I picked up an Acer 22-inch widescreen monitor this past Thanksgiving at Circuit City for $169 (after rebates). It was a phenomenal deal and I was very excited. However, upon returning home and setting it up, I noticed a very audible buzzing sound coming from the back of the monitor. Everything else about it was great, but I could hear a sound coming from the back of the monitor. I tried googling some the problem but found only one other mention of it.
I called Acer, and told them I could hear a buzzing sound from the back of the monitor, and they said that it was probably defective, and that I should return it to Circuit City. I was skeptical that’d I’d find any in stores since it was a Black Friday purchase. However, I was able to find 1 monitor left in one of the stores and the store manager set it aside for me. When I got to the store last night, I went ahead and exchanged the monitor, but then asked if I could hook it up in the store before I took it back home since I had to drive an hour to get to the store. I hooked it up and…yes, there was still a buzzing sound. A few Circuit City employees listened to it and gave me odd looks like “What are you talking about? There is no sound.” But I could clearly hear it, even in the busy store. So, at that point, I had a few options:
- I could say, “screw it” and return the monitor. However, I would have to pay a 15% restocking fee, which would have been $35. $35 to pay them to take back an item which the manufacturer said was most likely defective.
- Exchange it for a different monitor, but I’d still have to pay the 15% restocking fee. I was looking at a 20-inch ViewSonic widescreen, but it was $229. So I’d have to pay $60 more for a monitor that was 2 inches smaller – and there was no guarantee that the ViewSonic wouldn’t make a similar buzzing sound.
- Or just take the original monitor back home with me.
I had also just sold my 19-inch monitor to a friend for $80, so after applying that money to the original monitor, it was really only costing me $89 for a 22-inch widescreen monitor. So, as much as I thought the buzzing might bother me, I decided that $89 was a great price and I called it a night.
After setting it up last night, I was right. It was still making that buzzing sound. Since I normally listen to music in the apartment or on my headphones, I hopefully won’t notice the sound as much as I think I will. And $89 is still an amazing price for this monitor which I’m overall very impressed with. If the sound becomes worse, I may look into discussing options with Acer. They said if a monitor was defective, I could send it in to them to get repaired, but the shipping charges would be on me. However, they said if Circuit City wasn’t being able to help (and in this case, it seems that perhaps they got a whole batch of monitors that buzz?) – that they would cover the shipping costs. I’m going to see how badly it bothers me and wait it out.
I really wish it didn’t have this issue – and I can hardly believe that this is just how they are meant to be as one Circuit City employee was trying to tell me last night: “Yah – I think all of these kind of monitors just make a buzzing sound.” Not helpful.