I purchased my monitor in the spring of 2003. It was a good monitor and I was pleased with it. Then one day it failed to come on. All it would do is make a repetitive clicking noise. After cycling the power several times it came up. I wasn't sure what the problem was or even if it was a problem with the monitor or the computer. Some months later the problem repeated and this time no amount of cycling the power would bring it to life.

I contacted NEC's customer service (monitor is still under warranty). The support person I spoke with seemed very familiar with the problem calling it the "click of death". She recommended against a cross ship and that I would be less likely to have problems if I returned my current monitor for repair rather than exchange, even though it would take longer. Apparently the refurbished monitors often have cosmetic blemishes. It cost me ~$50 to ship back my monitor.

A couple of weeks later I received my "repaired" monitor. I was surprised that it failed to come on and made the same "click of death" as when I sent it in. I further noticed that there was a small piece of styrofoam packing stuck in the gap between the monitor and cover. I'd noticed this when I cleaned the monitor before shipping it back. If they had taken the cover off, this piece of packing would have certainly fallen out. What I suspected is that they had turned on the monitor and it came on so instead of repairing it they just shipped it back. Since the problem had been intermittent initially this is possible.

I again contacted NEC customer service. Their solution was to have me again ship my monitor to them. I told them I didn't want to spend another $50 on shipping and that I didn't trust that my monitor would be repaired. I asked firmly that they replace my monitor with a new one and pay shipping this time. After much discussion and waiting on hold (~1.5 hours) they agreed they would ship me a new monitor but they didn't have any available in the warehouse and wouldn't for a couple of weeks so they would have to ship me a refurbished. They acted very surprised when I said I'd wait until they had a new monitor available. They then agreed to ship me a new (as in not refurbished - there was no misunderstanding here) monitor as soon as they had one available and would cover both the shipping costs and the return costs. They required my credit card number to cross ship the new monitor. I made it absolutely clear that they could only charge my credit card for a new monitor and not a refurbished one.

Three days later a monitor arrived at my home in a box that said "refurbished" on the side. I again called their customer service. At first they claimed they had shipped me a new monitor and that what it said on the box didn't matter. I explained that this monitor couldn't be new since they didn't have any in their warehouse to ship and wouldn't for a couple of weeks. The support person then agreed it was a refurbished monitor. He apologized and said the only reason he thought it was new was that he had someone else call in thinking their replacement monitor wasn't new because it also came in a box that said refurbished on it

It took a couple of more calls to NEC customer service before they agreed to take the refurbished monitor back and ship me a new one. I'll spare you the details but it probably took three hours on the phone with them. The refurbished monitor was finally picked up.

A couple of weeks ago (over two months without a monitor at that point) I again contacted NEC. They said they still didn't have any new monitors in the warehouse and offered to replace the monitor with a Mitsubishi that was identical. Since I didn't really trust them and didn't know what model of Mitsubishi was identical I declined.

Two weeks later I received a monitor from NEC. When I opened up the box it was obviously another refurbished one. The box and packing was not what a new monitor comes in. Also, the monitor could have been cleaner (rag streaks on the display). And there was a big sticker on it that said it was refurbished.

I again called NEC. This time they claimed that I was only entitled to a refurbished monitor and that they never shipped new monitors. I told her to look at the call history and gave her the name and dates of the relevant support personnel. She then claimed that most of what I said had never happened and that some of the personnel I referred to didn't and never had worked there! Fortunately, I had kept notes so I knew the truth. I pushed her on it and asked to talk with a manager - of course no manager was available. She then suddenly changed tactics and claimed that the monitor was a new monitor. I explained to her again that it was refurbished. She didn't care, claimed it was new, and that they would be charging my credit card for almost twice what I had originally paid if they didn't receive my original monitor back in the near future!

I've condensed the above as it's too long already. I've spent hours on the phone with this company, received horrible service, been lied to repeatedly, and they have insinuated repeatedly that I’m being dishonest with them. I used to think NEC/Mitsubishi was a good company. Now that I know the truth I don't think they deserve anyone's business.

I contacted the place I originally purchased the monitor from. While they can't do anything at this stage (~9 months) they did say I'm not the only one that's had problems with NEC and that the Viewsonic is a much better monitor.

I hope this post helps some folks avoid the troubles I’m having.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 322.37
Operating System: Windows