Warning doing business with Monoprice!

bucko

Active Member
My experience with Monoprice - 4x4 HDMI matrix/switcher
 
I purchased a total of 3 of these units from Monoprice. 1 was installed about 1,5 yrs ago, while the other 2 have never been out of the box.
 
April 15th I started having trouble with the one I am using. So I took a new one and hooked it up. The new one would not even light up, DOA. I took out the other new one and tried it. I looked alive at first, but in fact it won't boot properly, it's dead as well.
 
Monoprice in a nutshell after many emails to them,  have refused to offer any help or support even if I pay for it! Quote from latest email.....
 
Dear Jack H,
 
I apologize that we are unable to provide replacements or repairs for your out of warranty items. The reason the invoices were asked for again as due to the links originally provided not allowing us to view your invoice and attempt to assist you further. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide information as to where to take the product for servicing.

 
I told them I know of the manufacturer of this unit in Shenzhen China.  (BTW, I live i China anyway)They will not help me out directly because I bought it through a dealer. I asked for Monoprice to at least provide me a letter requesting them to service it. Monoprice even will not honor this request.
 
To conclude, Monoprice is a reseller only and does not offer service other than to replace item within a warrenty period. After that your equipment is a paperweight.  Not a good policy where usually at lot of $$ wasted from a customer is concerned.
 
I will change my systems to Just Add Power. 
 
 
Thank-you Bucko!
 
Here have mostly purchased cable stuff from MonoPrice. 
 
Did you purchase your zoned amplifier stuff from them and is it doing well today?
 
Yesterday day 2 of my hedgehog endeavor (FSU is in place) and the glove box taken out, removed seats (another PITA) and ran a Monoprice active USB repeater from the trunk to the glove box. 
 
This is the 3rd Mono Price USB active repeater in use now. (well I guess this could be an electronic component from Monoprice).
 
I have never used an active USB repeater in an automobile.
 
usbrepeater.jpg
 
The other two are utilized for servers in the server room to the wiring room (sections).  They are probably 4-5 years old now and I have not had issues with them.  There is not much to the devices though.
 
HA servers use one of these to a Digi 7 port USB hub to USB devices and two Digi 8 port Edgeports.  Been like this for years now. (this gives me 16 serial and 7 USB ports to automate with).
 
Pete, what length is that cable?
 
I have an ~8ft extension cable that I've connected to an ~8ft USB cord before and had no issues; effectively 16ft of passive USB cable.
 
I had purchased a few 32 feet / 10 meter and 64 feet / 15 meter for my Mimo touchscreen testing a few years back such that I used the 32 foot one and its too long but rolled up in the trunk where you do not see it.  Never did work right so went to the network using Lantronics USB device and powered locally the USB touchscreen.
 
The automobile has a mini component rack; very impressive.  Satellite, phone (combo blue tooth and amplifier), cd changer, TV tuner, amplifier, GPS (x2) built in, et all are all slide mountable into the rack and recognized by the car bus (along with the computer add).  The component wiring harnesses are all built in plus a bunch of extra stuff (automobile came with every option available).  Utilize a Nexus Hawk (has two 3G/4G slots but use one), bult in GPS ...it is a neato gizmo.
 
16 feet / 5 meter would have been the ideal choice but didn't have it.  I did also have passive shorter cables but the active repeater cable seems a bit better made.  Works fine as I used the car yesterday and today (sans being put all back together).  There are multiple wiring chases from front to back in the automobile (both sides and middle) I utilize the automobile puter lan plus the bus for components these days.
 
The MonoPrice USB extenders work great. We've tested the longest model (84') with the Kinect, which as you may know is extremely thirsty for bandwidth (uses roughly 90%), and they work great! None of the USB over Ethernet adapters we tested under $300 worked (even over just 3 feet), so MonoPrice is really the only game in town at this price scale.
 
Pete, just curious, what are you using it for in your car?
 
Pete, just curious, what are you using it for in your car?
 
Extending the USB to the trunk mounted computer to the front dashboard. 
 
The computer sits on the car's bus and uses the front HU stock display.
.
 
bucko said:
My experience with Monoprice - 4x4 HDMI matrix/switcher
 
I purchased a total of 3 of these units from Monoprice. 1 was installed about 1,5 yrs ago, while the other 2 have never been out of the box.
 
April 15th I started having trouble with the one I am using. So I took a new one and hooked it up. The new one would not even light up, DOA. I took out the other new one and tried it. I looked alive at first, but in fact it won't boot properly, it's dead as well.
 
Monoprice in a nutshell after many emails to them,  have refused to offer any help or support even if I pay for it! Quote from latest email.....
 
Dear Jack H,
 
I apologize that we are unable to provide replacements or repairs for your out of warranty items. The reason the invoices were asked for again as due to the links originally provided not allowing us to view your invoice and attempt to assist you further. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide information as to where to take the product for servicing.
 
I told them I know of the manufacturer of this unit in Shenzhen China.  (BTW, I live i China anyway)They will not help me out directly because I bought it through a dealer. I asked for Monoprice to at least provide me a letter requesting them to service it. Monoprice even will not honor this request.
 
To conclude, Monoprice is a reseller only and does not offer service other than to replace item within a warrenty period. After that your equipment is a paperweight.  Not a good policy where usually at lot of $$ wasted from a customer is concerned.
 
I will change my systems to Just Add Power. 
This really isn't too much different than almost every reseller out there. Same goes for what many a manufacturer would do/say.....and I'm sure there's manufacturer contracts and legal involved, though you may not like to hear that.
 
We used to deal with Ademco/Honeywell directly (as an OEM) and would purchase essentially what amounted to a V-20P from them (software changes). The pricepoint we were receiving on the devices was for essentially no QC/warranty but at the volume we were purchasing at the time it worked out. We could've paid almost double for the panel and had over the counter swapping and support but the economics were slanted differently. I say this because $40-300 for a HDMI matrix is exceptionally cheap. Caveat emptor.
 
For what it's worth, I've been using a Monoprice 4x4 HDMI matrix since early 2012 and have had zero problems with it.  I did have a Monoprice HDMI/HDBaseT extender go bad, but they replaced it with no questions asked.  Of course, I returned it well within the warranty period.
 
-Randy
 
I have purchased I lot of stuff from Monoprice over the years and had nothing but reliable products.  I have multiple HDMI splitters that have all ran for years most with no problem. I had one fail within warranty and then again six months out of warranty, both times they provided replacements even when they did not have to and the second has been going strong since. I am not aware of to many businesses that will DOA exchange a unit two years after the fact!
 
The point about my experience is not about me expecting them to replace it 1 year out of warranty. I don't expect that, frustrating is it may be.
 
But under the circumstances, Monoprice should have been willing to help me out by giving me a note I could pass along to Shenzhen so they could accept it for service.
 
That was not asking too much of Monoprice in my opinion.
 
We're going to agree to disagree here.
 
They only resell or have items private labelled for them....and in the case of specific electronics on a larger scale line, most likely the board has changed or been revised, so the test fixtures aren't going to be the same as 2 years ago and it's not going to be economical for the manufacturer to take a product that old and attempt service on it. Maybe within the production warranty, but I can't see the 100% same circuit board or product being made on the same line.
 
If anything, in your circumstance, it's the manufacturer you should be venting against. They had a bad product (or QC) or component fail when your others were on the shelf and aren't allowing you to RMA to them.
 
Think about it this way, it's like stating you're not happy with Toyota because you attempted to RMA a transmission directly via to their vendor because it's DOA or failed for whatever reasons. While it's not right for most, the transmission manufacturer has no relation to you and you should be dealing with the reseller/vendor (and the case of Monoprice, they offer "disposable" electronics) to make yourself "whole", and an item out of warranty...well, it's where it is. We're not talking a $5K matrix here, maybe a hundred or so US, even less in Yen? 
 
bucko said:
My experience with Monoprice - 4x4 HDMI matrix/switcher
 
I purchased a total of 3 of these units from Monoprice. 1 was installed about 1,5 yrs ago, while the other 2 have never been out of the box.
 
April 15th I started having trouble with the one I am using. So I took a new one and hooked it up. The new one would not even light up, DOA. I took out the other new one and tried it. I looked alive at first, but in fact it won't boot properly, it's dead as well.
 
Monoprice in a nutshell after many emails to them,  have refused to offer any help or support even if I pay for it! Quote from latest email.....
 
Dear Jack H,
 
I apologize that we are unable to provide replacements or repairs for your out of warranty items. The reason the invoices were asked for again as due to the links originally provided not allowing us to view your invoice and attempt to assist you further. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide information as to where to take the product for servicing.
 
I told them I know of the manufacturer of this unit in Shenzhen China.  (BTW, I live i China anyway)They will not help me out directly because I bought it through a dealer. I asked for Monoprice to at least provide me a letter requesting them to service it. Monoprice even will not honor this request.
 
To conclude, Monoprice is a reseller only and does not offer service other than to replace item within a warrenty period. After that your equipment is a paperweight.  Not a good policy where usually at lot of $$ wasted from a customer is concerned.
 
I will change my systems to Just Add Power. 
 
I've gone through two of their house brand 4x2 switchers. They would not fix them. Turned out to be the power supply on the first. 
 
DELInstallations said:
We're going to agree to disagree here.
 
They only resell or have items private labelled for them....and in the case of specific electronics on a larger scale line, most likely the board has changed or been revised, so the test fixtures aren't going to be the same as 2 years ago and it's not going to be economical for the manufacturer to take a product that old and attempt service on it. Maybe within the production warranty, but I can't see the 100% same circuit board or product being made on the same line.
 
If anything, in your circumstance, it's the manufacturer you should be venting against. They had a bad product (or QC) or component fail when your others were on the shelf and aren't allowing you to RMA to them.
 
Think about it this way, it's like stating you're not happy with Toyota because you attempted to RMA a transmission directly via to their vendor because it's DOA or failed for whatever reasons. While it's not right for most, the transmission manufacturer has no relation to you and you should be dealing with the reseller/vendor (and the case of Monoprice, they offer "disposable" electronics) to make yourself "whole", and an item out of warranty...well, it's where it is. We're not talking a $5K matrix here, maybe a hundred or so US, even less in Yen? 
Actuallt we are talking $360 each (x3). Not what I like to consider chump change for something DOA.
 
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