such a good price but then at the same time i don't really want to have to send it off for repair a few days after getting it.

I am at my wits end with screens or devices that have screens. I don't think I have ever had a truly good one. The QC on displays just seems to be awful whatever manufacturer you go through. I have seen awful problems on Sony smartphones, Samsung smartphones, surface tablets, Samsung,Acer, HP Monitors, Panasonic TV's. Even the monitor I have got and have had for the last 7 years had to go back to Samsung twice within a year as a line appeared on the screen and they didn't fix it first time.

In fact the very reason i have not upgraded my monitor in so long is because i just KNEW that whatever I bought would have some sort of issue and if I am honest I just couldn't be bothered with the hassle.

Just what is the problem? I am either the most unlucky person ever when it comes to screens or there is just simply too many faulty screens made. Why can't they get it right still? LCD tech has been around for ages now and i really would have thought someone would have been able to figure out the kinks by now. Maybe I am picky, but i don't think you should have imperfections on screens and devices costing hundreds of pounds , especially when they all rave about how good the screens are and how good the colours and colour accuracy etc are.

TLDR - I'm upset as I can never get a screen that is decent on anything and i think it is an absolute ****show.

 

[Jono8]

If competition was working properly one of them would be able to rise up in market share by offering better QC. But they're all still consistently terrible...

Indeed. If there was a brand that I knew I could trust with decent QC (ie 99%+ of their monitors were perfect - I know nothing will ever be 100% fullproof) I would pay the premium to do without the hassle of going through a million screens before getting one that works properly.

Instead, they almost all seems as bad as each other (as they all use each others panels anyway!) and it frustrates me hugely that they STILL cannot get it right.

As the other poster pointed out, I don't want a 4k, 6k or 8k screen - it is still expensive/ a ballache to get media at any of those resolutions or above ( it isn't like there is a mainstream streaming service that streams everything at 4k and you need two £600 gpu's to power a high refresh rate 4k monitor for gaming).

The industry really needs to focus on just getting it right at even just 1080p first before just chasing pixel density.

 

[Jono8]

So so far I submitted an online repair request Friday night. Contacted Acer first thing this morning and they said I had to wait for a response to my online repair request taking one business day - fair enough. Fast forward to now when they are nearly closed and still nothing...and online chat says I have to wait and they cant do anything till their "concern team" gets back to me!?

How hard is it just to send me the returns label??

Looking good so far! Think I will just send it back to the retailer. Probably less painless than dealing with these morons ( judging from other people's experience of Acer's support/repair service).

 

[Jono8]

Man I am totally torn. I have a choice between returning it for a refund to the place I bought it from, or sending it to Acer for repair which could take over a week (needs to get there, thenup to 5 working days for repair and then come back..). Cant send it in the original box either as they get rid of that..

I feel like there is too much to wrong, damage in transit, get one with dead pixels/ bad backlight that I cant return etc

But where else am I going to get a 27 inch 144hz ips freesync monitor for £290...

Groan.

What do OCUK?

probably safer to get a refund and wait for deals during black Friday etc I reckon :/

 

[Jono8]

Do not ask for it to be repaired unless you have no other options. Return it and ask for a full refund, then buy somewhere else. You'll have to wait for the refund to be issued though, it may take a while (1-2 weeks?) depends on the retailer.

Yes I don't mind about the refund time. It is within 30 days (the retailers policy) so I can get a full refund.

It is just a shame as it was £100 cheaper than anywhere else due to a misprice!

 

[Jono8]

I take it they wouldn't be willing to do an exchange?

Nope, even from my brief exchanges with Acer over these last few days, I know which manufacturer to stay well, well clear from...

I can't believe people are shelling out £500-£600 on their top models with such a shoddy warranty policy in place.

 

[Jono8]

I wouldn't touch them by ten foot pole normally, but not much choice - they still offered most features for me, so had to go through 3 monitors to be at least mostly (not fully) satisfied and feel like I've "upgraded"

Sorry I wasn't having a go. I should have worded it "I can't believe people are having to shell out £500-£600 on their top models with such a shoddy warranty policy in place. "

Acer really need to have a DOA policy in place.

 

[Jono8]

So I received the "repaired" monitor back from Acer and it does EXACTLY the same thing. No change whatsoever. They claim they changed the motherboard and tested it and that it is fully working now on the sheet they gave me! HA! Tested it? Did they ****.

I have literally never experienced such poor service from a manufacturer before. ACER are absolutely awful. My case id to check the repair status did not work in their system. I asked the live chat people repeatedly whether I would get an email when the monitor was repaired and being sent back and was told repeatedly that I would. Did I? No, so that means I missed the delivery and had to go and collect it (as UPS said ACER pay extra so it cant be delivered to a neighbour...brilliant).

I should just get a refund but part of me wants to be bloody minded about it and keep sending it back until they ****** fix it.

For anyone else thinking of buying an ACER monitor, I strongly suggest you don't, however good the price is.

 

[Jono8]

Why would businesses pay extra to remove delivery options to their customers???

Apparently for security so that it has to go to my address and no one else. UPS said the computer blocked them from leaving it with a neighbor because of this.

The whole thing is becoming an aggravating farce to be honest.

 

[Jono8]

The saga is ongoing - Sent it back for a second time and got a call today asking for more information as the technician can't find the fault...even though it is EXACTLY the same fault they identified first time and didn't fix. I gave more detail and the chap went away so we will see what happens.

I don't believe for one second they can't see what i am talking about - it is crazy obvious to anyone with eyes.

Total clowns.

 

[Jono8]

It might help if you gave them a link to this thread. Philips customer support tried the same crap with me, trying to deny and dismiss the clearly visible color banding on my HDTV with the Computer mode. After the constant back and forth I got fed up, so I made public polls and threads (with the same sample images I had given them earlier), and gave them links to them so they can read "other people's opinions". And EVERYONE noticed the flaw right from the start. The tone of the conversation changed quite rapidly after that.

In reality, I think they knew perfectly well what was the matter, they just tried to give me the run-around. And in the end, they admitted the flaw. They probably gave up because they realized that the bad PR wasn't worth it for them. Then again, they never fixed the issue, either. Even though they said they'll forward it to the firmware team. Not that I was surprised, really. They were quite pathetic at fixing things. Usually they only managed to make things worse... Well, never gonna buy anything from Philips, anymore.

Ps. I also gave them THIS link. They said "they couldn't open it".

Well if they don't fix it this time I'm sending it back to the retailer for a full refund.

2 repair attempts is ample and I don't wish to waste anymore of my time on it.

This is the issue:

Afterburner had been open for about 4 minutes on the desktop before hand...

..and they said they have tested it for hours and can't see the problem It is literally the most obvious problem ever - even the gigabyte logo that shows for 10 seconds when starting my pc get faintly ghosted onto the blue windows start up screen!

It does the same through hdmi and display port and it most certainly is not my computer as I am using my previous monitor (a 1080p Samsung 27 inch) and TV (a Panasonic 42 inch) absolutely fine with zero issues.

 

[Jono8]

So the saga continued.

I waited another 24 hours and called them for an update and was told that their technician still couldn't find the problem and it was still on test...lol.

At this point i just gave up and said to just send it back to me and i will get a refund from the retailer.

To add insult to injury i was expecting it to be delivered to my work address (as this is the address i gave them to send back this second return and it was even printed on the return lable/documentation i got) on Friday. Nothing came and when i got home i had a UPS card through the door....they had sent it to my home address. ARGH!

The retailer i bought it from is being good though and have arranged for it to be collected next week so they can give me a full refund.

I called their escalation team and by luck got through to their deputy manager and basically told them what a shoddy experience this whole thing has been and she sounded very sympathetic and almost embarrassed, like she knew their warranty/repair policy and service is rubbish

Hopefully i will have my money back the week after next and can put this behind me.

ACER..... Never again

 

[Jono8]

For those interested, the ACER monitor went back and I got a full refund.

Having realised all new monitors are likely going to have issues, I found a very cheap deal on a certain site's warehouse branch on an AOC Q2770PQU. Only 60hz and no adaptive sync but it has 1440p res and is IPS. It had REALLY bad backlight bleed (like someone was shining a torch from the bottom corners) and uniformity so contacted AOC and they very kindly replaced it with a brand new one!

The replacement still isn't perfect (screen uniformity wise) but it is liveable with. Backlight is almost perfect and hardly any IPS glow.

Interestingly I found a very cheap deal on an Asus PG279Q from the same place. Now I thought this is the best monitor money can buy so if this isn't right I literally give up and will stick with the AOC screen.

Got it yesterday and guess what? Dead pixel, bright spot/bright pixel cluster, some bad bleed through the top and bad ips glow.....oh and the screen uniformity was just as bad as the cheap AOC screen.

Monitor buying...literally ****** awful. They are all crap.

On the plus side 1440p + IPS is glorious coming from an old 1080p TN panel (IPS colour/richness is brilliant, as are the viewing angles - TN panels look very washed out in comparison) and I have spent half the money I spent originally on the ACER screen.