Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsRead carefully.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 January 2021
A little bit of criticism on Amazon UK, the seller.
My monitor arrived today.
The driver rang the main entrance doorbell and waited.
They did not bring the monitor to my door (1st floor).
They were rude, grumpy, with a judgemental/entitled look, as if they wanted to say "you didn't seriously expect me to bring this huge box to your doorstep.
The driver placed the box on the pavement on pooling water (yes it rained today) without even considering that this is a £2.000 product they're delivering.
I carried my monitor to the first floor and unpacked.
And the horror begins.
A clunking and rattling sound from the rear of the monitor when swivel it right and left.
You can imagine my worry.
I immediately contact Amazon UK help.
A nice fellow tends to me asking for details.
I shoot a video and I email to them.
The nice fellow then proceeds to escalate this, informing me that only the management team can handle the replacement as this is a high value item within two business days.
Fair enough.
In the next 5 minutes I receive an email with a return for refund label.
I get on the phone this time and I speak to a nice lady this time.
I explain the situation and she repeats that the management team etc etc.
And within 5 minutes (you guessed right) another email with a label and I can now see on my account that there is an open return for refund case for my monitor.
I would like to stress, I did NOT ask for a refund, but a replacement.
Twice.
Never mind.
I did a little bit of searching online for similar cases.
And there is a dude on you tube with a monitor displaying EXACTLY the same issue (Acer X35 Monitor - something knocking around inside if you care to look).
Now for the best part.
I am an impatient fellow.
I cannot wait for Amazon UK to get themselves together and finally make up their mind about it.
I cannot wait for someone to decide whether or not they will replace the monitor for me (or worse, refund me against my wishes).
So I open the monitor.
Yes.
I removed the rear plastic cover.
Used a credit card and with bit of force it started coming off.
I didn't even injure the plastic edges of the backplate.
And (as I kind of suspected) the speaker on the left side of the monitor (left as you are looking it from behind, where the button panel is placed) is loose.
It is a rectangular speaker, perhaps 0.5x3 inches, held in place by two plastic spikes (one on each end) with a soft plastic ring to prevent vibrations I presume.
Well, one of the rings on the top end was missing, the speaker was only held in place by the bottom ring, and with even minute motion it would hit the backplate of the monitor producing the clunking sound.
Yes, problem solved.
However my experience highlights a few discrepancies with Amazon UK customer services and most importantly with Acer production line.
You can ask "what did you expect on a Saturday morning".
And I can answer that when it comes to a £2.000 monitor, I expect Amazon UK to go to extreme lengths to ensure my satisfaction and offer me the kind of customer service they profess to be capable of.
Their driver, well, obviously does NOT enjoy his job and has zero customer service skills.
The helpers I spoke to, well, they were willing to help and sympathetic.
But my problem was not solved and I had to take the risk opening my monitor (did I void my warrantee? who knows, who cares) because Amazon UK did not seem willing to replace a (what seemed to be faulty £2.000 monitor).
Did I have to go through this today??
Well, I'll leave that to you.
Happy end?
Questionable.
As per the monitor's performance, will update my review once I've spent some time with it.
I hope this answers the question of what is the clunking noise (if you experienced it).
I am very critical about both Amazon UK and ACER, but I sincerely hope you can see why.
Buy at your own risk and be warned, the monitor is NOT eligible for a return and refund under normal circumstances.
1 star is too generous given my dreadful experience today.
Edit, Tuesday 26 January 2021.
Superb image quality, slight light bleeding in the dark (when black background is used) which does not bother me otherwise, impeccable response times in gaming with zero ghosting and DREAMY HDR as expected.
I have not encountered any flickering, any horizontal or vertical lines or any kind of artefacts at any given time when switching the monitor on or off or during use.
I did update the monitor's firmware as per ACER's recommendations for Predator X35 monitors with serial numbers where the 11th-13th characters are <950. But I did not have any issues to begin with anyway. So this is entirely optional as per ACER.
The ONLY reason I would not recommend this monitor is its poor sound quality. For £2,000 this monitor should be singing like Aretha Franklin herself. But instead, the sound is very poor, cannot possibly describe how poor it sounds. My PREDATOR Z35 sounds unimaginably better in contrast. You will certainly need an external sound source for gaming and/or entertainment.
Would I buy again?
Yes but only because I cannot wait any longer to replace my Z35.
