Stapled Shut: How a Misprint Got Me a Sweet New Monitor

RICHLAND, Wash. — So there I was last Sunday, in my old stomping grounds (the Tri-Cities in Washington state), where I had been a guest at RadCon, a regional scifi convention. I was drinking my morning coffee and reading the paper (Wow. this could’ve been written in the last century!) and scanning the ads. I noticed Staples had a 21.5-inch monitor on sale for $120 — with DVI inputs and integrated speakers, and full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels). A bargain!

The widescreen monitor on sale at Staples wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

My second monitor for my iMac at home is only 19.5 inches, so I thought it would be good replacement. I bought the monitor the next day then drove back home over the mountains. Once home, I unpacked the box to discover:

1. No DVI port
2. No audio port
3. No DVI or audio cables
4. No speakers

Mind you, I’d checked the specs of the advertised model on Staples’ Web site, and it confirmed that this model was supposed to feature all those things. So, filled with Righteous Indignation™, I went to my local Staples to complain, and hopefully to obtain the right monitor.

The very nice store manager claimed it was a misprint (even though I showed him the monitor’s User Guide, which noted that this model had a version that came with the precise specs that were noted on Staples’ Web site). He checked all the models he had in stock and all of them were just like mine — digitally castrated.

So he nicely offered me 20 percent off any monitor I wanted in the store. So I looked around the kinda meager offerings, looking for the same or bigger size (21.5″), and DVI input (I really wasn’t that interested in audio, that was just part of my Righteous Indignation™) and the 1920 x 1080 resolution (HD). That’s when I found this –

The Dell ST22210 LCD Monitor

THE SPECS — 21.5-inch widescreen (16:9 aspect rati0); DVI, VGA and HDMI inputs (!); audio in/out, and HD resolution. List price: $229; Staples’ regular price, $199; on sale this week $159. At 20 percent off, the price came down to $128, only $8 more than I paid for the inferior eMachines monitor.

The cons: Only the VGA cord was included, and I can testify that DVI cables are one way Staples makes up for its low prices elsewhere: they wanted $50 for a cable. Jebus! Luckily, Fry’s has the same cable for $30. Even more luckily, I’d bought a DVI-to-HDMI cable months ago for hooking up my laptop to my HDTV but had never used it. So I hooked the iMac to the Dell’s HDMI port (and because it’s a Mac, no driver installation necessary, thank you very much). The Mac auto-detects the HDMI connection and auto-selects the HD resolution for the monitor —

WHAT I LOVE about Macs: You can ignore the CD that comes with the monitor: no additional drivers necessary. My Mac just “knows” which monitor I hooked up to it.

Thank you, Staples.

What made me curious, though, was how many other people are taking Staples to task for advertising the wrong monitor. Since a lot of PCs still favor VGA over DVI would people even notice they bought an inferior model? Mac people would clearly know since we expect DVI out of the box.

So if you’re in the market for a new monitor, hold Staples accountable and get yourself a better one than they advertised. Only one day left!