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If feedback on our Facebook page is anything to go by many of our readers have been buying new 1440p and 4K monitors. It would appear however that buying a new monitor is not a completely pain free experience, based on our inbox in recent months anyway.
A handful of readers have sent me emails on horror stories recently – receiving monitors with a single, or more than one dead pixels – sometimes in central panel positions. Often, it would appear that the retailer involved is under no obligation to replace a panel with a couple of dead pixels – even though it is brand new. The general ‘ruling' seems to be some dead pixels are perfectly acceptable.
I can't help but feel that the general mass market audience might not even notice a dead pixel, but I am certain that many obsessive, quality driven KitGuru readers would find even one or two dead pixels a serious distraction.
We don't often name a retailer involved in reader emails as it is difficult to know if emails have a hidden agenda – after all a company can send an email or post a comment under an individual name to try and damage a competitor. Sadly this is in fact a sneaky tactic that has been going on now for many years.
What we can share today actually happened to one of the KitGuru editorial team Matthew Wilson. Matthew has worked for me now for years so I know he is a genuine, ‘real' person – an enthusiast gamer, likely just like you reading this today. What occurred has raised concerns with me, especially as it could be an important warning to readers going to buy a new, expensive monitor.
Matthew is a young journalist living in Manchester so he decided to buy a new 144hz monitor locally from ARIA – picking up a brand new Acer XB270HU Predator Nvidia G-Sync monitor shown HERE on their store. When Matthew unboxed the panel, all looked well – until he fired it up. Sadly he immediately noticed a dead pixel in a fairly central panel position.
As he lives just around the corner from ARIA he decided to take it back on Saturday afternoon to ask if he could get it replaced. The staff member at ARIA said they wouldn't replace the panel as up to '19 dead pixels' on a 27 inch 2560×1440 monitor is considered acceptable. Matthew then asked if he could please have his money back – the dead pixel was distracting.
The customer services representative told him that if he wanted a refund they would need to keep 25% of the price he paid. In this case a quick calculation shows that 25% of £550 is £137.50.
Above: Brand new £550 Acer XB270HU Predator Nvidia G-Sync monitor. Would this be a problem for you?
Matthew is forced to either deal with the annoying dead pixel, or lose a rather hefty £137.50 overnight. From my own point of view, I was always under the impression that a couple of dead pixels was classed by the industry as acceptable, although I know that if I buy from Amazon in the UK it is easy enough to send it back, without any issue. What do you feel? Would you live with a dead pixel if you just spent £550 on a new monitor? How many dead pixels is it before you class it a problem? Surely not 18 or 19?
ISO 13406-2 guidelines which specify an “acceptable” number of dead pixels by display category. By this standard, Class 1 displays tolerate exactly zero dead pixels or sub-pixels which makes them expensive and uncommon. Class II monitors–the kinds we actually use–are allowed to exhibit two malfunctioning pixels and five malfunctioning sub-pixels per million. On a 1080p display, four dead pixels and ten dead sub-pixels would be within ISO tolerances. (Source). This ISO guideine is likely now out of date, but apart from Wikipedia, there is little information on what exactly the rulings are. Every manufacturer seems to have different views on this.
This report is a few years old, but it does list some details on various policies from panel manufacturers. Tested.com say ‘Acer’s policy doesn’t give us much to cover–it sticks right with ISO standards and doesn’t distinguish between dark and bright malfunctioning sub-pixels.
| Acceptable pixel anomalies | |
|---|---|
| Resolution | Bright or Dark |
| 1024×768 | 4 |
| 1280×1024 | 7 |
| 1600×1200 | 10 |
| 2048×1536 | 16 |
The ARIA staff member dealing with Matthew in store on Saturday didn't mention if this was an ACER policy and he didn't go into detail about another monitor manufacturer or different company policies, it was just a general statement – that ‘up to 19 dead pixels on a 2560×1440 27 inch monitor is classed as acceptable'.
Based on the Tested.com report ViewSonic have a 30 day Zero Dead Pixel Policy. That is certainly what we like to see! To get up to date information, we have sent out a series of emails this weekend to various manufacturers.
If any of our readers have experience of problems buying a new monitor with dead pixels and a retailer has either helped, or refused support, do let us know on our Facebook page over HERE. It will be interesting to get your first hand experiences.
Matthew is going to contact ACER directly on this matter, to see what they say about it. After all he has no other option now.
EDIT: ACER (support rep Vishal) have just replied directly to Matthew in email and said ‘Hi Matthew, It would depend where on the display the dead pixels are. If your dead pixels fall within the tolerance allowed for defective pixels, we would not be able to repair this under the terms of the warranty.
Acer’s pixel policy states, there shall not be more than 4 defective pixels per million pixels on a given LCD display. Additionally if the display panel is divided into 9 equal rectangular areas, there shall not be more than one defective pixel in the central area of the display.
If you are not sure about the dead pixels being within the terms of the pixel policy, we may be able to arrange for your machine to come in to our repair centre for one of our technicians to assess.'
It just goes to show that if you are buying a new monitor – check with the manufacturer and retail store – get both of their policies clear BEFORE parting with your cash. The worst case scenario is that it may be an expensive problem you are forced to live with.
Join Discussion on our Facebook page, over HERE.
Kitguru says: I know some of our readers have claimed they won't buy from Amazon due to the UK tax evasion scandal in recent years, but would you not feel more comfortable buying a monitor from them if you knew that you had a full month to claim your money back if you weren't happy?
Had a similar experience with another 1440p Acer monitor, the pixel was in the middle third of the screen – it wasn’t actually dead, just stuck, but didn’t unstick itself. Luckily the retailer let me return it for a full refund.
what retailer did you use?
Very interesting to read and is definitely food for thought on buying a new monitor. I have seen ARIA be slightly cheaper than both Amazon and SCAN and maybe this policy is something to do with it. I do think that I would stick with Amazon or SCAN myself.
The other side of it is the manufacturer and I have to say that ACER is one I would always stay well clear of and I made that decision years ago based on experiences with their laptops. When it comes to screens, these days I think I would have to go with either a Dell or ASUS.
Scan
In Denmark we can just return the crap within 14 days of purchase full refund.
Always always always buy online, you are protected by the distance sellers ruling, and if anything like this does happen, you can return it no questions asked within 7 days. im not sure on the exact rules of it, but check it out online for the law on it
I don’t find even one dead pixel acceptable no matter what resolution or monitor you have, I’d notice even one in the very corner of the screen and then would sell the thing on for a new one!
Acer really seems to be having issues with QC checking their panels as of lately. I bought a 29″ ultrawide from them a little over a year ago and had to return one of them. Both panels I had ended up exhibiting dead/stuck pixels either immediately (with the first one) or after the return period from newegg was over (the second one that I’m still using now).
I also bought a 1080P IPS panel from them and the first one I got was DoA. I never had any major issues with Acer before but things seem to be going downhill and fast for them.
Pay by CC in future. You are covered for things like this
that’s annoying. i can tolerate a single dead pixel, but only if it’s in a corner or something. if it’s farther than an inch or two from the bezel the monitor is crap. any time that pixel causes a change in the uniformity of a video/game, it’ll distract me….. Plus, though i can tolerate one on the borders, that’s only for if a pixel dies during use…. i’m not going to START with my minimum acceptable quality on a brand new item. I’m not sure why people are making these monitors if they can’t even control the quality enough to make them properly. they clearly advertise the number of pixels on the monitor, if some arent working, you didn’t get what you pay for. if i pay for 3840×2160. i want 8294400 pixels as advertised, not 8294399
It’s like this, in the UK you have a certain amount of time to return goods if you are not satisfied (around 30 days), so if you buy a monitor and find a lot of dead pixels just return it and say you were not happy with the product and demand a full refund, there is nothing they can do as long as it is returned in the exact same condition it arrived in complete with packaging, instructions, remotes etc.
If they refuse, a simple call to trading standards/citizens advice will clarify exactly where you stand on consumer rights. It is your money and if you are not 100% satisfied you have a right to a refund or an exchange.
It is a sad state of affairs that these days you have to know where you stand legally before you do almost anything.
I bought an Acer monitor from scan that had a single dead pixel in top right corner when I went back to scam the simply offered immediate replacement, but in terms of that guy surely he would be converted under normal returns policy that is UK trade law, I’m sure they cannot demand a restocking fee, if bit via mail order in person I think it’s came
Aria are terrible… I had a nightmare returning a card that was faulty.
They said that they tested the card as it was ex display model but on putting it in the machine it was quite clear the card was dead.
I sent the card back and they having been told that they would not accept it.
After sending some lenghthy emails about the policys they were using to send it I was well within my rights. 30 days it took to eventually get my money back.
OUTRAGEOUS!
My 1440p Asus PB278Q monitor has been fine but it’s only 60hz. The only screen i’ve had a problem with dead pixels on was on my original Sony PSP and I was told a similar story about there being a certain amount of permissible dead pixels, I think it’s wrong but there isn’t much that can be done 🙁
Having bought a couple of monitors from scan both acers and both suffering with a dead pixel on arrival each I just rang them up and they immediately offered a refund or replacement. They even covered the return postage costs. I think it’s very much down to where you buy the monitor from in the first place for immediate protection, and just make sure you know what the brand’s policy is for once you’re outside the statuatpry rights period. That being said the consumer goods act does say something has to work or be of suitable quality to last a suitable amount of time in normal operating conditions for the product. Uses that one to take back some jeans 6 months after I bought them because jeans should last longer than that lets be honest. Anyway that was off topic, just make sure you know what you’re getting into before you buy, and for the sake of a few quid is happily spend more to get the guaranteed customer service of somewhere like scan.
The new laws state if it is not fit for purpose , the Retailer must give a full cash / card refund, no quibbles no get out clauses , if Customer says it is wrong . it is wrong and a refund must be given , therefore one pixel wrong = defect = money back, this lasts for 30 days (without receipt only proof of purchase is required credit card / bank statement ) this came into force on the 1st October , Prior to this a replacement or credit slip was acceptable. But even then charging a restocking fee 25% is illegal .
I’d start with this policy:
‘Change of Mind Cancellations
You can cancel your purchase at any time either before or up to 14 working days (includes all days other than Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays) following the day you receive the goods. To do so you need to:
If you have received your order please obtain a Returns Number (RMA) which can be done at this link:http://www.aria.co.uk/returns/
Make sure you print and attach the Returns label to your parcel when posting your item back to us.
Your product must be complete and in “as new” condition e.g. if you have opened the box to examine the product you must have done so without damaging or marking the product or packaging. It must not have been used or installed. It should be returned with the original box, packaging and accessories you received with it. Mini-discs, memory cards and software must still be sealed. Any “Free Gifts” received with the product must also be returned.’
Assuming of course all packaging is in perfect condition (and turning it on doesn’t count as ‘usage’ to them) then a refund / exchange for a different product should be fine.
Failing that, I’d escalate this upto ARIA top management and point out how much bad publicity (or good publicity if managed properly) they can get for screwing over a member of the media and see what you can get out of them.
And worst case, I’d go with a not fit for use case and threaten small claims court. At this point, most retailers buckle (I worked in AV retail in the UK for over 9 years and to be fair, we wouldn’t have let it come anywhere close to this point, especially if the customer worked in media)
In my opinion a class type 1 monitor under ISO 13406-2 is what ALL new monitors should fall under in the EU. Retailers and manufacturers should never be allowed to classified most monitors as class 2.
I agree with COMMICZAR comment. He would be entitled to a full refund by the new consumer laws that just came into place. One particular part of the new ‘rules’ I suppose you could say is this “must meet the expectations of the consumer” Myself as a consumer if I spent that amount of money on a monitor I would expect it to be perfect. A dead pixel slap bang in the middle of the screen to me is not meeting my expectations or would it be fit for purpose as far as I am concerned. I could maybe at a push live with a dead pixel in the corner or side of the screen, but again thats a push and if it was that amount of money I probably couldn’t. Maybe he should contact his local citizens advice or even a consumer ombudsman? Maybe point out the law to Aria & Acer? To them however 1 dead pixel no matter where it is they claim is acceptable but in this case they are not the consumer is the way I look at it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34410782
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34403005
“The customer services representative told him that if he wanted a refund
they would need to keep 25% of the price he paid. In this case a quick
calculation shows that 25% of £550 is £137.50.”
This is now illegal as far as I can tell reading the new consumer act. However in most cases this wasn’t strictly legal (in most cases) to begin with but somehow retailers got away with it for years. ‘Restocking fees’ have always been a long winded debate in retail. I worked in a store that was considering implementing it but later changed their minds due to the murky water of when or when you couldn’t charge it.
Goodluck to him though I’d just keep pushing and get advice from CAB / Ombudsman and explain their replies to them to see what they think of the situation. I had to do it with Currys once and eventually after 8 weeks got a full refund. Was told to not come back but hey they are too expensive anyways and they are probably one of the most ignorant companies to try and resolve an issue with
I’m actually surprised Kitguru hasn’t done an article on the new consumer rights act since it now covers digital goods. Unless of course I missed that article
Aria is in the UK of course.
But you are right you have 2 weeks to return an item if you deem it unacceptable, but you have to explain why, ISO 13406 is only a guideline on selling monitors where you have to class them correctly, if they show a few dead pixels they have be classed as Class 2 and be shown as such and told when sold.
ARIA failed to do so, or else the guy would have refused, and the fact they sold it at full retail cost when Class 2 should be around 15% cheaper, Trading Standards would inform ARIA to refund them but they cannot enforce it… but they will give you support if you take a supplier etc to a small claims court.
My HS-233HSB has one dead pixel, but it is red and not black, and middle left of the screen, I hardly notice it, but for this guy if it is smack bang in the middle you will notice it all day long because your eyes are focussed in that region.
Hope the guy takes it further, and sues them, it will kick ARIAs ass as they will be fined a hefty amount if found guilty of breaking the Consumer Rights Act.
No. Every single monitor, TV, laptop monitor, smartphone, tablet, mobile gaming console, etc I owned had 0 dead pixels. I look at dead/stuck pixels as a flaw and will return it at all cost. Now if I can’t see the pixel at normal viewing distances all things are fine till I do.
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I think it’s because ARIA conveniently have a ‘dead pixel check’ service which they charge for. Personally one dead pixel on something so pricey is unacceptable.
Actually it’s 30 days now under the new laws that came into force:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34403005
Ahhh good, I know they were toying with upping the day amount due to slow deliveries taking a good chunk out of the 14 days.
Not even one! I retuned 3 acer laptops v nitro all with dead pixels. when I’m buying a car and I notice a manufacturing problem… then out with it!
Out of the four monitors I have bought only one was free of any dead/bright pixels. Interesting that the shop you mention is Aria as this is the place I’ve bought my last two monitors. I can’t find it now but they did a “dead pixel checking” service, this would cost around £25 if I remember correctly. You add it to the basket when you buy a monitor and they’d check it for pixel defects before sending it out. First time I used the service the screen was perfect. Second time I bought a Dell 30″ monitor (£980 at the time) but I found a pixel defect when it arrived 🙁 Living close to Aria myself, I returned the monitor in person and they got another one sent out to me no fuss whatsoever.
It looks like they’ve stopped offering this service now which is a shame, worth every penny if you ask me.
Discontinued. Page still there if you do a search on their site for 50366
You can happily take something back with the reason ” I am not 100% happy with it”, and that is all you need to say. It is your right as a consumer to be picky especially when spending large amounts of money and if you are not completely satisfied you just take it back (as long as it returns in perfect condition and with ALL packaging and box content).
Hell no, I wouldn’t accept that. I wouldn’t care what ‘Acer finds acceptable’ because I would know that it’s just an excuse to shaft me.
It’s not even about the dead pixel as I have one in the middle of my own Acer display. I had completely forgotten about it until I read this article. But if they were 10 or 15 (far more noticeable) and I had been refused a refund then I would have went absolutely ballistic.
Dead pixels don’t bother me nearly as much as shoddy business practices.
Aria are sounding like a right nightmare! Avoid Avoid Avoid!!!
This is exactly why i have not purchased this monitor. Even a single dead pixel is unaceptable, even more so when the asking price is that high
Not sure now a days but Samsung used to have a zero dead pixel policy, I wouldn’t accept any dead pixels, Even dark or bright pixels is distracting.
If you are buying a high end expensive screen of any brand then the quality should be there, If it was some cheapo Korean no name import then you take your chances.
I have a Samsung 4k with zero dead or faulty pixels and that was just an average tn panel but considering the amount of pixels I was expecting the worst. Also have a ROG swift 1440p that had zero faulty pixels but the screen is about to go in for repairs for another reason, flashing green and blurred text so screen is about to die on me and need a warranty claim.
Monitors would have to be the worst part to buy for a pc build. Hardly ever get a perfect screen but no way in hell I would accept 19 dead pixels, Not on a high end screen that it is supposed to be.
I don’t know who came up with this retarded metric for how many defects should a product have. Not even one pixel is acceptable, and I don’t think there is even one customer that is happy with that.
Not only I would not accept to use such a monitor, I would be willing to pay twice the price of it to not be forced to use it!
If your yields are crappy, be prepared to filter them at QA layer, pushing them to the customer will poison your business extremely fast.
In Denmark the consumer law is a bit different. No dead, bright, or stuck pixels are acceptable. He/she has the right to get the product replaced or money back after 3 repair attempts. Quite often the store/dealer will spin a lie, telling the consumer that 3-5 dead pixels are acceptable, but it’s not.
i think if the retailer offers a “dead pixel check ” its obvious if you don’t pay for the check you will get one of the ones that failed the check previously
Just don’t buy from ARIA and your life will be trouble free… as far as purchasing tech products goes.
It should be a crime to sell any new device with a screen (monitors/tvs/smartphones/tablets/laptops) with even a single dead or bright pixel.
If you discover a dead pixel on a new device, it turns your mood from happy (new device) to angry/sad (dead pixel). It ruins your entire experience. Even if you can send it back, you probably need to pay for shipping (needs to be free for warranty too) and then gamble whether or not the next display has dead pixels or not.
The chance to get a screen with a dead pixel is pretty small. Maybe 5%. They could just sell those DEFECTIVE screens for 20-30% off and say that they have dead pixels, so they still make money on them, but don’t screw over consumers. Almost no monitors get replaced for having dead pixels, because most of them have only 1 or 2 dead pixels and that’s almost never enough for a replacement. 19 dead pixels should be punishable with 1 year in jail for whoever came up with that.
One dead pixel makes your entire smartphone worthless if you try to sell it on glyde.com. They give you less than 1/4th of the price of a smartphone with a cracked screen when it has only 1 dead pixel or almost 7 times less than if it were flawless. If you buy a new smartphone with a dead pixel, it’s almost worthless immediately.
I’d’ve taken ARIA to court over the charge. He’s within his rights to return any product for any reason within a time period. One day after purchase to return for a full refund, opened or not, is within statutory consumer rights.
ARIA also probably lost a customer and gained loads of bad word of mouth coverage. They could’ve just taken the hit and had a happy customer more likely to shop there again.