32" 4K Dell UltraSharp broken after 4 years and 11 months

Forums › Desktop computing › 32" 4K Dell UltraSharp broken after 4 years and 11 months - PB rejected CGA Claim. Next steps?

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#3435600 18-Nov-2025 16:22

Dynamic:

If an inexpensive $300 monitor died after 5 years, it's annoying but that's life. A monitor 5x that price is a different matter. In your shoes, I would pursue it further.

Agree. I have a Philips business class monitor (cost was $1150). The stated warranty is 4 years. I’d be pissed if it lasted less than 5 years.

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#3435601 18-Nov-2025 16:22

SpartanVXL:

This is why I don’t like the CGA. Not because it doesn’t work, it’s great when it does, but because of this vague reasonable lifetime stuff.

It's better than the alternative. It's pretty much impossible to make a consumer law that has hard and fast rules.

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#3435603 18-Nov-2025 16:24

PB Tech are well known for rejecting any warranty claim. I’ve taken them 4 times to the Dispute’s Tribunal over warranty items that they “rejected” the last was an ASUS laptop that arrived DOA. It does appear talking to others, that they just flatly refuse any warranty or CGA claim and gamble on people not chasing it up with the Disputes Tribunal.

So far they have lost each case and have had all items repaired or replaced.

Edited. Speelllling

SpartanVXL

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#3435614 18-Nov-2025 16:33

Handle9:

SpartanVXL:

This is why I don’t like the CGA. Not because it doesn’t work, it’s great when it does, but because of this vague reasonable lifetime stuff.

It's better than the alternative. It's pretty much impossible to make a consumer law that has hard and fast rules.

Pretty sure I’ve seen businesses explain higher costs thanks to CGA, seems like a hard and fast price for rules that aren’t hard and fast. Products still get sold with minimum warranty time betting on people not bothering to go to disputes.

Handle9

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#3435615 18-Nov-2025 16:35

SpartanVXL:

Handle9:

It's better than the alternative. It's pretty much impossible to make a consumer law that has hard and fast rules.

Pretty sure I’ve seen businesses explain higher costs thanks to CGA, seems like a hard and fast price for rules that aren’t hard and fast. Products still get sold with minimum warranty time betting on people not bothering to go to disputes.

CGA isn't a warranty, it's a different thing. The claimed costs are generally a smoke screen for businesses.

SpartanVXL

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#3435634 18-Nov-2025 16:55

Handle9:

SpartanVXL:

Pretty sure I’ve seen businesses explain higher costs thanks to CGA, seems like a hard and fast price for rules that aren’t hard and fast. Products still get sold with minimum warranty time betting on people not bothering to go to disputes.

CGA isn't a warranty, it's a different thing. The claimed costs are generally a smoke screen for businesses.

Yea I know, the guarantee part is where consumers get the short end of the stick. It goes back to a ‘reckons’ of how long a certain type of product should last, which is still very vague. Good luck with niche things as well.

So as not to derail OP, Dell have guidelines on backlight lifespan and lcd duty cycles.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-nz/000129648/guidelines-for-dell-monitor-usage-to-prevent-image-retention-and-preserve-panel-life

It’s doesn’t fit the issue exactly but it does outline the backlight should last 30,000 hours, roughly 7 years at the expected duty cycle of 12hours a day.

Edit: to be a bit more clear, if the backlight is expected to last 7 years with normal use then you can try to push that the rest of the components should last a similar time as well.

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#3435637 18-Nov-2025 17:11

Just for reference, the screen is not heavily used.

Probably up to 5 hours a day, 4 days a week for the past four or so years with a few months of totally non use. (Five months this year it wasn’t used at all.)

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#3435773 18-Nov-2025 19:13

I had a monitor repaired a year or so ago the company had a new screen in at the local service agent.

for me it came down to my understanding of the word ‘reasonable’ - in this case it is what lifetime does a similar product by other manufacturers last. I pointed out that my other monitors by the same company and another manufacturer were a few more years older and so their was a fair expectation that the one that went wrong should also last a similar length of time.

I would also point out that the manufacturer was very helpful in walking me through the repair process and so was the service agent.

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#3435786 18-Nov-2025 19:48

tchart:

Dynamic:

If an inexpensive $300 monitor died after 5 years, it's annoying but that's life. A monitor 5x that price is a different matter. In your shoes, I would pursue it further.

Agree. I have a Philips business class monitor (cost was $1150). The stated warranty is 4 years. I’d be pissed if it lasted less than 5 years.

My Philips BDM3275UP 32" IPS monitor is 9 years old. A small amount of bright LED issues on the left edge, otherwise ok.

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#3435789 18-Nov-2025 20:09

I would also use Consumer advice on reasonable length of time for various appliances. I think monitor would sit in the TV category rather than Computer.

https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/appliance-life-expectancy

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#3435885 19-Nov-2025 08:18

I agree with the TV definition, and brands have traditionally viewed TV purchases as being a ten year refresh cycle, like beds. So, it's a bit on the nose that sub-5 years is considered unreasonable for a device made up of mostly the same components in a different form factor, IMHO.

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#3435889 19-Nov-2025 08:55

I would expect that monitor to last over 5 years.
I have two Dell UltraSharp monitors that are coming up 9-10 years old and are still working fine.

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#3435898 19-Nov-2025 10:33

That era Dell gear just keeps on going....

XPD / Gavin

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#3435990 19-Nov-2025 15:38

I have a Dell S3221QS Monitor I bought in Feb 2021 and recently the Display Port stopped working.

Luckily this is a known issue and there is a work around where you "reset" the display and the port starts working again. Again like the OP I'd be seriously pissed if it stopped working at less than 5 years, especially as the Dell LCD Monitor it replaced lasted 15+ years.

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#3436032 19-Nov-2025 17:21

xpd:

That era Dell gear just keeps on going....

I've got two that are over 10 years old and still going well, one replaced under warranty. I found the earlier LCD screens weren't as reliable. I have found Dell stuff to be pretty good, but there are now so many other options.

The thing is you can actually buy a 5 year extended warranty for at least some of their monitors on the Dell website, so I would expect them to last that amount of time. Especially as Consumer say you shouldn't need to buy an extended warranty in NZ as a normal consumer. Although I did buy one myself and got it replaced after about 4 years when it failed and was an easy process at the time as it was a replacement for the newest model.

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