I can no longer recommend Viewsonic

[larva]

Having spent a looong time in the PC biz, I still end up making a huge number of purchasing recommendations where PC equipment is concerned. One kid I've built PCs for since he was tiny asked me about his new monitor purchase a while back, to complement the spiffy P4-630 system I helped him build. My concern was that he was going to try to do a $350 job with $250.

I was relieved when the unit he showed me was the VX924 Viewsonic. My thoughts were, "wow, nice choice, a real monitor from a real company". I felt good to be able to say go buy it rather than having to desconstruct the usual purchasing illogic people generally act on. The kid even purchased the advanced replacement warranty, promising a new unit within 48 hours should it fail.

And fail it did. Only about 3 months after purchase, the unit croaked. The kid sent it back. And waited. And waited. Weeks passed. He called Viewsonic and got no real answers, except that they had indeed received the returned monitor. Couldn't be bothered to, say, send him a replacment--not even in 48 days, much less the promised 48 hours. Finally his mother called and bitched them mightily and they managed to recognize that they should actually send a replacement.

The amazing thing is, they at this point wouldn't even commit to getting the replacement to him in (another) 48 hours. Even though this was the terms of the extended protection plan purchased with the monitor. It was a week and a half before the replacement arrived, and it wasn't even complete (no DVI cable) and it was also faulty (lines on the screen--obvious stuff).

So in the end, for the $349 spent on the monitor and the $29 spent on the extended coverage plan, the kid got absolutley nothing but a giant deal of frustration. If I had for one second ever thought Viewsonic would shirk their responsibilities in this manner I would have told him not to purchase the unit. I thought Viewsonic was good insurance against precisely this sort of crap.

Moral of the story? Don't buy Viewsonic. I'm used to people being unable to do their jobs because they've never tried, but this floors even me. The kid is hoping to get a refund (I said good luck, but we'll see). And since the monitor's color rendition was comically bad anyway, it won't be missed that much.

[Haste266]

yeah, i had a ps790s convergence start to go on me really bad when my monitor was under warranty...
called them and they had a ups guy come pick it up pretty quickly...
my replacement monitor reeked of smoked and the bezel was discolored, plus the screen was in terrible shape when i turned it on...i was like wtf.
when i called them and told them the situation they got it rectified pretty quickly but thats still something you shouldnt have to deal with. i still like viewsonic though.

[Gautam]

Yep, I too had a rather bad experience with them recently. I purchased a P95f+ two years ago, which granted is a pretty nice monitor. While I was away at school, my brother told me that it literally caught on smoke. (It was one and a half years+ old at this point)

I figured that sometimes accidents happen, especially after a couple of years, and that warranty would take care of it. The monitor was shipped out in mid January of this year. I was told by Viewsonic that a replacement unit should arrive within two weeks.

Since I was at school, I couldn't really deal with it so I didn't know exactly what was going on, but my family told me that they had gotten nothing yet, throughout all of January. (I gave my dad's email so that he'd be notified of the RMA progress) He had called them a couple of times and they said it was being processed. When I returned home for spring break in late february, it had still not arrived. I gave them call as well, and finally a manager informed me that the team that was supposed to be dealing with it had basically ignored it, because it was out of production, as a result of some miscommunication. She made it clear though that this wasn't my fault and was very sorry about it, since it was still within the warranty period. (Obviously) She said though, that she'd make sure it'd be processed and shipped within the next day.

When all was said and done, the replacement unit didn't end up arriving until early April, a few days shy of 4 months after the broken monitor was sent in. The only real gripe I've sort of got about the replacement is that its black while the original was beige, which isn't a big deal. But the department that handles RMA requests does indeed seem like its run by monkeys, a complete joke.

All of my friends run Viewsonic and highly recommend it, so does my dad's (and my) workplace. But needless to say, this is the first and will be the last Viewsonic I've purchased.

[Drinkyoghurt]

go for acers...i give them a big thumbs up, and im srry to hear what happend to the kid, you know im also a kid whos 200gb burnt and now im still waiting for the rma..so last week i called the company and they said i could pick it up. then i went there and they said that it wasnt ready yet..so i drove to germany for simply nothing...now they said it will arrive in max. 2 weeks...and it better be cuz i cant live with a 40gb one

[=ACID RAIN=]

Yep, I too had a rather bad experience with them recently. I purchased a P95f+ two years ago, which granted is a pretty nice monitor. While I was away at school, my brother told me that it literally caught on smoke. (It was one and a half years+ old at this point)

I owned a viewsonic that went up in flames at home too. I was in the room fortunately, so I dove under the desk and hit the switch on the power strip. Last year at work another viewsonic (dell OEM this time, but still viewsonic) went up in flames in a similar fashion. Fortunately it was during work hours.

I have a viewsonic here at work too, that I'm using right now. I turn it off every evening before I leave. If the building burns down, the fire won't be found to have started in my office! I'll never own another viewsonic monitor now. I just don't trust them.

[eobard]

I've a similar horror story about KDS and the way they treat their customers. I won't go into the details of what they did wrong but will say what I did to make it right. After snooping around the interweb for a "www.KDSsucks.com" site I accidentially found the direct email address for the president of the company and sent him a detailed message telling him how I was treated. He was shocked and appalled and ordered his monkeys to give me a replacement immediately. It took a week, a second email to him and and second email from him to his underlings before they did their job, and the replacement was of poor quality. I emailed him back and he told me they would buy it back off of me if I wanted. I wanted. So again I played email tag with him and it took several emails from him directly ordering his underlings to refund me my money before they actually did their jobs but in the end, about 6 weeks after it all started, I got my money back, bought a good monitor from their competition and was happy to do it to them. Moreover I take every opportunity to unrecommend KDS to any/all who will listen, So the point I'm getting at is: If the lackeys of a company are refusing to do their job, try to contact management, even up to the company president if necessicary, and forward copies of all evidence to said mangement. Hopefully that will help.

[VinnyTAMU]

I have two ViewSonic monitors the VX922 and VX924, as far as the response time is concerned I love them. As for the color they are about what I am used to from LCD's (nothing special, but not horrible). I have only had them for about 3 weeks but so far I have been very pleased with their performance. However I will watch out for their Customer Support.

[SteveLord]

Viewsonic use to be a good, affordable brand back in the day for me. Then it seemed like the last few years a lot of their products have been crap.

The worst brand out there is KDS though. I mean I've seen reviews on newegg for some of their stuff and Im talking like 8/10 people giving bad words about them. My father bought one from bestbuy and had to replace it TWICE within like 2 years. Thankfully he had a good warranty, so bestbuy let him just grab a new one off the shelf.