My NewEgg Ordeal

[RoyGBiv]

Some of you may remember my exasperated post awhile back regarding a monitor I purchased from NewEgg. It arrived non-functional (wouldn't power-up), and I got a bit of a run-around from NewEgg customer service on a replacement. To make a long, frustrating story a bit shorter, they eventually made good on everything in a way that didn't cost me anything extra. I don't mind so much paying return shipping on an item that I use for awhile that then goes bad while under warranty, but when an item arrives damaged, I refuse to pay anything extra at all. That was the sticking point, and I finally made my case.

However, the way they made good on this has left me with a new, rather bizarre problem.

I now have two monitors, one that works, one that does not.

Again without going into the fine details, which would read like a Keystone Kops adventure, the way they finally dealt with this was to send me a new monitor of a different type, which was actually a better and bigger monitor and of a higher quality. I didn't ask for this, but apparently someone in the customer service department got a hold of my case who takes their job seriously to a fault. I had sent the other monitor back with an RMA, but for whatever reason, it was not processed by the returns department within the 30 day time frame. So, they sent it back to me. In the meantime I had received the new monitor. Many e-mails and one phone call later, I had been told I could not return the old monitor and that I should keep the new one, and no new charges would be forthcoming. I waited on that. It's been a month now, and they haven't tried to charge me anything else, and the final e-mails from them essentially seemed to be asking me to just shut up about it and move on.

I guess I'll just move on then.

But, I still have this Acer X223Wbd Black 22" monitor sitting here, in a box with all the cabling and everything, and it doesn't work. I don't want to throw it away, but it is useless and starting to irritate me with its presence.

So, does anyone know if it is even possible to fix an LCD monitor with what I think is a bad power supply without spending what would amount to the cost of the monitor itself? If so, where should I look? I did some casual searching and found mostly what I think of as fly-by-night, up-sell specialists, i.e. not actual repair people, and I'm lost here. I hate purchasing monitors and printers for just this reason. I always have issues, and "repair" is generally a joke.

What I'd like to do, if it's cheap enough, is fix the thing and donate it to someone who needs it or, failing that, some organization that could use it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[progressoid]

1. Is there a technical college near by?

I wonder if there would be an electronics class that would take it.

A decade or two ago I had a fender bender with my father-in-laws' rusty old pickup. It wasn't worth fixing to him & it eventually ended up at the local community college auto shop. The students fixed it up and turned it into a reasonable vehicle again.

Maybe you can get a tax deduction for the donation too!

[RoyGBiv]

2. Hadn't thought of that ...

There's like a million colleges in Houston, so I'm sure there's a tech college around here somewhere.

I'll have to look into that. Wouldn't have thought of it. Thanks.

[trotsky]

3. I had an older Dell LCD that failed.

Turned out that model featured a power supply that contained a known flawed capacitor. There was even a place online that would repair the PS for a small fee. (The capacitor was of course about 50 cents, so you were just paying someone to de-solder and replace it.) Instead I just ordered a replacement for $25 and the thing has kept going now for another year and a half.

[Duer 157099]

4. I'd try to fix it

If you end up just wanting to get rid of it, send it this way and I'd try to diagnose it and fix it. I've done so with several other of my LCDs.