LG's - Terrible Customer Service

Eric

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I've posted here about getting the LG 27UL650-W Monitor 27" 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS Display, VESA DisplayHDR 400 and how happy I was with it. That was until a little over a week ago when it died, at that time I had had it for around a month and half. Thought I didn't get the extended warranty I called Best Buy and they said they would honor a swap for up to a year.

So I took it in and when they looked it up said there was a recall on it and because of this they "couldn't" do anything and I had to take it up with LG directly. So I did, they said it would have to be shipped back and they would send me a shipping label within 24 hours, that was last week and I didn't actually get it until yesterday.

They say they'll replace the board in it and it should take two weeks. So we'll see what happens but I've never had to be strapped with an item like this before so soon after purchasing, fortunately I have a backup but otherwise I would be without a computer this entire time. Needless to say, their customer service is terrible on every level, not sure if it's the pandemic or what but this whole thing has made me appreciate Amazon and online shopping much more.
 
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mollyc

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Weird that it was still being sold with a recall....we have an LG television, but I think that's the only thing by LG here. I've read horror stories about their kitchen appliances though. But I would think their monitors would be a safe bet.... sorry it isn't working out for you.
 

Eric

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Weird that it was still being sold with a recall....we have an LG television, but I think that's the only thing by LG here. I've read horror stories about their kitchen appliances though. But I would think their monitors would be a safe bet.... sorry it isn't working out for you.
I'm not sure it's still being sold as they claim it's been recalled, they told me they're going to be adding and upgraded board at no additional charge so there's that. It's a fantastic monitor otherwise, just a painful process to deal with after only having it for less than 2 months is all, I would understand a year or two down the road but this is pretty bad.
 

Eric

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So they finally got it back to me, only without the power cord which I sent back in with the. monitor. Seriously man, these people are a freaking joke.
 

Clix Pix

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How annoying that they didn't return your power cord, too! Sheesh! I hope that the monitor has been successfully repaired now and that you won't have any more problems with it.

I have a 24" 4K Thunderbolt 3 monitor which has been just fine for me the couple of years or so that I've had it. No issues whatsoever. (Knock on wood!)
 

Eric

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How annoying that they didn't return your power cord, too! Sheesh! I hope that the monitor has been successfully repaired now and that you won't have any more problems with it.

I have a 24" 4K Thunderbolt 3 monitor which has been just fine for me the couple of years or so that I've had it. No issues whatsoever. (Knock on wood!)
Yeah, love the actual monitor when it's working. Just wish their support wasn't a comedy of errors.
 

Eric

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Okay, so I'm able to use the same charge adapter from my Samsung so at least it's working for now. One thing I'm having a hard time finding is how to adjust brightness, keeping in mind this is on the new Mac Studio using HDMI. The normal brightness buttons do not work. Looking it up I should also be able to use control or option keys but that doesn't work either. The only drivers I can find from LG only address splitting screens.

Any thoughts?

Edit: answered my own question here by downloading MonitorControl, works perfectly.
 
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Colstan

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Edit: answered my own question here by downloading MonitorControl, works perfectly.
I rolled the dice on Ebay and got a brand-new, unopened 21.5-inch LG UltraFine last August. Despite being canceled two years earlier, I somehow managed to get this technological leprechaun for half the original MSRP, ~$350. I suppose somebody had it hidden under their bed and forgot about it. I'm babying it, because there are no affordable ~220ppi standalone monitors on the market. Currently, it's either the Apple Studio Display, the 27-inch UltraFine, or the Pro Display XDR. I suppose "affordable" is relative, when compared to the XDR.

I did run into one truly annoying problem with the UltraFine: the brightness would randomly reset after waking from sleep. I've had this problem since getting the monitor. I was concerned that the LG was showing signs of intermittent failure, and have no warranty coverage, obviously. Assuming this could be fixed, the cost of sending it to LG for repair wouldn't be worth it, even if they had a stellar reputation in customer service, which they clearly do not. They'd probably send the power cable back but forget the panel.

I spent many months like this, the brightness constantly resetting, and then having to go into Displays preferences to guess where I had it previously. I finally managed to diagnose the issue, and it turns out that this problem only happens when I have the UltraFine daisy chained with my BlackMagic RX 580 eGPU and 2018 Intel Mac mini. My Mac is held together with sticks and bubble gum, composed of various cobbled together upgrades, so I expected issues, but this was truly maddening; randomly being blinded after my computer wakes up.

I held onto Mojave until security patches ran dry, so this has been an issue ever since I purchased this unicorn off of Ebay. Eventually, I upgraded to Monetary, but the problem persisted. I didn't want to stop using the eGPU, nor did I want to upgrade to an Apple Silicon Mac just yet, but I was leaning toward getting a Mac Studio (I was hoping to wait for the M3 variant) because of how irritating this is, which isn't obvious until you have to deal with it on a daily basis.

While searching for a solution, I ran into this small utility called "MonitorControl". I thought I had found the answer, with the ability to default to the previous brightness settings. Unfortunately, none of those settings would stick, thus this issue remained unresolved. However, unlike Apple's brightness settings in Displays preferences, MonitorControl allows you to set a specific percentage in brightness, whereas it's all guesswork in resetting it through macOS. While I never found a solution for the brightness reseting, I figured out that I could easily use MonitorControl in the menu bar to set it to my preferred brightness, specifically 41% for my sensitive eyes. This was like mana from the gods, now that I no longer had to deal with this vexing issue.

Still, sometimes things turn right side up, and appear to fix themselves. Apple had serious performance issues with AMD drivers, specifically plaguing the 5000 and 6000-series of GPUs with the release of macOS 12.3. Using an older RX 580 based upon the Polaris architecture, my eGPU didn't suffer from the performance degradations. However, Apple must have mucked around with the entirety of the Radeon driver stack, because not only did they resolve the performance issues with the latest AMD GPUs, but with the release of Monterey 12.4, the brightness issue that had afflicted my Mac as early as Mojave was suddenly gone. Nary a brightness reset has happened since.

I don't know if Apple specifically fixed this problem, or if it was resolved due to happenstance with other changes in the drivers and/or firmware, but I'm quite glad to have it resolved. It also means that my LG UltraFine is not damaged or malfunctioning, so I can continue to use it without having to pony up for a substantially more expensive monitor. For the first time since I put together my "sticks and bubble gum" Mac mini in 2018, it's working at 100% functionality, so I don't want to upgrade right now, regardless.

The whole point of this long-winded journey of a post is to point out that small utilities like MonitorControl can be a digital lifesaver. Heroic unsung developers can fill in edge-case potholes, allowing the user to work around bugs that would otherwise cause serious issues; in my case losing sanity due to random brightness resets. I used MonitorControl for about six months, until Apple fixed the problem (intentionally or otherwise), and even though MonitorControl didn't completely resolve the issue, it made it tolerable. Now, with the issue finally resolved, I can keep my LG monitor with my current Intel Mac mini, and don't have to worry about being committed to a psychiatric ward because my mental faculties could no longer tolerate random momentary blindness. Assuming my LG UltraFine continues to function properly, I'll be able to use it with a future Apple Silicon Mac purchase, instead of selling part of my liver for a new "Retina" class monitor.

So, even though I no longer require MonitorControl, it was a massive help when I most needed it, and I am thankful for its utility, as well as keeping my sanity intact.
 
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