THE VIEWSONIC SAGA CONTINUES

Allow me to start this off by stating what should become the obvious – I will NEVER buy a Viewsonic product again. The customer service, or more accurately the lack thereof, I’ve experienced from this company over the last month while my monitor was in for repair has been pathetic at best. For the sake of your sanity, I would suggest you avoid them like the plague as well.

As I advised a few days back, my monitor was due to return from from warranty repair today. Well, the monitor was in fact returned, though to be more accurate, it returned in a box that wasn’t sealed on the bottom (I could find no sign of ANY tape holding the bottom of the box, nor could I find torn cardboard indicating it had been removed) and the monitor looked like someone had taken a hammer to the top of it. The case was cracked on one side, the LCD crooked, the top set of navigation buttons were caved in and the top seam of the case was apart. In other words, it was broken.

Time to call Viewsonic again. I call them and go through the whole story and am told that they’ll send me a pre-paid shipping label. What they don’t tell me is that that label will not include pick up service (which most companies offer for about $1 additional) – in other words, I’m going to have to drag this monitor down to my local UPS office. So I call again, explain that I’m not happy with the entire Viewsonic experience so far and ask to speak to a supervisor.

The clown I’m connected to has the nerve to advise me that they’re providing the shipping label as a courtesy and that they don’t even have to do that…

Before we continue, let me give you a little background on myself here… I’m the guy who always tries to see things from the other person’s perspective. I’ll usually tip at a restaurant even if service sucked, because maybe the person was just having an off-day. I’ll accept having to run through a maze of flaming hoops from many companies just to get something over and done with. I don’t get bothered by long waits or technical problems so long as you give me a reason why it’s happening. Hell, despite what everyone else told me I should so, I even would go so far as to ship a defective monitor that I had been told I’d get free shipping on back at my own expense when a company reneges. In other words, I’m the guy you’d probably want to deal with if you were having an off-day and worked customer service.

That said, I utterly lost it on the phone with this jackass.

After all has been said and done, to be told that they’re doing me a favor by picking up the return shipping on a poorly packaged and therefore damaged replacement monitor that I was sent because the previous product was defective was the final straw. I’ve gotten absolutely zero empathy from this company from day one and while I wouldn’t say I’ve been lied to by their customer service department, I also wouldn’t say they’ve been forthcoming about their policies either.

Some other highlights of my conversation with Captain Moron came when he told me that it wasn’t customer supports job to explain the return procedure to customers, that’s what the forms they mail to you are for and the discovery that for much of the conversation, he was looking at the wrong ticket number despite having asked me for the current ticket number at the very beginning of our conversation.

For this just joining our show already in progress, let me give you a breakdown of what’s happened…

1. I made the mistake of buying a Viewsonic N3250W 32" Widescreen LCD HDTV/Monitor back in early-mid February of this year.
2. After 4 – 4 1/2 months of using this thing, it died for no reason one day. (And I babied this thing like you would not believe – some friends of mine actually made fun of me for the care I gave this thing)
3. I call Viewsonic and am told that the monitor will have to go in for service. They tell me it qualifies for their Advanced Replacement Plan and that they’ll fax me a form to fill out, I simply fax it back to them, they send out a replacement monitor and when it arrives I put the defective unit in it’s box and ship it back. All of this at their expense. At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about the whole deal.
4. I get the forms and discover that they require a security hold in the price of the monitor to ensure that you’re not trying to rip them off. Since I don’t have some $1,000 that they can play with until the transaction is completed, I call them back. (I guess hat falls in line with the stated policy of not having to explain the return process to customers)
5. Now I’m told that in this case, I’ll have to ship my monitor back to them first AND I’ll have to pay the costs of shipping the unit to them. How exactly the fact that I have to send the monitor back to them first eliminates their covering the return shipping costs boggles the mind, but I reluctantly agree and pay DHL to pick up the monitor and ship it to them.
6. I’m told once they receive my monitor, I should have it or a replacement back within 14 business days. Again, I’m not particularly happy with the amount of time this is going to take, but what are you going to do.
7. I make all the arrangements with DHL, they pick up the monitor and deliver it to Viewsonic on July 5th.
8. I hear nothing for 14 business days.
9. I call them back following the 14th business day to get an update on the situation and am told "Didn’t you get a tracking number?" – turns out my monitor has already been shipped out and is die to arrive on July 26th. Thanks for the heads up guys – I’ve been getting spam from you since the day you got my e-mail address, you’ve got it on file with my RMA #, but you couldn’t think to tell me it was on it’s way back.
10. The monitor arrives. It arrives on it’s side because the bottom of the box apparently wasn’t sealed, and it’s damaged as I described above.
11. I call customer service and am told that this time they’ll send me a free shipping label and that all I have to do is return the monitor to them and as soon as they get it, they’ll send out a replacement. I get a new RMA # for the second return.
12. I get the shipping label via e-mail. In reading the instructions and I discover that it does not cover (or allow for) UPS picking up the package at your residence. You have to take the thing down to your local UPS office. Greeeeeat.
13. I call back and explain the situation to customer service, who again apparently must be staring blankly forward at their screens like fish looking at their reflections. I ask to speak to a supervisor.
14. I explain the situation to the supervisor (along with the fact that I’m not happy about having to take time out to drag this thing down to my local UPS office) and am asked for my RMA #. I provide the new one and continue the conversation.
15. I get told that I was sent a prepaid return label as a courtesy and that they didn’t even have to do that.
16. I lose it on the phone with this clown for awhile.
17. I get told that since it needs repair, he’ll have to open another RMA #… you know, exactly what they did 15 minutes earlier. Yup, he’s not even looking at the right ticket. He’s looking at the original ticket. He then tried to make it sound as if I gave him the wrong ticket number. (Usually I may even give someone like this the benefit of the doubt, but the fact the only number I had at the time was the new ticket number ensures I gave him the right one)
18. I try to impress on this guy the reason why I just lost it on him and explain the above to him, including the constantly contradictory replies I’ve gotten from customer service and the fact that this is now going to be dragging into it’s second month. This is when I’m told it’s not Viewsonic’s policy to explain the return procedure over the phone – that’s what the one page, barely explains anything e-mail they send you is for. So… it’s policy not to communicate with your customers? That sounds about right weighed against the experience I’ve had with Viewsonic so far.

That’s where it stands right now. I’m sure this situation will only get worse as time goes on as I have absolutely NO faith in Viewsonic as a company anymore. If I could, I’d ask for my money back at this time and call it a day, but since I didn’t buy the monitor directly from the company that’s not an option. The worst part? not only am I now going to not have had this monitor for 2 months, but apparently my 1 year warranty continues to run during this period, so by the time it comes back, I’ll be into the 6th or 7th month of my warranty. Given the longevity of the product the first time around, I get the feeling that the question of how much longer the monitor has left is always going to be on my mind and be a constant worry – and soon it won’t even be under warranty.

My advice at this point if you’re in the market for a HDTV or monitor? AVOID VIEWSONIC LIKE THE PLAGUE. Bad products, horrid customer service, a horrid warranty program and a general poor attitude towards the customer do not equal a fun experience. I’ll be updating this story as news warrants. Please, feel free to post your own comments, suggestions or Viewsonic horror stories in the comments section via the below link. (The add a comment link will be to the right of the article after the link)

TECHINCIAL DIFFICULTIES UPDATE #2

In the ongoing saga of the defective computer monitor, today saw my impression of Viewsonic’s customer service take a serious nose-dive. Looks like I now have to ship the monitor back to them at my expense and wait a bit longer for a replacement as I didn’t have $1,200 or so that they could put a hold on until they got their defective model back.

While I certainly understand the need to have collateral when they’re sending out a replacement before getting the defective unit back, it certainly doesn’t explain how my sending the monitor back to them first disqualifies me from free shipping.

TECHNICAL UPDATE

Well, the site should be getting back to it’s normal update schedule now that things have been moved around to deal with the problems. For those wondering about the situation with the N3250w, I spoke with Viewsonic this morning, and the individual I spoke with at their customer support center advised me that as the monitor is still under warranty, they will replace it free of charge.

I’ve already gotten the forms I need to fill out for my warranty claim, and have been told once they are faxed back to Viewsonic, a replacement monitor will be sent out in one to two days. Once I receive that monitor, I simply put the old one in the box supplied and send it back to them with a prepaid mailing label they will include with the monitor.

While I’m not pleased with the situation regarding the monitors reliability, I so far have nothing but high praise for their customer service – hopefully, that opinion will last as I go through the warranty claim process.

I can just see it now… the replacement arrives with more dead pixels than live ones… Still, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the replacement will get here fast, as going from a 32″ widescreen LCD to a 17″ standard CRT is a bit of a shock.

WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

If you’re wondering about the sudden slow down in updates, it’s due to technical difficulties currently affecting my computer system… to be specific, after only 4 months in service, it appears the Viewsonic N3250W 32″ LCD widescreen monitor I use has given up the ghost.

Needless to say, much of the evenings update time was instead spent shouting WTF?! and cursing LCD technology. Hopefully there will be at least some good news coming my way should Viewsonic’s customer service department be open tomorrow. Regardless, when the sun is actually up and I figure out a better way to situate the old Dell 17″ monitor I’m typing this on, the update process should be getting back to normal.

To those of you who actually make it a point to choose this site to get your daily dose of gaming news, I apologize for any delays.