Buyers Beware. Computer Monitors: Fake Prices, Wasted Time

Gary North

I bought a computer monitor at Best Buy yesterday.

When I got it home, I found that all it had was a VGA cable: analogue. In short, "It's 1987 again!" The screen was not crisp. It was VGA.

I took it back. I spoke to the salesman. "Do I have to buy a HDMI cable?" Yes. I told him that it would have been better if he had told me that to begin with, I would have bought it. "We can't. The boxes don't say. We have to open them here to find out." That takes time. Also, it creates a useless box. They have to send it back.

I bought another monitor. He opened it. Same deal: VGA cable. There was a pattern here.

The sellers do this to cut costs. But if the buyer does not know, he wastes a lot of time. He takes it home, unpacks it, and finds that the cable is ancient. Or maybe he does not know. Maybe he suffers for five years with a substandard screen.

My guess: all of them include only VGA cables. It's an industry practice in retail box stores.

Finally, I bought one that I wanted. He asked: "Do you have a HDMI cable on your old monitor?" I said I did. "Use it." He was right.

As it turned out, this new monitor did not solve my problem. Let me show you my problem: broken letters.

A mess, right? I get these broken letters on my screen. Then, maybe after 10 seconds, the screen makes a jerky movement, and they clear up. If I click the refresh button, they clear up . . . briefly. But as soon as I move to a different part of the screen, the letters break up again.

I thought it was my old monitor. That is why I bought a new one. But the same problem exists. It's not the monitor. But what is it?

Maybe one of my readers knows the answer . . . and the solution.