AOC 917Sw (LCD monitor - 19")

Pros: Until it ceased to work, this monitor did an acceptable job of displaying graphics and text. I had no complaints.

Cons: After only 18 months of use, the monitor ceased to work. When we shipped the unit to Texas for factory service, they informed us that it had a problem not covered by warranty and that it would cost us $125 to repair the unit. We declined the repair.

Summary: The technician who diagnosed the defective AOC unit had hand written the following note on the packing list that accompanied the unit to our home: "bad back light, ckw #."

The bad back light note is self-explanatory. I am guessing that "ckw 3" means "check the warranty number." In their email to me communicating the results of their diagnostics, the company referred to the problem as a "panel problem" not covered by the one year warranty. Following is the exact wording simply copied and pasted from the email:
"Subject: RMA No. WA00114624
"Dear Customer
"We received your monitor and was diagnosed that the problem is the panel. The panel only has a one year warranty from the time it is purchased. If you do not have the invoice, we will base the warranty on the manufactured date. If you have the invoice, please fax to the number below with your RMA# on it. However, base on your invoice if the unit is not within the warranty period you have a choice whether to pay for the panel or we can ship the unit back to you as is.

"The cost of panel repair:

"19? LCD: $125.00

"Please reply within 24 hours. If we do not get a respond within 3 days we will ship the unit back without further notice."

I declined the repair because the original purchase price on this product was within ten dollars of the repair cost.

Having never experienced any problems with computer monitors in the last 25 years of computing, buying a new monitor and having to ship it to a repair facility at a cost of close to me of $30 dollars only to receive a classic "we're not responsible" message revealed enough consumer insensitivity on the part of AOC that I have made a promise to myself that I will never buy from this company again. I?m not being vindictive. I simply respect myself enough that I don?t let a company like this hurt me more than once and I try to prevent the same thing from happening to other innocent consumers.

It would have been simple for AOC?s repair facility to acknowledge that they failed to build their product with a quality backlight, replace it and send it back to me. I would have swallowed the shipping costs and gone on with my life. As a result of their unwillingness to be responsible for their product, I will tell my friends and acquaintances that their product line is unreliable. Based on my experience, what other conclusion should I draw from their unwillingness to stand behind their product.

My advice to the potential consumer is that if you are looking for a computer monitor that you want to replace every 18 months, buy an AOC. If you are looking for one that will last and whose manufacturer will stand behind their product beyond its first coat of dust, don't buy an AOC.

I wish my experience had been different but my review is based on actual facts. Yet there is more to this story that potential consumers and all computer users need to know.

To add insult to injury, I learned through this experience that when a back light goes bad on a computer monitor, it causes your desktop computer to cease its boot up process. The scenario goes something like this. You turn on your computer, the boot up process begins, you get a momentary image on your monitor, it then goes black, then your CMOS program stops. The user has no way to run any diagnostics because you cannot view any of the diagnostic results. Nine out of ten users will conclude (especially if their monitor is only 18 months old) that the problem is the mother board and that they need to replace their computer. I even checked with computer techies who drew the same conclusion. After all, my mother board was seven years old. The monitor was only 18 months old. The end result was that I had to purchase a new computer and monitor to be able to figure out that the problem was not my old computer. It was just the defective AOC monitor.

I retell this story because I suspect that other computer users may run into this same scenario. I would like to help them avoid having my experience. I cannot recommend this product or their product line as a result of my experience.