A few questions regarding a 2005FPW

Question

So I recently bought a Dell 2005FPW LCD monitor (purchased july 1st of this year) and I've gone through 3 replacements and the one I'm currently using seems to have the LEAST amount of backlight leakage on it out of all of them. I figured that I'd keep it because of that reason, so the other replacements all got shipped back about a week and a half ago. Now I'm starting to notice on light colored backgrounds such as white and grey that I can see two dark 'spots' on the left side of my screen. They aren't completely black, and they aren't dead pixels (they're larger than single pixels), they look more like 2 small circular smudges. However, I tried wiping them off to find that they aren't 'smudges' after all. Typically I wouldn't have noticed this (since it took me a week to notice it in the first place), but now that I've seen it, my eyes go straight to it every time. If anyone wants/needs to see pictures of this phenomenon for further examination, let me know and I'll link you to the picture. So, on to my question(s): It's been 18 days since I've purchased the monitor. I know there is a 3 year warranty on the monitor regardless, but I've heard there is a cutoff time for swapping for new monitors. For example, if you ask for a replacement after 21 days, then you start getting refurbed screens instead of brand new screens. Is this true? If so, what is the cutoff time? Secondly, is there some possible way of me setting up a replacement without having to go through the most counter-intuitive phone tech support I've ever encountered in my lifetime? The first time I called up there it wasn't too huge of a hassle other than having to wait on hold for 45 minutes and then having to talk to a technician for 20 minutes to have me troubleshoot things I already said I'd tried. However, the second and third times I've called, it's all voice command stuff and asks me for a service tag which is non existant on monitors (I don't have a Dell PC) and won't forward me to the correct department because of it. I finally found a way to get around it, but seriously you guys need to consider those of us who don't own Dell PC's but buy your peripherals as much of a customer to you as the person who DOES buy a PC from you. So is there a way I can set up a replacement shipment without calling since the online chat also seems to require a non-existant service tag or am I going to have to go through an unnecessary hassle that will make me want to return my monitor altogether? Thanks.

chromey · Answer

I will try via email but last time I did that I waited a week and never got a response. Is there anything specific other than my order number and my customer number and the problem that is occurring that I need to have in the email?

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

chromey,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

If you have the customer or order number from when you purchased the monitor you can email support@dell.com or call 1-800-624-9897 and get the monitor replaced.

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

chromey, All of the troubleshooting steps that you have tried to resolve the issue.

chromey · Answer

Thanks. Sent an email. Hopefully I'll get a response sooner than a week.

SR45 · Answer

Don't even think of the e-mail rout.  You only have 21 days from the ship date to send it back.  Call now or you will be too late, call now !

chromey · Answer

I talked to a tech support representative who actually called ME on Wednesday the 20th. He was the same representative I had talked to about my last replacement and he was just calling to check in on the status of my new monitor. I told him I still wasn't very pleased with it and he told me he'd have a new one shipped out. Well my typical turnaround time on these replacements has been 2 business days, so when I hadn't seen anything or heard anything for 3 days, I contacted customer support. Naturally, they tried to get me to call tech support again which wasn't going to happen because as far as I was concerned, this was no longer a technical issue because I had already talked to a tech support rep 3 days earlier. She finally agreed to ship out a replacement to me. I talked to that rep on Saturday. Is there a way of tracking the status of my replacement? I went to order status and put in my customer # and it shows my original monitor and the original 2 replacements, but nothing about another monitor being shipped. I know it probably wouldn't even be shipped til today at the earliest, but I just want to make sure I'm not going to be stalled again since I'm out of the original 21 days. She gave me some number which I forget if it is a dispatch number or a case number, but I didn't find anywhere to enter it in to get the status on it.
My other question is that even though I was told by the tech representative that a monitor was going to be shipped out as of the 20th which was within my 21 days, and since he apparently never authorized a shipment according to the customer support rep, am I going to have to pay for shipping on the replacement since the customer support rep didn't authorize the replacement until the 23rd? I would really hope not since I was originally within the 21 days and the tech support rep chose not to ship it out to me. I'm really hoping the fact that I can't find any sign of a new monitor replacement even being processed isn't a sign that they're just ignoring me again.

Monitors

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