Got a W530 off Ebay, arrived with defective screen. Please advise

[paulwece]

Bought a refurbished W530 with great specs, i7, 16RAM, 256 SSD. $415.

Received item today. The screen has white spots due to pixel defects. Two pictures are taken with the defective areas in black rectangles. In addition, there are dark marks on the screen which seems permanent. There are also random small white spots in other areas of the screen, but the ones shown in the pic are most prominent. There also appears to be dead pixels too but I haven t investigated those too closely since the above mentioned defects are enough to make the laptop highly disruptive to my work. In addition, seller failed to disclose this high relevant information prior to purchase. Seller has "no return" policy but I started a return anyway on Ebay. Have no idea how this will turn out. But worse case scenario, how hard would it be for me to replace the screen myself? I see screens on Ebay for $50ish.

Any advice? I've never had disappointing purchases on Ebay before, especially at this price point...

[ajkula66]

Just return it. W530 is not exactly a rare system.

A proper LCD - not some piece of "compatible" junk - will run you more than $50 presuming that you can locate it to begin with.

[CASPER]

Replacing screen is not that complex. You just have to follow HMM and be careful.
In your case I would do pictures of a screen where you can see defects and sent it as a proof. Also take a picture or download the ebay auction you bought laptop from. You may need this in case if it suddenly disappeared. With all that try to return it. There is something called implied warranty and you have full right to return the subject without explaining why you want to do it, also it's more important than no return policy from ebay.

//A bit off topic here:
Aside of damaged screen, how do you like W530? Did you compare it to some another laptops?

[RealBlackStuff]

Was it one of these? http://www.ebay.com/itm/292175817043

In there it states:
Seller does not offer returns. You are covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee if you received an item that is not as described in the listing.

Or one of his earlier lot of 14: http://www.ebay.com/itm/292125804814
Here he offered 14 days return (you pay shipping).
AFAIK eBay offers 60 days return.

In either case I would not trust ANYONE who does NOT describe ANYTHING about the item's condition!

[paulwece]

Replacing screen is not that complex. You just have to follow HMM and be careful.
In your case I would do pictures of a screen where you can see defects and sent it as a proof. Also take a picture or download the ebay auction you bought laptop from. You may need this in case if it suddenly disappeared. With all that try to return it. There is something called implied warranty and you have full right to return the subject without explaining why you want to do it, also it's more important than no return policy from ebay.

//A bit off topic here:
Aside of damaged screen, how do you like W530? Did you compare it to some another laptops?

I didn't really use the W530 much. Just browsed some web pages. Once I saw the screen, I knew I was going to return it. Even without the white marks/blemishes, I wasn't impressed. Why? Because the screen really hurts my eye. It was a 1080p screen so you would expect it to look better than my low resolution screen of my B590 (also by Lenovo). But the colors look way too unnatural and saturated (if that's the right word). It has an overly red feel and appeared totally artificial. I don't know if this is due to the 1080p screen or that the screen is not OEM.

For the last couple of years I've been using a B590 (slow). Recently I got a refurbished X220 (i5, 8 g ram, ssd) and it was a lot faster.

[paulwece]

Was it one of these? http://www.ebay.com/itm/292175817043

In there it states:
Seller does not offer returns. You are covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee if you received an item that is not as described in the listing.

Or one of his earlier lot of 14: http://www.ebay.com/itm/292125804814
Here he offered 14 days return (you pay shipping).
AFAIK eBay offers 60 days return.

In either case I would not trust ANYONE who does NOT describe ANYTHING about the item's condition!

Yes, same exact guy.

I feel in the future, I should place less emphasis on cosmetic condition since it seems you can replace pretty much all the plastic parts and how new it looks is not an indicator of how "aged" it is.

[paulwece]

BTW, he did agree to my return request and I just shipped it back today.

[CASPER]

Good to hear that. Disappointed by the screen though. Have same problem with my screen, only couple of lenovo laptops have decent panel, rest is just bad.

[ajkula66]

Good to hear that. Disappointed by the screen though. Have same problem with my screen, only couple of lenovo laptops have decent panel, rest is just bad.

Have you tried calibrating the screen? That's an absolute must for these panels and there are some pretty decent profiles floating around the web.