Tipstaff

I got this email directly from my rep at Viewsonic on Wednesday that I forgot to post for you guys, so here it is. (moderators, you may want to sticky this) The warning is about two 19" Viewsonic LCDs that have been identified as FAKE Viewsonic LCDs being sold in North America. They are listed as the VE902m, and the VA912 (Silver color). First, there is no VE902m from Viewsonic. Period. Secondly, VA912 comes in black only. There is no silver version of this monitor in the North American market (only Australia, Singapore, and Taiwan). As well, the fake VA912 monitor comes with a 25pin D-Sub VGA connector only (normal VA912 comes with DVI and VGA connectors). Here's the full email:

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Subject: Unauthorized ViewSonic LCDs Ineligible for Service and Support


Dear Reseller Partner,

As a valued ViewSonic customer, we are contacting you today to advise you that ViewSonic has recently become aware that there are presently two 19” LCD displays being sold in Canada that look like legitimate ViewSonic product, but are not authorized for sale by ViewSonic in North America. The specific models are the VE902m and the VA912 silver. These products are identical in packaging to the ViewSonic product packaging, include the ViewSonic Wizard software, and bear the ViewSonic name on the product.

However, because this product is not authorized by ViewSonic, the serial numbers on this product are not valid ViewSonic serial numbers and is therefore ineligible for any after sales support, including end user warranty. ViewSonic assumes no liability for this product, so any purchase or resale of the product is at your own risk.

The VE902m is easily identifiable as there is no such model authorized for resale anywhere in the Americas region. The VA912 silver may be identified by its silver bezel. As well, the VA912 silver has only an analog video input. There is no DVI (Digital) input on this model. The authorized model for Canada is the VA912B-4, which has a black bezel and both Analog and DVI (Digital) inputs.

As a valued customer of ViewSonic, should you ever feel you are offered an opportunity to purchase ViewSonic product at a price that seems to be exceptionally low or you are unfamiliar with the model number, please feel free to contact our office or an authorized distributor to verify authenticity.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support and ViewSonic will take action to prevent, to the best of our ability, this kind of activity.

Sincerely,

*Sorry, removing name guys. *

ViewSonic Canada

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dj_stick

thanks for this, i'm sure it will help people in the future
stuck

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Chaos

that's nasty I hope nobody here gets burnt in that scam

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daedal

Well they're not fakes per say, just unauthorized models.
IE, stolen from a crate in China and imported here for resale. Hope no one gets burned.

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The_Neon_Cowboy

the way they say "not authorized " just sound like thier selling legit monitors
just onesthey don't normally provide to amarican retailers for hat ever reason...
Just like If I bought sme thing only sold in the the USA and sold it it in mexico or
canada it would be "not authorized " by the MFG.... like a we don't see this in that
regon thing... least thats how it sounds to me....

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Tipstaff

The way it's worded is a little misleading.. both by me and them, so I'll clarify something. They are fake, but they aren't fake.

I talked with the Viewsonic rep today, and acccording her the monitors are legit outside North America, specifically, the monitors in question are coming from Europe. In particular, the VE902m seems to be coming from Russia. Since both monitors are coming from outside North America they are not warrantied here. Here is where it get's interesting. The monitors are not just being sold here. Who ever is bringing them in are altering the serial numbers to look like legit North American monitors. That's why I mentioned they are fake. You are being mislead into thinking they are legit monitors when infact they are not, and that is simply illegal.

Also, there is one piece of info I wanted to add to this. The Viewsonic rep also mentioned that these LCDs, some but not all, seem to be OEM models being resold as retail monitors, and in a lot of cases the quality of the monitors are piss poor (both the OEM, and retail ones). Dead pixels, blurry screen, bad power units, resetting, you name it.

In any case, I just thought I'd let everyone know so that if you North Am. guys ever see good deals for these 2 monitors (they sell for $50 cheaper) to be weary of them. I've already seen a bunch of these monitors being sold by my suppliers, and thankfully I passed on these so called "great deals". Otherwise I'd be up shiz creek if something ever went wrong with them.

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pr0digal jenius

good to know.....glad CC doesn't sell viewsonic, or we'd be in for a ride

nitrousoxide52

Hmmm.... they sure are making a big fuss about these monitors, maybe it's their experimental 0ms monitor, eh? eh?

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BWX

So where are these being sold?

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Tipstaff

HERE's an example. Very well known company in Toronto (not to mention that these guys are just down the street from me too). When compared to the VA912b-4 (the North Am. model) they are selling this monitor $30 cheaper, but are making that easily since their cost on the monitor is about $50 less.

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