I've got a long history with NEC. Excepting the junk model that with my first computer, a 486 DX/2 66, they've the only brand I've used. I had a 15" monitor die, but they just shipped a replacement; I bought a new 19" from them last year.

However, this last spring the 19" went kaput. They mailed a replacement, but the replacement made an audible buzzing sound, so that went back. The replacement of the replacement makes a high-pitched whine which is practically deafening; after using it all evening I go to bed with my ears ringing. So, I unloaded it to someone who couldn't hear the whine; apparently not everyone can.

Therefore, I decided in disgust to just get a damn noiseless flat-panel, so I go over to Best Buy after comparision shopping to pick up a Samsung 17". That's where my problem starts.

"Hey, are you going to get the service plan? Blah blah blah they won't replace it until 15% pixel loss blah blah blah."

"Yes, I know that. No, I don't want a service plan that's 7% of the system cost; I'll deal with warranty if it goes bad"

Repeat this with another employee; they got really snippy when I stated I didn't feel like "encouraging Best Buy's dishonest warranty system; just give me my monitor, ok?"

They then sent a disbelieving coworker to try to convince me while *I'm standing in the checkout line*. A five minute argument ensues about how it could possibly be in both mine and Best Buy's interest to tack on $50 to every CRT purchase and then have Best Buy replace "35% of them" (his claim).

I double-checked on USENET and Google both when I got home, and was able to find a whopping three complaints about pixel burn-out, and none about companies refusing to replace noticably defective ones. Oh yes, the standard for replacement is also 6 in the center, not 15%.

I plug it in, and in spite of the Dire Warnings about out-of-the-box burnouts, it's perfectly fine. I'll just mail-order next time rather than deal with retail, goddamn it.

The employees must get some kind of kickback from that warranty, or something. Sheesh. I can't think of any other reason for them to ride you about it. Usually when you go to Best Buy (et al), the challenge is getting someone to help you, not getting them off your back.

Personally I'd go with one of the gamer-friendly LCDs that are hitting the market-- they can do 32bpp and have a fast pixel refresh (less ghosting with 60fps framerates). Particularly the Solarism model compared here:

http://www.gamepc.com/reviews/hardware_review.asp?review=15lcdshootout&page=1&mscssid=&tp=

Though I would hold out for a model with DVI digital input. Analog input is just craziness on a LCD.

"The employees must get some kind of kickback from that warranty, or something."

It's a lot more fundamental than that; employee performance evaluations, raises, etc. are tied into sales of those extended warranties.

My personal experience with buying a Best Buy extended warrantee: I bought a TV set from them. Two years later, the TV refused to turn on one day, and never would again. So, I slapped myself on the back for having the foresight to purchase that extended warranty. Little did I know that I was putting myself in for eight months of customer service hell, in which their repair shop and customer service line passed me back and forth between each other and generally fucked me around in an attempt to wear me down to the point of giving up on getting reimbursed.

The gist of what occurred: the local repair shop (which was an independent contractor Best Buy uses) determined early on that they could never repair the TV, yet Best Buy Corp. has a policy (in the fine print on that extended warantee) that you have to let them try every possible flaky idea for fixing the thing, and they can keep your TV indefinitely while you sit around playing this waiting game with them. Best Buy kept telling the repair shop that they needed to try putting new parts into the set, which never fixed the problem. Their goal seemed to be the avoidance of replacing the set at any cost. The sickest part of this was that they only have one phone number for extended warantees, but the people who actually know anything about the progress of your case are in another office with no phone number (!). So, every time I would call, the folks would pass my info or my request for info on to that office, and tell me I had to wait two weeks for a reply. Two weeks later, that other office would never reply, so I'd have to go through this process again. On and on for EIGHT MONTHS until I finally threatened them on the phone by telling them I had done research and found out about several ongoing class action suits against their extended warantee plan, and that I was going to join up with those if I didn't get someone from that main office on the line RIGHT NOW. Suddenly, I was put in touch with a guy who instantly did what no one else would for eight months: give me a refund (which had to be spent at Best Buy, of course).

Best Buy blows. This site is a good source of further documentation:

http://www.bestbuysux.org/index1.html

Verrrrry interesting, herr doktor..

I'd just go with the mail-order route across the board, though this is clearly impractical for large items like TVs or refrigerators.

However, for large TVs specifically, I can recommend http://www.crutchfield.com , as they have a policy on large televisions that includes installs-- and their customer service is top notch. I went to school in Charlottesville, VA, where they are based, so we had a lot of dealings with them as students. All positive.

'I can't think of any other reason for them to ride you about it.'

They were doing the "this customer is such a moron" routine, not the "we're losing money" bit. I know nothing, nothing I tell you!

As a followup, I missed the one shipped burnt pixel because I didn't have it in 1280; it's in the upper left corner. Not bad.

Crap, I should have done some more research earlier. It looks just fine, but the low pixel refresh causes really wierd effects in UT. Is that Solarism model the only game in town out there right now? According to their website it only does 16.7 million colors, though.

Hooray, I get to experience the ignomity of taking this back to the store now.

Alright, it looks like it's back to CRTs for me. According to the Firing Squad review, ghosting is still visible on things like torches in Quake. Pah.

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/solarismlm1503/

Then again, supposedly not if you finish reading the thing. Blast it.

In closing, screw this. I'll pay half the cost to get this (.20 pitch!) and come back to look at the LCD market in a year or two.

http://www.samsungmonitor.com/html/products/955df.htm

This stream of consciousness rant was brought to us by the letters "L", "C", and "D".

I buy my monitors at Costco. You can return anything there. I had a 19 inch monitor I bought there die about a year later. I took it in, no box or reciet, they looked the purchase up on a computer and handed me cash in the amount of the initial purchase. I grabbed the new model they sell at that price, checked out and went home. I'll never buy a monitor anywhere else.

Brad Grenz

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Quote:

In closing, screw this. I'll pay half the cost to get this (.20 pitch!) and come back to look at the LCD market in a year or two.

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I got to hear the entire service plan spiel *gain on the Samsung CRT I got. It's $50, or about 20% of the cost of the thing. What-ever.

They reimburse you for shipping the thing to them instead of the company, apparently, but you'd need it to go bad 1.5 times for it to be worth it.